Hopelessness and despair

[The Reservoir Dog]

I had a long (4+ hour) discussion at work with a co-worker who felt that this web forum served no purpose except to create a following and to fill people with hopelessness and despair. I told him that religious forums create followings too; he agreed but said the don't fill people with hopelessness and despair.

So just out of curiosity how many of you out there feel filled with hopelessness and despair because you don't have a deity in your life?

Also do you agree that this web site is being used to create a following? Because suddenly I am very hungry for pie because pie is good!

[darwingirl]

I have never felt hopeless or despairing due to my lack of faith. I tend to feel more secure in knowing that I am making my descisions based on my own morals. Also, I think that most people who are part of this forum are either already atheists who are here to discuss relevant issues, or theists who are for the most part here to do the same.

[snafui]

I may have those feelings for other reasons, but for the co-worker issue... I had a very zealous Christian lady that I worked with and she irritated me a bit, so I told her to get her Bible and I turned to several passages and pointed out contradictions. She said she would ask her pastor about that and I never heard her mention Christianity to me again. ;D

[solidsquid]

It's not to create a following or to promote hopelessness and despair. Your co-worker obviously has some odd, distorted view of this site. It's most likely the old "evil" stigma attached to atheism. It only shows a lack of understanding and ignorance on their part.

Your co-worker should do a little studying on social group behavior and why people seek out like individuals...simply psychology.

BTW, you can tell you co-worker that I'm quite happy - no deity needed.

[GodsAreUs]

What Squid said.

Plus: Everyone is responsible for their own take on the world, others, and themselves. No religion, no "following," no goddamn sky-nanny is going to kiss your cheek and make it all better at the end of the day. Religious folks are merely dumping the shit they can't come to terms with under their own craniums on someone else. The reality? It's all them to begin with. Or all "us," if you will.

Hopelessness and despair are choices. I prefer to choose hilarity, introspection, and blatant freakish goofiness... with a smattering of compassion and empathy.

Works for me!

[droskey]

I really don't think that the purpose of this board is to create a following. We don't actively recruit. It is simply a place for people to connect and communicate.

As far as the hopelessness goes, I feel much more hope than I did as a Christian. But my case may be somewhat unique. It seems that most Christians (both practecing and ex-) got *something* positive from the religion. I really didn't get that much that I valued. So I wasn't upset to see it go. Especially in view of the apocalyptic and hellacious tenets that I espoused while I was a Christian.

[snafui]

I feel the same as jacopo. I feel better now following Taoist philosophy than I did as a Christian. I was in constant fear of screwing up and being thrown into a lake of fire and now... no thought of that whatsoever. There is an unfortunate paranioa that can develop when you follow a apocolyptic religion that focuses on an demise such as Christianity does. Pardon the expression, but God forbid you have a single doubt about the Holy Spirit and commit the only unforgivable sin! Talk about pressure! Don't have that anymore.

[necroshine]

Doom despair and agony on me! Dum, dum, dum.

This is a line from an old country show that was on tv when I was a kid. This thread reminded me of it. I had all that when I was young. I didn’t want to go to hell and I didn’t want to see anyone go to hell. so like a fool I would go around and talk to people about hell and god and how they could stop from going to hell. well the truth is hell is no more real than heaven. There is NO reason for god to send anyone to hell forever. If god was all loving, the loving thing to do would be to just make the “evil” people stop existing, not to put them in hell forever. That was made up by the church which by the way not all churches believe in. so you can not even get all of Christianity to agree if hell is real or not. Just like it makes no sense for us to go to heaven forever. If god loves us then why would he want to spoil us forever? We do our best work when something bad is happening. We band together to get over what is happing. Look at Mississippi and the floods. Everyone is getting together and rebuilding the town. I have yet to see gods hand move in any of it. I don’t see houses just popping up. I don’t see him turning sewer water into wine right now. I don’t see him curing the ill there. I don’t see him do anything. There is NOTHING you can point at that is happing there that can not be explained away by mans own hand. The only godly thing that happened is that god send a hurricane that put the people in that place. and I can’t even see gods hand in the hurricane myself.
I look that things like that and I know that I am part of something bigger, it is the community we live in. that is bigger than all of us. That is what we should be working for not god. We need to be a world wide community that bands together to make life better for all. But instead we have people sending bombs to kill others of different religions because their god told them to kill other people. That is as retarded as you can get. When I have to worry about what a god wants when he is not talking to anyone, that is the source of the despair and doom. You only think you will feel despair and for a time you just might. I know I did. When I was getting god out of my head for a while things was rocky. Then I found out that I’m responsible for my actions. And I can make my life better so I stopped waiting for god to make my life better and did something about it myself. But that is just my take on it. For me I am so much better off without god in my life.
If I rambled a little in this post please forgive.

[twobirds]

Hopelessness and despair...not here in my life. I am in control and make my own way. That makes me happy. People that believe should feel despair and hopelessness for they worship false gods, and waste what little life they have on this planet doing so.

[Filter]

50/50

If the goal is life everlasting... for that I am pretty much hopeless.

No despair though. Or at least not anymore than religious people seem to have when they lose something dear.

[guerrillasaint]

No I don't feel hopeless or depressed. May be it is the colors? It is up to you wither you are going to be hopeless or depressed. What do you set you mind on as you go through life. What do you hope for. I am always have hope. I may get frustrated but not depressed. Oh but I have God and that is why I always have hope and I am not depressed. That is not to say that I don't have bad times I just trust that I am in a situation (not a problem) for a reason. I Try to learn from it.

[Dragon*of*Heaven]

The Most hopless people in the world are those who do not know who they are. I am filled with hope for my self and the human race. I feel not dispair nor pitty or anger toward my life or the lives of others. If I die after I type this I know I have lived a life by my own rules, and I know that I am a good man. That is all I need to know. I dont need a God. If he is there wonderful. If not Just as great. I dont really give care to it at all. it is an interesting topic of conversation but not something I dwell on. Your coworker is wrong RD, we talk here and attempt to help with reason not foolishness. Hell this place is DisneyWorld compaired to a Church.

[dan]

dragonofheavon said:

If I die after I type this I know I have lived a life by my own rules, and I know that I am a good man. That is all I need to know. I dont need a God.

The issue isn't whether or not you can manage without God, but whether or not God actually exists. If God does exist, then to "live a life by my your rules" would not be a wise decision!