Do you ever battle nihilism?

Question

99.9% of the time,I am the most cheerful,serene person around.In fact,around my friends and family I am nicknamed "Atheist Jesus"because I always have an optimist outlook.I am sort of the family counseler.The other night,actually for the first time in my life,as I was quietly thinking,an OVERWHELMING sense of nihilism overcame me.It was horrible,to be honest,and very UNlike me.By morning I was my normal,cheerful self again.So,do you ever have bouts of nihilism?And what do you do to combat it?I don't ever want to feel that way again

Rhio9:yeah,it was sort of like that,only worse.I've never read Nietsche,not sure if I want to though.Nihilism is a bummer.It was just so unexpected and uncharacteristic of me.Well,Thanks all,and no,I'm pretty sure it's not PMS(looks down):)

God Slayer.You hit it on the head also.The only worse mindset I can think of would be actually believing in the Christian version of things.THAT is an absolutely pointless existence to me

Answer 1

That is actually a pretty common condition for me. Despite the incredibly awe-inspiring happenstance that is life, I am not impressed.

Sometimes, no, often, I don't want to be (be=exist).

I hope you never feel this way.

On the positive side, I was SOOOOO much more miserable when I was a Christian. So, things are at least on the upswing.

As far as combating it, you just have to have fun and surround yourself with good people. My son helps a lot. :)

Answer 2

Kudos on Mathew T's answer. Perhaps you would like to view the last question I posted. It addresses this topic in an indirect manner. If you re not in good spirits it may not be advisable. The answers you might find uplifting though.

Perplexed...I used to be a Christian then an atheist and found happiness outside of the scope of Christianity, (which personally I found to be riddled with logical loopholes). It may give you hope to know that perhaps the atheists are not the holders of the truth. Remember the age old question has not been answered. They can only speculate like the rest of us.

Answer 3

nihil' form the latin meaning nothing gives rise to the term 'nihilism' as i understand it meaning a belief in everything being wiped out.
the concept of endogenous depression which arrives from nowhere and without apparent cause is quite a troubling phenonmenon although your episode was brief -- some people need life long treatmetn for anti depressants but i suspect that you simply 'looked down' meaning we are all walking a tightrope and never think about it and for the first time you did - so don't make a habit out of it.don't make the mistake of trying to think your way out of these thoughts, just get busy with something.

Answer 4

You need psychological crutches to suppress the truth.

Our human nature demands that our lives are worth living and atheism doesn't provide any foundation to say that our lives are worth anything.

So try the following:
keep busy so you can't think.
practice thinking only happy thoughts.
see if booze helps.
boost your self esteem by promising that you'll leave the world a better place.

Answer 5

I have had problems with all sorts of philosphical thoughts in the past. I feel you just have to work through them.
These days I mostly just get ancious about money and think about how I can escape from it.

Answer 6

I did in my teens and early 20's (and I suspect that's pretty common at that age). Now I'm just a misanthrope who just wants to hang with his little family.

Answer 7

That happened to King Saul. He worked for God, then the next day he was "bipolar", and attacked God's prophets.

But God can give us the victory and He has furnished enought facts in His word to dispel skepticism and promote righteousness 100%.

And a Bible code proves Jesus is the Messiah and builds unshakable faith in Him. See http://abiblecode.tirpod.com

Shalom, peace in Jesus, Ben Yeshua

Answer 8

I'm sure it wasn't as intense as this:

"There are days when I am visited by a feeling blacker than the blackest melancholy--contempt of man. Let me leave no doubt as to what I despise, whom I despise: it is the man of today, the man with whom I am unhappily contemporaneous. The man of today--I am suffocated by his foul breath! . . . Toward the past, like all who understand, I am full of tolerance, which is to say, generous self-control: with gloomy caution I pass through whole millenniums of this mad house of a world, call it "Christianity," "Christian faith" or the "Christian church," as you will--I take care not to hold mankind responsible for its lunacies. But my feeling changes and breaks out irresistibly the moment I enter modern times,our times. Our age knows better. . . What was formerly merely sickly now becomes indecent--it is indecent to be a Christian today. And here my disgust begins.--I look about me: not a word survives of what was once called "truth"; we can no longer bear to hear a priest pronounce the word. Even a man who makes the most modest pretensions to integrity must know that a theologian, a priest, a pope of today not only errs when he speaks, but actually lies--and that he no longer escapes blame for his lie through "innocence" or "ignorance." The priest knows, as every one knows, that there is no longer any "God," or any "sinner," or any "Saviour"--that "free will" and the "moral order of the world" are lies--: serious reflection, the profound self-conquest of the spirit,allow no man to pretend that he does not know it. . . All the ideas of the church are now recognized for what they are--as the worst counterfeits in existence, invented to debase nature and all natural values; the priest himself is seen as he actually is--as the most dangerous form of parasite, as the venomous spider of creation. . - - We know, our conscience now knows--just what the real value of all those sinister inventions of priest and church has been and what ends they have served, with their debasement of humanity to a state of self-pollution, the very sight of which excites loathing,--the concepts "the other world," "the last judgment," "the immortality of the soul," the "soul" itself: they are all merely so many in instruments of torture, systems of cruelty, whereby the priest becomes master and remains master. . .Every one knows this,but nevertheless things remain as before. What has become of the last trace of decent feeling, of self-respect, when our statesmen, otherwise an unconventional class of men and thoroughly anti-Christian in their acts, now call themselves Christians and go to the communion table? . . . A prince at the head of his armies, magnificent as the expression of the egoism and arrogance of his people--and yet acknowledging, without any shame, that he is a Christian! . . . Whom, then, does Christianity deny? what does it call "the world"? To be a soldier, to be a judge, to be a patriot; to defend one's self; to be careful of one's honour; to desire one's own advantage; to be proud . . . every act of everyday, every instinct, every valuation that shows itself in a deed, is now anti-Christian: what a monster of falsehood the modern man must be to call himself nevertheless, and without shame, a Christian!-- "

(from Nietzsche: The Antichrist)

Answer 9

I battled a Nihilist the other day.

I was victorious!


Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!

Answer 10

there is a great philosephy behind the creation of the heavens and earth
nihilism makes people weak and takes away their hope