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god? afterlife?

mrflowers00

mrflowers00

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
3,693
Location
santa rosa, CA
i just absolutely cannot bring myself to believe in god or an afterlife which makes it easy to off myself to me it's just the quick way to permanent sleep w/o dreams and it makes it hard to have hope for life in general and very hard to work a good program in AA which i have tried many times but i've had sponsors who said a higher power can be anything greater than yourself and all i could come up with is my dad or Gpa which doesn't work that way idk does anyone else feel this way or have this problem.
 
How does your preconceived notion of what death is affect your life? I don't understand.
You don't need a higher power for recovery, nor hope, nor a good life.
I'm not quite sure what you're referring to when you ask if anyone else feels this way or has this problem.
I think death is just a void. I don't believe in a higher power. I have no hope for my existence. None of this is a problem for me.
 
Of course people have felt similarly. I've felt that way for portions of my life and can see it in that light under the right circumstances, I'm sure anyone can. I've never been to AA, I have no idea what it's all about, but I do have an idea on what a higher power could mean. And realistically it can be damn near anything, and it may be so simple that it's puzzling. If you contemplate suicide it is only contemplation, you are still leaving your options open. So I see it as this, something is allowing you this space and time to do that contemplating in. Anything that has the ability to think would most likely choose an easy way out if backed into a corner and could just switch the lights out instead of being tortured to death. But something is keeping you going, clearly, because you haven't offed yourself yet. The options are open and you can choose your own destiny, sounds lame on paper, but in reality is a sweet fact, maybe even a gift.
So although it's rough, it's not to that extreme level of torture yet. A higher power could be anything, whatever works for you symbolically I guess. But think of the higher power as the planet, obviously if you separate you from the planet you live on, and compare the two side by side, the planet holds more power. So there, you have a higher power. And you're living on this planet within that space that allows you to observe life, participate in life, contemplate certain things about life, etc, & so on & so on. So as long as you're on Earth you've got something stronger, hurdling you along spinning around the sun with it.
Afterlife, reincarnation, God in a robe, all of that junk aside, HERE you are. You've realized and explained that this is your little glimpse into existence.. So why not soak up all the positivity and great experiences you can have while here existing? Sure it's a hard journey with lots of hurdles and may just be a big ol wild goose chase. But I would think with the right attitude someone could have quite a bit of fun chasing a wild goose.

I'm sorry that I cannot give you a direct answer, but I guess it's just not that easy, for any of us. I don't have an answer, but I find little clues that lead to more clues. Why take your individuality away from the Earth's story line? Why have the sad ending? Do the things that you would do when and if you think of - "If I could live forever, I would visit every continent, I would eat the spiciest food, I would parachute, I would climb everest, I would run a marathon, if only I had enough time to do it all." Start working towards goals that sound like fun to YOU. And it's not like you're gonna actually be able to get to do them all in your life time, but fuck it, work towards doing some of them and don't give up. And along the way I think you'd maybe learn a little appreciation for things which is all you may need. Leave a cool legacy!

Feel better man, nothing is permanent, not life, and not the mood that you are in right now either. It all passes.
 
I don't believe in a higher power in the sense of a being of any kind, or anything at all with a plan. That being said, I leave the door wide open for what may follow this brief stint as "me" in the earthly paradigm. Why is this not enough? But as far as needing a higher power to get sober, I interpret that expression as much more of a metaphor for not being alone in accomplishing recovering from an addiction rather than an actual being looking out for you. So in my mind, the higher power could be group of people in the world that understood addiction and get together to support each other.

When I was trying to recover from deep depression I imagined my future self as my higher power. I had no hope and could not figure out where to tap into it. I simply manufactured a future self that did believe in hope in my mind and then I believed in her. After a while I became her or she became me. LOL that sounds totally crazy when I write it that way but that is what I did and it worked for me. Maybe that is another take on "Fake it til you make it"?
 
thanks for the thoughts everyone but i do wish i could believe in an afterlife it would make my life have a simple purpose instead of having to make my life worth living to myself
 
Death brings meaning to life in the same way that a period brings meaning to a sentence. It is there, we're aware of it, and we'll all have to experience it, but all it does is signify finality. However, since there is no possible way to determine what, if anything, happens to our consciousness (which is ill-defined at best, btw) afterwards, speculation on 'afterlife' is pointless.

You get one life. If there is anything that happens afterwards, it has precisely zero bearing on those of us who are still living, and is therefore irrelevant to discuss. Live well, and fill your sentence as full as you can.
 
mrflowers00 said:
thanks for the thoughts everyone but i do wish i could believe in an afterlife it would make my life have a simple purpose instead of having to make my life worth living to myself
Click to expand...
Funny I think believing in a afterlife makes life harder to live. If I thought I would float up to heaven once I die, I would make sure I died ASAP. Why suffer here on earth if there was some warm fuzzy place waiting for you (assuming your not going to hell)

If all you have is this life (and nothing else) shouldn't you want to experience it to the best of your ability? Have fun, enjoy life. you only get one... so fuck !

I dunno about you but the only thing that makes me feel like life is not worth living is drugs. When im high I think because I feel good and I start thinking about everything (past mistakes) future mistakes, life, the way things are going and its like... well I might well leave feeling good then stay around wait for the drugs to wear off and I know im going to feel bad when that happens. Nothing does this worst then things with a crash... drinking of example (hang over) The world is cold and depressing and full of fear and paranoia for me.. so its like
Happy now, feelings good, thinking way to much.... know im going to feel horrible in two hours, going to still be thinking about all the things I started thinking about as soon as I did (what ever)
Drugs make me that way... except for weed which makes me think of god

But really... how could believing in god save you? If I knew I had a hell awaiting me I would want to stay on earth as long as possible to right my wrongs and try to push my karma up as much as possible in hopes of not going there.
Or If I thought I would go strait to some magical place of love and happiness I think I would leave for it as soon as possible

Just saying if you really don't believe in anything you might as well stay here on earth and enjoy what you can and make the best of the only life you got.

However I have lots of conflicting feelings on this subject :P because my life is pointless and depressing.... I just wonder sometimes I have been so wrong in the past (I don't believe in god, hell atm) what if im wrong about that too... what a bitch to off your self and end up in a burning hell just like on tv.....
Some giant devil with a pitch fork laughing hysterically as he gets a giant cauldron of boiling hot oil to melt your skin off
 
I just dont get why your dad/gpa dont work for these purposes? I guarantee they do if you actually sit down and think about it...they can:

prevent you from using
give you something to hope/strive for
give you a sense of comfort/belonging

All things a higher power can/should do? So why exactly dont you go with your gut and use them as your 'higher power'?

I would recommend NOT USING THEM anyway, but for entirely different reasons. The main one being if you disappoint them and they write you off, your entire higher power is straight out the window.
 
no it would just be nice to have something to motivate me to make things better for myself i'm a happy person most of the time but see no reason to better myself
 
you better your self to make your life better...
Why would god change anything?

Why don't you bet on the fact that maybe your wrong, there is a god and live your life as best as you can. Even if you don't believe. I mean I don't believe in lots of things I except anyways. Do you believe in the president? No but you play by his rules anyway because if you don't things go bad. Do you believe in the law?

You don't have to believe in something to live by its rules. Live a good life... it can only help you in return

as always I like the golden rule. Treat others like you want to be treated (I know thats not the exact golden rule) but its the same
 
^ You can do all of those things without believing in any god. Basically, don't be a dick. Religion doesn't come into it. It has nothing to do with 'just in case'.

Self-improvement should be motivated by improving one's own life. If the only reason one does something is because some invisible papa smurf will smite you if you don't (or vice versa), there are deeper issues at play.
 
whatever i'm stupid for thinking if i thought i'd live a peaceful permanent afterlife when i die that i would make the best of this shit life on earth
 
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