I mean, you have no God or anything greater than yourself or anyone else in your life, you believe your soul and spirit will die along with your body when you go. What does that leave you to live for? Material goods? Spite? Malice? The sheer audacity of not dying yet, while living in total rejection of a path to certain everlasting life and peace in God? What keeps you going? In the abscence of everything, what dose that leave you to sustain yourself with, answer me that!
2007-09-20 20:26:16 · 48 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You answerers are getting me all wrong, I am not meaning God is the only thing to live for or even a reason to live at all! I just mean that when you die, you will carry on someplace else in some other form, which no one knows until the time when you meet your maker, be that whomever that is, however IMO the smart money says its our God the Father. I don't live a perfect upright life either but for what it's worth the things I do not ever do are the things that may exclude me from going to God when I die, and for that I believe I have a solid chance at the afterlife, but atheist don't even have that to look forward to. Don't get me wrong I think its really going to suck when I die, but when I have to go, I'd rather have something to look forward to on the other side, if you know what I mean.
2007-09-20 20:52:51 · update #1
All I was mentioning is that the afterlife can may well possibly like the "extra innings" or the bonus round of life and that it may be something to look forward to, I think as an atheist it would be terrible to live life believing it is finite and terminal, with each day just bringing you one day closer to death, where I can just calmly go through life knowing that no matter how great or terrible it becomes there is likely something better waiting for me at the other end of things.
2007-09-20 21:03:10 · update #2
I give props to all the agnostics because even though you don't believe in A God, you also believe that their could be a God or something superior to mortal man. I don't know, for me to believe in anything trumps the concept of believing in nothing at all.
2007-09-21 06:23:24 · update #3
Wow, Steve, for someone who holds the 'peace of god' in them, you sure sound defensive and angry.
Uhh.. I'm agnostic so I can't speak for the atheists. They are no different from you.
You choose to believe in angels and demons and heaven and a pit of fire. Some may call that child-like wonders.... kinda like santa, the tooth fairy and the elven folks.
You believe what you will and we believe what we will.
It's your free will.... the one god gave to you.
I, personally, do not live a life of 'total rejection'.... I work with the sick, I give to the poor, I adopted an abused dog, I own my own home, I own my own car, I work part time..... I have solid friends.... but unfortunately, not family (they're born-again x-tians... like I used to be).
2007-09-20 21:49:15 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
I'll answer that.
First of all, I do not BELIEVE anything!
I live because I AM. Just because I do not believe in your ridiculous Jesus (in any sense of the word), does not mean that I am without hope.
The fact that you cannot comprehend a life without a DisneyLand Heaven waiting for you (your quick-answer to death/angst), belies that your premise is insecurity.
I live for the unknown - in essence, to DISCOVER! Something which is anathema to you Christians. I am compelled to not only live, but to seize every moment as if it were my last, just because I do not know what's on the other side. It may be stillness, only death, or it may be something more along the lines of what you might call spiritual (which I would - in turn - call NATURAL. - perhaps a coming together of all existence, energy... Who knows?
You certainly don't - Muslims don't, Buddhists are probably closer than you, but they do not know either. and Atheists don't either and that's the whole point.
Atheists are the only honest people on the planet and you'll never know how to live until you are one and it is my sincere prayer that you'll become one soon so you will know the true joy of living a brave life.
It's not that God is the universe, but that the Universe is GOD.
Wake up!
2007-09-20 20:44:59 · answer #2 · answered by John Galt 2 · 4⤊ 0⤋
A wife that loves me. Two cats who greet me when I come back home from work. Parents who eagerly await my visits. Friends back in my hometown who drop everything and are ready to party every time I visit. A team at work that is fun to work, and not work :) with. The dog that I'm going to get when I move into a bigger house. A bike that I love and is sparkling clean and starts on the first kick even though I haven't used it in 3 months. A dream that when I'm ready, I'm going to ride around the edge of India on my bike. My next vacation to Goa when I'll lounge down and stay that way alllllll day drinking beer.
You want more? My life is just this long. After that is nothing. If YOU realize that you'll probably have a much more fulfilling life.
Just imagine. If someone got it all wrong. If the rest of your faith is spot on, everything else, except the everlasting life bit. Just if. How stupid does that make you, not having a contingency plan?
2007-09-20 20:51:53 · answer #3 · answered by StormBringer 3 · 4⤊ 0⤋
What WOULDN'T I have to live for? LIFE, love, family, friends. I cherish it. If what you mean is what do I have to look forward to after death, well, nothing. I'm not going waste my precious moments hoping that there's something AFTER this. I live for today. I face every minute I have head-on. Why did you ask us if we only live for material goods, spite, or malice? Why do you assume that just because we don't believe in your story of magical supernatural beings, that our life is negativity? WE are not the ones who are being negative. YOU are assigning insulting labels like that to us. My life is full of love, light, and happiness. I'm happily married, and madly in love with the most wonderful man in the world. We have two beautiful children who make every single day new and bright and beautiful to us, and who bring laughter and love and hugs and kisses to us every day. My husband and I have parents who were good, solid, smart people, and in our adulthood are our best friends. We have siblings who are fun and hilarious and show us the world in a new light every time we see them. We have friends who show us the meaning of strength and fidelity. My husband and I do volunteer work, and give to charity. We started a neighborhood circle of friends where we go to elderly neighbors houses in the winter and shovel their driveways for them for free, and rake their leaves in the fall, and help them in other areas where needed.
Do you still think that I live simply for material goods, spite, or malice? Your post was spiteful and malicious, and the only reason for that was because I don't share your religous beliefs. You judge me without even knowing me. Now who here is the more spiteful and malicious? How about that, it's the person who's filled with "God's love."
2007-09-21 02:31:51 · answer #4 · answered by Jess H 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Why do you assume that people need the belief in a god and an afterlife in order to have something to live for? Life itself is worth living for! If you live every day looking forward to what comes after life, you'll never see the true beauty and wonder that it is to be alive. Atheists (and us Agnostics, too) have plenty to live for. They have passions. They have family and friends. They have loved ones. They have hope for the future of our species. Isn't that enough?
2007-09-20 20:40:20 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
Why do you think I have nothing greater than myself?
I have a husband, a family, pets, a community, a nation, an Earth, the list goes on. Everything is bigger than me and I live each day to be a positive part of the universe and to do what I can to make a person smile. I don't need a promise of streets paved in gold - that's tacky anyway. I just need to know that in my day to day life, I was kind and generous for the sake of kindness and generosity, with no intent to receive the material riches of your heaven.
2007-09-20 20:35:40 · answer #6 · answered by DSL 4 · 8⤊ 0⤋
The problem with religion is that they were all made, written and enforced by mortal men and then all of the politics were lost over the ages until all thats left is tradition. It just takes a little critical thinking about the past. It's nice to think there's something more after death. But It's not necessary to live. We have friends, and family who we love and who love us just like you. Material wealth, spite and malice dont bring happiness. BUT meaningful relationships with others while we're alive is what makes me happy and allows me to live with peace of mind.
It's people like you who are unaccepting of other peoples choices who cause the greatest problems of th eworld. Difference of opinion could account for maybe 90% of all wars fought, including all of the mainstream western religions of today.
There is no need to criticize others. Isn't your "god" Jesus who suposedly said "let he who is without sin cast the first stone"
all I can say is, open and enlighten your mind, and expand your experience.
2007-09-20 20:43:09 · answer #7 · answered by tomtom 1 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Hmmm, nothing. Guess I'll believe in a fairy tale since I want so much not to be filled any longer with spite and malice. You, on the other hand, are a regular poet. Congratulations.
Time to let go of the PS3 remote and climb up out of Mother's basement, Norman. You're a little pale, y'know.
2007-09-20 20:40:53 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
I don't need a God, to feel like I am worth something on this Earth. And another thing, I am on this earth to find as much happiness as possible while I am here, as well as to make others I care about as happy as possible during the time they are here. I have come to grips with the reality that life is not eternal, no matter how much we want it to be. So, I try to live a good and happy life as possible. When I'm dead, I'm not really going to care, am I?
2007-09-20 20:35:04 · answer #9 · answered by Abby C 5 · 8⤊ 0⤋
I KNOW that I am alive RIGHT NOW. I have undeniable PROOF that I am conscious and living, and I have LIFE to live for. I don't get why that is such a foreign concept to Christians.
You, on the other hand, spend what is most likely the ONLY chance you get to do anything meaningful lamenting your self-defined "sins" to a God that doesn't exist, all for the empty promise of something better after you die.
I'll take my way, thanks.
2007-09-21 01:54:22 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋