Life Without God leads to an Existential Crisis?

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Never happened to me, I'm perfectly content. Obviously, Allah, Mohammed and Imran Hussein were incorrect.

With all due respect, I'm not trying to offend anyone, and have already apologised if I have unintentionally offended anyone in this thread. So I do wonder why you would bring up Allah, Muhammad pbuh or Imran Hussein with such contentious undertones in your post!

I doubt that anybody has been offended by your posts. Nobody has claimed otherwise, and at least one poster denied it explicitly. Let me add my name to hers.

Your perception that others are offended is as wrong as your belief that most atheists suffer existential crises. The evidence for both of those positions permeates this thread. Look at it. Interpret it dispassionately, open-mindedly, and critically. There have been multiple denials of existential crises by the atheists posting here, and little to no offense being taken by anybody but you.

And frankly, I don't see why. Is it because he said that Allah was wrong and Muhammad pbuh were wrong? I doubt that you would find disagreeing with Imran Hussein offensive. The narrator alluded to Surah 20:124 when he said, "There's a very powerful verse in the Qur'an ... where God says, 'Whoever turns away from the remembrance of God, indeed he will have a difficult life, a depressed life, a life of suffocation."

@Evangelicalhumanist thinks that's incorrect, as do I. Did Allah or Mohammad pbuh (or both) make that comment?

Maybe it is because you have no sense of morality due to your atheist position? And think this is all just a game of troll?

You think his comment was immoral, and that he is trolling? As I indicated, I agree with him. Does that make me an immoral troll as well?

I can assure you, my lines of enquiry are genuine, and not for the purpose of having any ulterior motive which is questionable.

Has anybody questioned your sincerity? Not to my knoowledge.

I believe that your purpose is to promote Islam to atheists as a shield against depression and existential crises

I simply seek to know the nature which surrounds the existential crisis within atheists.

And there it is again. That idea is firmly entrenched in your head and can't be budged by any amount of contradictory evidence. You're like somebody trying to sell soft drinks to people that you think are thirsty for no reason, and who keep telling you they're not thirsty. "But drink," you say. "This will quench your thirst"

You're never going to understand us if you don't listen to us. You're listening to people like the guy on the video, a Muslim. What would he know about the atheist life if he has never lived it? Shall I comment on what the Muslim life is like?

Spoiler: off-topic digression

Speaking of thirst and Islam, there was a billboard in Saudi Arabia from Pepsi or Coke about 25 years ago that had no words, just three panels with photographs, left, center, and right. On theleft was an arab man with keffiyeh visibly distressed by the heat, with beads of sweat running from his brow.

In the middle panel, he has his head maximally extended back as he pours a bottle of Coke (?) down his throat.

In the panel on the right, he has a big smile and looks visibly refreshed.

This ad backfired. Why?
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Arabs read right to left.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

One of the hardships of being an atheist is having to put up with religious friends and family that think you must be miserable or immoral because you don't believe like them.

That's pretty much why I avoid my sister. It's not just that she believes that, it's that she's constantly bringing it up. It's to the point she's practically begged me to "just believe in something" so she's not in Heaven without me. We even went a couple years without talking at all (she had moved a bit far away), and when she texted me the first time, around the time of my birthday, it wasn't to wish me a happy birthday but to tell me I need to believe in god because the apocalypse was about to happen.

 

[Laika]

Is he talking about atheists or ex-theists? Why would atheists normally have any issues?

If morality is part of mankind's historical and social evolution, moral understanding goes through a process of simultaneous creation and destruction. new moral ideas supersede old moral ideas. In so far as atheism is the rejection of god as a source of "old moral" ideas (rather than simply "lack of belief" in god), it can entails there destruction. Atheism can be a revolutionary assault on the ruling religious moralities of the past in overthrowing them as old, outdated, false, corrupt, etc. This entails the possibility of an existential crisis as an "extinction" or "crisis" of moral ideas.

However, Atheism can also mean the creation of a new morality, sometimes building on old ones that are held to be valid, or creating new ideas of supersede those who do not fulfil the functions of truth we wish to use them for in our everyday lives. It can therefore be a positive morality establishing a new worldview or "religion of humanity" as a set of beliefs intentionally designed to serve human interests rather than those of fantastical creations of gods, angels, demons and spirits.

Nietzsche is easily the best example of this kind of view with his famous "god is dead" quote. It is not universal amongst atheists by any means, but depending on how you reach atheism as a conclusion, if god is a fiction which has been believed by billions of people for thousands of years you necessarily have to ask what other kinds of beliefs are also fictions.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Life is no less meaningful to my strong atheist view than it is to yours. The difference is I create my meaning.

So, you have to make it up? Like a fairy tale?

A sense of meaning or purpose is not made up. It suddenly appears without effort if one leads an upright and connected life. That life takes on meaning just by being lived. One simply finds his existence and much of his world meaningful, just as he might find it beautiful or enigmatic.

The "fairy tale" is that a god would give your life meaning or purpose. How would that work? In that scenario, you exist to worship that god and massage its ego. Do you consider that a good purpose for a human being? It casts the human being not as a thing of value in and of itself, but in terms of its usefulness to another, that is, the human's worth is as a means to an end that serve the god, not the person.

if you are making up your moral playground based on your whimsical subjectivity, how can you be sure that you are morally fortified and not just playing to a compromised trade between immorality and your own subjective sense of justice?

You really don't understand us at all. You think you have an idea about how we come to our moral positions, and demean it because it doesn't come from a holy book

It comes from within - from contemplation and applying reason to compassion.

You are probably sure that you are morally fortified based on passively accepting an external ethical system that you are not free to question. You just called another poster immoral for telling you that he disagreed with some of those scriptures. From my perspective, that is the source of a moral system that is whimsically subjective.

I certainly trust my own sense of justice over what is offered in the Christian holy book (I'm much less familiar with yours). Here's Matt Dillahunty speaking to the Christians about justice and morality in their ethical system:

"Christianity is not a moral system. It is an immoral system. Because it specifically says that there aren't necessarily consequences that you have to pay because of a loophole. And what is the loophole? It has nothing to do with how good you are or how morally you act. It has to do with whether you are willing to be a sycophant to an idea. And if you are, then there is an exception by which you no longer have to suffer a penalty for this. The idea that secular morality offers no guarantee that people will ever pay for their crimes and their atrocities is not an argument against secular morality because that is a tenet of Christianity."

I'll take the rational ethics of secular humanism and the inner moral compass that develops from the sincere and thoughtful application of reason to compassion over an external code not subject to review or revision that is simply downloaded and obeyed.

The Christian system is inadequate for my life (as I said, I am limited to discussing it since I know relatively little about the Islamic moral code, for example). It fails to condemn slavery, rape, animal cruelty, and tyranny, it depicts women as inferior and subject to men, it fails to esteem democracy and guaranteed personal liberties, as well as admonish us to be informed citizen and connected to community, and it promotes bigotry (homophobia and atheophobia).

Perhaps the highest moral good in Christianity is to worship God and to submit to authority - men to gods and kings, slaves to masters, and wives to husbands. I don't consider any of that a moral virtue. I prefer equality, autonomy, self-actualization, and the sovereignty of the individual to own himself.

Is choosing a moral system from a holy book less subjective than the rational ethics of secular humanists do? One might claim that his choice is objectively true, but being a choice, its adoption is subjective.

I'd say that a system such as the rational ethics of secular humanism, which can be tested to see whether it produces desired results, and then tweaked until it does so optimally, has more objectivity to it than one with no purpose other than to please an unseen god whose will men have claimed to have known and reported. The former can be shown to be effective if it is. The latter is fossilized, and only changes when it admits new ideas from outside of its holy books, new ideas generated by rational ethics.

How else would Christians know that slavery is immoral? Their holy book doesn't tell them, but rational ethics does.

 

[Sunstone]

Life without god leads to existential crisis? It would be interesting if it were often true.

 

[idav]

Life without god leads to existential crisis? It would be interesting if it were often true.

It's only the most devote religious that might go through such a thing IMO. Often times in the world of dogma your battling against wrong religious opinion, as if that's the biggest travesty in the world equating to some sort of harsh and terrible judgment.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

The video talks of atheists forums where, supposedly, there are atheists aplenty talking about their frequent existential hardships.

I have to wonder what they are talking about. I have been frequenting various atheist forums for well over a decade now, and what I see is quite at odds with the video's impression.

A link to the forum discussed would be relevant, I think...

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The topic is about the existential crisis which atheists face, and theists too - whether they be monotheist or polytheist! As demonstrated in my posts here.

According to the OP and the video, the topic is that atheism leads to existential crises. There was no effort to discuss theists until later. You discussed a theistic crisis of accountability which I understood to mean a fear of postmortem punishment, and I added the theist's crises of faith.

The OP was an opening to stronger, more genuine lines of enquiry and not pushing any schoolboy narratives, as you would seem to suggest.

I thought that the video was quite tendentious. It was pushing a "schoolboy" narrative: Atheism is empty and regularly leads to dysphoria, and by implication, belief in gods (or the Muslim god) is superior and fulfilling. He begins his degradation of atheists and atheism in his first sentence:

"Normally when Muslims and atheists interact with each other ... arguments for God's existence are given, supposed arguments against God's existence are given."

He has arguments, we only have supposed arguments. Very cute.

He also asks, "What does it mean when you adopt atheism as a worldview? How does that change your life or shape your life or affect your life?"

Atheism is not a world view, and it doesn't affect ones life except in the sense that it means that one has avoided theistic systems and has room for secular humanism or any other atheistic worldview (Randian objectivism, astrology [a belief in stars ruling our lives in a godless universe], Stalinism, etc.).

People that don't bother to try to understand even the simplest aspects of what atheism is disqualify their opinions and objections. My atheism informs my world view exactly as much as my avampirism and aleprechaunism.

Presumably, you are also an avampirist and an aleprechaunist. Do you consider them worldviews? Are you depressed or having an existential crisis over the vampire-shaped hole in your heart?

If such ideas seem alien and absurd to you, welcome to the world of the atheist being assessed by the theist.

His "schoolboy" narrative continues as he tells us that when he goes to atheist forums, he sees many atheists post "I'm depressed, I don't want to live, I'm going through an existential crisis, life doesn't make sense any more, meaning has been taken out of my life," as three screen shots too small to read pass by. That's all of the support he gives for his premise.

Is that a good argument? He claims he has often seen what we virtually never see in this forum. The atheists here seem happy, well-adjusted people living live replete with meaning and purpose, intending to raise decent families, be good neighbors, be of service to others including strangers, be kind to animals, make a difference in their jobs if possible, serve their communities, and as @Shadow Wolf noted, leave the world a little better than they found it.

But he and you have a narrative in mind about our empty, crisis-filled lives, and you both seem pretty committed to it.

Don't you think that he and you should know your target audience a little better? You're going to have a tough time selling your alternative to people that are content without it.

 

[osgart]

nobody has an existential crisis til they have to die.

For religious people they grow to love life as special and eternal, so they have a lot to lose.

For most atheists, I don't think they find life sacred, or special, existing is a miracle, and not existing is just another day for most atheists. they never had a passion for the religious life.

as an atheist coming out of religion, I find dying is a major loss and an inevitable likelihood that we cease to exist.

however nothing is ultimately proven about life after death, it just strongly seems so that we all cease to exist.

it also seems to me that we are created by something living. but it's not godlike.

so I am an atheist living a mystery about the nature of life and who created it.

God is like a fantasy, dream, I don't see it bearing out in reality.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The video talks of atheists forums where, supposedly, there are atheists aplenty talking about their frequent existential hardships. I have to wonder what they are talking about. I have been frequenting various atheist forums for well over a decade now, and what I see is quite at odds with the video's impression.

Fake news.

 

[suncowiam]

One of the hardships of being an atheist is having to put up with religious friends and family that think you must be miserable or immoral because you don't believe like them.

We live in a very secular part of the country, so the religious folks have to deal with us and our sensical logical "nonsense." LOL

 

[suncowiam]

To be fair to this thread because the OP is being ultra respectful.

I've come to conclusion a long time ago that I will accept my fate in hell if it does exist.

I rather live this life the way I see fit. It's my life. If there really is a God and he created me, then that's his fault for creating me the way I am. It's like blaming a baby for soiling his diaper.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

nobody has an existential crisis til they have to die.

For religious people they grow to love life as special and eternal, so they have a lot to lose.

For most atheists, I don't think they find life sacred, or special, existing is a miracle, and not existing is just another day for most atheists. they never had a passion for the religious life.

as an atheist coming out of religion, I find dying is a major loss and an inevitable likelihood that we cease to exist.

however nothing is ultimately proven about life after death, it just strongly seems so that we all cease to exist.

it also seems to me that we are created by something living. but it's not godlike.

so I am an atheist living a mystery about the nature of life and who created it.

God is like a fantasy, dream, I don't see it bearing out in reality.

You provide an excellent reason for you angst -- you claim to be an atheist, but when you go on to wonder about "the nature of life and who created it," you give yourself away. You are not yet really an atheist.

 

[osgart]

You provide an excellent reason for you angst -- you claim to be an atheist, but when you go on to wonder about "the nature of life and who created it," you give yourself away. You are not yet really an atheist.

Perhaps not. But whomever created us isn't an ideal God, so I borrowed the term. I rather think there is higher and deeply flawed intelligence out there.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Perhaps not. But whomever created us isn't an ideal God, so I borrowed the term. I rather think there is higher and deeply flawed intelligence out there.

Like it or not, that is still deistic thinking. No real atheist would get there -- we don't believe in unknowable entities of any kind, good bad or indifferent, omniscient or painfully stupid, or any other characteristics you'd care to name.

 

[QuestioningMind]

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

Not sure where you got the idea that 'most' atheist suffer from such a crisis. I have never had such a crisis nor has any of the many other atheists that I know.

 

[Polymath257]

Not sure where you got the idea that 'most' atheist suffer from such a crisis. I have never had such a crisis nor has any of the many other atheists that I know.

It seems to be an idea soundly defeated by the actual evidence.

 

[whirlingmerc]

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 might be very frustrating as one ages and feels 'the best part of life is behind you' as an atheist where a believer might look forward and feel 'the best part of (and eternal) life is before me'
Could explain allot of depression

 

[FlyingTeaPot]

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

Thank you for posting the video. It seems to me that the person speaking has not personally met many atheists. The feeling that he attributes towards a majority of atheists do not strike me as plausible. Of course, I do not presume to speak for all atheists, and my upbringing may have something to do with the fact that I do not have any existential crisis that the person featured in the video refers to.
I can readily imagine people teetering on the edge of leaving their religion having existential crisis of the sort he speaks about.
As for me personally, I have no use for god, and therefore spend no time at all thinking about what god thinks my purpose is.

The person in the video says that mankind was created for the purpose of worshiping god, and whoever does not worship god has no purpose. That seems rather sad to me. Is god really that narcissistic that he would create an entire species just to worship him? In which case, is god even worth worshiping? Can you tell me why god is worth worshiping?

 

[Mohsen]

Thank you for posting the video.

Thanks, a pleasure to share, and the banter here has been very interesting so far! Nice to meet you. Apologies to all - i've not had the time to check in lately due to work etc and striking that all important balance in life, but I have the flu and am up (can't sleep) so I thought I'd visit after seeing this notification in my email.

It seems to me that the person speaking has not personally met many atheists.

That comment itself, seems rather subjective. Who is to say he hasn't? he certainly says he has!

The feeling that he attributes towards a majority of atheists do not strike me as plausible. Of course, I do not presume to speak for all atheists, and my upbringing may have something to do with the fact that I do not have any existential crisis that the person featured in the video refers to.

Going by the small sample study i've witnessed in this thread, I would say I agree - but then again - of the 8 friends I have who identify as atheist, 5 have suffered depression borne of or related to existential crisis. They are today, less emotional and very much materially inclined. And they do not claim any spirituality nor do they care for it. They sometimes seem quite brash like that, but I accept them for who they are because they are my friends.

On the flip side, they find me immaterial and often quite uninterested in the things they find exciting. I might also add none of my atheist friends are scientifically minded but pretend to be. And that, I do find interesting.

I can readily imagine people teetering on the edge of leaving their religion having existential crisis of the sort he speaks about.

On this, I agree. I've seen many a Christian leave his/her faith, and even witnessed one become a Muslim on Christmas Eve, at speakers corner during my visit there! Quite the shocker. But hey, I've also been privy to know that atheists also do u-turns on the "a" and adopt some sort of theistic model of belief besides.

As for me personally, I have no use for god, and therefore spend no time at all thinking about what god thinks my purpose is.

I don't think you understood his premise then. He doesn't claim "God thinks about your purpose" so to speak. Rather, he is informing in the video that God is an axiomatic truth - an objective reality reasoned without science and innately experienced through a "knowing" which brings peace in the one who believes. If you don't have the calling for this, then it shouldn't upset you because - as you say - you don't believe nor do you see the need to believe.

The person in the video says that mankind was created for the purpose of worshiping god, and whoever does not worship god has no purpose. That seems rather sad to me. Is god really that narcissistic that he would create an entire species just to worship him? In which case, is god even worth worshiping? Can you tell me why god is worth worshiping?

I was going to ask you to define what you think worship means, but that would lead to a polemic discourse, and quite frankly, I don't do tennis. However, I would clarify his position as I also am a Muslim and our understanding of worship, goes far beyond simple rituals. Rather, even a smile to a stranger can be a form of worship to God. For HE has created us as "Vice Regents" on this planet, meaning, we are the best of creations with a special purpose - to do right by mankind, animal life, insect life and even the plant life forms by facilitating safety, equity and justice wherever we can, and within our individual and collective means. And even this is worship to God. And a lot more besides. As I said, even a smile is charity - and charity is a form of worship to God! Whic, let's face it - seems a lot better an ideological standard than "survival of the fittest", which is a great excuse for war by the way.

Your question - "Why is God worth worshiping?" is a good question, and very open ended. Entire books have been written exploring the reasons and the manifestations of worship which go beyond the often ritualized understanding within the modern mindset. A kind word to your fellow man is worship to God, to contain anger and practice patience is worship to God, to save life is worship to God, to help a stranger is worship to God. In Islam the concept of the Fitrah - has many facets, and the Fitrah, is the innately coded axiomatic truth of God within the heart of the human being which is there in all humans. Some of the forms the Fitrah manifests in, such as Aesthetic Reception, Love, Moral Truths, Innate Belief in God to name but a few, are true for all of us to some degree. Just this Sunday, I was speaking with a friend of mine who is atheist and I asked him if he believed in Objective Truths, and he said yes - as long as the truths were "material". He then asked me if I believed the direction UP was true while he pointed up. I replied Yes. He then asked the same for the direction Down, I replied Yes again. He asked me if Good was true, I said Yes. He asked me if Evil was true, I again said Yes - and he was confused - I had to remind him that his questions had nothing to do with what he recognizes as "materially objective truths" because Up is an idea, good is an idea, etc. I then asked him if he believed in Objective Morality, and he said No, that Morality is a societal construct. So I tested this, and said to him "if tomorrow, society dictates that it's ok to hit women for no reason, and this became a socially accepted norm - how would you feel if someone walked into your home and slapped your mother hard on her face?" he didn't like the question and was obviously very offended by it. But I couldn't understand why because he didn't believe in Objective Morality. It seems to me he wanted his cake - but I had the biggest slice. What do you think?

peace