Many religious people say that they experience a desire to find meaning in their lives, and that desire is only met by connecting with God. Do you feel that you have that same to desire for meaningful connection with a spiritual being, but have never encountered such a being? Or do you feel that you have never had such a desire?
2007-02-12 20:36:22 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Of course I have desires to make my life meaningful and to understand the world. Note the difference: I do not aspire to "find" meaning in my life, I aspire to "put" meaning to my life. I seek meaningful connections with human beings, not with supernatural and fictional entities.
2007-02-12 21:06:39 · answer #1 · answered by NaturalBornKieler 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Judge the following as you will. I am not particularly religious, nor am I one of those freaky, commune-with-nature types. But a number of years ago, I visited the Valley of the Fires National Park. It is an old basalt field in the middle of nowhere, and as you park your car and walk out into the field, you can hear your engine ticking, then that stops. Then you can hear the wind blowing, then that sound becomes so omnipresent that it is inaudible. Then you can hear buzzing, like an insect around your head. If you look, perhaps 15 feet away you will see an insect. That is the one you are hearing. If you keep listening, you can hear a clicking noise. Look down. What you are hearing is ants eating.
To me, this was a profoundly religious experience, but not associated with any spiritual being that I had come there expecting to connect with. Nor did I make such a connection AFTER the visit. But I did come away with a profound respect for all that I *don't* notice or appreciate, and it was quite humbling.
2007-02-12 20:42:23 · answer #2 · answered by Don M 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I live my life the way I desire, I pray to no God and have no wish to, if something goes wrong in my life, its "not Gods will" its just my own stupidness, saying "its Gods will" when something goes wrong is shiffting the blame to someone else, stand up and "say sorry my fault" and besides why should I aline my self with a bunch of hypocrites, who on the one hand promote peace, love and understanding, whilst at the same time blast the hell out of some poor bugger. I was once a beliver, but now forget it, you live/die make the best of it.
2007-02-12 20:49:24 · answer #3 · answered by stephen g 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My God is life, and I have a meaningful connection with life.
If I wanted a husband I would seek a real live husband, reading a romance novel and having one-sided conversations in my head with the main character in the book, would and could not satisfy my desire to have a husband.
2007-02-12 20:41:38 · answer #4 · answered by Sara 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i have never felt the need to have a god give purpose to my life. at the most crude and basic materialist level, there is no real purpose and meaning other than we're here and deal with it. but i feel that just to exist and experience the beauty and the wonder of the self creating universe, to feel connected into a river of being from the far distant past and that flows into the future is purpose and meaning enough.
2007-02-12 21:06:19 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I feel there is more meaning in my life now I've rejected what I would call the 'fairy tale'. I have no desire to have the connection you talk of - quite the opposite. I like to live in the real world.
2007-02-12 20:48:55 · answer #6 · answered by The Truth 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That desire of finding meaning to life is a simple question that crosses everyones mind of course. The only difference is that we atheist not think by believing in some non-existing thing god can give us the answer to our question. We try to answer the questions by asking it to us. and not by easy way of looking at god n do nothing. Anyways most of us find all the answers in our minds and by putting in efforts to find the reality behind things that is called knowledge. so we gain knowledge... why not look at it the same way... What is the meaning to my life. ITs very simple i need to make our world a better place to live in n i make efforts... so where does god come in the picture u see.....
2007-02-12 20:45:33 · answer #7 · answered by Preet_Answers 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, quite the contrary. The day (as a 12-year-old) I realized my 7th Day Adventist upbring was utter b.s. was the greatest day of my life. Such a weight was lifted from my shoulders - ironically it was the only 'religious' experience I have ever had.
2007-02-12 20:41:15 · answer #8 · answered by Brendan G 4 · 6⤊ 0⤋
I've never had the desire, but I do have the desire to understand myself, the rest of humanity and the world/universe.
2007-02-12 20:41:24 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
hmmm
a spiritual being? no.
ive never wanted to connect with anything spiritual really. well...i did go through a little fad with looking for a cool american indian tribe i could possibly associate with...but that was more because i thought it was cool.
i have no desire to connect with things that i dont beleive exist.
2007-02-12 20:38:35 · answer #10 · answered by johnny.zondo 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋