Atheists. Satisfaction? Happiness?

[firedragon]

Again, I'm not the one who made any generalizations about all theists. YOU are the one who assumed I was generalizing just because I'm an atheist. THAT'S bigotry.

You made that up mate.

 

[Truthseeker]

I think "true" (sustained) happiness is only for the ignorant and the delusional.

Thus you are shut out from being truly happy at any time. I am a believer and don't have sustained happiness, but spirituality does make a difference. It does lift my spirits to the degree I am receptive at the time.

 

[Truthseeker]

I'm most happy when I'm in the companionship of my family and friends (chosen family), or if I make a connection with somebody new and learn a little bit more about how someone else is experiencing the universe.

I'm happy when my curiosity is teased or satiated when I come to a new understanding.

I feel satisfied when I experience things like music, poetry, daydreaming, even ennui when I hunger for something beyond the mundane of the moment; because to be alive is to experience and to wonder.

It surprises me that people struggle to understand why atheists/nontheists would be happy. I think we are happy for many of the same reasons: we just believe that any altruistic or empathetic things in the world have to come from us (as in humanity, or perhaps I shouldn't be anthropocentric and say sapient sentiences).

There is no cavalry on the way. If we want a better world to live in and a better one to leave for those that come after us, it's up to us. There is something encouraging about that (though room for disappointment), and that itself is a sense of purpose.

Knowledge and wonder and family and being with friends does give people a form of happiness. However, spiritual happiness, being at one with God surpasses them all. I don't profess to be that far upon this path, but prayer uplifts my spirits sometimes beyond worldly happiness. The world itself is full of the signs of God. I'm not very social due to my autism or Asperger's, but despite this I find companionship with God. I don't know if empathy is tied to any belief or religion, it seems to be given to us by God, at least to some. Altruism can be exercised by atheists, but they don't don't know the Source where it comes from.

I agree with your last paragraph, it's up to us to build a better world, but to do that best we need to tap into the spiritual resources within us.

 

[Heyo]

Thus you are shut out from being truly happy at any time. I am a believer and don't have sustained happiness, but spirituality does make a difference. It does lift my spirits to the degree I am receptive at the time.

My "spirit" is lifted by learning new, true things. I have decided to value truth over happiness.

 

[Truthseeker]

By doing things that make me happy, by keeping company with those who make me happy. I'm not sure why it's such a mystery to you.

I agree with being with people that make you happy, but make sure it's not the kind of happiness that is not one with God. That is a happiness that seduces from you from the highest happiness.

 

[Truthseeker]

I would suggest that very few, if any, people actually achieve all of their satisfaction and happiness from a belief in a deity alone (however much some religions might try to sell that idea to us). Most peoples lives are much wider and more diverse than that.

It's not the belief, but connecting with the Source of happiness. Many people have belief in God but don't connect with the Source.

 

[Truthseeker]

Sometimes I think Atheists may live more happily than many religious people, because an Atheist does not worry about what happens to them if they do something a God has told is wrong to do, they do not fear retribution from God. Many religious people fear their own weaknesses in the form of retribution or more suffering after they die.

That's quite true. There are many believers that focus on the negative more than the positive. Are they really connected to the Source?

 

[Truthseeker]

You have to understand that atheists don't believe that god exists; he is a made up being. Thus threats of being wicked if you do not go along with the scriptures is meaningless, in the same way that atheists are sometimes threatened with eternal hell - we don't believe in hell either.

That's not the point with me. It's not belief, but connecting with true happiness by connecting with the Source of true happiness. If you don't have that you are in hell right now, though you may have a material happiness.

 

[Truthseeker]

How I find fulfilment in life is with family, friends, nature, cycling, canoeing, walking. And the clever thing is, I don't lose any time attaining that fulfilment by chatting with imaginary friends.

From my perspective, I am not chatting with imaginary friend(s), either. It is not chatting anyway but communing or connecting with the Source.

 

[Truthseeker]

As Comte-Sponville says: "I cannot help thinking that if God existed, he should be easier to perceive or feel. All you would need to do is open your eyes, or you soul. I keep trying to do this. And no matter how wide I open them, what I see is the world and what I love is humanity."

I try to love humanity. It is hard to do. Some religionists hate humanity. That's the way it is today. However that may be, true religion induces us to love humanity if we connect with the Source.

 

[Spirit of Light]

That's quite true. There are many believers that focus on the negative more than the positive. Are they really connected to the Source?

Speaking from my own experience from when I practiced Buddhism.
No I was not connected the way I "thought" i was. what I experienced that time was my ow ego

 

[John53]

I agree with being with people that make you happy, but make sure it's not the kind of happiness that is not one with God. That is a happiness that seduces from you from the highest happiness.

I've never found a God that seems believable to me so that's unachievable. Happiness however is achievable and seems easy for me, my only rule would be as long as it doesn't harm others.

 

[RestlessSoul]

My "spirit" is lifted by learning new, true things. I have decided to value truth over happiness.

Like Albert Camus. Truth was the only thing of value, in his philosophy.

Truth is subjective though. And happiness is elusive. Love, on the other hand - outgoing, unconditional love, the sort that needs no mirror - that is a treasure worth aspiring to.

 

[Altfish]

That's not the point with me. It's not belief, but connecting with true happiness by connecting with the Source of true happiness. If you don't have that you are in hell right now, though you may have a material happiness.

My friends and family are my source of true happiness - again, I reiterate, hell does NOT exist

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I try to love humanity. It is hard to do. Some religionists hate humanity. That's the way it is today. However that may be, true religion induces us to love humanity if we connect with the Source.

I think that a big part of loving is knowing. That is why I make "human nature" (and I know that there is such a thing -- we are not born a "blank slate") an area of particular study -- from David Hume to Edward O. Wilson to Prof. Jacob Needleman.

 

[Aupmanyav]

I try to love humanity.

I am not a proselytizer. I do not need to love everybody.

If you don't have that you are in hell right now, though you may have a material happiness.

If this is hell, then I have no problem with it.

I am a believer and don't have sustained happiness, ..

If you do not have sustained happiness, then you are not a true believer. I am an atheist, and I have sustained happiness.

 

[ChristineM]

From my perspective, I am not chatting with imaginary friend(s), either. It is not chatting anyway but communing or connecting with the Source.

Who you are communicating with is of your mind, therefore imagination. There is no reason to think otherwise.

 

[HonestJoe]

It's not the belief, but connecting with the Source of happiness. Many people have belief in God but don't connect with the Source.

If it's not about belief, there would be no reason an atheist couldn't connect with this "Source of Happiness"?

Of course, all of this presumes that any such thing exists, that it is the specific God that you believe in and that is the one and only way anyone could possibly find happiness.

 

[Polymath257]

That's not the point with me. It's not belief, but connecting with true happiness by connecting with the Source of true happiness. If you don't have that you are in hell right now, though you may have a material happiness.

I'm glad you think you have found the 'source of True happiness'. if it works for you, then go for it.

But in my own life, the times when I was concerned about the existence and nature of a deity were the *least* happy ones. I am far more happy now than I was when those topics were 'live' ones for me.

Instead, I find the source of *my* happiness is to be true to myself, help others, learn about the world, and be with friends, my dog, and my wife. I don't need an invisible friend to be happy.

 

[Truthseeker]

Speaking from my own experience from when I practiced Buddhism.
No I was not connected the way I "thought" i was. what I experienced that time was my ow ego

Had no idea that you practiced Buddhism once. Buddhism can be good if practiced right. There are also different "schools" in Buddhism. Which one did you follow? In my opinion as a Baha'i nirvana is really equivalent to connection to the Source. Guess you didn't reach that?