I don’t think there’s anything after death, so it doesn’t influence how I live other than actually making me appreciate more the one life I only have, and make the most of it.
I’m an atheist, formerly a devout catholic. I shifted away from it as I was realizing how little sense it made, and eventually, much later into my atheism, I realized that my need for God was specifically to feel like the kids who bullied me were gonna go to hell, and that my suffering would be rewarded. It was very eye-opening about why people might seek out religion, but I’m already digressing
It’s comforting to know that no one is judging me for my mistakes, that I’m allowed to try and fail. It’s also comforting to know that there IS an end, that I don’t have to worry about what comes after it. It allows me to live life thinking about the things that matter, the people here on earth, my body, the planet itself, whether or not my single measly life will actually feel fulfilled. It leads me to seek and desire actual happiness instead of delusional wish-fulfillment. I don’t want false hope; I want real happiness that isn’t informed by a need to cope. Shit’s hard enough without a judgemental abusive father figure threatening to set me on fire if I don’t worship him the right way
See, I’m a nature lover. I love animals, and tress, and the beautiful magnificence of this earthly space. There is beauty in the shining sun, and the songs of birds, and in a grizzly way, even in the cycles of life and death. There is a grotesque beauty in shear chaos of reality, even when it sucks to live through. Christianity, at least contemporaneously, feels like such a strict divide between the earthly and the divine. The words profane, arcane, and mundane are all connected, mundane, meaning “of this earth” and arcane meaning of “heaven”. The profane and arcane are explicitly separated from the natural world in a way that just disgusts me. Through thousands of years of dogma and mutable mythology, the implication of ourselves as earthly, strictly separated from the divine is borderline insulting. We are explicitly called filthy and dirty and lesser, below the arcane, and then demanded to worship by threat of being thrust even lower, into the profane, by a God who swears he’s too good for us. Fuck him
God reminds me of my abusive father. He says he loves you, unconditionally, but you have to worship him, else you go to hell. He’s the best at everything, knows everything, yet doesn’t have the foresight he forces you believe he has to maybe just put the tree of Eden in an inaccessible place, and then when something goes wrong because of his failings, he blames his children, and then punishes their children for mistakes they never committed. God is a narcissist, and in seeing that, I have learned how to escape from the abusive men in my life
(And just a disclaimer here that I understand people will interpret god differently. Someone else may have an entirely different perception of God, but if you’re gonna tell me I’m misinterpreting him, someone from one of the countless other sects of that religion will say the same of you)
I just want my kids to have a better future
I am atheist and don’t believe in an afterlife.
I don’t take it personally when people hate or are angry at others they don’t understand. Not everything is fair everyone, including how we experience life and what happens to us in our lives. Some people act as though it’s their responsibility to be angry or control others. I recognize their feelings and try to understand where they come from, but much of the time it’s taught through religious institutions. All I can do is try and make life better for myself and others around me, and for future generations. If I don’t like something I evaluate my actions or experience based on greater good (of myself for healthy eating, of others for vaccines and general kindness, of future generations for how I vote for funding healthcare and schools).
I might not believe in God, but there’s at least one person depending on me who would be in deep shit if I yielded fully to nihilism (as believers insist atheists like me are wont to do) and lived entirely in the moment with no thought to the future or to any consideration but my own momentary pleasure. I’m not going to fuck her over.
Why not Optimistic Nihilism? When nothing inherently matters you’re free to choose what matters to you.
I’m all for optimistic nihilism. Nothing is true, everything is permissible, and do what thou wilt is the whole of the law.
Nevertheless, I had changed the trajectory of at least one person’s life when I asked her to marry me and she said yes. I owe her too much to act as if what happens to her after my death isn’t at least partially my responsibility. I won’t go to my grave knowing I was that sort of man.
Traditional marriage vows are “in sickness and in health, till death do us part”. My vow will outlast the heat death of the motherfucking universe. I’m hers for as long as she’ll have me.
Optimistic Nihilism is “even though there isn’t an inherent meaning to things, this woman is important to me so I prioritize her well-being even when I’m not around.”
It’s that you define what is permissible in order to bring about the most happiness to the most important parts of your life.
It’s not “nothing matters so everything is permissible.” That would be just regular old self-centered nihilism.
After having tested my beliefs for years I can say that they influence most if not every aspect of my life
All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be.
I am a better person because of my non-belief than I ever was as a believer-by-default due to my upbringing in a cult.
If this is it, what are you doing right now to make the best of it? Belief encourages moral laziness and the ultimate procrastination of waiting till the next life to address problems that exist here and now.
It doesn’t influence me to know about heaven, but it puts me at peace about my dad.
I don’t believe in an afterlife and I don’t have any children, so I could in theory live in an ego bubble and care about anyone or anything. Instead I try to do at least the bare minimum of a decent human being and more when I can. I’m way not perfect and I fuck up regularly, but I do put in effort to be and do better.
It’s weird to interact with people that have kids that will inherit the earth but these people don’t seem to give a fuck about neither. Even more if they tout symbols of faith yet act in direct opposition to the general “be nice” that is central in most so religions.
But I try not to be too hard on those people too. Life is difficult for everybody.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about death and am not scared of it. On a day to day, it mostly just means I’m more willing to take risks. It also contributes to my morbid personality.
Spiritually, I have a lot of thoughts about death, but I doubt anyone wants to hear them.
Well, I’m an enjoyer of occasionally pausing to contemplate the effects our actions today might have as their untraceable implications reverbrate through the collective unconscious a thousand years from now.
For one thing it means I experience strong feelings of hostility when something like the currently circulating drivel about “longtermism” comes to my attention.
That really depends on what my personal beliefs are being compared to. Compared to none, or to benign afterlife belief structures, probably very little. Compared to Hell-and-damnation or to Valhalla? Considerably more.
