EX Catholic recent Atheist....hard time coping with reality.

[The Valkyrie]

Welcome to the light side.

Myself, I gave up on Catholicism when I was 13, though I had not really believed for a few years before then (so I've now been clean for 16 years).

What you're feeling is actually common. I would recommend listening to a few podcasts by Seth Andrews, the Thinking Atheist. Also, see if you can find other atheists to talk to directly.

Me, I went through the same thing when I realised my mortality. What helped me was realising that mortality makes this life far more valuable to us than to those who think it's a stepping stone to another life.

I don't know if there's an afterlife, claiming to know there isn't one would make me as dishonest as those who claim to know there is.

Just live your life as the best person you can be.

Thank you, I know it seems closed minded to make the assertion there is no afterlife but I guess its something I should be skeptic about logically. I just see no significance in humans...the genome shows us how frightfully close we are to other species and "junk DNA that bares no function or vestigial remnants no longer used...so what makes us so special to be rewarded with an infinite dimension if our ancestors didn't know of the teachings of Christ? The bible is a lie to keep the uneducated wishful and controlled.

I'm often asked "If there's no God, then why are we here?"

I always respond with, "Biologically, we're here to make little people and continue humanity. Individually, as far as I'm concerned, we're here to make this world a little better for those who follow us (I know, generally we're not doing a good job of it right now). As to a higher general purpose, we don't have one".

I agree that religion, in general, is a control mechanism. I hold that it was first a way to explain what we did not understand (thunder and lightning being signs of an angry god) and evolved (take that, creationists!) into the control mechanism it has been for the past several millennia.