First half of November has been pretty rough. Lost a close family member to cancer, and Current TV laid off a ton of people (I dodged the bullet this time). I’ll eventually write about both things (once I get a slice of free time) but in the meantime, here’s a video I stumbled across on the interwebs and it made me laugh out loud (seriously). I thought I’d share it with you. It’s my new goto “pick me up” video.
Recently I heard from friend from way back in the day. My friend (who shall not be named out of respect for his/her privacy) was a religious individual. One who searched for the truth in the belief of a god, or THE God, or what have you. I have great respect for people of faith. Evangelicals not so much, but educated individuals searching for truth, not hillbillie bible thumpers damning all that disagree or challenge their “view”. Anyways, my friend recently contacted me through email to ask me my views on certain theological topics, from an atheist’s perspective.
Just as a sidenote, it’s no secret that I’m an atheist. I’m not ashamed of it, nor do I feel the need to be. Some of my friends and family strongly disapprove of my views, or my publicity of them, but most are indifferent or at least not vocal about it. It is one of those three taboo topics for dinner conversation though. The others being politics, and sex; one pure, and one evil…but I’ll let you decide for yourself which is which.
I felt like the questions that were asked in My Friend’s email were extremely interesting from a purely theological perspective. I feel like it was a chance for me to really define what I believed in relation to what was being asked by someone who’s religious faith had been shaken. My friend’s identity will be protected, but I’ve included the theological portion of the initial email, and my response as I think it starts a very interesting conversation.
My Friend’s Initial Email:
Hey Mr. Tibbs,
< snip >
Secondly, 2009 has sucked for me because I quietly disowned my lifelong exploration and quest of trying to believe in a god. The admittance that our existence is, by default, without purpose makes me sad and intimidated by this huge world that has little governance. What’s more: we’re born, then we die, and for nothing worth bragging about… done.
My question is, how do you enjoy your life from day to day knowing that what we see is what we get?
Any insight you can provide, I’d appreciate.
< snip >
My Response:
Mr < snip >,
< snip >
I’m terribly sorry to hear of your disillusionment in the pursuit and understanding of your faith and exploration of religion/god. Having a realization (if you can truly call it that) which balks at the very epicenter of what you’ve grown to believe and put your faith into cannot be a very easy ordeal by any stretch. My deepest condolences to you for that. The reasons for your departure of faith are your own. It’s something very personal and I empathize with your internal struggle with it.
That being said I don’t think the question is how do I enjoy my life from day to day knowing that what I see is what I get. Rather, I find the question to be more how do I not enjoy my life with all the wonderful fleeting moments that are in it?
My self-actualization comes from the belief that each and every moment I experience while alive is limited, finite, and fleeting. Every path crossed. Every friend made. Every fight won or lost. Every tragedy. Ever triumph. There is a very simple, but astoundingly subtle beauty in it for me. No moment is unique. No moment is ever the same. No moment will ever be repeated. And at some point, in my life, I will cease to be aware of those moments, I will cease to exist, and all those many multitudes of experiences I’ve encountered will also cease to exist with me (though it can be argued that I live on through my shared experiences with friends, children, and/or family, etc…). It’s this time limit that makes it so special. If it continued evermore in whatever incantation that man creates to dull the mind to the fear of death, then the value of my life and my life experiences would be diminished. I personally believe that because there is a limitation, or an end to life, that anything experienced during that duration is that much more special.
To me, the beauty is that nothing lasts forever.
As for the declaration that “our existence is, by default, without purpose…”, I disagree with you. For that statement to be true, some higher power would have to decree that you have a specific use and purpose. In my personal beliefs, I find that to be one caveat of religion that I truly cannot understand. To me an individual’s purpose is whatever he or she wants it to be. You can choose to be and do whatever you want. You can affect peoples lives in great and deeply moving ways. You can spend your years doing absolutely nothing, and that’s okay too. Purpose to me is a personal choice. It’s whatever you want it to be and the fact that it’s yours makes it significant. I think that however you feel about what you choose to do should be the barometer by which you measure your own greatness. That freedom of personal choice is scary though. The question of “what is my purpose in life?” is one of the most complex and challenging questions that mankind faces.
I hope that my personal opinion can offer you some solace, or even direction on this experience you’re having. These questions you’re asking now will only beget more questions…but that’s the beauty of it. You’ll be viewing your world and your experiences through a lens untainted by the dogma of doctrine. You can experience life in it’s purest form.
What are your thoughts?
Haven’t really had any time whatsoever to update, but I wanted to take like 5-10 minutes just to recap how things have been going the last 12 days:
That about covers the past couple of weeks up till now. I’m still editing that FL video in my extremely limited spare time. I wanna get that done soon. Plus I should have a couple new projects to pimp online in the next month. Should be exciting.