Am I the only one who wishes he was an atheist?

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MockSock said:
Lie in on a Sunday morning, that would be nice.
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I look forward to getting up and going to Mass, quite frankly. I had that feeling when I was in grade school, but not as an adult.
MockSock said:
I can’t be the only one who feels like this from time to time.
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I kind of understand where you’re coming from. I don’t think you’re alone. Personally, I had a ten year period where I wasn’t in communion with the Church and lived as I pleased. I’m grateful to be back. Hedonism and ignorance are greatly overrated.
 
But if an atheist is suffering in this life, in his mind, there is no reason to continue suffering since there is no future joy and choosing to stop the suffering with death will not in any way hurt him.
 
EmmaSowl said:
But if an atheist is suffering in this life, in his mind, there is no reason to continue suffering since there is no future joy and choosing to stop the suffering with death will not in any way hurt him.
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Yes, that is always a possibility.
 
MockSock said:
It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it?

No rules (or at least you could make the rules up yourself). You could do whatever you want as long as it was legal. For that matter you could break the law if you were so inclined.

Lie in on a Sunday morning, that would be nice.

But I could obviously not be an atheist because once you know, you know. You can’t un-know.

I know that we have it right. But it would just be so much easier to be blissfully ignorant.

I can’t be the only one who feels like this from time to time. Or am I?
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I approach this in the exact opposite way: even if Christianity was somehow proven untrue (which is impossible, I know), I’d still want to believe. The God of The Universe coming down and becoming man, creating eyeballs for people out of clay and spittle (John 9:6), and breaking into people’s houses (John 20:19), now that’s incredible.
 
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As a former Atheist I can shed some light, but i can only speak for myself.
I was a ‘good’ person before receiving the Holy Spirit, so I wasnt leading a majorly sinful life.

Concerning the end of life I was at the belief that once you die that’s the end.

An atheistic life can be ok as you arent privy to the love of God (even though we know God is there) so you dont feel you have missed out.

When you Know and Feel God … now that’s a full life. Life takes on a whole new meaning.

I will pray for atheists and I will ask God to enter their lives
 
Freddy said:
The other one says: ‘I can’t see the point. We’re definitely going to get rescued and there’ll be a better life for us when that happens’.
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Except once “rescued” we will be judged on how we managed ourselves on the island. So it’s not a free pass to see this life as some type of mirage.
 
“MockSock said:
It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it?

No rules (or at least you could make the rules up yourself). You could do whatever you want as long as it was legal. For that matter you could break the law if you were so inclined.

Is this by your own judgment ?

The Lord Jesus brilliantly sums it up…

Laborers in the Vineyard​

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
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Many do not know the Law as St Paul rightly said but still live by the law even though they have never known the law.

So how much worse is it for one who knows the law and does not keep the law.

I wouldn’t worry what others do. Even in churches full of Catholic’s and Christians they envy over one another. Gossiping , some even pull up the Priest disagreeing with him. Challenging his authority.

It’s up to The Lord who enters not us. I like you have wrongly judged Atheists and have apologised.
 
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MockSock said:
Lie in on a Sunday morning, that would be nice.
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I don’t know.

What drives me out of bed on Sundays is not rules or the fact I know things I can’t un-know, it is joy and anticipation at meeting the One who gives meaning to my life.

I don’t think I would be happy without Him. I see rules as a way to keep living in His company and staying close to His Heart, not as constraints. It tells me that He cares deeply about who I am and what I do.
 
The issue, is that following Jesus means likely more suffering.

So our love and appreciation for Jesus must be greater than our desire to have a comfortable life.

Trusting that suffering when we are following Jesus will bring profound joy is the human challenge.
 
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I’ve heard this ghastly vacuum referred to as the “God-shaped hole” in people’s lives. Anything and everything material can never fill it, only God…
 
Tota_Tua1 said:
I’ve heard this ghastly vacuum referred to as the “God-shaped hole” in people’s lives. Anything and everything material can never fill it, only God…
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I am pretty sure that if I had somehow been born into a non-believing or non-religious family, I would have gone “looking for God” as a teen or adult and there is a good chance I would have adopted either Zen Buddhism, or else whatever church my future spouse belonged to.

I have always had a sense that there is something bigger out there than just us and our cheesy little planet. Also that love never dies, and not just in the sense of “you live on through the good memories others have of you” or “you live on through the good things you did for the world when you were alive that persist after you die”, or “you live on through the lives of your children and others who knew and loved you” etc. I mean in the sense that love persists eternally across time and space and continues after death. The love of God is a perfect explanation for this innate sense.
 
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Jen7 said:
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Freddy:
The other one says: ‘I can’t see the point. We’re definitely going to get rescued and there’ll be a better life for us when that happens’.
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Except once “rescued” we will be judged on how we managed ourselves on the island. So it’s not a free pass to see this life as some type of mirage.
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The point was to show the attitude of the ‘atheist’ in the scenario. Who is making the most of her time because she doen’t believe there will be a rescue.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I am pretty sure that if I had somehow been born into a non-believing or non-religious family, I would have gone “looking for God” as a teen or adult and there is a good chance I would have adopted either Zen Buddhism, or else whatever church my future spouse belonged to.
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That’s speculative, as well as being personal - only to you…
 
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MockSock said:
It would be so much easier to be an atheist wouldn’t it?
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Not really, you still have the same responsibilities that anyone else has. I’d argue that believers have an easier time, belief in an afterlife must be hugely comforting.
MockSock said:
No rules (or at least you could make the rules up yourself). You could do whatever you want as long as it was legal. For that matter you could break the law if you were so inclined.
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Well surely you can do the same thing, as long as you go for confession prior to death you get to go to heaven. Also there are plenty of Catholics behind bars for some of the most egregious offences, clearly isn’t much of a deterrent.
MockSock said:
Lie in on a Sunday morning, that would be nice.
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It really would, work and parenthood put paid to that idea pretty quickly.
MockSock said:
But I could obviously not be an atheist because once you know, you know. You can’t un-know.

I know that we have it right.
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I hate to nitpick but you believe you have it right, you don’t actually know.
MockSock said:
But it would just be so much easier to be blissfully ignorant.
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Or cursed with the knowledge that this is your one shot, don’t get me wrong I’m not nihilistic, but I am acutely aware that I’m here for 70-80 years and that I’m halfway through that. As I said earlier belief that life is eternal must be comforting, but that doesn’t make it true.
MockSock said:
I can’t be the only one who feels like this from time to time. Or am I?
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Doubt it, I feel the same as you in reverse. It’d be lovely to just follow a rule book and have eternal happiness but it doesn’t ring true.
 
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