Zone1 Is Atheism Depressing?

[Thunderbird]

Atheism and agnosticism are depressing.

I am NOT saying atheists are wrong because atheism is depressing.

I am only suggesting atheism is a bleak philosophy.

Some quotes:

“That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Bertrand Russell



“I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as it is set forth in the annals of history. Out of the darkness of prehistoric ages man emerges with the marks of his lowly origin strong upon him. He is a brute, only more intelligent than the other brutes, a blind prey to impulses, which as often as not lead him to destruction; a victim to endless illusions, which make his mental existence a terror and a burden, and fill his physical life with barren toil and battle.” Thomas Huxley



“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a tiny speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable; this is associated in our minds with the name of Copernicus, although Alexandrian doctrines taught something very similar. The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world, implying an ineradicable animal nature in him: this transvaluation has been accomplished in our own time upon the instigation of Charles Darwin, Wallace, and their predecessors, and not without the most violent opposition from their contemporaries. But man's craving for grandiosity is now suffering the third and most bitter blow from present-day psychological research which is endeavoring to prove to the ego of each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with the veriest scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind. We psycho-analysts were neither the first nor the only ones to propose to mankind that they should look inward; but it appears to be our lot to advocate it most insistently and to support it by empirical evidence which touches every man closely.” Sigmund Freud

 

[Votto]

Atheism and agnosticism are depressing.

I am NOT saying atheists are wrong because atheism is depressing.

I am only suggesting atheism is a bleak philosophy.

Some quotes:

“That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Bertrand Russell



“I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as it is set forth in the annals of history. Out of the darkness of prehistoric ages man emerges with the marks of his lowly origin strong upon him. He is a brute, only more intelligent than the other brutes, a blind prey to impulses, which as often as not lead him to destruction; a victim to endless illusions, which make his mental existence a terror and a burden, and fill his physical life with barren toil and battle.” Thomas Huxley



“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a tiny speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable; this is associated in our minds with the name of Copernicus, although Alexandrian doctrines taught something very similar. The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world, implying an ineradicable animal nature in him: this transvaluation has been accomplished in our own time upon the instigation of Charles Darwin, Wallace, and their predecessors, and not without the most violent opposition from their contemporaries. But man's craving for grandiosity is now suffering the third and most bitter blow from present-day psychological research which is endeavoring to prove to the ego of each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with the veriest scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind. We psycho-analysts were neither the first nor the only ones to propose to mankind that they should look inward; but it appears to be our lot to advocate it most insistently and to support it by empirical evidence which touches every man closely.” Sigmund Freud

Atheism is an absolute rabbit hole of despair.

Morality, does it matter? Based on what exactly? Your morality only matters to YOU, or the state and society dictating to you what you should value regarding laws they make based on their morality, which they will 24/7.

Does life have meaning? Only if you assign it meaning but who really cares what YOU think?

And of course, life is short and full trials and tribulations. As Shakespear once wrote,

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns

 

[Thunderbird]

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[Thunderbird]

Atheism is an absolute rabbit hole of despair.

Morality, does it matter? Based on what exactly? Your morality only matters to YOU, or the state and society dictating to you what you should value regarding laws they make based on their morality, which they will 24/7.

Does life have meaning? Only if you assign it meaning but who really cares what YOU think?

And of course, life is short and full trials and tribulations. As Shakespear once wrote,

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns

There’s also Macbeth:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

 

[Votto]

There’s also Macbeth:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Nobody like the Shake. He sure could bring it.

 

[rightwinger]

What is depressing about Atheism?

I get to sleep late on Sundays
I get to celebrate Christmas without having to go to Church
I get to make fun of God if I feel like it
I don’t have to pray
I go ahead and eat without that annoying Grace

 

[Mr Natural]

I suppose believing in imaginary beings brings some sort of relief from an otherwise miserable existence.

 

[Compost]

It's depressing because atheists have no hope. They seek nothing beyond themselves. All they have is the comfort of now.

 

[Mr Natural]

It's depressing because atheists have no hope. They seek nothing beyond themselves. All they have is the comfort of now.

Now is all we have.

 

[rightwinger]

It's depressing because atheists have no hope. They seek nothing beyond themselves. All they have is the comfort of now.

Of course we have hope

We just don’t rely on imaginary beings to fulfil us
We believe in a future but are responsible for our own future.

We do the right thing because that is the right thing to do…..Not because we fear an imaginary God

We are willing to accept our eventual death without fantasies of life ever after

 

[White 6]

Atheism and agnosticism are depressing.

I am NOT saying atheists are wrong because atheism is depressing.

I am only suggesting atheism is a bleak philosophy.

Some quotes:

“That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Bertrand Russell



“I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as it is set forth in the annals of history. Out of the darkness of prehistoric ages man emerges with the marks of his lowly origin strong upon him. He is a brute, only more intelligent than the other brutes, a blind prey to impulses, which as often as not lead him to destruction; a victim to endless illusions, which make his mental existence a terror and a burden, and fill his physical life with barren toil and battle.” Thomas Huxley



“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a tiny speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable; this is associated in our minds with the name of Copernicus, although Alexandrian doctrines taught something very similar. The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world, implying an ineradicable animal nature in him: this transvaluation has been accomplished in our own time upon the instigation of Charles Darwin, Wallace, and their predecessors, and not without the most violent opposition from their contemporaries. But man's craving for grandiosity is now suffering the third and most bitter blow from present-day psychological research which is endeavoring to prove to the ego of each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with the veriest scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind. We psycho-analysts were neither the first nor the only ones to propose to mankind that they should look inward; but it appears to be our lot to advocate it most insistently and to support it by empirical evidence which touches every man closely.” Sigmund Freud

Kind of depends on if your are an atheist or not. I know some that are averagely happy, and at the same time, conduct themselves in a moral manner. Good luck to them, as in the end, they will need it.

 

[Thunderbird]

Life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom.
Schopenhauer

More quotes from Schopenhauer: TOP 25 QUOTES BY ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (of 571) | A-Z Quotes

 

[Thunderbird]

Of course we have hope

We just don’t rely on imaginary beings to fulfil us
We believe in a future but are responsible for our own future.

We do the right thing because that is the right thing to do…..Not because we fear an imaginary God

We are willing to accept our eventual death without fantasies of life ever after

I know atheists are wonderful because they tell me so themselves at every opportunity.

Atheists are responsible but theists are not?

Theists act out of fear, but atheists do not? Do you think atheists may occasionally act out of fear (perhaps of a Communist dictator)?

 

[Invisibleflash]

Atheism and agnosticism are depressing.

I am NOT saying atheists are wrong because atheism is depressing.

I am only suggesting atheism is a bleak philosophy.

Some quotes:

“That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Bertrand Russell



“I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as it is set forth in the annals of history. Out of the darkness of prehistoric ages man emerges with the marks of his lowly origin strong upon him. He is a brute, only more intelligent than the other brutes, a blind prey to impulses, which as often as not lead him to destruction; a victim to endless illusions, which make his mental existence a terror and a burden, and fill his physical life with barren toil and battle.” Thomas Huxley



“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a tiny speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable; this is associated in our minds with the name of Copernicus, although Alexandrian doctrines taught something very similar. The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world, implying an ineradicable animal nature in him: this transvaluation has been accomplished in our own time upon the instigation of Charles Darwin, Wallace, and their predecessors, and not without the most violent opposition from their contemporaries. But man's craving for grandiosity is now suffering the third and most bitter blow from present-day psychological research which is endeavoring to prove to the ego of each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with the veriest scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind. We psycho-analysts were neither the first nor the only ones to propose to mankind that they should look inward; but it appears to be our lot to advocate it most insistently and to support it by empirical evidence which touches every man closely.” Sigmund Freud

No, never think about phony gods unless I read about it here or some blissninny on YT starts saying to pray harder to save America.

 

[Compost]

Now is all we have.

No. There is more than now. There is more than this world. God created us for eternity.

 

[Compost]

Of course we have hope

We just don’t rely on imaginary beings to fulfil us
We believe in a future but are responsible for our own future.

We do the right thing because that is the right thing to do…..Not because we fear an imaginary God

We are willing to accept our eventual death without fantasies of life ever after

That's your choice. It's interesting that you feel the need to describe my faith as "fantasy" in "imaginary beings" while I simply say you embrace nothing beyond this life.

I'm reminded of a prayer from Fatima.

O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you.

 

[rightwinger]

That's your choice. It's interesting that you feel the need to describe my faith as "fantasy" in "imaginary beings" while I simply say you embrace nothing beyond this life.

I'm reminded of a prayer from Fatima.

O God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you. I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love you.

Hey, you started it Skippy with your declaration that Atheists must be depressed

Atheists do not believe in a Supreme Being or everlasting life.
That means your beliefs must be fantasy…..there is no middle ground

 

[ReinyDays]

Are you sure you're not confusing atheism with cat ownership? ... we have north of a 90% correlation between depression and cat bites ... and you can't own a cat without getting bit ... that high isn't correlation, it's cause-and-effect ...

The OP is infected ... it's the Toxo talking ...

ETA: Atheists get laid more, and with better qualified partners ... like the Whoremonger-in-Chief Trump says, "hire the profession" ... so atheists choose to be depressed is all ...

 

[marvin martian]

Atheism and agnosticism are depressing.

I am NOT saying atheists are wrong because atheism is depressing.

I am only suggesting atheism is a bleak philosophy.

Some quotes:

“That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Bertrand Russell



“I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as it is set forth in the annals of history. Out of the darkness of prehistoric ages man emerges with the marks of his lowly origin strong upon him. He is a brute, only more intelligent than the other brutes, a blind prey to impulses, which as often as not lead him to destruction; a victim to endless illusions, which make his mental existence a terror and a burden, and fill his physical life with barren toil and battle.” Thomas Huxley



“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a tiny speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable; this is associated in our minds with the name of Copernicus, although Alexandrian doctrines taught something very similar. The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world, implying an ineradicable animal nature in him: this transvaluation has been accomplished in our own time upon the instigation of Charles Darwin, Wallace, and their predecessors, and not without the most violent opposition from their contemporaries. But man's craving for grandiosity is now suffering the third and most bitter blow from present-day psychological research which is endeavoring to prove to the ego of each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with the veriest scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind. We psycho-analysts were neither the first nor the only ones to propose to mankind that they should look inward; but it appears to be our lot to advocate it most insistently and to support it by empirical evidence which touches every man closely.” Sigmund Freud

There's no such thing as "atheism", at least in modern America. People who call themselves atheists are uniformly just Christophobes. Their entire identity revolves around hating Christianity and Christians. Atheism has no dogma, no laws, no history, and no scholarly works. It's just a hate group for bigots who hate Christians.

You'll NEVER see an American "atheist" say a single bad word about Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.

 

[Compost]

Hey, you started it Skippy with your declaration that Atheists must be depressed

Atheists do not believe in a Supreme Being or everlasting life.
That means your beliefs must be fantasy…..there is no middle ground

Fair enough. You're an atheist and you're not depressed.

Maybe the answer to OP's question is atheism is depressing to Christians because they wish for everybody to know the love of God.