Nihilism

This is for encouragement, ideas, and support for people going through a faith transition no matter where you hope to end up. This is also the place to laugh, cry, and love together.
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slavereeno
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Nihilism

Post by slavereeno » Fri May 10, 2019 3:53 pm

I apologize if this has already been discussed.

I am still working my beliefs out. I thought a while back that I had a pretty good grasp of new belief, but I am not sure what to believe. I have been doing a little research into Optimistic Nihilism. I guess when I really consider Nihilism its not very comforting. I much prefer the idea that I will inevitably cheat death by living in some fashion beyond the grave.

Here I am in my 40s and I am facing an existential crisis. I have been wondering why people were sad at all for loosing Mormonism, I've never been a huge fan of the culture, the undies are an abomination, the meetings a bore, etc. Frankly, loosing my Mormonism never really hurt. I didn't really believe that God would separate families in heaven, and as my kids grow up and start their own families, the concept of "Forever Families" seems like a ploy to snag young parents who are naturally attached to their young children. Its not like I am going to be enjoying the magic of my 4 year olds reaction to opening a Christmas present in the eternities.

Mormonism has been completely deconstructed for me, there is nothing of literal truth left there. Now I feel like I am loosing my Christianity, and there is only a very thin thread on belief in deity or life beyond this mortal existence. For the first time, I am having to face the prospect of true mortality. I am finding it quite unsettling.

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Ghost
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Re: Nihilism

Post by Ghost » Fri May 10, 2019 4:18 pm

I barely had a faith crisis before it became an existential crisis. (I don't really like using the word "crisis" here but it's the common term.) While I find the issues specific to Mormonism interesting, I think the more serious issues lie a few layers deeper. What Joseph Smith did or didn't do loses a lot of its significance if the Christian foundation he built on is similarly shaky, as well as the theism that underlies that.

One of the main reasons I stick with Mormonism (to the degree that I do) is that even if it's all made up, so is everything else and it doesn't ultimately make a lot of difference whether I choose one tradition over another or attempt to break free of all of them (at whatever cost that exacts).

I think it's an understatement to say that nihilism isn't comforting, but I've resigned myself to the idea that some flavor of it is probably inescapable for me. That said, from my limited investigation of such things, I tend more toward absurdism than nihilism.

This is a topic I actually enjoy thinking about and discussing. Well, the discussion part is mostly in theory. I try not to bring it up too much because I fear it's not a pleasant topic for many and I have no more desire to spread nihilist ideas than I do religious ones.

A side note, but I find it interesting that some people have affection for God in the absence of any belief in an afterlife, or with the belief that one's unique personality and memories will be gone as one is absorbed into some sort of heavenly collective consciousness/God.
Last edited by Ghost on Fri May 10, 2019 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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slavereeno
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Re: Nihilism

Post by slavereeno » Fri May 10, 2019 4:29 pm

Thanks for your thoughts Ghost. I am interested to hear any processing of this type of concept from whatever angle. I have been particularly interested in Rob4Hope's NDE thread too.
Ghost wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 4:18 pm
One of the main reasons I stick with Mormonism (to the degree that I do) is that even if it's all made up, so is everything else and it doesn't ultimately make a lot of difference whether I choose one tradition over another or attempt to break free of all of them (at whatever cost that exacts).
Yeah, I guess the less I engage in Mormonism the more I realize how much I disliked actually participating in it.

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Red Ryder
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Re: Nihilism

Post by Red Ryder » Fri May 10, 2019 5:28 pm

If it’s any bit comforting, just know that many of us have been through these same thought discussions with ourselves. The path your on is familiar. Part of the reason I’ve stuck around here for so long is because it provides a look back at where I’ve been and how far I’ve become.

My existential crisis was short lived. I realized I was nothing in the eyes of the universe. You can eventually end up in two camps.

1. Pick another form of belief other than Christianity like Buddhism or Universal Unitarian and chase the afterlife reward carrot.

2. Find peace in the unknown.

I personally was too intellectually lazy to look for and find other answers. Every time I tried I just ended at the same road block question; how do I really know? After numerous reiteration of finding answers and then questioning those I became emotionally and intellectually worn out.

That’s when I found peace. When I realized it’s ok to not know what’s next and be perfectly comfortable and embrace the unknown.

Suddenly you’ll realize you’re just a really small part of something in the cosmos with no real answers.

You’ll embrace the unknown and it will bring peace.
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Re: Nihilism

Post by nibbler » Fri May 10, 2019 6:17 pm

It's funny how we spend so much energy in our actual lives preoccupied about a next life or what comes next. We live most of our lives outside the moment.

I remember when that existential crisis hit. It stopped me dead in my tracks... pun I guess.
slavereeno wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 3:53 pm
I am finding it quite unsettling.
If you find it unsettling I think that is an indication that you have some goal to work towards. That can serve as a purpose, no? To stick with it until you feel settled. What happens when you hit that nihilism stage and you think, "Yeah, this kinda suits me." :P

Or is it human nature to always feel like there's some goal to strive for, some meaning to discover... until you realize that once you find whatever it is you're looking for that you'll inevitably feel unsatisfied again and have to start looking for new purposes and new meanings... but then you preemptively realize the yet undiscovered purposes and meanings will not provide lasting fulfillment either... you wonder why bother looking at all... and you realize whatever it is you have right now is whatever it is you've spent a lifetime chasing... and you currently have nothing... so that must be the answer. Nothing.

Yeah, don't let my nihilism beast out of the box I've crammed it in. Its humor, if expressed publicly, only gets me in trouble.
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
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Re: Nihilism

Post by wtfluff » Fri May 10, 2019 7:09 pm

slavereeno wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 4:29 pm
I am interested to hear any processing of this type of concept from whatever angle.
Roger Ebert wrote:I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state.
I personally like Roger's thoughts on the subject.

For me, losing the belief in a dude with a giant white beard wearing a toga living near Kolob, angrily waiting to punish me for eternity because I just wasn't good enough... Well... Honestly, that was a relief.

"This life" is really nothing more that a lot of drudgery. There are glimmers of wonder here and there which are awesome, but honestly, I can't think of anything I truly want to do for eternity. If there's an afterlife anything like "this life" I'm fine only experiencing it once. Does that make me a nihilist?

A nice long (eternal) nap, where I'm perfectly content sounds nice.

Or... If reincarnation is a thing... Well, I can think of a few existences I'd sign up for.
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus

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Ghost
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Re: Nihilism

Post by Ghost » Fri May 10, 2019 7:40 pm

I might have mentioned this in another thread in the past, but one of the very few times I've had the opportunity to discuss my faith transition and questioning freely was with a co-worker, whom I had learned had once been in school to become a preacher but had lost his faith during the process. He'd deconstructed his strict Christian denomination and had become quite against organized religion.

In one of our discussions, I asked him how he stopped himself before reaching all-out nihilism to a degree that it would affect his ability to function in the world. He said it was a conscious decision. At a certain point, he just had to quit thinking along those lines. Which sounded to me like a "choosing to believe" situation, just at a different point than Mormonism (or whatever denomination) or Christianity or theism.

We choose to believe in all kinds of things, individually and as societies. For example, that life has value, that people have rights, that there is such a thing as truth, that it's worthwhile to consider morality and meaning at all, etc. I suppose that doing this is simply a necessity. The question is what we choose to choose to believe.

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jfro18
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Re: Nihilism

Post by jfro18 » Fri May 10, 2019 8:02 pm

I struggle with it although I feel like I'm pushing and pulling through it a lot so it's uneven.

I was raised Lutheran, so when I stopped believing in Mormonism I felt like I could just pull that off and go back spiritually to where I was before I knew who Joseph Smith was.

And then when I got down the rabbit hole of Mormonism years later it not only tore Mormonism apart but ripped off a lot of basic Christianity for me too.

So I struggle with it because I feel like I need something but I also acknowledge that there's freedom in trying to be better because that's how I want to be and not because I feel like I need to be. I also struggle because I think my wife has a hard enough time knowing how much I loathe the church, so if I were to get to a point where I just outright shunned religion it might be too much for her.

I guess I'm at a point where I'm trying to make more of this life because I don't know what follows, although I also spend a lot of time deconstructing what I've been through which gets in the way of it. That has a lot of issues underneath which makes me sometimes just shrug and think "what's the point" when I have a wife who seems content in an afterlife without me because she can't even look at critical material with me.

Put another way, I think I would have a much easier transition if I was not alone here with it. Because I'm on my own (spiritually so to speak) it makes me just wonder what the point is... even when you think you have it figured out it still leaves you no better of.

That said - I'd rather float in outer darkness without my genitals than spend an eternity in those #$%$# garments.

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Re: Nihilism

Post by Reuben » Fri May 10, 2019 8:17 pm

I call myself a Christian agnostic atheist. Here are my random thoughts.

I used to believe my life had meaning only if I lived forever. Now I think that was pretty self-absorbed.

I'm excited to imagine where nature takes the human race, and bummed that I probably won't be around to see it. I get that I need to make room for my youngers and betters, but it still low-key sucks.

I call myself Christian primarily because I think Jesus had a pretty good handle on what the human race needs to do to evolve rather than kill itself off. Another reason is that having a common mythos is super convenient.

Regarding death, I'm with Roger Ebert. Also, I've realized that maintaining the self, especially maintaining the boundary between the self and the rest of the universe, is a necessary condition for pain. When I experience awe, wonder or belonging, I feel the boundary melt away. I imagine death being similar, and if it is, I'll be content to let the boundary go.

Not that I'm seeking death. Maintaining the self is also a necessary condition for joy.

My mind is as rich and complex as a nation, and my life is an intricate epic worthy of ballads. Big whoop. So is everyone else's.

I found myself depressed one morning while visiting my parents. It took a while to realize why: I had finally internalized the idea that they would die one day. I let myself be sad for an hour, and emerged tired but at peace. Dread of sorrow is much worse than sorrow, but we do an awful lot to put off sorrow, even though it maintains our dread. Losing belief in God has forced me out of that pattern.

I don't think anything of the human race will survive the end of the universe, but I have faith in doing good.
Learn to doubt the stories you tell about yourselves and your adversaries.

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slavereeno
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Re: Nihilism

Post by slavereeno » Fri May 10, 2019 9:09 pm

Red Ryder wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 5:28 pm
1. Pick another form of belief other than Christianity like Buddhism or Universal Unitarian and chase the afterlife reward carrot.

2. Find peace in the unknown.
I guess I am at a stage where I can only see number 1 as a path for dealing with number 2. I can't imagine another religion somehow providing the answers that Mormonism couldn't. Peace, contentment, embracing my mortality? Is this a thing?

Thanks RR.
nibbler wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 6:17 pm
Or is it human nature to always feel like there's some goal to strive for, some meaning to discover... until you realize that once you find whatever it is you're looking for that you'll inevitably feel unsatisfied again and have to start looking for new purposes and new meanings... but then you preemptively realize the yet undiscovered purposes and meanings will not provide lasting fulfillment either... you wonder why bother looking at all... and you realize whatever it is you have right now is whatever it is you've spent a lifetime chasing... and you currently have nothing... so that must be the answer. Nothing.
Reminds me of when I studied Nirvana from Eastern Religions in College. I was trying to imagine why anybody would want to achieve it, now perhaps worth revisiting the concept?
wtfluff wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 7:09 pm
A nice long (eternal) nap, where I'm perfectly content sounds nice.

Or... If reincarnation is a thing... Well, I can think of a few existences I'd sign up for.
These are some of the questions that keep going around in my head, what won't get boring and meaningless if done for eternity? Is it possible that these questions arise only because my brain is hamstrung by my own distorted concept of time? Time as we experience it here on earth does not reflect reality, so what does "Eternity" even mean? Will I be content with this one experience and then be good forever with one last and final experience?

The concept of reincarnation appeals to me, but there is no evidence for it. If I were to come back, at this point in my life I would want to have my memory of prior existences eradicated, otherwise even the experiences would become trite? I am here to learn something and when out of these temporal experiences do I remember them all? What happens when the inevitable heat death of the universe occurs? No more experiences? Or is this whole thing just one of many simulations I can jump into whenever I wish?
Ghost wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 7:40 pm
The question is what we choose to choose to believe.
I am still wrestling with this. I would choose to believe in something I have no proof or reason to believe in. That we get to choose to plug our consciousness into whatever reality we are interested in experiencing. We are some kind of pan-dimensional super beings, maybe we are AI created a long time ago, by something else. But its just a fantasy, how do I go about actually believing it?
jfro18 wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 8:02 pm
Put another way, I think I would have a much easier transition if I was not alone here with it. Because I'm on my own (spiritually so to speak) it makes me just wonder what the point is... even when you think you have it figured out it still leaves you no better of.

That said - I'd rather float in outer darkness without my genitals than spend an eternity in those #$%$# garments.
It is comforting to know I am not alone in some of these questions and thought. and LOL, agreed about the garments.
Reuben wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 8:17 pm
I used to believe my life had meaning only if I lived forever. Now I think that was pretty self-absorbed.
Yes this. I was listening to a Mormon Expression podcast and it was said that when you die, you will not be remembered for what you consume but for what you produce. This is what sparked this sense that I need more time, and realizing that I am not really going to get it. Mormonism has this concept that if you simply "endure to the end" then you will be great, a King, Priest and God. If this life is it then I am not sure I am going to amount to a whole lot at the rate I am going. I can take pride in my kids, who are pretty great, but they will live lives and then maybe grand kids, but I won't have much impact beyond that, etc.

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Re: Nihilism

Post by wtfluff » Fri May 10, 2019 10:59 pm

slavereeno wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 9:09 pm
The concept of reincarnation appeals to me, but there is no evidence for it.
Oh, I'm not saying there's any evidence for reincarnation, just like there is no solid evidence for any other version of an afterlife.

I'm saying that the reincarnation version of an afterlife that us humans have made up appeals to me. (For a few go-rounds at least.)

Clouds, harps, togas, marble castles, "my own planet" (where I have to wear polygamy panties and/or MORmON temple garb?) Commanding subordinates to "go down" and do stuff... Yeah, sign me up for oblivion.
Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus

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Re: Nihilism

Post by hmb » Sat May 11, 2019 6:36 am

Wow, this thread hits me hard. Breaking away, guilt-free, from mormonism was very freeing. I never appreciated mortal life more than knowing this is IT! Make the most of it. Little things made me happier and appreciative. Every functional day feels like a gift.

While I still think this way, I feel cheated out of an eternal existence. As I grow old(er), I realize that time is limited and the aches and ridiculous, old age muscle and joint problems, means the end is approaching. I really wish mormon heaven was true. I would be very satisfied to exist in a lower kingdom. My "mansion" can be a shack. Less is more for me. I don't crave to see jeebus or the big dad. But to be robbed of an afterlife is the one thing I can't let go of. I KNOW that if there is nothing after I kick it, I won't care, but it still bugs me. Yesterday, we had to put down our dog. I know it was the right thing for the dog, but I don't take any comfort in doggie heaven. My dog is now worm food. I won't get to have a reunion all my past pets, friends, and family that I would want to see. I won't get to point and laugh at those who are exalted and have to work and serve for the eternities, while I get to be a sloth and hang out. Yes, I'm selfish.

I am also bugged by cheaters, who win in this life, won't pay in the next. People born with disabilities won't wake up whole. The humble/meek/poor/destitute of this life won't inherit anything.

My attitude sucks and I am in a pretty funky depression. It begins with loss of belief in an afterlife. Stupid right?

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Re: Nihilism

Post by dogbite » Sat May 11, 2019 9:05 am

from my view the issue revolves around uncertainty. religion generates the feeling if certainty. Certainty is largely absent without religion. All other knowledge is provisional to varying degrees.

This uncertainty is the drive behind our best achievements I think. That we can know so very little and what we think we know is only a best explanation of data, a model, is all very uncertain.

Coming to terms with uncertainty is the journey I think.

Take a look at the book How to be a become a really good pain in the ass: a critical thinkers guide to asking the right questions.
Last edited by dogbite on Sat May 11, 2019 11:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Nihilism

Post by Ghost » Sat May 11, 2019 9:26 am

I've found myself learning to accept uncertainty while also using it as a shield at times. By that I mean that I'm able to push off coming to an uncomfortable conclusion by escaping into uncertainty. Maybe those religious traditions have some truth to them after all, even if the evidence doesn't seem to be there. What do I know? What does anyone know?
hmb wrote:
Sat May 11, 2019 6:36 am
I feel cheated out of an eternal existence.
I sympathize with this. There is a Mark Twain quote similar to the Roger Ebert one mentioned above.
Mark Twain wrote:I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.
While I can understand how some people find life just as meaningful or even more more meaningful after concluding that all we get is this one shot at mortality and then oblivion, I've never been able to quite talk myself into seeing things that way. I don't know that I'd say that I fear death as much as that I'm disappointed with the idea of it.

A member of my family who I greatly admired died not long ago, and I couldn't help thinking what a waste it was. All of those experiences and memories, suddenly gone. It's enough to make me want to choose to believe in an afterlife.

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Re: Nihilism

Post by achilles » Sat May 11, 2019 1:14 pm

I think the idea that we die, and that's it... It's inherently horrifying for us humans. Are any of you familiar with H.P. Lovecraft? His spin on nihilism was basically an incarnation of the cold, indifferent universe as horrible monster/gods like Cthulhu. We humans are nothing. And more than that, our nothingness is observed and presided over by a vast universe in which we are less than a speck of a speck. I can understand why humans have needed Gods and Powers beyond ourselves to explain life and the cosmos, and a mythology about what happens after physical death.

I was beginning to confront the concept that "this is it" back in 2014 or so. It was shortly after I had a suicide crisis over my continued existence as a gay Mormon. I happened to be in a very difficult and lonely job, and watched a lot of YouTube documentaries. I re-watched Carl Sagan's Cosmos, and began to rekindle a deep sense of awe about the Universe, and a sense of personal meaning in his statement that "we are a way for the universe to know itself". I had always been fascinated with cosmology, astrophysics, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, geology, etc. But looking at all of it through a scientific lens provoked in me a deep awe, sense of wonder, and realization of just how miraculous life is. And beyond that, just how wonderful life and love and beauty are, and the beauty of human-human and human-animal relationships.

If this life is it, I am comforted by the idea that I won't be around to feel or think anything about it. I won't be in physical or emotional pain. I think the hardest thing for me about death and nothingness is thinking about the people and animals I loved so dearly being completely gone. And I guess that they aren't really gone as long as they are in our hearts. That is why I think cherishing memory is such an important thing.

Beyond the horror of nothing after this life--I was brought up with the belief that atheism and agnosticism leads directly to immorality and amorality. I think the truth is that what it really leads to is a deeper expression of who we are and have always been. If we cared about morality and love before, we will still care about it now. And we will understand how precious each moment is, and strive to make the world as good and beautiful as we can. We will "improve the shining moments" so-to-speak.

I think meaning happens within us. We not only make meaning in our own minds, but we bring meaning to pass in the world around us. I suppose it is a bit absurd that we might be making meaning only to have our atoms recycled and maybe eventually become scattered and cold. But I really want to make every moment count now. And I can find guidance and meaning in religion, but don't have to be hurt by it anymore.
“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

― Carl Sagan

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Re: Nihilism

Post by Not Buying It » Sat May 11, 2019 10:13 pm

If this world is all there is, that is all the more reason to cherish my time here. For me, my mortal life becomes more meaningful, not less, when I let go of the idea that I am living for an afterlife, and realize that I am instead living for now.

When you lose someone, a belief in the afterlife provides comfort, but in the end it is just a belief - you really don’t know whether it is true or not. Personally, I’ve just accepted that I can’t know what happens to my loved ones when they die, rather than torture myself about where they are and whether I will see them again. There’s no point in obsessing about it, because no matter what, you can’t be sure of the answer. Life’s too short to waste time obsessing on unanswerable questions.
"The truth is elegantly simple. The lie needs complex apologia. 4 simple words: Joe made it up. It answers everything with the perfect simplicity of Occam's Razor. Every convoluted excuse withers." - Some guy on Reddit called disposazelph

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Re: Nihilism

Post by Linked » Mon May 13, 2019 3:05 pm

Ghost wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 4:18 pm
I barely had a faith crisis before it became an existential crisis. (I don't really like using the word "crisis" here but it's the common term.) While I find the issues specific to Mormonism interesting, I think the more serious issues lie a few layers deeper. What Joseph Smith did or didn't do loses a lot of its significance if the Christian foundation he built on is similarly shaky, as well as the theism that underlies that.

One of the main reasons I stick with Mormonism (to the degree that I do) is that even if it's all made up, so is everything else and it doesn't ultimately make a lot of difference whether I choose one tradition over another or attempt to break free of all of them (at whatever cost that exacts).

I think it's an understatement to say that nihilism isn't comforting, but I've resigned myself to the idea that some flavor of it is probably inescapable for me. That said, from my limited investigation of such things, I tend more toward absurdism than nihilism.

This is a topic I actually enjoy thinking about and discussing. Well, the discussion part is mostly in theory. I try not to bring it up too much because I fear it's not a pleasant topic for many and I have no more desire to spread nihilist ideas than I do religious ones.

A side note, but I find it interesting that some people have affection for God in the absence of any belief in an afterlife, or with the belief that one's unique personality and memories will be gone as one is absorbed into some sort of heavenly collective consciousness/God.
Thanks Ghost. I had not heard of Absurdism. It sounds like a good way to balance the Nihilism. I used my expiring audible credit on The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus's most directly Absurdist essay.

In my philosophical wanderings after deciding the mormon church doesn't have the truth I think I am a nihilist that avoids thinking about it. It comes with good and bad I think. I feel more comfortable with the logic that leads to nihilism than other options. There is a way to say "nothing we do matters" without it being a bad thing. I've posted this before, but there's a scene in Rick and Morty that makes that point. But, we do lose whatever we imagined mormon heaven to be, and that's hard.

Image


Youtube clip
"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut

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slavereeno
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Re: Nihilism

Post by slavereeno » Mon May 13, 2019 3:38 pm

Thanks to everybody for the responses.

I get weirded out by how much I don't know, or at least how much I ignored when I heard it in college. I started watching some crash course youtube videos about religious philosophy, essentialism, absurdism, existentialism, Pascals Wager, pragmatism, authenticity?

None of this is even new stuff. People have been asking these questions for a long long time, and thinking about it. I was raised believing, in essence, that all philosophy courses in college were literally taught by heathen Satan worshipers.

This whole train of thinking makes me feel sometimes like a little child, because I didn't allow myself to really think about any of this before now.

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Re: Nihilism

Post by RubinHighlander » Mon May 13, 2019 4:10 pm

Red Ryder wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 5:28 pm


That’s when I found peace. When I realized it’s ok to not know what’s next and be perfectly comfortable and embrace the unknown.

Suddenly you’ll realize you’re just a really small part of something in the cosmos with no real answers.

You’ll embrace the unknown and it will bring peace.
I went through this journey. It was hard for me to figure out where to park my "spiritual" experiences in mormonism when I knew it was not true. Even the last lights of Christianity went out as I studied the bible and it's history; all the religious threads unraveled. Then I discovered "spiritual" or strong emotional responses (those that felt metaphysical) when I spent more time out in nature by myself and they were much stronger than I'd ever had before. This is the thing that helped me make that transition into being at peace in the unknown, more peace than I ever had under the false feeling of having it all figured out for me by some man-made dogma.

It's been an amazing experience to go from being plugged into a matrix with the answers to life and the afterlife all laid out for you to the complete opposite. I never would have dreamed, as a TBM, that being in the unknown would be so much more liberating and happy than knowing your exact purpose in life. But here I am and I'm loving it! Now I'd put myself in the 95% atheist camp; 5% reserved for some possible higher power that kicked off a big bang and a possible consciousness after death.

As far as NDE's I'm leaning toward the science of the brain shutting down and disconnecting from the self, a psychotropic effect that's been replicated with drugs like DMT. Though some take them as evidence of an afterlife, I'm mostly rejecting that right now but I also look forward to more studies and keep an open mind.

The craziness of reality and the evolution of the universe that brought us here to this point help me keep that 5% belief in something beyond alive and well.
“Sir,' I said to the universe, 'I exist.' 'That,' said the universe, 'creates no sense of obligation in me whatsoever.”
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hmb
Posts: 452
Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2017 6:43 am

Re: Nihilism

Post by hmb » Wed May 15, 2019 6:51 am

I wonder if there's a difference in thinking about this at age 30 and age 70? I walked from the church in my 50's, still hoping (but not believing) in an after life. At 30 I would have had fear about the end, but only in the unknown of a new experience. Now it's just so final. It shouldn't matter; dead is dead. But it does matter. I feel like the kid in "Saturday's Warrior" that did not know who or why he existed. I don't question who or why, I just don't like the end of this life to be so Porky Pig--badabada-bada--that's all folks!

Oh great, now I have Saturday's Warrior music in my head. Haha.

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