Re: Question for religious parents

In article <ySHNf.305$ia3.128@fed1read08>, "Circe" <guavaln@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

"jules" <jules@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:m7HNf.87137$H%4.81223@xxxxxxxxxxx
I have never actually TRIED to believe in atheism, because I can't think
of anything more depressing than the belief that there is nothing beyond
this mortal coil, but people have
tried to sway me in that direction as well, with no success.

As an atheist (at least in the sense that I have believe in a sentient,
supreme being), I find it fascinating that so many people find the concept
depressing. I find it the exact opposite. For me, the idea that we are all
here by some incredible and fortuitous accident of nature makes life all the
more glorious and worth living. I am profoundly grateful for the existence
of the universe and everything in it because the whole thing could just as
easily not exist as exist. I feel the accidental nature of the universe
means I have to treat everything with especial reverence and care, since no
divine entity is going to come along and correct things if we screw it up.
And I have to treat other people and living beings with kindness and respect
because they are precious and because I share a deep connectedness to them.

Being an atheist is for me both profoundly liberating and profoundly
obligating. It is not a spiritual vacuum. Nor does it bother me that I will
not continue to exist after death, at least not any more than it bothers me
that I didn't exist before I was born.

Of course, I have never been anything BUT an atheist, although as I have
gotten older, I have become a lot less strident in my desire to convert
others to my POV <g>.


Beautiful! (And glad to hear you are less strident in your desire to
convert others....)

One of my favorite descriptions, similar to yours, was from a character
on Babylon 5. He said he had grown up with a priviledged life,
believing in a just God who rewarded good. Then his life fell apart --
his planet was destroyed, his parents killed, his brother died trying to
save other people. And he began to believe in a vengeful God, and
wondered what he had done to earn the wrath of this God. Now, he said,
he no longer believed in God at all, but took great comfort in the
entirely arbitrary and caprecious nature of the universe.

(I miss that show!)

--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care
.

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