Posted: Jun 25, 2011 9:33 pm
inkaStepa wrote:Nothing seems important to me because "importance" is just an illusion. This has nothing to do with a god at all I'm definately an atheist and not religious. Your right, It has been a year and I'm still lost...I'll go see someone I guess. Thanks.
'Seeing someone' can perhaps be a good idea, but shouldn't be necessary for most. Most of us, perhaps all of us, who have once been religious and became atheists reached that place of having to figure things out anew. As some have already pointed out, we had ready-made-answers-in-a-box then, but now we really have to think things through and come up with reasons and explanations that don't involve gods, or the opinion of gods. Reading about other people's experiences, and discussing the matters may be sufficient help in and of itself.
You say that nothing seems important anymore, because importance is an illusion. I wouldn't say so, I think I'd say that importance is relative; relative to time, place, and the people involved. You decide what is important to you. But some things are almost intrinsically important (if a few assumptions are granted). You probably have warmer emotions for some people than others. They are important to you; you would not be indifferent if they were harmed or killed. From this, you can gather that they, showing similar warm emotions for you, see you as important, and wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you. From this, you can infer that you should take care of yourself, because you would want them to take care of themselves so that they weren't unnecessarily harmed, as this in turn would hurt you. Basically 'the golden rule' in both directions.
The only kind of 'importance' one 'loses' going from theism to atheism would be an asserted eternal and transcendent importance, the importance given a subject or object by an external entity, a god. Certainly, one could say that on atheism, what you do now does not echo into eternity, and so it makes no difference what you do. But that wouldn't be a practical or workable way of thinking about, or doing, things from your own perspective, or for those around you. We live here and now, and what is important is important here and now. I don't think it's any different even if theism is true; what you do here and now with regards to your fellow humans (and animals) and with the things you enjoy would not have any higher importance in eternity.
'God' is really only a higher 'shelf' people put stuff on to get it out of the way. For instance, one takes 'importance', lifts it up, and places it on the 'God' shelf. Morals is another example.
One has then really only heaped it onto another entity, and you may as well heap it onto another person, or group of people, or yourself instead. Whether a God thinks you or what you do is important or not, has no more weight than whether a fellow human, or you yourself, think so. All would be entities with opinions. 'Importance' has real world applications and implications, which hold true under either world view. Being an atheist, you no longer have the high shelf to put potentially troublesome concepts onto, but you're really none the poorer for it. Look at it instead as an invitation to come up with real, substantive solutions and explanations.
If you have no emotions for anyone or anything, and therefore have no 'drive' and can see no importance in anything, not even interpersonal relations, then I think perhaps seeing someone would be a good idea.
I've had a couple of glasses of wine and it's kinda late, but I hope I made some amount of sense still.
