To think life is overrated

[dexent]

You're born without having a choice. Then you live a life. Some of it might be good, some of it bad. You might get a lot more of one than the other. Alot of it is out of your hands. You then die. What was the point. This life is so temporary, so fleeting yet we cling on to it so dearly.

Alma, yes I know what you mean. Recently I feel a craving to go back to beautiful places I've visited in the past, such as a stunning Cornish beach, just sit there by myself, and just be, drink in all the beauty around me.

I've nominated this thread for classics. Others could nominate also if they wish.

I am now imagining an MN retreat, which I do not think would be terribly peaceful!

I do find happiness in small things - a nice meal, a hug from my lovely DH, listening to music, watching the birds in my garden, my dog and various other things.

What upsets me though is seeing people and animals suffer - things like famine, earthquakes, floods etc.

I feel extremely lucky to have been born in a country that doesn't suffer things like tornados, earthquakes etc but why are some people born into relative safety and others not? A child doesn't ask to be born especially into a country where they will not have enough to eat or a roof over their head, have to scavenge for food etc.

I hate what is happening to this beautiful planet. Humans are destroying it. Every time I read about the plastic in our oceans I cry, every time I read about another animal becoming extinct I cry.

I honestly don't think humans deserve to live on such a beautiful planet. Yes there are kind and good humans but there are many horrible and wicked ones. As I get older I realise just how many nasty uncaring humans there really are.

Me and DH decided almost 40 years ago not to have children because we felt the planet was already overpopulated and because we both felt that it was not a particularly nice place to bring children into. We both feel that even more strongly now

BestbeforeI didnt mean to imply its remarkable.

Im an atheist but spirtitual. Spirituality in general, "includes a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves, or a search for meaning in life. "

Modern spirituality "is centered on the deepest values by which people live, enabling an inner path."

A lot of people feel guilt, and in this thread I am refering to -knowing you are lucky but not feeling lucky and by consequence feeling a guilt.

If there is no need for guilt where does this guilt comes from? Is it intrinsic or does it point to something greater?

If we should be grateful as pp say to see the moon who are we grateful to? In a way it reveres something beyond us, not a creator but something else, and for what reason?

I think for many meaning is navigating through the good and evil in the world. This is heaven and hell already and as a human collective the meaning is to make heaven on earth. For me this points to a higher importance of our actions. No I don't believe in God but good vs evil and our conscience shows something more than just us all plodding through life.

I would say I'm an atheist but not a "militant atheist" à la Hitchins or Dawkins. I would say I am quite spiritual too, and have become increasingly so after some recent crises. Not in a "I am connected to something bigger" way but in acknowledging that I can find meaning and joy in the things I find meaning and joy in and that there doesn't have to be a reason for that, it just is. I have friends of all faiths and tend to see their connections to their faiths the way I see my connection to the things that give me the meaning that I didn't have for a long time.

Maybe we are all just plodding through life, to me all that says is that part of my struggle as a human is finding meaning in the plodding.

@babdoc

*Well, this is the problem for atheists, isn’t it? They think this life is all there is, and then struggle to find any point to it.
They’re rather like caterpillars, bemoaning their dull existence chewing leaves and crawling in mud, and wailing that they all just go into their chrysalis and die.

Do you get off on posting offensive intolerant shite?

In what way is it either offensive or intolerant, Squaresausages?
Christians all know that life does have meaning and purpose, and is just a precursor.
Atheists don’t have that assurance. Some of them are still happy with the temporary pleasures of mortal existence, particularly if life has been kind to them.
But many of the PPs on this thread are not happy, and openly state that they lack meaning or purpose. I’m positing that this is because they don’t know the love of God and the wonder, after death, of being in His presence and reunited with loved ones, for eternity.
Far from being intolerant, I feel sympathy - I used to be an atheist myself - and I wish there was some way to comfort them with the good news that Jesus came to tell us.

Also, the caterpillar/chrysalis/butterfly analogy is not originally mine, but I feel it is a very good image to convey the concept of life/death/afterlife, which is why I used it.

You claimed that all atheists have dull pointless existences, accusing of wailing and bemoaning.

I was unhappy as a Christian but I'm happy as a on atheist, but I don't take you in generelising and looking down on others.

My best friend dropped dead at 42 from a brain haemorrhage leaving her young children who she loved so so much. I am pretty fucking sure she would disagree with you if she could.

Atheists don’t have that assurance. Some of them are still happy with the temporary pleasures of mortal existence, particularly if life has been kind to them.

I am a Christian too, but this betrays a shocking ignorance of any worldview except your own.

I know countless atheists for whom the meaning of life lies in the good they do, the work to improve the lives of others or to prevent destruction of the planet. Work done out of love with no hope for reward here or in the afterlife- I would say that is worth rather more than "temporary pleasures" depending on life being kind to them.

I am a Christian, I have been an atheist: at no point have I ever felt that life was pointless as long as there was work that could be done.

Besides, if you had ever read much Christian literature you would have seen eminent church fathers, great thinkers about Christianity also at times overwhelmed by a sense of despair and pointlessness. Because that too is part of the human condition.

Ignorance otoh is only part of the human condition if we make it so.

Nice to see not all Christians are as prejudiced as others.