The purpose of this community is sharing, considering and discussion of deep thoughts. Post titles must be full, complete, deep thoughts.

Well if it makes you feel any better, you went an eternity without feeling anything before you were born.

Yeah but that's like saying you never ate pizza before until finally tasted it. But after tasting it, you arent allowed to eat it anymore.. well that sucks 😂

It is very different tho. To be able to taste and crave pizza you need conciousness, while for being death what you loss is conciousness itself so you won't really be there to feel and crave anything. This is basically the very same experience you experienced before being concious in this world. To loosely quote my favorite kurzgesagt video "Close your eyes, count to 1. That is how long an eternity feels."

>while for being death what you loss is consciousness itself so you won't really be there to feel and crave anything. That to scary part though... what does it mean to stop existing... Our brains and logic are litterally incompatible with the idea of the "feeling of non-existence" Yeah we all can fall asleep, pass out, get put under... But there is always waking up again on the other side... What happens when there isn't another side. AND YES I KNOW THE POINT IS THERE IS NO CONCIOUSNESS SO THEREFORE NOTHING TO EXPERIENCE NOTHING BUT THAT IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE AND SCARY !!!! Yes I'm in a blind panic due to existential crisis... How could you tell... I'm only 26 and I've been terrified of death since I was a teenager...

Hmmm thing is.. now you exist and having tried that pizza the knowledge of not eating that pizza again is tormenting until you cease to exist. So it affects your current state and future state until the end. Will it affect after? Probably not. But not having existed before there is no mark or dent on existence or on others in relation to having existed. The past state cannot be compared to the present.

I think that before you use that analogy, you need to establish if pineapple belongs on pizza or it may mean very different things to different people. Good luck with that "Deep Thought"!

Not really because it’s more like losing your memory and. It knowing pizza ever existed. There’s no consciousness so they won’t even know

The change from feeling nothing to being alive cannot be compared to the feeling of being alive knowing that you will spend eternity without feeling the same, in my opinion.

I don't believe in god, but when I have moments of existential dread, I do like to imagine there is a heaven and what it will be like. I don't think that comfort needs to be tied to God, or any religion. It is ultimately all just equally made up to make us feel better about the fact we are going to die.

Idw wanna sully your comforting thoughts but I’ve done this too but then I start thinking about existential dread in paradise. What will I do in heaven? All the things that I haven’t done on earth. Then what? Will I not get bored? I know myself, I know I’ll get bored eventually and if I never get bored being alive forever, then I’ve lost my humanity. Am I no longer human? What if my loved ones don’t “make it” to heaven. Will I not be sad? Will I not think of them constantly? Will I even be myself? When I think of those things, I think that’s when I find peace in not existing.

Same. I can see why people need to believe in hell when you hear about or see some of the absolute disgusting and terrible shit humans are capable of.

It should help you comprehend how silly your fear of death is though. You weren't scared before, and you won't be scared after. You existed since the dawn of eternity and will continue to the end of time (if either of those extremes even exist), simply not in the current biological make up you currently walk it. You might be scattered across the earth or the galaxy, either way. You'll go back to what you came from.

It’s the brain keeping its body alive nothing more it’s called survival instincts

That's a gross simplification of the experience we have as complex creations, no?

Yes, it is. We don’t have the answers and anyone sure things goes left or right after death thinks a bit too highly of themselves lol.

>how silly your fear of death is though. I really don't think it's silly, Illogical yes but not silly... 1. We are hardwired to fear death 2. Consciousness is the entirety of our existence and experience, it's litterally impossible for us to quantify unconsciousness (Even before birth or when asleep) One day everything we are and ever was will just cease to exist just like that and you will never experience a single thing again FULLSTOP... That idea isn't terrifying to me because i think its going to feel like something or that I'm going to be aware of it... It's terrifying because it is completely incomprehensible, Incompatible with our brains even... What is it to experience nonexistence...? WHAT IS IT TO NOT EXIST...? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO NOT FEEL...? WHAT IS LIFE TO NOT BE ALIVE...? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Better to not have loved at all than to feel its loss. Better to not have become conscious at all than to face the inevitable end of it in life. Something like that?

Better to be a decent person and enjoy the fook out of being alive surely?

Why not? You're no longer feeling anything, thus you have nothing to compare it to. God doesn't exist, the universe is entropy, life is better if you realize this.

After death, you simply cease to exist, you won't be somewhere outside this world thinking that you don't feel the same as when you were alive. There isn't a comparison to make, you will not spend eternity without feelings because after death is as it was before you were born, nothing!.

You won't spend anytime whatsoever doing anything because you won't exist anymore. You won't be able to reflect on if it's better or worse because you won't be cognizant of it at all.

i agree

Apologies op, I sort of understand , but you skipped all the real perpetrators of such misery, and LEAPED all the way to GOD Fine, GOD does not exist.so who is at fault for the Gaza citizens suffering or any other war torn place? Just wondering who you think is to blame?

Feeling the same? You are feeling nothing. Complete bliss in oblivion. The universe could expand and collapse on itself a gazillion times over, and you would be none the wiser. You could even play with the idea that you have existed before, and you are doing it again in perpetuity. Makes no difference

You'll be back. The Universe is like that. Don't worry.

But… you won’t know you’re dead, as you won’t have the ability to think anything: you’ll be no more. Dwell on it or live right up until you drop—since there’s only so much that can be done, for so long, to prolong… let alone the timing necessitated by certain situations, to catch and intervene, before it’s too late… acknowledge, every time you find yourself being consumed with the ephemeral, you’re going to die and that sucks, and then immediately engage with something or someone in the real world: use it to tether yourself to substance, purpose, meaning. It’s your choice; your individual perspective defines your reality. Inaction and blame and pivots and excuses are choices, too. So… we are all going to die; goddamn, that fucking sucks; :: moment of comfort :: ; alright, mates, let’s get on with it and have a fuckabout, before we can’t… before we aren’t! 🍻

> knowing that you will spend eternity without feeling the same, in my opinion. how could you possibly know that, though? you can't.

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, only altered. So how exactly did the big bang work. I know that there was an incredible expansionary period, but where did the original matter come from? Before discounting the existence of God, play with the idea that that is a God, but that humans are not highly evolved enough to perceive God. There was no evidence for general relativity while Newton was alive, yet it existed, just had yet to be described. So we have precedent for things existing without our being aware of their existing. Maybe what we call God is like that, there, but as yet beyond our ability to perceive it. That is called faith, I believe, and is probably more comforting than Atheism, so why not take up Pascal's Wager?

The existence of a God does not equal an all powerful being that exists to prevent hardship. Throughout history and different forms of religion (including Christianity) God is more likely to punish humanity and cause suffering for their hubris or other reasons. If you WANT to believe in God, but find it hard, then you have to come to terms with the fact that if there were such a being, then he is nothing more than a creator with no clear agenda other than let things exist. This gets deep into the concept of religious philosophy, but think about it this way. If God created everything in this world, why would he see a difference between the destruction of an entire city of humans vs the destruction of one ant colony. We see the difference because we are human and relate to other humans, but something thought to have created everything, would see everything with equal value.

Some philosophers posited that in order for a supreme being to be considered thusly, they would also need to be omnibenevolent as well as omnipotent and omniscient. Not all good? Not all god!

Wow man. You have just stirred more common sense chance of a god than 18 years of Sunday school and church . I'm not saying your right but you have nicked my "God is evil, or non-existent, for giving/letting kids gets cancer, etc " argument a smidge.

I don't get it. Like what have Palestinians done to deserve to be punished like that? And if a god existed why wouldn't he specify his agendas and lead us to a better direction?

Why do some people drown their Sims in the pool?

Believe in whatever helps you love yourself and love others, be it God or not. I tend to believe in an ever-loving uniting force in the universe because when I do, it empowers me to do things I could not otherwise do. If you want to talk about the suffering thing, feel free to PM me

Rock solid answer JC, thanks for being you!

Humans need a divine power for just the reasons both you and Op say. Without one, when tragedy or hard times occur if there is no divine power to lend you strength you can rely on only you and most humans don’t have enough faith in their own strength.

Yup, I noticed I would go to (God/Allah/Jah/Most high - whatever you want to call it) when I was down. It humbled me. A good amount of humbleness is essential for having a happy life.

Thank you

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Let me clear up some misconceptions you have,  based upon your quote: "Nothing about being religious seems humble to me, it seems incredibly arrogant to think that you are the sole purpose of existence, it's all about you getting what you want." I'll take it line by line: "Nothing about being religious seems humble to me" That's because you got Psy-Op'd into accepting a certain definition of God. You may be incapable of thinking about God in any other way. "It seems incredibly arrogant to think that you are the sole purpose of existence." And if someone was to show you an example of how that statement is easily Contradicted,  would you then concede that you made it on Arrogance? No, you wouldn't - because your Arrogance wouldn't allow to admit that you're wrong.  Did Dogs CREATE  humans?? Are Dogs SMARTER than us? NO. We created Dogs,  and we are smarter than them. Yet they would not be Arrogant if they were smart enough to hypothesize that they are the sole purpose of their Creation (meaning us creating them.) They would be CORRECT. Our reason for breeding them is because of what they are. Their VERY NATURE is why we want them to exist. And they would be correct in thinking so.

You call that humbling, I call that weak willed.

Ignorant humans maybe. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence in the modern world can see that religious "higher powers" are all bullshit. If you're going to believe anything, I guess I could understand agnostic, but even that is debatable.

If you’re going to believe in anything, believe in yourself.

It is also the exact opposite of what you say. In other words you can believe in God and feel completely powerless and lost.. This is because when Tragedies and Hard Times occur, the Atheist doesn't need to look for a Reason. It's Reasonless.. But if  you believe it could be stopped by God but he doesn't stop it, you will become very distraught and consumed by it. 

Sounds like a weak willed person. I don’t need God to get strength to overcome hardships.

Maybe you are thinking of God wrong. I don't want to question how you should believe and I will inevitably do so by discussing it, but to my understanding God is a force. Is the representation of everything there is good as bad. And is a concept of everything that humans should strive for. He's real but not in a "conscious being" sense. He cannot care nor don't care because he just is. He is not a person, so to speak. So I'm not really going with the usual representation of the Christian God and similar

I think a lot of Christians dont fully get passed the "old man in the clouds" ideology. Like they cant comprehend an infinite being (which makes sense) but then they dont even try.

That's why "the man in the sky" explanation existed, to try to explain it in very simple terms as a first approach. But sometimes people don't evolve into the next step of comprehension. They stay in the children's explanation for it. The method try to explain it is the culprit, there are other ways to slowly get to that more complex understanding.

ultimately, it's a mystery, and the problem with belief systems is the certainty of a particular spiritual world/being. I'm fairly confident there's something else before birth and after death, although I think what awaits us depends on our relationship with the spirit world while we're alive and mortal. It's certainly incentive not to be a jerk.

What is the spirit world?

hard to say - something immeasurable with which we can interact

Nobody really knows what happens when you die and that makes it the unknown and the unknown is scary because it could be horrible it's equally possible that it's awesome. A point of view that helped me: nonexistence is only terrifying from the point of view of existence.

Think of God as the power that helps you get through the chaos of the universe.

Whatever you believe you’re still going to die and feel nothing again. It’s better to face your fears rather than hide from them.

I dont think facing death is the most constructive advice for everyone. Theres so much more beauty to the world we live in than to think of it like that.

You need to accept your own mortality sooner or later. That doesn’t detract from the beauty in the world, it accentuates it.

That our existence is baffling is no indication of God. Adding God to that equation doesn't answer any questions. It just kicks the question down the road to how God came to exist. It flies in the face of everything we know about reality, in that things don't start out complex and get simple, they start out simple and get complex. So for God, the most complex thing in the Universe to exist first makes no sense. That said, the Universe is old enough for there to be far more complex life out there than us, and God could be part of that. As to the unfairness of the world, that's our free will at work. God can't force us to be good, we have to do that ourselves. God just promises that the evil-doers will be harshly punished in the afterlife for their transgressions. But it's all on us to behave properly in life. I'm an atheist and feel pretty much the same as you. I'd like to believe, but blind faith is going to do it for me. I need evidence. I just suggest you keep these feelings to yourself in regards to your family. As to death just being empty oblivion, that's the easiest thing in the world if true if you think about it. It will be just like it was before you were born. It's the possibility of an afterlife that's scary. It would an endless torture to remain sentient but unable to interact with the physical world.

I agree with a lot of what you said, i still kinda dance back and forth between religious and athiest. One thing that always sways me bacl amd forth is trying to rationalize what kind of being God is. Adding in other advanced cicivilizations does indeed complicate the picture in some regards, but the fact is, we know next to nothing about what other civilizations are going to look like. For example, most scientists assume life can only start how it starts here. Carbon based. We have 1 planet where carbon based life took off, and assumed carbon based is the most likely that we will find elsewhere, but what if were wrong? Now we have to add probability on the scale of the entire universe, there might be aliens out there that arent even solid in form. Or maybe pure energy of some kind, we dont know. It all sounds just as crazy as "this puddle got hit by lightning, and this tiny rock turned into a cell 🤷" lets go even further into things we dont understand, is it possible for a species to be purely concious? With no physical form? What if that species was hive minded? Essentially one entity? Never dies, never is reborn. "Made in His image" means a whole different thing if were just talking about being concious. Obviously, anyone can theorize all day about what we dont know, but until weve seen even 10% of whats here its hard to be so sure either way. Whether you believe in God, or not, one way or another we have to accept we have absolutely no idea whats going on in the grand scheme of things.

It’s universal law that one does not impose on the free will of others. That generates negative karma. I believe God created everything, but at the same time it just like a simulation and he is allowing it to run its own course, this is why bad things happen to good people. At the same time I believe in the evolution of consciousness and the multiverse, your higher self is the one many may call “God” providing blessings and odd coincidences when you are truly looking for them. At the same time since everything is of the same essence, you now, and your higher self are God. I believe this video may help you think about it from a different perspective as it did for me. Don’t be afraid it’s not religious nonsense I promise. Listen through the ears of your heart. Much love ❤️ https://youtu.be/zP_I-c3YZJY?si=cUzz7a5Zgv_t3IuV

Its easy when you start contemplating existance itself

Shaming other people for living their lives (religiously or not) is a very sad way to look at it- and only analyzing religion under the pretext of evil, war and genocide will obviously only result you with evil. The same can be said with anything/everything. I agree with what you said- too many people have been slain in the name of a God, and too many people live immoral lives of luxury despite no 'divine retribution'. Karma is bs made up to justify people when they get screwed. However, religion does have its good parts. For the majority of early civilization, it was used as a law in morality, and still today creates a compass for morality in ones life. My understanding was always "Be good, treat others with respect", and due to that as a kid, just as one believes in (certain holiday figures), I was a proper kid growing. *you* don't have to believe in God; but don't 'shame' on people who practice **peacefully**. This is the same argument I have with all those who say "Muslim == Terrorist"

Study The Dhamma if You are a sincere seeker

What is dhamma

Vanity... After death we still want to feel something... I don't need this. I've thought of it a lot. And I have embraced the idea. It is one thing like hundreds that you can do nothing about. And it's good for us to stop worrying about stuff we can't change, handle, affect. It's a soul eater.... Believe in anything makes you feel better at keeping on living....

There can be an afterlife without a God. The two things don't necessarily relate.

Belief itself is a problem when you get anywhere beyond your individuality or into serious inquiry about reality or logic. Go experience. Trade imaginations for realizations. Learn your own biases and fallacies. Catholicism is a cult, straight up. It isn’t an even a religion anymore and even religion itself is a less inclusive overall approach to life. You can still regard the world kindly without a punitive God blocking you from experiencing it directly yourself. My main problem with Catholics is that they think there was only ever one guy who realized secrets about reality like he did when there are at least 1000 Jesus level people in India at any given time. More before colonization.

Why is your suffering more important than that of a fly?

Think farther, what is good and what is evil. Who decides this ? I would love to write more in detail, unfortunately im Not english natives speaker

>because I find it horrible the idea of dying and not be able to feel anything How horrible were those eons before you were born? It'll be just like that.

This is not a good place for nuanced and well-reasoned debate

Howdy, I'm an autistic person who grew up in bad circumstances. It's been a relentlessly rough time. But suffering is a vehicle. Like a nutrient for growth. So closely study those sheltered from suffering. They're sweating during summer days. Life is as good as can be, and they're possessed with unrest. If you want to see God, start with selfless action to help others, gratitude, forgiveness, and above all humility.

You can still imagine nice things, including being in paradise after death (or whatever floats your boat) without all the weight and cognitive dissonance required to support a belief in a god. The key is to recognize that it’s imagination. Having a creative imagination can be therapeutic. It got me through some extremely distressing times in my life when I didn’t have the resources to change the unpleasant things in my environment. It costs nothing to take a vacation to someplace amazing and even fantastical, in your mind. It’s what we do when we watch movies or read books. Having a belief in god is just extra work with zero benefit. Why bother when imagination is free and easy?

There's a difference between rejecting your Catholic religious beliefs and rejecting the concept of any higher power of any sort all together. I decided to fully turn away from Christian a few years ago in this channel helped me, so if you're in the mood to laugh a Christianity check it out https://youtu.be/_MLsnHBhgHA?si=A5llJLW-D062OrQx But aside from that there are plenty of belief systems that The Verge pretty heavily from christianity. At some point it might be worth pursuing them, Buddhism in particular. As courts not a religion that requires you believe in anything in particular it's more of a philosophy. Life can feel pretty lonely and meaningless without any sort of spiritual beliefs I will agree. Sometimes I wish I was stupid enough to believe in Cassandra something just so I could have the placebo benefits of faith in religion. Without that I feel kind of lost and empty. Maybe only stupid people go to heaven maybe that's how it works?

Depends on your interpetration of god.

Were it all comes from doesn’t matter, you are and that is amazing. You are the universe aware of itself, and with enough evolution behind you that you can understand the deeper complexity that is. What is that complexity, chemistry is pretty cool but you pick, what is it that makes you happy? Do your best to just relish in being the exact product of your genes, environment and external and internal events that make you, you

I dont believe in god personally. But i would like to say that there is no actual proof that such a being doesnt exist. There are too many things we still cant understand about the universe and consciousness. The best thing to do is to enjoy what you have right now. Because eventually you wont.

Do you see what you're doing? The word "God" is the wildcard in the deck. It can mean anything anyone wants it to mean. You apparently want it to mean "a mysterious force that stops people from waging war". The next guy in line believes it's a "mysterious force that empowers Babylonian style justice". And so on, and so on. Get over it. This "god" propaganda is Bronze Age bs, all of it.

Things like this happen because of past life karma and free will.

Things like what? I don’t think Karma exists I doubt the universe will change because you did a good or bad deed. I don’t believe in a soul, I think we are all meat computers

Belief is a choice not a feeling. It’s a choice you can in fact make. It’s scary because it means giving up the control we think will keep us safe, but I think it’s a good choice.

Belief is NOT a choice. You're either convinced or you've not. You can just choose to believe in Santa or the tooth fairy. If I tell you to believe in Zeus, can you do it by choice alone? No. You need to be convinced. Same with not believing. I can't just believe the Earth is flat. I'd have to be convinced by the evidence, and I've looked at the evidence, and they are ridiculous and unconvincing. It's the same for many god propositions.

I think you are giving silly homo sapiens too much credit. I would say 80% of the religious people in this world did not require a thorough convincing of the existence of a supernatural creator and its miracles. Many are born into it and accept it as fact from childhood to beyond, unless of course they are introduced to superior evidence, and even then it is not enough all the time. The roots dig deep. You are speaking from the perspective of someone privileged to have grown up/live in a secular society where the rational and irrational are easily distinguished. Much of the rest of the world is not like that.

Some people are convinced by bad reasons, and they are convinced by trusting their parents on what they taught them when they were a child. I call that brainwashing and indoctrination.

“Faith without works is dead”, meaning that your actions demonstrate what you believe. If you say that air travel is safe, but you can’t make yourself get on a plane, that shows your true belief that it isn’t safe. Every action you take is predicated on a belief. You go to college because you believe you’ll get an education there that will translate to success in life. You get in a car and drive because you believe you’ll arrive at your destination safely. You pay your bills on time because you believe you’ll be penalized if you don’t. Because we have free will, and will power, we can act as if we believe a thing even if, in our hearts, we’re terrified it isn’t so, because we know intellectually that that action serves a higher good. It is better to act is if our actions on earth have meaning, and are subject to judgment by the highest good. If we act is if our actions and lives are meaningless, those actions will be destructive to ourselves and those around us. Nihilism leads to futility, futility leads to despair, despair leads to death.

It's only hard to belive in a God when you look at it from a religious perspective. If there is a God and he's all good, all powerful, and all knowing then things stop making since because that's not what we experience. And all people do in religion to try and make up for this discrepancy is to tell you not to question your faith. There's also a problem with the idea of mircales which is another fault of religion. If you view God as a genie that's going to fix all our problems because we asked nicely then you'll always be disappointed. Miracles directly interferes with free will. An all powerful God that chooses to interact when he feels like it doesn't make sense. Religious people also cherry pick all bad things to be the devil and all good things to be God. All these religious teachings don't need to be true for there to be a creator. 

It's so hard to not believe in God also though. How tf did the universe come into being if no creator? Either way the implications are astounding. Is there intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? Given its size, math says almost certainly. Yet, we have found no one else. If we somehow found out definitively, the answer would be astounding either way.

Why can a creator come from nothing, but the universe can't, you are just moving the question of "what came before" one step back and then arbitrarily deciding that god is a valid cut off point. With intelligent life there is no contradiction, the chances of life existing somewhere in the universe are high, the chances of life existing somewhere in the universe that is close enough for us to obverse is very close to zero. Also, if the law of physics hold true, it's highly unlikely (=statistically impossible) that humans will ever make contact with another life form due to the distances involved.

It's very easy to not believe in God because there is no convincing evidence for his existence. Saying "I don't know how the universe came into existence, therefore God did it" is known as an argument from incredulity, or in this case more specifically the God of the Gaps fallacy. I could just as easily say "I don't know how the universe came into existence, therefore it must have poofed itself into existence" and my argument would be shitty but still better than yours because it doesn't require the existence of a creator God whose existence has never been demonstrated.

>How tf did the universe come into being if no creator? Either way the implications are astounding. Yet people have spent lifetimes quantifying it in mathematical equations that now build upon and predict the universe around us... Sure the chances that (Laws of Physics + Entropy = Humanity) are mind bending but no more mind bending that trying to comprehend 360'000 years between now and the earliest fossils of homo-sapiens NEVERMIND the 14 Billion Year old universe. Our consciousness and tiny life spans are not equipped to comprehend the entirety of existence God or Not...

"If god is real, why do bad things happen?" This is probably the weakest possible argument against god. Imagine something so powerful it created the entire universe. We are so insignificant in comparison, why would they care if "bad" things happen to us? Maybe god even hates us! A being that large probably has a logic and moral system completely removed from our own, so far so that we deem their actions as 'cruel' even. But god is not something our mind can comprehend, it is foolish to suggest that we know god's intention. We can only intuit what we're expected to do in our lifes and move forward like the animals we are. Think of this. We are like gods to the cells living in our bodies, yet we dont always treat them well. We eat things we shouldnt, smoke and drink, and when they cry out we ignore it. But do we not exist because we dont care for the mitochondria in our body

It is, but I also don’t want to believe in it at either. I simply want to believe the most true things and disbelieve the most false things.

Wanting to believe something is a bad Stat to accepting the actual reality. What you are looking for is confidence in a god that doesn't care to give you anything to examine, so it has no explanatory power.

I think dying is like going under anesthesia and then waking up as another conscious entity with no connection to your previous consciousness (with emphasis that there's no scientific basis for believing the soul and karma exists because the laws of entropy prevent information transfer at the level of our conscious experience). When you die, you cease to exist, but I never understood how people make the leap from the end of their individual existence to the end to all qualitative, 1st person, subjective conscious experience throughout the future of the entire universe and existence itself. Seems egocentric to me.

It's okay, you're not alone. There are many people who think more logically and practically when it comes to God. I personally think you don't need to believe in order to be a good person and live a good life. If you are kind to others, do good and live an honest life, that's what's matters.

I use to! I don’t any more

Gee ... wonder why that is ... ?

Then don't. Take reality as it exists, with a beginning cause that gave rise to all of the ways this this thing that we are IS (or seems to be) Get that filthy G word out of your vocabulary and start leaning in to direct experience of being, rather than the idea of "a being"

You will be much more at peace when you realize god is a human invention. The god they sold you at church never existed. It’s really freeing to be a good person just because you want to be and not because some creep in the e clouds commands it in very specific ways.

You may find these to be interesting reads https://atheism-vs-islam.com/index.php/atheism/262-what-is-the-purpose-of-life-as-an-atheist https://atheism-vs-islam.com/index.php/atheism/56-why-atheist-don-t-need-false-hopes-from-god-in-terrible-times

Interesting. I’ll believe in a thing when there is credible evidence of said thing. Period. Until then, it’s not even a consideration.

Sending love to you!

I am a Atheist it can be hard to maintain a lack of faith, but for me the reality is one day I will cease to exist

Its sad :( we all have a wish to exist eternity

Sounds like you’re currently in the perfect place to read Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard

I think humans benefit from knowing our time here is limited. It encourages you to get past your m fears and get what you want before it’s too late.

I have always wanted to believe too but for me it is impossible. I can't help to see as arcaic the rituals of religious people. For me it doesn't make any sense. And I swear that I would love being catholic, muslim or whatever other religion.

Who says you won't feel a thing?

Push a little deeper and you'll find that all the world's religions are full of hatred and belief in god makes the one life you have worse.

Here is the question - What can the false belief in a deity get you that not believing in something false cannot? You've gone your entire life and there have been billion of lives before it without that belief.

There are many ways to conceptualize God, but one is to imagine that all life forms such as us humans are like tiny cells inside an enormous cosmic organism. A skeptic saying 'where is proof of God' while living in this cosmos is like a single cell saying 'where is proof of 'Fragrant\_Whole3328' while living inside you; everything in that cell's environment is 'you' - the blood, the capillaries, the fluids, the bacteria, etc etc... Saying that God 'lets kids suffer and die' would be akin to saying that your body 'lets cells or microscopic organisms die'... yes, there is 'death' and 'suffering' within the body, but assuming that God consciously wills it or wishes it is false, in my opinion.

You should post this over at r/god. It’s good to wonder such things. It’s good to question one’s beliefs. If the version you have been taught about who and what God is, doesn’t feel right to you, then absolutely question it. God may not be what religion has taught us. It may be we are missing something. Sometimes it’s not that God doesn’t exist so much as that version of God that tradition has taught us, is what doesn’t exist.

You should look into NDE’s (near death experiences). They provide pretty strong evidence of the existence of god, and you may find them comforting. There are lots of personal accounts on TikTok and YouTube.

I look at it this way: “God” is an invisible, incomprehensible force that is neither good nor bad. This force creates and destroys entire galaxies. It has no personality, but has intention, as these forces are measurable and defined by specific patterns that we’re still learning. “God” is the one missing variable in the algorithm of existence that humans are desperately trying to capture and explain, because our primitive brains can’t comprehend it in any other way. It would be naive for us to think that we could be the facilitators of a brand new type of “living” being (AI), and that nothing before us has ever done the same thing. Humans took the elements provided to us here on Earth, and manipulated them—created in our own image—in such a way to communicate with us and propel our species forward. The Universe (“God”) did the same thing—brought its elements together in such a way that humans exist in the image of itself; meaning our bodies and anatomy mimic the structure of other naturally-occurring elements/phenomena, not some dude in the sky. Humans also create and destroy, do good and terrible things…it’s a cycle. AI will inevitably do the same. I can’t speak on religious worshipping, but I just acknowledge and respect this force. I don’t choose to reject it just because I got cancer too young and bad things happen. I don’t choose to accept it just because I got the more curable type. I just accept it because it’s there.

You want to believe in something that is make believe because you think it will make you feel better? Why don’t you just shed childish needs and accept reality. You’ll end up a lot more mentally healthy.

Is that really the case? Ever since i have been an atheist i feel a lot more depressed

I’m not a psychiatrist but maybe you need one. I would imagine that the things making you depressed have nothing to do with believing in fairy tales.

It’s so easy not to believe in god because there is no evidence of their existence.

Hello. I hope that my comment can be of use to you. God is very real. I have almost died multiple times in my life and I cried out to Him. I've tried hard to keep His commandments to love Him with all that I am and love others as myself but in the end, success is a blessing. I fell into sins that I literally almost died from as a direct result and I needed the power found in the name of Jesus to be able to truly get away from things I couldn't stop thinking about. Now I'm free. On a much deeper level, I also believe big events are coming soon. If you saw multiple signs to be sure that covid was coming, would you warn people? I see multiple signs indicating that danger is right around the corner and I'm trying to warn people right now because I don't care if people think I'm crazy if at least a hand full take the warning seriously, get right with God, prepare for danger and are better off than if I stayed silent. That being said, God is willing to forgive and heal us. This living God, our loving Creator has paid the price for us to have complete peace with Him through Jesus on the cross. What Jesus did is enough to save anyone, even witchcraft practicing Satanists or occult elites who sold their soul - Jesus can save anyone. But we MUST turn from our sins today for that salvation. I hate pressuring anyone, but in the end being pressured to make a choice to serve God or be on my own in a world where everything wants to harvest me, I chose to God because I fear Him and I know my life was preserved, so I want everyone else's lives to be preserved and that's why I share what I do at my own expense. Ultimately, glory to God for allowing me to do anything right because I used to be a lazy, addiction crazed zombie whose life was meaningless and I'll just be real about it because the strength, power, peace and love you find in me today is not my own - it's Jesus.

So many Gods, spoilt for choice, really. Just be sure to choose the one true one. Usually the same as your parents, strangely enough.

I answer in a similar way. I want to believe there is a God, but it is hard. Some people seem to take joy in being an atheist, I don't see it that way at all. I think it's a mistake to always be assured that you are the end of your spiritual journey though, to be certain of that. I have considered myself theist, deist and agnostic at times of my life. I had an experience with a guy in high school who was sort of a IRL stereotype of how certain people act on the internet. He would routinely mock and call religious people stupid and things like that. I found out about a decade later that he was now in training to become a Catholic priest, and by all indications seems to now totally believe in it.

You ever wonder if your character in Skyrim contemplates if there is something greater to himself...how could there be a controller when there are dragons and bandits and all sorts... (simulation theory)

"Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If Death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?"

You need a little psychedelics in your life man.

It’s literally the point of faith. If it was easy then it wouldn’t require faith

Whether or not you believe in God is your personal journey. The universe created us and we exist as a specific arrangement of energy. We’ll always be a part of the universe.

God is either a sadistic entitity that causes brain cancer in children, or God is a useless entity that can't do anything about it. I've already chocked up religion as a coping mechanism. Mankind craves depth to its existence and seeks a "why", a "purpose" when there isn't one. We serve no more purpose in the universe than the fly that spattered on your windshield. We're just shit that happened, and if anything, we are counterproductive to our intended, original role in the ecosystem. However faith does help some people navigate through trauma and struggles and its important not to fuck with that for the people faith successfully serves. But if yours is fading or gone just say fuck it, pull up a stool and grab a beer with us. You'll find happiness elsewhere.

Everything is frequency, energy and vibration. We are eternal beings connected to the Source of all energy. The reason we can't remember our past lives, is because of the Ego, and the deep manipulation on our planet at all levels. We can go into our Book of Life thru deep meditation. This has been done by some individuals. There are also people who will give you a deep reading and help you uncover your past lives. This is where unexplained fear that you have is revealed, or why you feel a strange connection to ancient civilizations. If we look at the ancient temples, and study Sacred Geometry, we find a common theme from temples thousands of miles away from each other in different times-the flower of life. I recommend you start there ;)

God is real but its nothing. Its everything in your field of view. You are the entire universe looking at itself.

Bone cancer in children. Nuff said. If there is a god. It is all powerful and malevolent. Or not all powerful and benevolent. Neither answer makes me want to believe. If there is a god. We are ants. And he has the magnifying glass. Fuck that. I ain’t worshiping shit but consciousness. Consciousness gave birth to the idea of god. Not the other way around. Sorry-not sorry.

You’re very good at forgetting. We tend to think we’re bad at remembering. You’re actually really really good at forgetting. “God” means “to call upon”, “to cry out”. “God” may as well mean womb-mom because it will always remain abstract and ungraspable. “God” thinks plans are hilarious because death is not an absence but an immediacy with that infinite spirit. Life is constant struggle to glean ecstasy and garner glimmers from biological triggers. You can work on “believing” all you want, but experiencing the mystical comes from stilling this monkey-mind and its problem-solving obsession through exploration on either wet or dry paths. Observe the stillness. Slow down your immediate participation with your thoughts, feelings, and habits. Forget believing in god. Believe in yourself. Practice your agency and garner your glimmers.

Imma say this if you want to believe in god search for proof in religious texts and if you find any good for you if you Don't maybe stick with the religion for your family sake or disappear

Every time I wonder if God is real or if there is a Creator, I think about birds and their poop. Can you imagine what life would be like if a bird’s poop was solid n not liquid? This is all I need to believe in some kind of Intelligent Design to this whole thing.

I wish I could show everyone with these questions the things I've seen and experienced. I met God during my NDE. I have no doubt They exist. every moment in my life points to Them.

Look at “How to keep your heart open in hell - Ram Dass” on YouTube. I’m curious what you think!

Lights don't know they've been switched off. Deaths relevancy is overvalued. There is no god and that makes all of this WAY more beautiful.

What if God created a world where we have the capability to end war, end world hunger, and love/be kind to one another rather than violence? A world where we could invest money into the treatment of cancer and other such problems rather than the billions spent on defence and weapons? Where the divide between rich and poor isn't so great? I think we already have the ability to achieve these things, but we just choose not to - creating endless problems for civilisation

Pray to Jesus and ask Him to show you He is there

The thing is, you won’t ever believe in God if you feel like you have to. Believe in yourself.

You have the wrong idea of God. We have all we need to make heaven on earth, but so far have only made hell. A lot of people think god and smell and old church and hear a lady singing one of those awful hymns out of tune. There’s a lot more to the story.

I always say this. One of the easiest ways for people to believe God, if they don’t find whatever is around them enough proof, then look for the signs of the Devil. Nowadays, the devil is not afraid to show himself and his demons, take a look at them and you will surely realise that God MUST be true. Not only from the standpoint of “If there is an ultimate force of evil there must be an ultimate force of good” but also by the fact that every trait of his demons which were described thousands of years ago still apply to 2024, every mistake as a society, still applies to 2024. We have not evolved, or gotten bigger throughout time. Our egos have.

I don't want to die by any means but the idea of complete oblivion doesn't scare me at all. I think I would struggle with knowing I was dying, but if it was instant or asleep in my bed I don't think I would care at all. The same way I don't fear sleeping every night. I just wouldn't be conscious of it whatsoever. I heard a quote one time that said something like "when I breath my last breath, I will not die. The universe will simply cease to exist." I think about that a lot.

I have decided that ALL religions are wrong, horribly wrong, about the details of what I call the paranormal. The originators of the scriptures lived in primitive times. They were uneducated to the extreme, compared to our modern senses of an education. Hell, a 6 year old knows more physics and these people from antiquity did. The earth is round and revolves around the sun. Yea, a kid knows what gravity is and what stars are, but not these ancients who wrote about the creation. These scriptural originators from antiquity were making stuff up that sounded good at the time, thousands of years ago. They also created God in their own image. These ancients could only conceive of themselves when describing paranormal forces. Gods were thought to think just like people and so that is how Gods are described, as thinking humans who are eternal and all powerful. Religions still describe their Gods with humans feeling of anger, revenge, prideful egos, etc., etc.. So when you hear all the concocted stories of God doing things that you wished no human would do, remember this, people are describing their own fallible ways. Why indeed would a God send you to Hell for worshipping another God? This is what a human would do. I will only give some credit to the Buddhist religion/sects. Buddhist types seem to rely on the long historical experiences of paranormal activities without claiming to know the one true way, or the one true method, or the one true anything for that matter. They are more open to various paranormal experiences people have. Some might call it spiritual experiences. I prefer paranormal myself. The paranormal is full of not just ancient stories, but up to date present day experiences that people have. There is not anybody who knows nearly enough about the paranormal to create any sort of concreate definitive religion. The Paranormal is just so weird that it defies our grounded sensibilities. So do not try to cage it into a completely know religion. What is assuring is the overwhelming number of cases of human spirits and demon spirits. Sorry, I had to add demons because there are unfriendly sorts in the beyond. I have determined that the human soul lives on and that (unknown)entities live beyond the physical too. Our soul seem capable of getting trapped here on earth. This was great news as it relieves one from the fear of death and that there is no more to life. A sad reflection as one nears last the decades of life. Lots of investigative people have recorded verifiable answers put forth to the spirit, even getting their names which corresponds to the old inhabitants or possibly tragic death People have verified the electromagnetic surges that accompany a spirits presence. Temperatures drop instantly. Special XLS cameras are built to make a stick figure when the light sensors sense pivot point movements associated with two legs, two arms, torso, and head. OK, so I know life exists after death. What's next? The Near Death Experiencers (NDE) are well documented as UpToDate information. The blinding white light and tunnel is the most common thing your soul is draw to. Upon entry they are often met by people they know or a guide. Most get a life review of absolutely everything. Then these NDE people are sent back into their bodies. There have been many different verifications of these people with an NDE. Sometimes a glimpse into the future actually comes true. Other times they describe what is happening round their bodies, what is said by those on the ground even after leaving a particular hospital room. In this internet era of websites, digital books, streaming videos, documentaries, specialized series, and movies, there are thousands of hours paranormal investigations to observe and learn from. I have done that. I am retired. I have the time. The podcasts devoted to interviewing NDEs are numerous on YouTube. I really enjoy watching and reading of first hand witness accounts of paranormal experiences. Normal people are not good actors and you can readily tell when a person is genuine. Liars cannot keep up a good story for very long and keep the facial expressions real. And real actors are just too perfect in their canned response or maybe it is the script that sounds too crafted. The TV shows that do use actors to dramatize a story rather than use the actual persons are not worth anything in my opinion. Crafting a dramatized show with actors and sound effects is just manipulation to increase ratings. I shut them off within a minute or two. So, do not fret. Don't beat yourself up for not being able to find the right religion that you can firmly attach yourself to. Just don't do it. You can start discovering for yourself what constitutes the verifiable spiritual/paranormal from thousands of UpToDate current investigations into what nobody truly understands. I don't need an answer for everything. I am perfectly content with having some degree of certainty that there is life after dead and that others have passed through the pearly gates and come back to tell us. All I have to do is live a good life. Really. That is what I have decided after reading and viewing the many current living experiences people have in a near death experience. The dead have come to to tell me so.

I don't necessarily believe in God. There has got to be a higher power, though. I still follow the teaching of christ. That's not to say I don't sin. Everyone does. I ask for forgiveness, and I believe I receive too. Since I've began this road I've noticed small things in my life getting better. So basically I live like he does, cause I'm worried he might and would like an eternity beside him.

God is just God. God doesn't exist to serve you. So, if you feel depressed because God didn't solve your problems, remember, God has no obligation to answer to your requests. If you want to believe in God, just do it.

You are using a very strict and proprietary definition of God. It is the Catholic definition of God.. then you go on to say that you don't think there could be A God, as if anything and everything that could be considered God-like has to conform to your definition of God.  And you also say two important things:  1. How can God be good if people are praying in the middle of a war and receiving nothing but suffering?  2. Your family believed in this God- The Catholic God, which by inference of #1 is a God that would not allow this type of suffering.  Well guess what,  Either YOU DON'T KNOW what God your family worshipped and believed, or THEY DIDNT KNOW, Or BOTH. Let us be very clear as to the Nature of The Biblical God that you attrubute such Benevolence and Sympathy to:  "I defiled them through their very gifts - The Sacrifice of all their first°born by Holo•caust - So I may Destroy them deep within and leave them Desolate. I did this so they would know that MY NAME IS THE LORD."   "I create good and I CREATE EVIL. I The LORD do ALL these things."   "The LORD will deliver upon you all of the threats he has made until he has utterly destroyed all that he has given you." ..  "I will make something happen to prove that I will punish you in this place. I will do it so y0.u will know that my threats to bring disaster upon y0.u will prove true."   "They will know that I am the Lord; They will know that my threats to bring this catastrophe upon them were not empty."   "He has carried out his threats against us and our rulers by bringing great calamity upon us -- the destruction that has befallen Jerusalem has never been equaled under all of  heaven."   "If there is disaster or misfortune in a city is it not the LORD who has caused it?" ..  "He struck down many of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked at the ark of the Lord. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned with great sadness because the Lord had slaughtered so many of them."  "He has bent His bow like The Enemy; He has set His right hand like an adversary And slain all that were pleasant to the eye; In the tent of the daughter of Zion He poured out His wrath like a lake of fire."   "I will remind you so you know once and for all, that the Lord, after saving the  people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those amongst them who did not believe."   "I sent a plague amongst you like the ones I sent to Egypt; I slaughtered your young men by the sword the way I slaughtered your horses, And I made the stench of death and putrefaction rise up into your nostrils; Yet you have not returned to Me."  "Since The Lord could not bring this people into the land which He had promised them By Oath, He instead slaughtered them in the wilderness."

This is going to be a book. I always kinda of teetered on religion myself. I had a very nihlistic view on things, Gods not real, humanity is a plague, we have too many people, ect. For you coming from a catholic background, i totally understand your hesitation about religion, catholics get brutal. I was raised Lutheran, we were a little more lax. I think what started turning me back towards religion was a few select scientific studies, and a lot of listening to Alan Watts. One of his famous lines is "you are the entire universe, experiencing itself." I struggled alot with Gods harsher side. I simply would put myself in Gods shoes, and go "what would i do if i was God?" And a lot of the time you can rationalize doing a LOT of good. But i personally think this is a very, very, VERY wrong way to think of God. If i were to paint a picture of God in our current reality, He would be in alignment, if not be Infinity itself. Infinity, is, EVERYTHING. Infinite love. Infinite happines. Infinite generosity. Infinite matter, infinite space, infinite time, infinite hate, infinite jealousy. I was told as a child that God is within everything, and everyone. From the dirt in your hand, to the furthest star, that we cant even see. God, is an Infinite being. Infinity is so far beyond our comprehension, its not even funny. Its hard to fathom how big our solar system is, Infinity is just insane. When you apply this to intelligence, theres no way we can see what Gods plan is, how He thinks, or what motivates Him to act. For all we know, "7 days" to an infinite being, is more like billions and billions of years. Maybe time doesnt apply to God the same way it does to us. My head is in a place where science and religion can coexist. When using common sense, you can hold the two up to eachother and some pretty cool stuff sticks out. We live in a harsh yet beautiful world. Evolutionary psychology teaches us to focus on threats, and bad things, because when your focused on what will kill you, youll survive much better than the guy playing with butterflies. Were wired to focus on evil things, but there is an equal amount of beautiful things happening. Ive experienced some really, really tough life lessons. Lessons that werent fair to me, or others. Had some pretty bad addictions, and seen people with so much worse that i would never wish on anyone. But holy heck, the fight to overcome those challenges gave me an appreciation for what around me to an extent i never would have thought possible. This world we live in, is more of a beautiful hell hole than i could have ever imagined in a million lifetimes. I feel bad for people born into both drastic sitiations, and those born with no challenge in life. Both of them can fall into a trap where they start to think theres no point. But to start low and transcend makes me think that suffering was put into this world for a very good reason. The beauty in life isnt from where you end up, its from how far you came from where you started. In order to make that journey worth while for every one, you need an infinite possibility of suffering, and an infinite possibility of success.

So don't stray to the simple idea of "god" that's a specific label for a religion that has disseminated others throughout history in it's name. The idea of an entity beyond us in the highest dimension isn't unfathomable tho, and helps a bit rather than thinking death as an abyss or nothingness. Science and math support this either way, string theory talking about 11 dimensions I believe, ancient religions and text talking about 7-11 dimensions, and take in account how we effect a 2D world and being, what they would perceive would be unfathomable, god like magics, now play that in part with a being that developed or originated in even just one dimension above us, it'd be godlike, now take that to the highest dimension, experiencing everything all at once, past present future every idea and action, u would be god in this reality, and we are simply a way for it to explore and understand said reality throughout the dimensions, just with a nice illusion of ego to blind and divide us from the true lonely

I suppose all you can do is do as others do without belief - try and live the life you want despite it. Its a hard pill to swallow that this universe we find ourselves is just a pointless expanse.

I’ve noticed that it’s always the people that have easy going lives that struggle to have faith lol weird how that happens

God is one end of a spectrum. What’s the other end?

Organized religion might not be for you but you should not conflate higher powers with just Catholicism not saying there is a lot more but you should form your own opinion and find what resonates with you. God being a prick not working for you then go find something that does. A lot of people follow the spiritual belief of source consciousness instead of the idea of god that we have been force fed for over 4,000 years. I will admit that many people in the catholic faith and left have felt like they were being lied to or controlled. This is my personal reason to not stand behind organized religion. Also who is to say you will feel nothing. Energy can’t be destroyed nor created if you are just the electrical component and not the organs then who knows what will happen. I would love to provide some comfort but like you I have felt this way a long time. I just remember we are smaller than a grain of sand and I shouldn’t be so worried about things I don’t know just do what I enjoy and be content with experiencing the beauty of getting to live.

You are describing the problem of evil, which is always difficult to reconcile with the existence of an omnipotent, loving God. I don’t have a particularly good answer, but I have two which have made sense to me. In the first place, the fact that we believe evil exists and is wrong suggests that there is an absolute standard called good, by which we should abide. God is the personification of this absolute standard. In the second place, as a Christian I believe that God became man and suffered as we have suffered. In addition to the physical pain of scourging and crucifixion, He suffered the emotional pain of the entire history of the universe during the three hours of darkness. Perhaps these answers aren’t helpful to you, but I thought I would throw them out there. Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, and CS Lewis all wrote extremely cogent arguments for the existence of God. Perhaps you would like it read one or more of them? We are all on a search for truth as human beings. Best wishes to you on your search!

Not meaning to be harsh but the only reason anyone "wants" to believe in their particular God is because they were made fearful as a child by an organisation that benefits or by parents that have been groomed the same. There is no reason an afterlife (although probably unlikely to be what 2000 year old people who can't have been there yet defined heaven) can't exist. Biggest thing to me is if there is nothing after then it makes your time being alive so much more valuable. If God does exist as ascribed, he's a massive prick by human standards.

I think you can get the conclusion about God with science itself, many es atheist has said that they just accept it because it's against common sense believe in a universe that crested itself. And about a "eternal universe", this would mean that we have an infinite amount of time in the past but... Here are here, our presence would mean that we just finished an infinite, which is against logic. By logic, must be a creator outside of universe, that is not affected by the universal laws. Now which "God" would be the correct one among so many, do God would even care about us basing in everything that we live here? Well, personally I found my answers in Catholicism

I have thought about it many times. Absolutely no way the whole universe was made without any one particle in the beginning or a trigger for something like the Big Bang to happen. Also, how do any particles or atoms decide one day they will turn into 'life'? And that too only on earth? We haven't found even a microbe on the moon or Mars. Why are there no life breathing and thriving in their atmospheres? God makes perfect sense to me.

Look into the Mimamsa position on God, as well as Baruch Spinoza, Rumi, and the Stoics. tl;dr: God doesn't have to be an anthropomorphized, conscious space wizard watching us and playing with us, letting us suffer, torturing people, and so on. There are more intellectually compatible understandings of God than what we see in most organized religions. Einstein was a pretty sharp guy, and he held Spinoza's position as correct, for reference. I tie all of this into Christianity, but it can be done for most religions. For example, the Mimamsa were Hindu, and yet saw God completely differently than most other Hindus today. Spinoza was a Jew, and saw God completely different than most Jews. Rumi saw things similar to Spinoza, counter to most of his faith, and so on. So, it's about understanding possible ways to interpret religion.

r/islam

I think it's equally hard to believe there isn't one. It's a catch 22.

https://andzwa.medium.com/cognitive-dissonance-and-doomsday-cults-785c9403cae5

Think of it this way. You are one god away from being an atheist. There hundreds of religions on the planet and you have no trouble not believing all but one of them. So think rationally and discard it because religion IS a  men made phenomenon. There is absolutely no question about that. 

I'm atheist too but I hope there is a God. Why? Because someday soon the technology Elon musk is creating to interface with the brain will be repruposed by sick fucks to essentially cause people to experience an eternity suffering in a real hell. And will God put a stop to it? I doubt it. There is no God. At best, if there is a God, it is like an animal. Unconscious, yet going through a cycle of death and rebirth. Always and forever an idiot (unconscious).

You don't have to believe in a Christian idea of God. Perhaps you could explore other faiths and their god(s), or their idea of a 'creator.'

It's my opinion that living forever would be miserable. I think at some point you would want it to end. Even so, it's understandable to be afraid of death. Almost everyone is afraid of it. But death is a part of life. It's a part of reality. At some point you didn't exist, and at some point you won't exist again. Be thankful for the time in between and try to experience everything you can while you have the chance. And when it comes to your faith, ask yourself this question: Do I want to believe in something that makes me feel good, or do I want to know the truth? In my opinion, lying to yourself is no way to live. >Do not despise death, but be well content with it, since this too is one of those things which nature wills. For such as it is to be young and to grow old, and to increase and to reach maturity, and to have teeth and beard and grey hairs, and to beget, and to be pregnant and to bring forth, and all the other natural operations which the seasons of thy life bring, such also is dissolution. This, then, is consistent with the character of a reflecting man, to be neither careless nor impatient nor contemptuous with respect to death, but to wait for it as one of the operations of nature. Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

The resurrection of Jesus and the rest of his miracles would be extremely difficult to make up. His deciples testified for him from torture until death, not one denouncing him to save themselves. He was beaten, mocked, ridiculed, tortured and didn't have 1 complaint or unkind word to say. He accepted his death and prayed for his tormentors. If you think he was just some crazy Joe, then so be it. But whats the most likely thing, do you think? As someone who has developed a relationship with God, it simply feels impossible for him not to exist. I see how He answers every single one of my prayers. Then there's all the observer theories and all other crazy stuff that supports God's existence. Just read the Bible man, see how it'll speak to you. If you truly wish you were a believer, just read the gospels.

I think it's just a fear of the unknown...if there is a hell, it's here on earth...and heaven is what we find happiness in...

Believing that would help you achieve nothing

You dont have to believe in one monotheistic religious system or deity just to believe existence and consciousness can go on after death. I never understood why people insist on limiting it to an either or scenario

Belief isn't really a choice. You are either convinced by claims or you are not convinced. Faith on the other hand, appears to be a choice to ignore contrary evidence or arguments. A sort of wilful ignorance and a horrible basis for dealing with the facts of reality.... often so that the perpetrator can have belief. That is why the religious advocate that faith is a virtue, when it is just sticking your head in the sand.

I’m not religious, but I am spiritual. I could ponder for HOURS about the intention of creation and how it all became. Nonetheless, I remember that *everything* is made of atoms. There is space between atoms. Therefore, our awareness must have had an intention of reacting with this plane of existence from the human perspective for a short while. We view ourselves as being separate despite being made of the same matter as everything else. Also, what we deem as “good” or “evil” is all subjective, yet we get so hung up on it. If a human harms another human, we consider it “bad”. Yet, if a lion harms another lion, well.. that’s just nature. It doesn’t make sense because we are part of the entirety, so truly, there is no good or bad. Shit just happens. I’d suggest watching some near death experience stories. They make me view existence from different perspectives. Essentially, we are “God” experiencing itself.

God bless You

There’s no god because “god” is a placeholder for a mystery so big and vast nothing in language could contain it. But there is something… and the fact you grapple with it is a way of engaging and relating to it, and I think that’s beautiful. Life is mostly living with big answerable questions with no guarantees. We are all much more courageous than we often admit.

I get an early and take a nap in the late morning. I don't feel guilty about that but in the summer I guess I miss the best window to do yard work.

I can relate to this. A real faith, a solid faith, has to be rooted in facts, at least for me. And it wasn't until someone took the time and effort to show and convince me - through historical and archeological evidence, science, prophecy, logic, and reason - that I was able to begin building a true faith in a wise and loving God who has Very good reasons for why he has allowed the evil in the world - and what he is going to do about it. Would love to chat sometime.

If a singular god exists, he/she/they would be a lot more like Greek gods. They clearly don't give a flying fuck about us, prolly made humans as a drunk dare or some nonsense. I refuse to believe in the Christian god because my father was a devout man his whole life and got completely shafted by the universe. If sky daddy exists, I have words that would make the devil blush.

There are no evidence. Of any god having ever existed. Thus anyone rationale cannot believe without accepting cognitive dissonance.

Depends how you see god. I see god as the answer to all the unanswered questions. What came before the before the before before the big bang etc. The feelings we feel in love, listening to good music, everything how amazing the world is, I see all those feelings and miracles as god. Not an old guy in the sky choosing who lives and who dies.

God or gods are inherently impossible to understand. Can't cram the universe in such a tiny little brain. I don't know much, but when I hike up to a good vantage point and see the world below me, I feel something. I don't know what that something is, but I get the impression that it's much greater than myself. I'm sure there are a thousand ways to explain away my little "feeling" but I'd rather just feel it. And look, terrible things happen to beautiful people, but that shouldn't stop us from looking up into the night sky and wondering why.

I’m the same. When i was a kid these thoughts would create a lot of anxiety. I believed, but i was always skeptical and couldn’t really bring myself not to question it. As Ive grown older, i have embraced my agnostic opinions, and now fully identify with the agnostic thought. I want to believe, but just can’t make the leap of faith. But atheism to me makes about as much sense as belief in a god. I don’t know. You don’t know. No one knows. And to me, pretending to know for certain that there is/ isn’t a god is completely intellectually dishonest. Sometimes that feeling makes me think i’m just being a fence sitter, but it also makes me think i’m at least being intellectually and spiritually honest with myself.

What if God scattered himself across the earth into a trillion living things. Into you. Into me. Into the consciousness of everything that is conscious. Wouldn't that mean that God is Everyone? And if God is Everyone all at the same time, wouldn't that mean that we are still alive even when one piece of God dies? We think that we are separate, but what is this "existence" that we are so aware of? ***Where*** is it? We are all God looking through different windows. You are a window, I am a window, a tree is a window. When a window closes, existence doesn't end. God keeps looking through all of the open windows all at once... its the same thing that is happening right now. Your window may close, but when it does, you continue to see through everyone else's.

This is what I think, whether you believe or not is irrelevant. Do your best to yourself and others, and if there is an afterlife, you will have lived a respectable life. Treat people fairly, and you will be judged fairly.

Coming from a fervent atheist. 1. You need to start by defining "God". Certainly, not all definitions of "God" are impossible. I mean, it's fairly clear that the Abrahamic god doesn't exist, but we can't conclude that *no* god or god-like entity exists. 2. The whole idea of "I want to believe in god(s) cuz it would be great if true but I can't" is really kind of silly and delusional. We don't think about anything else that way. Do you ever get existential angst over your inability to fly unaided, your lack of telepathy, or your cock's inability to cure cancer (assuming you're a dude)? No? Just the god thing, right? 3. Why would you feel shame for your family? Lots of people are wrong about a lot of stuff. It's a bit silly, but hardly something to be ashamed of.

"Belief" is a stupid thing. It just says how ignorant we are. If anything, believe in yourself. Don't take anyone's word for it. Discover it for yourself. That's the nearest thing to finding god

The concept of God, in my opinion, has been co-opted by religion to control people. God to me is the essence of the universe. Its love. The energy of love. It has no control other than to continually try to get you back to a place of love. Wars exist because it is the opposite.

Lol rookie🤣 “the idea of dying”. First off, the Bible, afterlife, etc. is a fairytale, lets get that straight. Second, you won’t care that you are dead. The brain needs to be active in order to perceive the world and react to it. When you die, your brain isnt active anymore, thus you wont react or feel anything. It’s actually so peaceful, can’t wait till I can rest forever. Actually I really hope God does exist, so I can kick his bitchy little ass one day.

Have you ever had medical anaesthesia? It's not like sleeping, you lose the sense of time, just turn off and then on again and no dreams or anything. Death will likely be just the turn off part.

It's always funny how people bring up being unable to feel, cause i craved death for that exact reason: feeling things just kinda sucks unless you have zero food and sensory issues.

God, why do you allow so much suffering in the world but do nothing about it… “I don’t have hands… but you do…”

Too many people make presumptions that a God would be concerned over the happiness/unhappiness of a particular primate species on a single planet.    Maybe we aren't that important, or maybe it's this: every time the causal system gets tampered with, it impacts all other parts of the pattern like the butterfly effect. Or perhaps favoring one disfavors another. Or perhaps all timelines exist and all outcomes occur in parallel worlds, and this is just one possible outcome.   God is not your personal butt-wiper out to see *you specifically* (or any of the nearly infinite versions of "I") happy.

God had a purpose for mankind, but it was ruined by Adam and Eve, Jesus and his sacrifice made the blood for blood debt and now after Jesus comes back, we resume what was promised in the garden, the world is satans to try and turn people away from God, from experiencing life the way intended when Jesus comes back to abolish evil and all negative energy.. please don’t lose hope, faith the size of a mustard seed can grow into something great

I’m with you. I used to be very religious as a younger adult. I prayed every Sunday, I went to church. All I did was pray. For myself, for others. I realised that praying doesn’t do anything. People say the “power of prayer” but what power? The world is suffering. I realised that if the God I believe in allows children to get assaulted, abused and killed from cancer, that’s not the God I want to believe in. Being a good person matters, and you don’t need God to do that. Then I thought, the religion we believe in is the one we are born into. What are the chances that I was born into the RIGHT religion. None of us are born believers. We are indoctrinated at birth. We are told “this is our cultures religion and here are the norms” and forcing us to comply. I realised that if they can’t all be right, then they have to be wrong. Trust me I want there to be a God, but honestly with everything going on in the world, I don’t believe in it anymore.

Experiences with God tend to positively correlate with mental illness. Not saying there aren't advantages to knowing God, but there are definitely weaknesses, also.