what do christians (and people in general) mean by "feeling empty inside"?

[bladevalant546]

I think that religion as a concept works against the potential of peace and tolerance. It separates people into friends and non-friends (if not outright enemies) and draws some very clear lines. That doesn't promote peace or tolerance. It's why even religions that have some teachings of peace and tolerance don't seem to be able to get people to be peaceful or tolerant. When your concept requires that you recognize an "us" and a "them" and a system that provides "us" with rewards for being "right" and provides "them" with punishment for being "wrong" you're not really teaching peace and tolerance.

Hmm, you make a valid point. Which goes into another perspective which I personally believe. Since Religion is a construct of human consciences, we should look into what they are trying to say. All religion is, basically bridging the gap to a desire with in the human mind, which at that stage of intellectual discovery is not ready to cope. So it create an artificial construct to bring about better understanding of ones surroundings and ones actions. Basically eat the meat and spit out the bones.

I try not to generalize to much as dogma in whatever belief structure one upholds is always harmful. However, in terms of the "us vs them" I think your spot on, that is a interesting perspective that I knew but never fully gave thought.

[CapnAwesome]

I don't really think it means anything, or rather it's so loosely defined that it can rather mean anything at all. Do they mean that only God can make you happy? That can't be it because it would only take a single happy Atheist to prove them wrong. Meaningless phrase meant to try to get depressed people into religion.

[Cyberman]

Been hearing all my life from Christians that "we have a hole inside of us that only god can fill, and we may try to fill it with girls, video games and foods but only god can fill it" :S

I'm not particularly convinced there is any such god-shaoed hole, but assuming there is I'd fill it with alcohol. That's how liquid works.

---

In the absence of God the universe is absurd, life becomes an empty gesture, relationships are reduced to power dynamics, and the qualitative content of mental life gets dismissed.

Leaving aside that this is a monstrous non-sequitur, why should we expect the Universe to be anything other than absurd, at least by certain human standards? We eke out a precarious existence perched on the outer skin of a tiny ball of rock whirling around a decent sized nuclear fusion reactor; the dominant species here is essentially a strategically-shaved ape with a thyroid condition; and prepubescent females of this species cream themselves daily over Justin Bieber. To quote Red Dwarf's Kryten: "If that's gotta make sense, I don't want to be sober."

[DeistPaladin]

From a existentialist point of view, foregoing belief in God comes at great cost. In the absence of God the universe is absurd, life becomes an empty gesture, relationships are reduced to power dynamics, and the qualitative content of mental life gets dismissed. When you actually think about it, that's a pretty big hole that God fills and a huge lose when we don't let him.

WARNING!
Multiple Logical Fallacies Detected!

1. Appeal to Consequences
2. Bare Assertion Fallacy
3. Appeal to Authority

[Angrboda]

And the universe may be a cold place, but it's also a very cool place. The material in my body has existed and will exist as long as the universe. There never has been and never will be again anyone quite like me, or even anyone very close. My story is unique and rare, because for everyone of us there are millions of narratives that could be told but will never, ever happen. My life doesn't have meaning to the universe but it AND the universe have meaning to me. So does Good, Truth, and Beauty. Out of all the possible people I'm one of the few who actually get to exist, and it's amazing. I've been Appalachians-level poor and it was still amazing then. And although I'm not looking forward to my life ending, it feels like greed to complain that it wasn't enough and that it's somehow less because it's temporary. And the bad things in life and the suffering of many people who never had it as good as me on my worst day are sad, but they're not a mystery: the universe IS a cold place, and we're like billions of tiny flames that flutter briefly, some of whom never get to burn very bright at all. But it's still amazing and I can't stay sad in the midst of awesome grandeur.

I've come to a speculative conclusion over the past year that a degree of discomfort, anxiety and anomy is built into the human brain. According to my view, our psychology is evolved to get us "within reach" of an adaptation using the heuristics of our brain, imperfect as they are, but leave room for variation at its margin. If the brain's heuristics always resulted in a specific adaptation, there would be a tremendous opportunity cost if better adaptations were available. On the other hand, the mind can't constantly be seeking novel ways of managing, often failing, and existing in a constant state of uncertainty. So, according to my theory, our behaviors are a blend of conservatism, appealing to known solutions, and exploration, the seeking of new answers, new food sources, new methods. Given the relative cost of conservatism to that of exploration, it's likely that we're heavily weighted towards repeating prior adaptations and solutions, just because doing so is very efficient. However, any human alleles which put all their eggs in that basket would be quickly wiped out by any novel change in their environment. So the successful human would have to be a blend of the two. This is relevant to the question of existential angst in that it would appear that, by analogous reasoning, an evolved mind which was content with its life situation, or could easily, readily obtain a means of anesthetizing the angst, would not be an optimum human from an evolutionary stand point, as that angst, unease, and uncertainty is doing actual work in keeping you motivated to keep living, coping, learning, and exploring. This uncertainty and unease (what the Buddhists term dukkha) would then be a natural and important element in any human. If you've found something that successfully quiets that still inner voice reliably, you're likely in danger. The organism simply didn't evolve to find good solutions to that problem, as that problem is what keeps the individual and the species as a whole alive. Perhaps, rather than being the friend that religious people suggest that "comfort" is, it's actually your enemy. I don't think our brains were designed for reliable contentment on tap. We as a species aren't designed to feel "inside" like everything is as it should be, at least not all the time.


(Not that this approach is necessarily characteristic of mature religious thought; many Christian thinkers have postulated the necessity of the dialectic between faith and doubt. But those who look to religion as just a substitute for alcohol or valium, may be. In addition, that anxiety is what keeps them "searching" for religious answers which provide that feeling of comfort and wholeness.)

Thanks to whateverist as well, for prefiguring some of these thoughts.

[Mister Agenda]

There's a concept called 'the hedonic treadmill' that suggests we tend to return to our natural level of happiness over time following a disturbance (whether the disturbance made you happier or sadder). So an optimist who lost a loved one would tend to return to being an optimist over time, though they would still suffer from grief and possibly depression in the short term. A gloomy person who won a hundred million dollar lottery would find that the money didn't make her happy, and an sunny person in the situation would find it didn't make them much happier than before over the long run.

[Plotinus]

Surely there is a whole sociological aspect to the sense of 'feeling empty inside'?
Humans being social creatures require acceptance to boost their esteem.
A quick fix for that is profession of faith.

[Minimalist]

A quick fix for that is profession of faith.

Too costly.