Someone called Brad wrote this - I like it. Especially since I have a sink full of dishes in the kitchen :)
"You’re here. This is your life. And you’re missing out on it. Your fantasies are never real, and they never can be, because nothing you can possibly imagine will ever be anything like the way you imagine it.
The same applies to anything you might get depressed about — the state of the world, the state of contemporary music, the state of your haircut.
The thing that always helps me is doing whatever little things I can do right now to improve my life. Like cleaning the toilet, or emptying out the litter box. Make someone laugh. There’s always something that needs done. Always. And it’s your job to do it. Contribute something to the world you live in. It doesn’t matter if it’s something big or small. In fact, small is better. We don’t live our lives for ourselves. That’s a huge mistake nearly everyone makes. You are a part of the continuum of life and it is your duty to make your own unique contribution. That’s what God put you on Earth for. When you go against that you feel unhappy.
Is your life balanced? Or do you envision it as a few peak experiences, big highs or big lows, interrupted by long stretches of nothing much going on? Drugs will mess you up too. Much as I hate sounding like Nancy Reagan, it’s damned true. They pull you up one way for a little while, but then there’s always the rebound. If you live your life as peak experiences interrupted by nothing happening, you might think that’s fine. But it’s not fine. The very reason today seems so bleak and grey is only because you’re comparing it to your memories of yesterday’s sunshine, or yesterday’s high, or yesterday’s orgasm. Or that great “if only” that would make everything fine if it wasn’t just out of reach. But that’s just your memories and ideas. Reality is the dishes in the sink. And the dishes in the sink today are always better that the rollercoaster ride last night — because today is real and yesterday and tomorrow are lies you tell yourself.
Depression is a thought. It’s a tough one to get rid of. But in the end, all thoughts, no matter what they are, are nothing but energy bouncing around in that lump of hamburger inside your skull."
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Sunday, 20 January 2008
On religion...
An atheist is someone who has an absence of belief in god/s - now many atheists will have a belief that there is no god, but that isn't atheism. A-theism - without belief (as someone else posted). When people talk about their atheism, it then tends to become a belief system - anything beyond 'without belief', is inherently their own construct. e.g. 'I believe that there is no point to our existence' is not atheism. This is why there will never be a successful 'Atheist Party' - atheism is not a unifying belief, so we're not likely to band together.
An agnostic is someone who believes that the existence of a god or gods is unknowable. A-gnostic - without knowledge/knowing. Often agnosticism is misinterpreted as 'I think there might be but I need proof'. In the strict philosophical sense, it means absolute certainty that the question of God is unknowable as we can only perceive material things, and God is supposedly beyond the material. So you can have atheist and theist agnostics. I am an agnostic atheist - I believe we can't know if there is anything beyond the material plane, and I also have no belief in God.
Something that doesn't seem to be too well covered here is that it is difficult to be an atheist (the same way I imagine it should be hard to be a theist)- it requires a fair amount of thought and self analysis, and constant review and assessment. People have made light of the nihilistic despair that can come with atheism that one needs to work through. I turned to philosophy to help me understand why I was so uncomfortable with theism (there is a book "Atheism:the case against God", which I recommend to everyone for a good philosophical assessment of the arguments. I much prefer it to Dawkins, as it isn't aggressive, and it covers the philosophical/theological side of things properly). What I am left with is my belief that there is nothing after I die - I have this life and that's it. So I strive to make the best of this life - I have learned what makes my life pleasant and enjoyable, and so I do those things (work, keeping in shape, being in love, raising a child, socialising with friends, helping people). As someone stated earlier in the thread, it's Hedonism according to the philosophical position (although we can deconstruct that too
). Unfortunately the word has been hijacked and now is commonly taken as meaning "reckless self-destruction through gorging oneself.
I don't believe we are special, we're just a species of ape with a bigger brain. We have evolved inquisitive and analytical brains that allow us to take alternate positions and extrapolate from imagined paths. I think the logical result of that thought/imagination is that we will create magnificent ideas, and that we can share them with each other and understand them. In some cases many people will agree that one imagined idea sounds particularly good, and then they might believe it is true, even though they cannot give evidence for it beyond their communal belief. The beauty of having a communal belief without evidence, is that you can never deconstruct it on the basis of logic and reason. It is impossible.
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Science can explain many things, but it sometimes doesn't capture the essence of them. I can logically and scientifically describe the emotion of love, why it happens, what it is for - but I can't explain how it feels to someone who hasn't experienced it. I've never had a belief in God, so I don't know what it feels like. I know that if someone told me that the emotion I felt for my partner or daughter was pointless and irrelevant and stupid, I would be greatly offended. Consequently I don't go attacking people's beliefs freely. There are important distinctions to be made - for example there is belief in God vs belief in the scriptures. There is belief in God vs actions in God's name. Much like the atheist who says "I have no belief in God, and therefore I'm going to kill all these people" - it is not the absence of belief that made him do it, it is his own nature. Obviously it gets complicated with theism when people follow human interpretations of ancient scriptures and kill because God told them to.
I used to be an angry atheist, but I think that was part of growing into someone who was comfortable with that position. I don't get angry about it anymore, and it only becomes an issue for me if I feel me or mine are being encroached upon by a theist (my daughter being told atheists will go to hell for instance - not acceptable). I think that our societies are at a stage where it is ok to be an atheist, and I am grateful to the angry atheists of the past that have got us here - I firmly believe that state and church should be seperate, and I firmly believe that we should all be allowed to follow whatever God we choose unless that belief negatively impacts upon others. If every member (or the majority) of a religion was out to kill the rest of us, then that religion should not be tolerated - if it's small sects of a religion, then those sects should not be tolerated - if it's individual members that happen to have a religion, then those individuals should not be tolerated.
An agnostic is someone who believes that the existence of a god or gods is unknowable. A-gnostic - without knowledge/knowing. Often agnosticism is misinterpreted as 'I think there might be but I need proof'. In the strict philosophical sense, it means absolute certainty that the question of God is unknowable as we can only perceive material things, and God is supposedly beyond the material. So you can have atheist and theist agnostics. I am an agnostic atheist - I believe we can't know if there is anything beyond the material plane, and I also have no belief in God.
Something that doesn't seem to be too well covered here is that it is difficult to be an atheist (the same way I imagine it should be hard to be a theist)- it requires a fair amount of thought and self analysis, and constant review and assessment. People have made light of the nihilistic despair that can come with atheism that one needs to work through. I turned to philosophy to help me understand why I was so uncomfortable with theism (there is a book "Atheism:the case against God", which I recommend to everyone for a good philosophical assessment of the arguments. I much prefer it to Dawkins, as it isn't aggressive, and it covers the philosophical/theological side of things properly). What I am left with is my belief that there is nothing after I die - I have this life and that's it. So I strive to make the best of this life - I have learned what makes my life pleasant and enjoyable, and so I do those things (work, keeping in shape, being in love, raising a child, socialising with friends, helping people). As someone stated earlier in the thread, it's Hedonism according to the philosophical position (although we can deconstruct that too
). Unfortunately the word has been hijacked and now is commonly taken as meaning "reckless self-destruction through gorging oneself.I don't believe we are special, we're just a species of ape with a bigger brain. We have evolved inquisitive and analytical brains that allow us to take alternate positions and extrapolate from imagined paths. I think the logical result of that thought/imagination is that we will create magnificent ideas, and that we can share them with each other and understand them. In some cases many people will agree that one imagined idea sounds particularly good, and then they might believe it is true, even though they cannot give evidence for it beyond their communal belief. The beauty of having a communal belief without evidence, is that you can never deconstruct it on the basis of logic and reason. It is impossible.
-------------------------
Science can explain many things, but it sometimes doesn't capture the essence of them. I can logically and scientifically describe the emotion of love, why it happens, what it is for - but I can't explain how it feels to someone who hasn't experienced it. I've never had a belief in God, so I don't know what it feels like. I know that if someone told me that the emotion I felt for my partner or daughter was pointless and irrelevant and stupid, I would be greatly offended. Consequently I don't go attacking people's beliefs freely. There are important distinctions to be made - for example there is belief in God vs belief in the scriptures. There is belief in God vs actions in God's name. Much like the atheist who says "I have no belief in God, and therefore I'm going to kill all these people" - it is not the absence of belief that made him do it, it is his own nature. Obviously it gets complicated with theism when people follow human interpretations of ancient scriptures and kill because God told them to.
I used to be an angry atheist, but I think that was part of growing into someone who was comfortable with that position. I don't get angry about it anymore, and it only becomes an issue for me if I feel me or mine are being encroached upon by a theist (my daughter being told atheists will go to hell for instance - not acceptable). I think that our societies are at a stage where it is ok to be an atheist, and I am grateful to the angry atheists of the past that have got us here - I firmly believe that state and church should be seperate, and I firmly believe that we should all be allowed to follow whatever God we choose unless that belief negatively impacts upon others. If every member (or the majority) of a religion was out to kill the rest of us, then that religion should not be tolerated - if it's small sects of a religion, then those sects should not be tolerated - if it's individual members that happen to have a religion, then those individuals should not be tolerated.
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