…that immersing yourself in a culture that says you are loved, there is hope, your life has meaning, and your choices really have eternal consequences for eternal happiness leads to lowering your likelihood of depression, while being told you are an unusually clever piece of meat whose origins are chaos, who lives by enmity, and whose destiny is oblivion (so work, buy, consume, since tomorrow you die), leaves people wondering “What’s the point?” and living in depression.
Ironically, those enamored of the New Atheism often solve this problem of an empty meaningless existence by worshipping their own intellects and aggressively preaching the gospel of the New Atheism. It gives them something to do to fill the silence of the Void.
Sacred text: In the beginning there was Nothing. Then Nothing exploded. The Nothing became Meat and dwelt behind my eyeballs, full of pride and a sense of settled superiority.
It’s a pretty barren gospel, more like a virus than an actual idea (one might even call it a “meme”), since it consists of the negation of the Logos. But the funny thing is that the depressing barrenness of the thing is sold by atheists as a feature, not a bug. “Ours is a high and lonely destiny” is the tenor of the thing. “We do not lean on hope as a crutch. We are the strong men of metal who look into the emptiness and meaninglessness with courage! Not like the simpering weaklings who need a Father figure to give their lives meaning, etc.”
Right. Talk to the antidepressant prescription rate, pal. The Big Talk may work for a while, but outside the little hothouse of the evangelical atheist Circle of Affirmation we both know atheists are as troubled by the Big Existential Questions as any nun and are just as prey to the fears and doubts to which flesh is heir as the most credulous snake-handling bumpkin in Appalachia.
Does this render Christian truth claims true? Of course not. But it does render Evangelical Atheist BS about being Okay without God, Meaning, and Ultimate Hope the BS we all know it is. There’s a lot of whistling past the graveyard in atheism. And religious people are not the only ones who put on the shiny happy face and pretend they’ve got it together when their lives are in misery and chaos. Atheists are quite as capable of being full of utter denial and BS about their unhappy, screwed-up lives as any Christian. Only atheist dogma and pride leaves atheists with bloody few resources for confronting that while Christians have someplace to go with it that actually helps them deal–a fact now empirically demonstrated.
If you are a depressed atheist, why not take a suggestion from a Christian who struggles with doubts about the point of his life, whether there is really hope, and all the other questions you struggle with and consider the possibility of taking it to God. To paraphrase Pascal, what have you got to lose? If we Christians are wrong, you spent some time to talking to four walls and hanging out with some nice people. If you are as tough as you say you are, you can survive that. If we’re right, you have a chance to tap into the Meaning of Life. Worth the wager, at least.
Got any links to sources on this? I could use one or two.
Agh! I forgot the link! D’oh! And now I can’t find it. Sorry!
I can relate to this in so many ways, particularly during my bouts of semi-atheism in college, in which I didn’t really believe in God, though I desperately wanted to. Even then, when I didn’t believe, I couldn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to believe in God. Depression? You have no idea. The only thing that kept me from killing myself was (get this) that niggling fear that God might really exist.
So, yeah. Can we co-opt the phrase “It Gets Better” from the homosexualists? I have no doubt that so many young adults are feeling the same things I was, and if they just hang in there, it really does improve.
Also, because militant atheists are sure to swoop in with the meme “Pascal’s Wager is debunked” non-thought, it really should be stated: for me, anyway, it was always Catholicism or nothing. Catholicism always contained within it the best explanation for the experience of life, and for me it was only the God hump I had to overcome. Everything else just clicked.
Note: I’m a cradle Catholic! We are far from immune from these conflicts. Indeed, we might be more prone to them than most.
Nice “meme” namedrop, BTW.
Of course, it *is* a meme — an idea which has Darwinian survival properties. Think about it, any idea which states “the person having this idea is the pinnacle of intellect” is naturally going to get some traction. At least after that whole affair with the apple in the Garden.
Atheists = SilverHawks
Theists = ThunderCats.
I don’t get it. Please explain
(yes I know the ThunderCats, but I never saw SilverHawks, so I have no idea what you mean)
The SilverHawks were “partly metal, partly real,” (literally cold, metal men), largely positivist, and were so obviously a rip-off of the ThunderCats, who despite the fact that knew they were animals, worked to keep their animal nature in check with great personal faith in the divine. Atheism can only ape theism, and it does a crappy job of it at that.
Very astute! Thanks for the explanation, btw. Like I said, I knew of SilverHawks, but never watched it myself, and I only remember some of the Thundercats, indeed most of my memories of the show come from the remake. You said they had “great personal faith in the divine”, really? Was that in the old show (again I cant remember). Either way because of this conversation I think I now have to go and rent the original ThunderCats series! So thanks again!
You know Mark I used to work with an individual who claimed to be agnostic, but you could have easily called him an atheist because of his anti-Christian statements. This person was an unhappy and extremely bitter and he liked to bring people down that had a sense of joy.
So I tend to agree with this blog post. That being said, while this individual would try to bring me down, I was very charitable back to him regardless.
In short while he was still very much anti-Christian, he told me, “If all Christians were as polite and nice as you I think I might buy into your God!
This is not to pat myself on the back… I don’t want it to be about that. My point is, if Christians would actually abide by the simple commandment of loving thy neighbor and also loving the Lord our God with all our hearts and with our entire soul and with our minds and with all our strength, I really believe it starts with Christians being more Christ like to change the mentality of numerous atheists.
Agreed.
My mother proclaimed herself an atheist for a long time. But as she lay dying, she came out of a coma for a while, and she asked me to tell her what ‘came next’ – meaning after death. She was *very* afraid, but also very weak. She couldn’t take much of either talking or listening, so I had to get to the most bare essential, and I knew it. I have never prayed for wisdom and understanding so hard in all my life.
All I could do at that point was tell her of the love of Christ, how that Love was even now reaching out to her and let her know it was hers, too, if she asked Him for it. Mom closed her eyes, but smiled some, seemed to me as if maybe she was thinking it over, but she didn’t want to talk about it, but she didn’t seem so frightened. She rejected calling for a priest (she was a baptized Catholic), but I did the best I could for her in prayer before she went back into the coma and died peacefully the next morning. Atheism looked so bold and brave until the realization of everything going black and ending for ever in a few hours hit her. Then it doesn’t seem so grand anymore, I guess.
I pray for my mother’s soul, hope that she reached out and accepted that living Love. We just passed the six year anniversary of her death. Please remember Sharon in your prayers, if you have a moment.
To quote Viktor Frankl from “Man’s Search for Meaning”:
Some of the people who nowadays call on a psychiatrist would have seen a pastor, priest, or rabbi in former days. Now they often refuse to be handed over to a clergyman and instead confront the doctor with questions such as ‘What is the meaning of my life?’”
I have tried praying to God when I was very upset and depressed (diagnosed and everything) and nothing seemed to come of it.
But hey, maybe I’m doing it all wrong.