It's so amazing to me how you can wander through life in your own little world, taking various thing for granit while at the same time completely oblivious to other things even your own actions.

I was recently struggling with depression, I don't know what caused it really, and thats not the point of my writing. It's been said "Life is what you make it, you control your own emotions, you don't have to be depressed unless you want to be."

Honestly couldn't be more true. I'm not saying it's not natural for us to feel emotions, anger, happiness, depression, sorrow whatever it may be. We are still in control of what we feel about things around us and how we act in response.

I am an atheist.

Being raised as a Christian, coming to terms with the falcities was a long road of realization.
I've heard it all, you must believe in something, it's a good way to live.. blah blah blah.

I disagree though. Living in a state of constant deciption is not a way to live. I do not need religion to comfort me through out my life. If i hit a hard spot in my life I do not need the false hope that some supreme being is looking out for me. If I need faith to see me through, I have faith in myself that I will make it happen, not in a fictional being. I also do not need the falsified feeling that there is life after death.

In all honesty, I feel living with the belief that there is an after life to see your loved ones again is the worse thing you can do. Since I have taken on the realization there is no after life, I have come to realize just how incredibly precious every ticking minute on the clock is. How un-said things go forever unsaid. Living in with the assumption I'll see them on the otherside is truly a sorrow. For if you feel there is no other side... You'll be more inclined to take advantage of the time you have and use it wisely. Because in my reality... there is no forever.

I believe and have come to understand the common reality of needing a belief in after life is because most people find inevitable death terrifying. I did too. Until now. Realizing that exisiting in an after life for infinity has no purpose at all except to procrastinate reconciliation with the fact that we all virtually have an expiration date stamped on us.. we just don't know when, how or why. They are all variables by the way... anything can happen. It's not a miracle, it's a life full of chance.

I would love to believe in an after life... simply for the fact I would be thrilled if there was such a thing as reincarnation. That to me seems to have more purpose then living as a human and doing deeds with the hope of great rewards. A spiritual being living repeated lives to gain perception and wisdom makes more sense to me then being God's creatures that he has a plan for?

If you can't prove the evolution theory... as Christians like to ask whats that atom that made us that we came from... Well who the hell made God? Does he appear out of thin air? At least an atom is real and we know it's there, and it contributes to our very existance of life. God is nothing but a fairy tale, like Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, all of them.

I do not have to be so egotistical to think some supreme being cares for me, and has an ultimate plan for me. God does not have an ultimate plan for your or anyone else. A. He doesn't exist. B. According to you Christians out there he gave everyone free choice.

You can't have a divine plan, and free choice. Either you have free choice, or you do not. It doesn't swing both ways. See nothing you say makes sense to me. Being free of fear makes sense to me. Realizing I am alone on this earth with no divine being watching over me, makes perfect sense to me. I am no more then an animal exisiting on this earth... (Supposedly with higher intelligence... but I do not see the animals of this earth destroying and polluting the earth as we do. So whos more intelligent after all?) I was never raised with the understanding animals have souls... if they are living beings like us why don't they have souls? Why don't the plants or anything else have souls? Why should we have souls? We are living beings just like them... who is to say we do have a soul?

I am not afraid to die. I will not take my own life, nor am I in a hurry to die. Alas all the same... I will not, and do not fear the inevitable. Life like death is not to be feared it's perfectly natural. I welcome it. I do not welcome the perception that there is life after death, that makes death to me completely pointless and this life as well. Why bother with living this pathetic timed life when I have infinite life on the other end?

Why because this truly is the only one you get. There is no life on the other end. And death... is your ultimate reward. Life is being able to experience and feel things while you are alive good and bad. Death is peace. Never ending rest, blackness, the end. I welcome it. I do not have any ambition to live forever whether it be in this life or the next. It is utterly pointless. One thing I have come to understand is the relation of opposites. Happy and Sad, Good and Bad, Light and Dark, Life and Death. You do not appreciate the happy times if you weren't sad, You don't apperciate the good times if you weren't experiencing bad. You aren't thankful for the light if you didn't experience stumbling in the dark, and you certianly wouldn't appreciate life to it's fullest with out death.

**this is my first post here on this site, I've been reading and enjoying everyones post for a while now, and thanks for well just being you.**