So what is this thread? I decided to create this thread because I had a problem, I'm a recent convert and I wanted to understand the different headspace between your average atheist and ordinary Christians. I'm perfectly competent at understanding how secular people tick having been a deist, but I need help understanding you guys. What virtues, verses, parables, etc. make you personally optimistic and faithful, possessing the "warmness of heart" talked about in the book "Unseen Warfare?" I really understand the phrase warmness of heart, even though I think its based in medical humorism (you know, blood, bile, phlegm) because its how I feel post-conversion (up from mostly just misery and occasional bouts of hypochondria). Maybe this isn't worth a thread, but I want to find out if I'm on the right track personally, because I've been on a bit of a spiritual crash course.
Regardless, link related is how you know that people are not logical or rational in the slightest. Imagine now that you're an atheist, and you are certain there is no God, heaven, or hell. It is false no matter who has the audacity to say it; so why be sad about it? Epicurus wasn't.
sorry for the lack of (You)'s, probably feels bad. no worries user, just lurk more and feel free to ask your questions in the appropriate threads. All the best regards in your walk of faith user.
Leo Davis
Because they're human with human inclinations.
Because unlike most atheists, he can grow a sporting beard.
Jayden Brooks
Why are atheists depressed? Anomie leads to depression. Nihilism leads to anomie. Atheism leads to nihilism.
You'll have to elaborate on the "warmness of heart." To Christians, the "heart" is the deepest part of a person, even more central than the intellect or will; emotions don't play a part there.
Tbh the rest is a little confusing so I'm not sure what you're asking =/
Christians are depressed, too, due to actions of past Christians fighting against other Christians to inadvertently make the world less Christian.
David Perry
That pic is how I imagine Metokur desperately trying to sound like he doesn't care about anything.
Charles Johnson
Well, I get a really energetic feeling when I resolve to do good works, even the smallest things, but recently I experienced my faith wavering terribly because I spent too much time relaxing, or at least I think that was the cause, but everything was back to this new normal the second I did a small thing for my brother.
You see, my main concern in posting the OP was to see if I've got on the right track. Part of my issue is that I had a lot of the anomie you're talking about, so I distrust whether I've really attained respite, and how to keep myself in this elevated state of emotions which I find is the byproduct of my new beliefs.
Yes it is, I want to hear more about things which you feel are correlated to the byproduct
Robert Wright
Also thank you for posting, although I just went to sleep after making the thread. I had a feeling I'd be waiting
Jose Thompson
Righteousness, i.e. following God's commandments.
Brandon Hill
…oh, wow. Does it feel like a fire that's going to burn forever and enflame the whole world in love?
Austin Phillips
It sounds silly when you put it like that, I'm not sure you're not having a laugh at me. It's exactly like the feeling that you're going to grin, but less strong, just enough to tilt the corners of your lip up, it's just profound optimism in spite of everything.
Kayden Peterson
I'm not laughing even a little.
What you have sounds genuine though. You can retain it by abstaining from sin, persisting in love and good works, and frequent active meditation on every good thing.
If you meet the fire, please say hi to Him for me.
Anthony Torres
What fire?
Matthew King
I decided to go to church recently completely on a whim and for selfish reasons, and now I feel like I'm being roped in like some sort of wild animal. I don't know what the winnie the pooh is wrong with me. Part of me wants this, part of me wants to know God and have him in my life so I can maybe find peace, but this beast within me is what has kept me alive and I'm having trouble letting it go. I doubt my intentions when I pray. I feel like a wolf among the other parishioners. I've been lying through my teeth to the pastor. I'm someone who usually prides themselves on being capable of anything, but all I have is guilt now that I'm moving on people I can't make an excuse for. I feel like I can't quell my subconscious which has become so strong in the absence of God. I might not even have one. I'm too unruly to bend the knee, but I know in the very back of my mind that the way I'm living my life right now isn't healthy, and I'm even worse for enjoying it.
I post this on every thread but I think this also comes down to nominalism vs realism or reason vs logic. The sane man is not irrational, he is ilogical. Atheists are rational but not logical. I remember when I was an atheist. It is a weird sensation of disconnect to reality itself. Because since there is no Good or Bad, only opinions, "what is there" and "what am I" are absolutely impossible questions to answer. Nominalism will never answer the question "what am I". None of the three concepts exist to them. They truly are insane. Read The Brothers Karamazov, it puts the Nihilist contradiction better than I could ever dream to do here.
Nolan Gray
I'm Christian and I'm still sad. What did I do wrong?
Sebastian Cox
Well, I can't begin to answer that question, but Charity really helps my mood. Of course I have no money to give, but I try to go the extra mile with everyone. (Matthew 5:41)
Something I realize now as a Christian that I didn't realize as a deist, was that the opposite of faith really is certainty, but this is due to a blind spot in the human person. We thing we are rational and logical, but we use reason and logic in accordance with what our emotions dictate. So it follows naturally that without faith we don't reason very well, and are just blown around by our particular emotions.
Connor Cook
If you are able, take a good long walk(or run/jog if that is your thing). Take that time to really think about what is going on and what is really at stake. I had a bit of a mini-crisis myself and exercise can really do some good. Keep your mind and heart open to God, even if you like you are beyond help you still have that choice to change.
Carter Kelly
Its really hard to even type this on an anonymous imageboard since I'm probably a pathological liar and I cannot be honest with anyone about myself. I just craft these elaborate false narratives to make them believe that they're actually getting somewhere with me. That's how I got close to the pastor. I lure in girls like this too. I never really feel bad about it since none of it feels real to me. I can cry together with someone and while I know its an intimate moment for them and they're becoming attached, inside it doesn't phase me. I just keep on planning. I already know this well. I have no qualms whatsoever about ghosting on them or outright betraying them if it serves me. There's part of me that feels trapped, living in fear of the me that I have created for myself. I use that part as bait. I think I keep on doing it in pursuit of something real but they way I go about it aborts any hope of that ever happening. I probably pursue God in the hope that he can chase this thing out of my head and lull me back into some form of normalcy. I really did this to myself. I got completely high on philosophy and introspective psychology and winnie the poohed my head for good with mind expanding drugs. I wanted to be superhuman but all its done is make me inhuman. I think I got the bad ending in the salvation route.
Because they're addicted to materialism and cheap dopamine hits. Whether it's looking for better/more frequent orgasms, harvesting instagram likes, buying the newest tech gadget or video game, traveling to an exotic location, trying the newest "hole in the wall" restaurant.
It's all a lie. All of it. This stuff won't make you happy. Ancient civilizations knew this. Christians know this. You even see this is things like Pinocchio's Pleasure Island, where pursuing nothing but hedonism eventually turns you into an animal. Humans need a life with purpose or they'll suffer a hell on earth.
Ryan Jenkins
Stop watching cartoons and start doing some manual work for a few years without using the internet.
Logan Mitchell
Exactly. Atheists are humans who have regressed to living like animals. They don't seek higher truth, they want to indulge in worldly pleasure for the sake of worldly pleasure. They are ruled by their instincts like dogs and lack the intellect or strength of will to place their body in submission to their mind.
Kevin Murphy
Disappointment in the world and its people. Disappointment in themselves for not being better. Hopelessness when anything "good" turns out to be the opposite and they feel that they have no way to make it better.
Of course I can only speak for myself. Now I just want to live life alone and away from others.
Thanks, Christians. Real nice of you to prove why we're right.
Jordan Hernandez
Nice of you to prove why atheists are simply mental children. Now go watch some Rick and Morty with a local craft brewed IPA to make yourself feel better
Yeah we will get to that higher truth after we buy your crack cocaine right? No thank you I would rather have sex with a donkey because no matter how much blow I buy it's still not following me to heaven.
Brayden James
...
Nicholas Rodriguez
Those are some dark screen caps, don't let your problems turn into mountains.
What are you suppose to be right about? Just because we laugh doesn't mean we don't care about you or your soul. When we try to talk to you guys about God, you just give us a Muh science. Do you really think we take joy in deceived/lost people?
"Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him – you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning? …."
Absent God, the world carries no meaning or purpose. It is a cosmic accident that birthed a species of clever animals, not towards any end, but simply as a by-product of biological sorting. Literally nothing done by these clever animals carries any cosmic significance, because like all life forms that preceded them, they too shall eventually pass out of existence, to be replaced by newer, better-adapted animals. The Earth itself will certainly die when the sun ceases to shine. Nothing done on here matters beyond that. There is neither good or evil, only states of mind, feelings of these creatures imposed upon a morally neutral universe. Nothing carries intrinsic value. Actions have no real consequences beyond the physical. Saints and Sinners are annihilated alike. There is no justice, only powerful and powerless, a constant struggle for dominance by people cursed to live on a world of finite resources while plagued by infinite desire. Insofar as anyone wins, it is the powerful, men like Genghis Khan or Tamerlane who carve a bloody swathe through history, yet even their deeds will be forgotten, and their significance erased.
Anyone who is intellectually honest with themselves sees this as the end result of Atheism. Most try to forget it with hedonism, simply because the existential abyss underneath is so horrific. Who offers solutions here? Schopenhauer re-purposes Buddhism. Nietzsche calls man to construct values. Sartre says man must only keep himself from going insane. I don't hate atheists. I cannot. I pity them. They're sitting on a psychological time bomb that will break through once the hedonism ends. It's a truly sad condition.
Liam Cooper
Lovely moral superiority you have there. All we want is God to be real and for the practitioners of an allegedly compassionate god to live up to their preaching. Instead we get snarky underhanded bullshit.
Chase Gutierrez
I think, and I'm the OP, (changed location) that the most dreadful thing, indeed your last line of defense from withering criticism of your lifestyle and habits, occasioned by Christians, is that we have been "mean" to you for refusing to treat your moral intransigence and solipsism to the kindness you consider that you automatically deserve.
It is a miracle that we Christians are willing to follow our commandment in the least to help such an ungracious slob.
The christians let asians have sex with cows to encourage their conversion, but they won't let me have sex with cows because Im white and they expected me to be born into the faith. Here now Im without cow sex because the faithfuls are preoccupied with immigrants. Don't join the faith the will pump and dump you.
Benjamin Roberts
Despite being an atheist himself, I believe Lovecraft sums up why atheist are like what they are
Christians don't consider themselves to be Morally superior, only God is perfect, anyone can easily fall. That's a really personal use of the word "real". If you really cared about finding God you would look for him his way. This just speaks volumes of how tragically reeducated you are. Talk to your pastor, if you have questions that don't automatically assume that God is not real, ask in the QTDDTOT. I'm sorry. If you honestly want to find God, remove any sin from you house/life for a good while (this keeps you away from God). Go to church, read the bible, and pray after every meal, also when you have free time (when you pray use the prayer in the bible specific to contacting the holy spirit, when you ask for something address it to Jesus Christ, don't pray ambiguously to any entity make sure it's to God/Jesus/holy spirit). God will "talk" to you, in the form of perfect blessings unique to you. Try if for a month or two and you should get some "respounce".
You technically can contact God every time you think and talk, and pray, but prayer is special to him. Genuinely tell him that you will give up a sin for him (preferably one you commit often) and then he will "save" you (I'm not sure if this is required for salvation, or if you can ask him to save you, but you cannot keep your salvation if you sin, but this might be different for you since it's God trying to help another person). You will feel him where he is suppose to be, in your soul (as if you gained a new body part), but currently his enemy is there right now, you will feel a peace, and your subconsciousness will be more kind. The next step is sanctification. Talk to a pastor or persist about this, he can probably explain it better, Make sure it's a priest/pastor who is saved/sanctified and can talk about having the holy spirit in him/or having had the holy spirit clean his heart, it's important that you are comfortable to talking with him. Don't just go to any church with rainbow flags or something, make sure it's authentic.
In some ways yes, it is inexplicable why they consciously deny the truth. Perhaps as CS Lewis said, it is the result of what he called "the dictatorship of pride." That it would be better, in the view of the atheist, for the world to have no redeeming features because he has reasoned prima facie that it has none. Love itself becomes an inconsiderable speck in the vast cosmic blackness. At least that is one sort of atheist, the other sort is Napoleon Bonaparte, an affable opportunist for whom God's absence or noncommittal relationship to the world is a cause for rejoicing at all the splendid opportunities that can exist in that moral grey area that contains petty vices that people find excusable if done in one certain way perceived as honorable or even customary and not another.
Jonathan Gray
Also the purpose of this thread, in case you missed it, was not to laugh at atheists for their depression, it was to try to understand them. We do care about you lot even though we think you're huge wankers. Also, consider that depression increases likelihood of going postal, so this thread was also written in an attempt to preserve the lives of those unfortunate happy people who get shot by the unhappy people, by trying to understand one possible cause of unhappiness.
Is there any proof that Yuri Bezmenov wasn't working with the CIA?
Aaron Thompson
Substantial proof, given that he actually worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before Trudeau I sent him into exile by royal decree because Pierre Trudeau, just like his idiot son Trudeau II was a dirty commie.
Asher Clark
Well I originally became an atheist when I was 6 because apparently my grandfather was one so I wanted to be like him. I remember getting pissed off that the teacher was talking about God in class kek. Stayed like that until I was 12 maybe? They had Bible studies in grade 7 and it got me interested again, but it was a short phase and I lost interest again, probably because we ran out of pictures of Jesus to colour in. Then I became a militant atheist in High school, of course I got thr term from Dawkins. Completely lost faith due to the realisation in history studies that other cultures had Gods, so therefore Our Father is not real. Yeah I know its dumb, but that's what I thought. Thought I was a genius for being an atheist, and that everybody was unenlightened fools. I wanted to fire bomb churchs (lol) and be a soldier of Richard darwkins. I would quote him and tease the christian girls in science class. This phase lasted from the ages of 14 to 16. My seed has found good ground and I'm set now thankfully.
Jordan Turner
I dare you to watch this one fully, user.
Joshua Evans
OP's post wasn't even that mean to begin with, people didn't start bullying you until you claimed that
Zachary James
I love horror and being a Christian myself I inspire myself with Lovecraft a lot when writing stuff. I think it's a great way to turn people back to Christianity actually, showing the horrors of world without God.
Adam Garcia
One last thing, that is how God revealed himself to me, it could be different for you because He knows you might need something different.
