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-   -   Just became atheist, now what? (http://archives2.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=306895)

RJT 08-03-2005 02:36 PM

Just became atheist, now what?
 
After having been enlightened (here on the forum) that it is extremely unlikely that God exists, I have decided to become atheist.

I kicked around the idea of being agnostic. But, that seems like a waste of time and no fun at all. It would be a waste of time (one’s life) because, I can’t imagine if God exists, that when I die, him not saying, “Oh, you thought I might be, but you didn’t pursue me further and at least try to find me in your heart’s desire. Get lost, man.” I won’t waste time pursuing him, since I know I can never prove him and taking a leap of faith is deemed illogical. It would be no fun, because it would be like playing a roulette wheel with no greens.

So anyway, now that I am atheist I have a dilemma. How do spend the rest of my life?

I have tried a whole gamut of things thus far in my life: drugs, drink, philosophy, theology, and religion; have already traveled a great deal, tried scuba diving, skiing, and marriage. I have spent a lot of time volunteering my time and talents at my church. I have experienced the suffering and death of loved ones (no fun at all, trust me). The things I enjoy doing at this point in my life are reading, traveling, movies, music, art, golf, poker, cigars and of course sex.

So now that I am atheist, I have decided to spend the next few years doing what I enjoy most. Going to get divorced (no kids), since the wife is and will remain Catholic I can’t see how that can work in the scheme of things. Liquidate my assets and spend time traveling and doing the things that I (already stated) enjoy.

My dilemma is this: I know that eventually I will get bored with the things I now enjoy. I can’t seem to think of anything new, otherwise I would be doing them now, too. I know that eventually I might get lonely. Then if I find someone who interests me, I can’t imagine the woman not wanting to get married and most likely want kids. I can see no point in having kids as an atheist. Maybe it is me, but I don’t think human life is so great that it needs perpetuated. (This here might be my problem, maybe life is so great and I am missing something. Don’t get me wrong, I have a great life and enjoy it most of the time. I have the wherewithal to do most anything, too.) What real need is procreation, if there is no higher reason for our being born?

I ask this question now, because who knows, by the time I need the answer years down the road, the wisdom of this forum might not still be here. Then where will I go? I already tried published scholars, before I found 2+2. They were no help.

So, how does an atheist, who believes that to procreate is nonsense, live out his life?

Btw, I feel that the poker room is the logical place to end up. I just don’t see it as being enough.


Oh yeah, one final question. Now that I am atheist, do I capitalize the word god? I know that grammatically speaking I should, because it refers to a proper person (thing). But, now that I believe in no such thing, how do I handle this? It seems silly to capitalize something that doesn’t exits.

carlo 08-03-2005 02:40 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Love it,
carlo

FrankTheTank 08-03-2005 03:13 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
Wow, that's an interesting post. How should you live your life? I dunno, carlo's answer seems as good as any, though I'd hope there would still be some morality involved. I'm agnostic myself (I think, I don't really give this much thought), but I'm just curious, what argument did you read on this forum that was so powerful as to make you shift from religious to athiest?

snowden719 08-03-2005 03:34 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
honestly, you're retarded.

08-03-2005 03:47 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up. They have no holidays.

durron597 08-03-2005 04:16 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
It sounds like life has lost all meaning to you. I think you should just kill yourself now and save the trouble.

FreakDaddy 08-03-2005 04:38 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
To beleive that NO God exists is more absurd then saying a God exist, even if you don't understand the role of that God, what it's intentions are, or why it's even there.

I think you should reason this out a bit more, for it's quite easy to see that there is a ONE (a source). For example, all you see in your world are ONE's. Name something that isn't a ONE. Start from the smallest, and proceed to the largest thing you can concieve in your mind. If that doesn't help, then I'd recommend reading Plato's Paremendies. Plato does a neat little trick such as laying out all the implications and conclusions of the the matephyiscal constructs of the major world religions before almost all of them came into existence. If you can follow simple reasoning, and can follow a dialogue, he gives a great illustation of how absurd it is to beleive in atheism.

My two cents.

carlo 08-03-2005 05:01 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
I "think" he's making a joke [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

regards,
carlo

TimM 08-03-2005 05:04 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
"In the beginning Man created God;
and in the image of Man
created he him.

2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of
names,that he might be Lord of all
the earth when it was suited to Man

3 And on the seven millionth
day Man rested and did lean
heavily on his God and saw that
it was good."

PairTheBoard 08-03-2005 05:27 PM

Re: Just became atheist, now what?
 
I'm not sure you need to divorce your wife since she is not an Astrologist. I think logic allows marriage between an Atheist and a Catholic. That is, unless she is a Born Again Catholic in which case I'm not sure what logic dictates.

PairTheBoard


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