I wish I wasn't an atheist. I deeply envy people who have faith in an afterlife. [Spirituality & Religion]

@helenS Do you ever watch sports? Have you ever been rooting for one team, and they're playing against another team that is really good, and you try to convince yourself that your team is gonna win? But despite your best attempts, you can't actually make yourself really feel confident that your team has the upper hand. You just have to keep saying it to coerce yourself into making it seem likely.

That's how I feel with the concept of an afterlife, of a god, of something more than what I am now. I really want it to be true. I really try to find ways to make myself think it is. But I can't ever get myself to actually believe it.

@BlueMetalChick Ok. Ok. I see the strength of your resistance. Please let me tell you: your task in life is [i]finding[/i] god, not believing in some ancient, implausible "revelation".

@helenS The strength of my resistance? Did you read anything of what I wrote? I'm doing the opposite of resisting. I'm trying to believe. I want to. But it feels so fake.

@BlueMetalChick Sorry if I misunderstood what you wrote (though I think I didn't). Please do not try to believe in anything. Please find [i]your own way[/i] to God.
(You might be interested in Gnosticism)

@helenS I misread that as Nogisism at first glance and I thought you meant those people who get high on DMT and have hallucinations of communicating with aliens from other dimensions lol

@BlueMetalChick Haha I've never heard of that. Gnosticism basically means (as I see it) that there is no revelation, and your way to the Divine is [i]thinking[/i] rather than believing in preconceived concepts.

@BlueMetalChick @helenS That fear and apprehension of the unknown is what keeps religion going and maintains it's power. Even if there were a God and an afterlife there is no reason to believe it would be better than what we are living now. I find great peace in the idea of nonexistence

@CookieLuvsBunny
"Great peace in the idea of non-existence

This reminds me of:

"I am the Spirit that denies!

And justly so : for all things, from the Void

Called forth, deserve to be destroyed

'Twere better, then, were naught created.

Thus, all which you as Sin have rated, —

Destruction, — aught with Evil blent, —
That is my proper element. "


Goethe, "Faust"
Guess who said that?

@helenS I have read Goethe. [i]Faust[/i] is a great novel. It does nothing to prove the existence of any deity

@CookieLuvsBunny Yes, if course, you are right. And Dr Faust isn't exactly [u]seeking[/u] God.

@helenS You are right. Dr Faust is seeking his own aggrandizement. I do like the Faustian legend. I enjoy Marlowe's [i]Dr Faustus[/i] a lot

@CookieLuvsBunny Yes Marlowe's book is deeper in my humble opinion.

I am pleasantly surprised, by the way.

Nevertheless what you said about non-existence is similar to what Mephisto said.

@helenS Yes, Marlowe and Goethe treated the Faust legend in very different ways.
Marlowe was more true to the original take on the legend

@CookieLuvsBunny You digress. You said non-existence is good (or you find peace in it) — and indeed there is no place as peaceful as a graveyard.

@helenS Whether it is good or bad, using Occam's Razor, it is the most likely outcome

@CookieLuvsBunny We are not talking about physics here. Seeking God is a [i]spiritual[/i] task.

@helenS What reason have you found for belief in a spiritual existence

@CookieLuvsBunny Seeking God is deeply engraved in my soul, and in yours too. [i]nota bene[/i] I said [u]seeking[/u], not believing.

The word "existence" is problematic because it usually refers to the physical world.

@helenS To exist means to have objective reality. Why do you think the "soul" or "spirit" is real?

@CookieLuvsBunny
" To exist means to have objective reality.

— In this sense God does [u]not[/u] exist.

Please: does beauty "exist"?

@helenS No. Just like colors do not exist. They're not a physical property of something. They're entirely dependent on the viewer's exposure to light. Just as beauty is entirely dependent on the viewer.