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Yeah, I agree. I think we're deep into a spiritual crisis, a crisis of meaning. A lot of people are blind to the trend because those aren't easy things to measu
by asdfman123 6mo ago
Yeah, I agree. I think we're deep into a spiritual crisis, a crisis of meaning. A lot of people are blind to the trend because those aren't easy things to measure.
But if you're single, isolated, on dating apps -- or maybe caught in an unfulfilling marriage commuting from the suburbs to a job you resent -- there often doesn't seem much point to your own existence. Everything has been stripped of its meaning.
The spiritual crisis also explains why people aren't having kids. If there's no point to anything, why go through all the work and hardship? Parents often want to bring more happiness into the world. But if you're deeply unhappy, the logic changes.
- regularization 6mo ago> But if you're single, isolated, on dating apps -- or maybe caught in an unfulfilling marriage commuting from the suburbs to a job you resent -- there often doesn't seem much point to your own existence. Everything has been stripped of its meaning. The scenario you paint is one where everything has been stripped of meaning. One option is to seek more meaningful work and social relationships, on an individual level, and/or on a societal movement level. Or one can seek some supernatural mental delusions, an opiate for the people, to anethisize oneself to being a miserable wage slave with a miserable life.
- asdfman123 6mo ago> Or one can seek some supernatural mental delusions, an opiate for the people I'm very much an atheist and a positivist too. I rejected religion growing up. But we don't have to cede the concept of spirituality to organized religion. Spirituality is so much more than that. It's about purpose, connection, and what it means to be a human. You can practice spirituality by meditating at home, just sitting with your thoughts and feelings. No delusion or supernatural beliefs required! When you talk about the future of mankind, our role in it, and what's the most meaningful way to live our lives -- that's what I mean by spirituality.
- card_zero 6mo agoUsing a long phrase like "Purpose, connection, and what it means to be a human" seems preferable to enabling supernatural belief to slink in through the gap in the now-ambiguous word "spirituality". I say leave it to Madame Blavatsky. Oh wait that's spiritualism. Same difference. Ooh, how about zeitgeist? I like that word. Then you'd still have spirits, but rational German ones.
- asdfman123 6mo agoI intentionally use the word because fellow atheists and positivists are too uncomfortable with it, and I believe the world needs more of it. Yes, I'm pro-science and rational thought, but I'm increasingly thinking people like me have spent too long in left brain land and need to explore some of the deeper, subtle, and more intuitive parts of what it means to be a human, if that makes any sense.
- card_zero 6mo agoHey, I'm cool with Chesterton and CS Lewis and "the numinous". (There's another word option for you, BTW.) I just think "spirituality" is already crammed full of very fruity religious meaning. If when somebody says "spirituality" they might be talking about meaning and purpose or crystal healing and Jesus, that's bad for me trying to pin down their argument, and worse for their memetic victims who can be suckered into thinking the two are related, which deliberate confusion is already a big vector for the spread of religion.
- asdfman123 6mo ago[dead]
- jimbokun 6mo agoWhat’s your proposed alternative for flourishing, content, joyful human lives?
- 6mo ago
- jimbokun 6mo agoYes it’s much better to be an atheist miserable wage slave with a miserable life.
- nathan_compton 6mo agoI don't know, I'm a die hard nihilist and atheist and I'm married, have kids, friends, and think life is beautiful and generally ok. I don't see why people need to believe in imaginary stuff and I don't really see how it makes people happy.
- asdfman123 6mo agoSee my other reply
- Bengalilol 6mo ago[dead]
- endemic 6mo agoFunny, I'm the exact opposite!
- jimbokun 6mo agoIt’s just an empirically observable reality. Religious people tend to be less lonely , more likely to be married and have children, and more happy and less likely to experience mental illness, on average. It’s certainly not true for every religious person nor the opposite for every atheist, but the effect can be seen across populations.
- asdfman123 6mo agoIt's also demonstrated that meditation and volunteering improves well being regardless of beliefs... and atheists like myself have no excuse not to be doing those things right now.
- throw4847285 6mo agoYou don't sound much like a nihilist to me.
- NoGravitas 6mo agoExistentialism and/or Optimistic Nihilism. I'm a pessimist, myself.
- maerF0x0 6mo agoon your point about meaning... this is america: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Force_That_Gives_Us_Meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Force_That_Gives_Us_M... (book by Chris Hedges)
- asdfman123 6mo agoSome people react negatively when I say this, because there very much are real problems in the world right now, but... Much unhappiness is not due to the fact that the world is too hard, but that it's too easy. You show up to your job and don't do any real work... and nothing happens. There are no real life or death decisions you'll make. Life now is hard but you're not going to die in a bomb attack. So lots of our energies are turned inward, on ourselves.
- testing22321 6mo ago> Everything has been stripped of its meaning. A friend j got the epic ski pass, so he skied at 43 resorts this winter with his wife and kid all across the US. From Baltimore to Tahoe through about 25 states. I thought it would be awesome, he said it was shit. Because one corporation owns all of it, they’re all identical. Same signs, same food, same rules. No adventure, nothing new at each resort . Giant monoculture. That’s how I feel when I’m in the US.
- alex43578 6mo agoAre you skiing for the signs or for the mountains, the views, and the experience?
- testing22321 6mo agoThe whole experience. And it was boring monoculture