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You're right. And I mean that earnestly. In reality, what I should have said was "I was suddenly responsible for assigning value to all the aspects of my life.

You're right. And I mean that earnestly. In reality, what I should have said was "I was suddenly responsible for assigning value to all the aspects of my life. They suddenly had no inherent godly value, just the value that I, and those around me assigned it". But still - ultimately nothing has value. With the sun eventually consuming the earth and the universe either collapsing or going cold, everything that could have value will eventually cease to exist. Any number, multiplied by any other number, and multiplied an endless list of values, and eventually by zero at least once is still zero. The death of everything that ever has been influenced by anything I do will eventually be multiplied by zero. Therefore, ultimately, every piece of value, regardless of how significant, is ephemeral. But I do understand the dangers of anti-religious religiousness. The exmormon community is full of people defining their lives as the exact opposite of what they were told, and in doing so are still defined by what they used to be, but are no longer.

DangitBobby 5y ago
> Any number, multiplied by any other number, and multiplied an endless list of values, and eventually by zero at least once is still zero. The universe is so much more than its end state.
HEmanZ 5y ago
When we are yanked (or freely leap, depending on your perspective) from our deeply religious world views it can be terrifying. I remember being incredibly nihilistic and depressed for at a few years. I highly recommend diving into Philosophy. The questions about human meaning aren't exclusive to individual religions, or even to religiousness. They are universal, and very smart humans have been thinking very hard for a very long time about them. I found that with enough hard thinking, guided by the hard questions and arguments of brilliant human minds, I have come to terms with the world and learned to love it. Philosophy and the philosophical process has shaped my mind to better understand and find tremendous joy in a "godless" (even the meaning of god changes as you explore deeply) and "meaningless" (even the meaning of meaning changes as you explore deeply) world.
joshgrib 5y ago
I was raised with religion and then later realized it doesn't make sense, I went through a lot of the same feelings You could still have subjective value even if there's no "sea level" from which to assign an absolute value. "Value" is a pretty abstract concept and something everyone probably has to define for themselves, but at least depending on your definition _everything_ could have value - maybe not to you, or maybe not right now, but in some sense it still "ultimately" does - and that's pretty cool too

DangitBobby 5y ago

> Any number, multiplied by any other number, and multiplied an endless list of values, and eventually by zero at least once is still zero. The universe is so much more than its end state.

HEmanZ 5y ago

When we are yanked (or freely leap, depending on your perspective) from our deeply religious world views it can be terrifying. I remember being incredibly nihilistic and depressed for at a few years. I highly recommend diving into Philosophy. The questions about human meaning aren't exclusive to individual religions, or even to religiousness. They are universal, and very smart humans have been thinking very hard for a very long time about them. I found that with enough hard thinking, guided by the hard questions and arguments of brilliant human minds, I have come to terms with the world and learned to love it. Philosophy and the philosophical process has shaped my mind to better understand and find tremendous joy in a "godless" (even the meaning of god changes as you explore deeply) and "meaningless" (even the meaning of meaning changes as you explore deeply) world.

joshgrib 5y ago

I was raised with religion and then later realized it doesn't make sense, I went through a lot of the same feelings You could still have subjective value even if there's no "sea level" from which to assign an absolute value. "Value" is a pretty abstract concept and something everyone probably has to define for themselves, but at least depending on your definition _everything_ could have value - maybe not to you, or maybe not right now, but in some sense it still "ultimately" does - and that's pretty cool too