Atheists: cognizing overwhelming barbarity?

[Quintessence]

Do I have to point further than perpetual warfare?

How many days each week do you (try to) fall asleep with the sound of gunfire, shelling, or other indicators of warfare in the background? How many times this week have you had someone try to violently break into your house? Steal your stuff? How many days each week to you watch cable news which fixates on rare and unusual (aka, newsworthy) events that may be biasing your perception about how common violence and warfare actually is? Because if human default behavior was "overwhelmingly barbaric" we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

[Polka_time]

Hmm. I am finding myself to be something of a Hedonist myself.

I can let myself be empowered by my emotions, is that along the lines of what you are saying?

Sure classical hedonism is a lot more than wine, women/men and song! Haha!

Reasoning from your emotions empowers you because emotions are a core motivating and energetic part of the human animal. There is nothing more demotivating, unenergetic and unpleasant than denying what you feel. When our emotional intellegence is refined and we "know thyself", emotions become our innate moral sense as well. We feel a whole lot of complex emotions about a whole lot of things, so it's more than just dopamine or however it's detractors reduce it. This doesn't mean acting on every emotion, but rather letting your emotions inform your reasoning. Epicurus also taught to reason from our senses as well as our prolepsis or anticipations. Notice he does not include reasoning from logic or pure rationality as in the form of ideologies. The goal being to bring us back from our minds ideas about the world to our bodies and Material, observable reality. It's a body over mind approach, essentially. The crux of it being, try to do something about your emotions in a healthful and/or pro-social way; however that catharsis looks to you.

Anyway, Epicurean canonics is a whole other can of worms we could open some other time.

 

[Bthoth]

Atheists, how do you cognize the overwhelming barbarity of the world?

When I was a theist, I had the understanding that there was a cosmic battle of good versus evil going on that can explain all of our woes. Many religious folk have this. So when there are shootings here, wars over there, etc., they can cognize the brute barbarity through a religious lens. It makes the reality easier to swallow.

Sad to accept but religions are often the premise of war, divide and dissent throughout the history of the world

Atheists, how do you cognize the barbarity of the world?

With christianity, the use of religion has been ongoing almost since inception. As the barbaric acts can be forgiven in christianity, just by accepting the belief system.

I find that ww2 germany was christian and perhaps using that forgiveness angle is how they created monsters, the nazi party to be capable of such horrendous atrocities and still be able to sleep at night.

Let me tell you, it seems the younger generation does so through dark humor and desensitization of human life. I do not like that route. So, how do you do it?

I do not have that capability, personally. I have never been a soldier, so i have never had to kill for work or duty per se.

 

[Heyo]

How do we deal with the dumb lazy cowards though?

That's a good question. The easiest to cure is should be the "dumb". Simply educate them. Educated people are also likely not as coward as they can asses danger better.
If I could cure lazy, I'd be a rich man. (Because I'd work then.)

 

[Stonetree]

We are animals that respond to the environment or respond to the perceived environment. We have the same tendencies we(humans) had 10,000 years ago. Because of civilization most of us conform to socialization but.......we still tend to resolve disputes by use of physical force...We entertain ourselves with stories of winning physical confrontations. Our language is punctuated with "fighting words". We fantasize being stronger than the other guy........It's still inside us....Only when our environment forces us to change will we evolve into a different animal........(Cranky, due to lack of sleep opinion)

 

[Twilight Hue]

Atheists, how do you cognize the overwhelming barbarity of the world?

When I was a theist, I had the understanding that there was a cosmic battle of good versus evil going on that can explain all of our woes. Many religious folk have this. So when there are shootings here, wars over there, etc., they can cognize the brute barbarity through a religious lens. It makes the reality easier to swallow.

Atheists, how do you cognize the barbarity of the world? Let me tell you, it seems the younger generation does so through dark humor and desensitization of human life. I do not like that route. So, how do you do it?

Well because nature is like that.

Yet on the positive side , nature does shoot for equilibrium and balance , so when I think of overwhelming situations I'm also reminded that these things tend to swing dynamically as a natural pendulum , ushering periods of relative violence and periods of relative calm in the neverending endeavor for equilibrium and harmony.

 

[Valjean]

For millions of years, hominids and their closest relatives lived in small bands of hunter-gatherers. Our psychology was hard-wired for this lifestyle, including coöperation and intense solidarity.
There was, however, no selective pressure to extend these beyond the small numbers in the band. We are not wired for large, diverse societies, or extension of moral consideration and solidarity beyond our immediate community. In this respect, we're like modern chimps, who war with neighboring bands, apparently just for the fun of it.

Nor are we wired for long-term planning or concern. It's only recently that we even became capable of affecting our environment. Through 99% of our history, planning beyond the next season was impossible.

Concern and moral consideration for non-band members; for supra-Dunbar* numbers, and for our affects beyond our immediate future must be learned, ie: indoctrinated, and they remain a thin, easily breached veneer.

We're a civilized species with a Pleistocene psychology; killer apes in suits.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I view the cosmos as harshly indifferent and amoral.

And yet, there is beauty, awe, wonder and terror. There is pain as well as pleasure. And experiences of a positive type...as well as experiences of a negative type...but largely that's a value judgment as to whether any particular event falls into one or the other category...or into the much larger category of 'indifferent.' Yes, there is barbarism, and life is red in tooth and nail, or whatever the expression is...but it is also the opposite, with cooperation and community...

We are creatures who can appreciate these nuances. And while understandable, I think it is wrong to focus solely or primarily on the negative aspects...just as it is to focus solely or primarily on the positive. Life has to be lived in balance.

 

[LuisDantas]

I guess it is mostly a matter of handling expectations and attempting to be honest at all times. Brutally honest when the situations calls for that.

 

[libre]

Atheists, how do you cognize the barbarity of the world? Let me tell you, it seems the younger generation does so through dark humor and desensitization of human life. I do not like that route. So, how do you do it?

Falling out of faith is a traumatic experience for many because we lose a sort of emotional cushion and need to look at the suffering and violence in the world as the senseless tragedy that it really is.

I have in the past been able to recenter myself by reminding myself of the below words from Lenin's eulogy for Tolstoy.
'Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.'

Fortunately for us, once this is recognized we can find meaning in the pursuit of identifying these causes and struggling against them. One does not need Religion to identify the causes of suffering in our society and to struggle against them.