I'm an atheist that prays in desperate situations.

[december_solstice]

You're probably thinking -- She's been born again! God has spoken to the poor girl!.

Er...not exactly, fam.

Actually, the exact opposite has happened.

I think embracing (more like humoring) the idea of faith pushed me further towards the reality that our lives are very much our own and there is no outside force leading the world in which we live in. That our reality has ultimately been created by us. Our reality is of our making.

I realized humans reach out for faith, for comfort, in a time of great need. In a moment of desperation, when we feel powerless, when we believe ourselves to be weak, we want it so desperately for God, religion, and such to be true -- that a higher power will save us. Will love us. Will make us IMPORTANT. Will make us MATTER.

Similarly how we want so desperately there to be life after death, to be forgiven for our sins, that there is more to our existence than this -- that we are NOT insignificant in this great wide indifferent universe. A universe that has thrived without us for billions of years before we entered the picture, and ultimately, will thrive without us, for billions of years after we are out of the picture.

This is a hard to swallow. No human heart wants to feel this way -- wants to accept that life goes on once we're dead. That the plants, trees, planets, and so on are unaffected by our existence.

And, I get that. I can understand why faith exist. Why gods have been a part of our lives for hundreds of thousands of years. Why we worshiped the sun. Why we worshiped the stars. Why we worships gods. Because life is hard. Because we're HUMAN. We feel things. Because feeling obsolete is difficult. Because hope feels good. Because God is a beautiful delusion.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

are you really nitpicking between 90% and 86%? lmao

where the hell did they say that if someone is religious they're easily offended?

i have no idea what you're talking about re: your second to last paragraph

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

I don't know who you're responding to/what you're talking about/ or if you're the same anon as the other one. If you wanna chit chat, it might be easier and less confusing to do it off Anon.

[(Anonymous)]

i was responding to the other person lol

i don't have an account

[outerspace-bae.livejournal.com]

All the cool kids are doing it ;)

[ringlat.livejournal.com]

When they said that 90% of the world would be offended by the post - I assume that meant 90% of religious people, because of the "90% of Americans are religious" and also because someone who's not religious has very likely already thought about this stuff (or just wouldn't be offended because it doesn't concern them).

Last bit is just me going a bit off-topic as usual.