Life Without God leads to an Existential Crisis?

[Mohsen]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. Imran Hussein explains why by referencing an ayah (verse) from the Qur'an. The Ayah in question is from Surah Ta'ha, 20:124 "And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." - Dawah Digital blurb for the following video:

This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists

Then I must be one of the lucky few. I am perfectly happy without god beliefs.

 

[Mohsen]

Then I must be one of the lucky few. I am perfectly happy without god beliefs.

thanks for responding man,

I'm actually interested in those who identify as atheist and have experienced this "existential crisis" spoken of in the video! But thanks anyway.

peace

 

[Twilight Hue]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. Imran Hussein explains why by referencing an ayah (verse) from the Qur'an. The Ayah in question is from Surah Ta'ha, 20:124 "And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." - Dawah Digital blurb for the following video:

This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

Easy. I don't have an existential crisis.

 

[Jesster]

The only thing I've gone through that can be described as an existential crisis occurred while I was a theist. Years later (now) I am an atheist and I am actually starting to recover. I'll note that this crisis didn't have anything to do with theism or atheism, but being a theist certainly didn't improve on the matter.

I'm not sure how much of a generalization this claim was supposed to be, but it certainly doesn't apply to at least one atheist. I don't think I've met any atheists who have gone through what you're describing either.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. Imran Hussein explains why by referencing an ayah (verse) from the Qur'an. The Ayah in question is from Surah Ta'ha, 20:124 "And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." - Dawah Digital blurb for the following video:



This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

What existential crisis?

 

[Laika]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. Imran Hussein explains why by referencing an ayah (verse) from the Qur'an. The Ayah in question is from Surah Ta'ha, 20:124 "And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." - Dawah Digital blurb for the following video:

This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

Atheist with depression here. What do you want to know?

 

[Polymath257]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. Imran Hussein explains why by referencing an ayah (verse) from the Qur'an. The Ayah in question is from Surah Ta'ha, 20:124 "And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." - Dawah Digital blurb for the following video:

This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

What existential crises? I don't have that problem. Neither do most of the atheists I know. So I think your reference is wrong here.

It seems to me that it is the theists that are more prone to those things than atheists.

 

[LuisDantas]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. (...)
This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

By not having it.

Honestly, there is no such tendency.

If anything, to believe in god-concept comparable to Ibrahim's can lead to emotional anguish that we atheists are largely spared of.


Edited to add: Having read the whole transcript of the video, I find myself somewhat puzzled. There is not much of a clear message there. The speaker seems to simply keep stating his belief that atheists are bound to feel incomplete, vulnerable, lacking simply because they are atheists.

That may well be a sincere and conforting belief for people who are constantly surrounded by Muslims (and perhaps Christians), but it does not have a lot to do with the reality of facts.

 

[Flame]

My theistic friends tend to have more existential crises then my atheistic friends do. However this is more my own personal observations.

 

[suncowiam]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. Imran Hussein explains why by referencing an ayah (verse) from the Qur'an. The Ayah in question is from Surah Ta'ha, 20:124 "And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." - Dawah Digital blurb for the following video:

This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

Ever considered that your premise is flawed?

 

[Mohsen]

Atheist with depression here. What do you want to know?

Hi Laika,

first of all, let me thank you for volunteering to engage me here. Secondly, I hope you can beat your depression and find your center and enjoy life again. I suffered depression in my early to mid twenties and it was aweful. It wasn't solely down to an existential crisis, only partly. From my own subjective reflections, I can say that I have found that a belief in God served as an anchor for me for more than just the existential crisis itself, however, my own life experience is just one story. I hope you don't think I'm being nosey in asking you questions related to your current depression. But before I do, let me tell you why I am asking.

I watched the video, and it shook me up somewhat. A trip down memory lane which I did not enjoy. And I wondered if this existential crisis was typical of atheists, judging by the members who have posted so far - I would say that it is not the norm for them to suffer such - I hope for their sake they were speaking the truth. Depression is truly an hard thing to live with. When I was an atheist, I felt an huge spiritual void in myself, and life was tasteless. Everything was nothing because it meant nothing in the end. Do I make sense? This was the world view I had adopted and being reminded of it was an uncomfortable experience, so much so that I made this thread to see if there were others who were experiencing the same as I had once.

With genuine interest and empathy, I ask, is your depression borne of an existential crisis? or something else? or a combination of both - the existential crisis and something else? How long have you been suffering for? and how do you deal with it?

Though you are an atheist, I hope you are not offended by my good will in hoping God heals you soon. Amen.

peace

 

[Mohsen]

To the atheists who have posted that they suffer no such thing, and assume that I had painted you all with the same brush, I apologise, this was not my intention. I believe that even those who believe in a deity or deities can suffer existential crisis, but of a different sort (judgement).

Once again, sorry if you felt offended.

peace

 

[Jesster]

To the atheists who have posted that they suffer no such thing, and assume that I had painted you all with the same brush, I apologise, this was not my intention. I believe that even those who believe in a deity or deities can suffer existential crisis, but of a different sort (judgement).

Once again, sorry if you felt offended.

peace

I'm not offended. I'm just adding an account of my experiences. Feel free to continue from there if you'd like.

 

[Mohsen]

I'm not offended. I'm just adding an account of my experiences. Feel free to continue from there if you'd like.

thank you, I did read your post. It's very interesting actually. As I mentioned, I do understand that theists can also experience an existential crisis as well, but the nature of it would be totally different - ie, it would revolve around the idea of "accountability". Most religions in the world teach a moral caveat which revolves around the idea of judgement/karma in the afterlife. For the atheist, there is the belief that there is no afterlife and therefore the idea of judgement/karma after death are irrelevant and this is the nature of the atheist existential crisis, that there is simply nothing, it's all pointless kinda thing. Of course, this providing that one is considering their existence in the first place to have some sort of meaning, but cannot allow themselves to believe it due to their atheism! - leading to the existential crisis within atheists.

It's very interesting to me.

Thank you for contributing

peace

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Living a life without a belief in God is known to cause an existential crisis within most atheists. Imran Hussein explains why by referencing an ayah (verse) from the Qur'an. The Ayah in question is from Surah Ta'ha, 20:124 "And whoever turns away from My remembrance - indeed, he will have a depressed life, and We will gather him on the Day of Resurrection blind." - Dawah Digital blurb for the following video:

This video got me thinking. How do atheists deal with their existential crisis? Your thoughts are welcome!

peace

In rhetoric, this is called a "straw man."

Is there really evidence that atheists have any more, or any stronger "existential" crises than theists, or that theists have fewer and weaker crises than atheists?

Just because your holy text says this, does not make it true...

 

[Mohsen]

In rhetoric, this is called a "straw man."

Is there really evidence that atheists have any more, or any stronger "existential" crises than theists, or that theists have fewer and weaker crises than atheists?

Just because your holy text says this, does not make it true...

I think you should read my last post I wrote the following in it:

As I mentioned, I do understand that theists can also experience an existential crisis as well, but the nature of it would be totally different - ie, it would revolve around the idea of "accountability". Most religions in the world teach a moral caveat which revolves around the idea of judgement/karma in the afterlife.

peace

 

[Vinayaka]

I was raised around a lot of atheists, soft atheists I suppose, but there sure weren't any crises I was ever made aware of. The closest thing to a crisis was poverty some years when it was a bad crop.

 

[Jesster]

Hm, there's multiple large things to respond to there.

As I mentioned, I do understand that theists can also experience an existential crisis as well, but the nature of it would be totally different - ie, it would revolve around the idea of "accountability". Most religions in the world teach a moral caveat which revolves around the idea of judgement/karma in the afterlife.

While I get what you mean by theistic accountability, that didn't have anything to do with the crisis I went through either. At best that just confused me and led to some resentment with people I knew in my life, but that was unrelated.

For the atheist, there is the belief that there is no afterlife and therefore the idea of judgement/karma after death are irrelevant and this is the nature of the atheist existential crisis, that there is simply nothing, it's all pointless kinda thing.

As someone who doesn't believe in things like religious judgement or karma, I can't see how any of that should even register to me. I also don't see why anything should be pointless without any of that. To me, life is much more important and valuable simply because it won't last forever and this may be our only chance. That's what has kept me going even through the worst of my depression. The more I've understood that, the more I've been able to push through.

Of course, this providing that one is considering their existence in the first place to have some sort of meaning, but cannot allow themselves to believe it due to their atheism! - leading to the existential crisis within atheists.

I've certainly considered my existence plenty. Being an atheist hasn't blocked my reasoning in any way; in fact, quite the opposite has been the case. I'd say that consideration has a lot to do with why I've become an atheist. It's been very liberating for me.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I think you should read my last post I wrote the following in it:



peace

Thank you, I just read it. It's a nice hypothesis, but other than anecdotes, is there any real evidence (not just a verbal description and classification) that this really happens? That this distinction between different kinds of existential crises based on religion (or lack thereof) is in any way real or important, and not just speculation of theists about atheists?