Is atheism pessimistic?
Offline When I used to be a part of religion, I think I felt happier. I was happy that I had something to look forward to (as in an afterlife), and that I had figured everything out. However, looking back now, I realized I was just totally ignorant. I thought I hearing voices, and doing some other weird stuff. I now know that I was just making it up. Now I guess I am happy in the sense that my thoughts are based on reason, not on invisible, immaginary entities. However, it seems with that newfound knowledge it comes with a price.
I've just been feeling really down in the dumps lately. I used to think about spiritual matters all the time, however now I realize that it's a load of bull. I guess I'm a little afriad of falling back into that 'mind disease' where I give up my ability to reason. Another part of me wants to live in that ignorance though... What are your guys' thoughts on this? Does atheism ever get you guys down?
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I did go through a depression once not because of my atheism, but my anti-religious feelings, but I found peace through reasoning and logical thinking which was a direct result of my disbelief.
Atheism never gets me down. Strength comes from within yourself. You obviously have that strength because through reason and intellect, you've overcome theism.
Don't discount chemical changes as the cause for being down in the dumps.
I have one friend that gets exceptionally (with a capital E) grumpy every spring. I don't know the medical or chemical stuff behind it, but it has to do with the weather changing 30 or 40 degrees in a short time during the day. Your body is trying to maintain a 98.6 temperature and the changing temperatures throw that off balance.
I have another friend with fierce allergies to any preservatives in food. When he eats things with preservatives, he gets dangerously depressed and moody. It took him years to figure that out because he doesn't have any of the classic allergic reactions like a rash.
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Hey, just the opposite for me. When I was a theist, I was deeply depressed. A lot of bad things were going on in my life, and one of the things that caused me the most grief was that I didn't know why. I asked god over and over again to at least just tell me why these things were happening to me. But shortly after I became an atheist I had a life changing moment. It was a nice day out side and it hit me, this is it. This is all I have, after this there is nothing, one shot. It occured to me that life is too short to worry about regrets, too short to let little things get you down. It sounds silly, but I enjoy everything now, even feeling the wind blow over me, all because I only get to do this once. It makes everything more valuable. Even pain has a silver lining to it. At least you're feeling something, you're experiencing something, and you only get to once in eternity. Never take anything for granted. You can be depressed about this being all there is, or you can get off your butt and enjoy it.
I completely agree with MedievalGuy. Atheism has never caused me to be down in the dumps. I view my life like Medievalguy does. I just look at all the oppurtunities I have, and I know I have the ability to take advantage of them. This is what makes my life worth living.
I've never felt happy with religion. When I was a Christian, I believed that I was supposed to read the Bible often and go to church every Sunday, and I did. But when I had questions about God, nobody wanted to answer them because they couldn't.
Actually, I was the only person (and my uncle) in my family that read the Bible and I was the most religious. My parents are Catholics but were never that religious. They would ask ME questions about the Bible, but I had questions of my own. One of my uncles is a devout Christian and has also read the Bible. And when I would ask him difficult questions about god, he didn't know how to answer them too.
After 2 years of being a Christian, I turned atheist at 16. I've become much happier as an atheist. I'm no longer afraid of going to Hell for doubting Christianity. I can finally think the way I want to without feeling bad.
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Lucidfox13, is it posible that you are "grieving" for the loss of your religion a bit? Yes, you know it's irrantional, but it's something that was a big part of your life for a long time.
Others have gone through that and you can read a really good account of it here.
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I've been lucky. I spent a lot of time studying psychology in college, and was able to recognize seasonal, chemical, and situational causes for the times when I've felt down. It's never been because of a lack of belief in god. In fact, I felt down a lot more when I was a theist, mostly because I had such a hard time making the cognitive dissonances make sense, and it was easy to feel like I was stupid for not being able to work it out.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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I wouldn't say it is atheism that would be contributing to your down and pessimistic feelings. It appears that you used to use your spirituality as a coping mechanism. What you now need are more rational, productive, and reasonable coping skills. I would first start examining some of the thoughts you are having that are contributing to you depression and asking yourself if they are realistic thoughts and what evidence suggests that they are true.
"Those who think they know don't know. Those that know they don't know, know."
I see atheism as optimistic, and theism as pessimistic. With theism you're always worried about a god hovering over your shoulder and whether you or those you love will go to hell. With atheism there's only yourself, and no threats.
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I was never really "down" when I was a trying to be a believer. I had so many questions, none of it ever made any sense. I rationalized my concept of god to fit what I felt was right. You know things like, no child molesters in heaven, no mass murders in heaven and good people even if they didn't believe went to heaven. I continued to rationalize what I thought a "just" god would do until I rationalized myself right out of belief. I kept plugging the "god" answer into smaller and smaller parts of my life until I realized I was making my own diety. Then it hit me, why plug him in at all, he is the ultimate non-answer.
Then when I came out of this effort of trying to make myself believe I realized I could research or just say "I don't know" for all the gaps he was filling.
I was very pessimistic as a child. This was probably due to my.....rough upbringing. Believe me, I had a lot to BE pessimistic about.
But I never felt upset at the fact that I was alone without a deity to watch over me. I was depressed at how my life was, and the bad situation that I seemed unable to claw my way out of.
I "tried" many religions. Whatever made me feel better, but I never really believed in any of the praying, the jesus, the spells, or the astral projection. I realized what made me feel better about religion was only that it made me feel like part of something bigger, a group of like-minded people, a support network, and a clear explanation of what was expected of me. As soon as I realized that, I found that a close circle of friends and family that I trust, and living my life in a way that I feel proud of gets the same results. I was finally able to admit to being the atheist that I'd really always truly been. And to be happy on my own terms. SO, in a respect, religion did help with optimism in a way. But it was just a band aid on my ways of dealing with things, and a facade since I just DON'T BELIEVE, and no matter how hard I tried to believe, I just... never could. In anything spiritual. It was the secular aspects(if you can call them that) of religion that aided my depression. The closeness, the extended family, the acceptance, the expectations...
Yay, for not pretending though.
I've always been a pessimist, but what depresses me about my atheism is that I lost a lot of friends due to it. Without religion, I don't have an easy way to make friends. See, when I was christian, I went to just about any church that had a large population of young people and I found dozens of people willing to be friends with me. Frankly, I don't have the social skills to gain friends without such a social crutch. I can't believe in religion, at all, and it hurts that I can't have a social life now.
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No, atheism's not pessimistic. It's not a rejection of “good things,” it's an admission of the obvious myths that have been unjustly attached to “good” things, “bad” things -- everything. Religion is ugly and manipulative.
If you let go of the myth that people lost out on something because of “original sin” you realize there's a lot more good in us than our iron age prosecutors give us credit for. Our species is the most intellectually advanced on the planet. Humans are capable not only of abstract thought, but have the physical means to carry out incredible feats of creativity. If you let go of the lie of divine “perfection” you realize humans have mostly been improving. We've accumulated an incredible body of knowledge about the world around us, have consigned idiotic prejudices to the scrap heap, and stand ready to enter a new age of enlightenment and morality. We're not perfect, but if each of us takes responsibility for ourselves, we can make things better within our lifetimes.
I suppose if you unfortunately gre up in the magic fairy kindgom of god-land, losing could be a downer. Why wouldn't going from believing the most powerful possible entity is personally interested in you be a little depressing?
Since I've never been in this position, it doesn't apply to me. But I can certainly see how losing belief in all sorts of magical wonders could be depressing.
As I see it, it's no different than learning that you inherited a million dollars and all you need to do to get it is go to the bank and give them your name. But when you do so, you learn that there is no million dollars. Of course that would be temporarily depressing, but only because the fantasy is destroyed. An pleasant illusion has been shattered.
So you've gained something too, namely no longer living under a false view of the world, which I see as nothing but a positive for any self respecting cognitive mammal.
Thanks for all the replies guys. I get it now... I think.
I was thinking about this earlier today. I think possibly the reason a lot of folks have a hard time letting go of the last vestiage of "church-going" is due to the social element.
Perhaps you all could find an activity for which you have a passion that includes group activities such as animal rescue (help homeless critters find a forever home), Habitat for Humanity (learn fix-it skills in the process), theater (working backstage is tremendous fun), etc. The main thing is that you join a group of folks that have a shared interest.
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You'd also have to live in an area conducive to that. I'm a punk rock hippie in a redneck town.
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Back when I was doing off-site shelter animal adoptions, we had a couple of punk rock hippies in the group.
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