To The Ex-christians And Atheists- Life, What’s The Point?

[hollygolightly]

I am a Christian or more specifically I am a born and raised Catholic. Over the years as I journey into adulthood I find my faith in God growing stronger. Today I accidentally stumbled on this site (got to love Google, it takes you to the opposite place you actually want to go) and started to read some of the testimonies from the “ex-Christians” and I became curious . I am not one who is afraid to “shop around” and let my faith regularly be challenged by anyone. But at the same time I am perfectly happy with my @#$ hole and do not need you to rip me a new one ;-). In other words I come in peace, seeking discussion and dialogue not debate…. I do not feel the need to wear my religion on my shoulder and be assured I am not here to convert you or even defend my religion (I will answer questions about it though, feel free to ask)….

 

I have not personally known many atheists and the ones that I have known could not really give me valid answers that had any sort of logic or effort put into them.

 

And so I ask:

What is the point of life without a God?

What happens after we die?

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

I would love valid and thought out answers. Feel free to include answers to other related questions that I may not have asked. But you should get a general idea of what I am trying to ask from these three questions. Don’t be surprised if I ask another question to your response, this is not meant to be aggressive on my part; I am just searching for further understanding.

I do have my own answers of course, but I will not include them yet to avoid tarnishing the dialogue.

 

TO THE CHRISTIANS WHO WANT TO DEBATE, PLEASE BE ADULTS AND HOLD YOUR TONGUES THIS IS NOT A DEBATE. LET THE EX-CHRISTIANS ANSWER HONESTLY WITHOUT FEELING LIKE THEY ARE GOING TO BE VERBALLY ASSULTED (which seems to happen from both sides on this site, a lot).

 

Thanks for reading and responding,

Thebeliever

 

What's the point of life without a god?

 

Pardon me for answering your question with a question, but what is the point of life if this (Christian) god exists? My point is, if an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being is in existence, and by definition, is poking his nose in all of our lives then what is the point? Christians would say something like "life is a test" ... sort of a pre-req for heaven (or hell for the unlucky ones). Of course, different brands of christianity will have a series of different hoops that they need to jump through, but there's the rub. If this god is omniscient, doesn't he/she know who will pass the "tests" (whatever they are). If he/she was omnipotent (and as many claim, a loving god) wouldn't he/she do whatever is in his/her power (which in the case of an omnipotent being would be everything) to ensure that his/her beloved creations would return to him/her? Finally, if this god is omnipresent and he/she will be there at every turn basically determining every second of everyone's life, then we may as well be living in the damned Matrix. If your god is not any of these things (and is some sort of uninvolved deistic sort of god) then whether or not the god exists has no bearing on any person's life. If you have been looking for some great surveillance camera in the sky to give your life meaning, I suggest you re-examine your life. Look for your own purpose. I think there is great meaning in being in charge of your own life. There is great responsibility found in owning your own mistakes and taking honor in your own achievements rather than cowering in fear of god for the former and extolling him for the latter. People have plenty that they can learn from and/or give back to the world. Eartha Kitt once said, "I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma." I try to live by that.

 

What happens after we die?

 

Um ... does that matter? Even people that claim to *know* what happens after we die are really just going on faith. It seems people are more comfortable injecting "knowledge" here simply to comfort themselves. I'll grant that not knowing such a thing can be uncomfortable for some, and as such I can't say I blame them for a little grammatical bolstering. For most though, it is more of a "hope" for an afterlife rather than "knowledge" of one. Honestly, I can understand that hope too. Some people see the afterlife as some sort of divine justice in that those people who may have gotten away with horrible crimes in this life will have eternal damnation waiting for them in the next. However, any christian that subscribes to the "saved by grace" philosophy is in a sticky situation in this area. Others see promises of an afterlife as a sort of cosmic form of checks and balances. In such a case, believers who have accepted Christ and his teachings must follow his instructions; without these instructions and and their promises/punishments the world would descend into chaos because no one would behave themselves. Finally, we humans are notorious for being uncomfortable with the answer, "I don't know." We even go so far as to ascribe supernatural explanations to naturalistic events that we don't have the capacity/scientific understanding/technology to fathom at any given point in time. For example, the sun was once pulled up by a god and his chariot, and some other angry god was responsible for lightning. They sound ridiculous now, but that only further illustrated my point. As Bill Maher says "I preach the gospel of I don't know." In any case, what we do *know* for certain is that we have this life, right now. People will assert Paschall's wager (if Christians are wrong and there is no god they have lost nothing, but if atheists are wrong we are damned for eternity). I reject that on two main points. The first being that they (the ones employing this wager) may have it all wrong as well ... ask a Hindu, Muslim, Mormon, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, or Jew and see how many different answers you get about an afterlife and who goes where. Secondly, I would say that the assertion that if a person has lived/devoted their lives to a particular belief that may well turn out to be false they have, at best, hindered, at worst wasted their lives. There, now we are all in the same boat. Now that we are all on level ground, I chose to stick with the honest answer of not knowing. Since I am being honest with myself, and my lack of knowledge about an afterlife, I can live my life accountable to myself, my friends and family, and society. Afterlife or no afterlife ... apart from our inquisitive nature it is irrelevant.

 

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

Here is where I can speak from experience. Living with chronic pain, literally, does suck sometimes, as does life in general. I can tell you that as a Christian, I did sometimes just wish it was all over for me. I remember when I woke up in the hospital and everyone kept telling me that they were praying for me, and since I lived/woke up their prayers had been answered. All I could think was how selfish they were to pray for me to live. Now I am stuck here, in pain for the rest of my life. How miserable a thought considering the alternative afterlife (of course, I couldn't have been sure which afterlife was in store for me and that did scare me straight for a while). When I look back on all of that without looking through a christian filter, I can't believe I once thought that way. How sad.

 

Back to my point though, I think that your question is completely wrong at it's core. That kind of a question seems to be voiced through a christian filter too. Have you ever stopped to wonder why virtually all religions that promise and afterlife (at least on similar to the christian concept of an afterlife) have a statement forbidding suicide? Does it seem as if it was trying to close up a loophole, perhaps? If this life is horrible (or even ordinary) and the next is glorious why not just get it all over with? In such a mindset, where this life is just a blink of an eye, etc. considering the eternity awaiting us after death, I can see how enduring pain seems pointless. However, I challenge you to think, for just a second, how you might see that question if you don't believe in an afterlife. Does it seem ridiculous? I think that if you are honest with yourself then it should. Barring cases where people are in unimaginable pain (and likely dying anyway) I don't think you would find many non-believers willing to give away any time they have left in the one life that they know that they have. For every day that I am in searing pain, for every morning I wake up feeling like my skin is on fire, at least I have tomorrow ... and that's enough for me. If I get one more smile, one more kiss, one more dirty joke out of life ... that would be enough for me. Call me an optimist, or a sap, but that's me. Also, everyone (or nearly everyone) has loved ones. I'd say that they are a great argument for enduring the pain. If you (not literally you, but you know what I mean) can't think of one person that would find the world a sadder place if not for you in it, then I feel sorry for you. Conversely, you find in cultures such as the Samurai suicide was in practice for dishonor. That would be because the Samurai generally practiced Zen Buddhism which emphasized now, and didn't stand on promises of an afterlife. Finally (and this is probably a technicality), I think I would be remiss if I didn't mention suicides for religion. I guess this would be a loophole within a loophole. In cases like these, circumstances need to be just right in order to manipulate a person into killing themselves for a "higher purpose." I would say that, under most circumstances, for a person to put his/her life on the line he/she must believe in the purpose that he/she is working for. In the case of suicide bombers they trade certain death for a promise of prosperity in their version of an afterlife. Their ultimate sacrifices 1) get them an express ticket out of horrific, desperate, and oppressive living conditions and 2) give them a VIP ticket into God's graces and a glorious afterlife with all the perks. In the case of the Kamikaze in WWII, these men were sort of paying a debt to their Emperor, and their ultimate sacrifice would earn them what was most important in that culture, a place of eternal honor. I guess this is my very wordy attempt to convey to you, that if you think a life (with some pain) is a worthless life, it is likely because someone has dangled something else in front of you that would make this life look pale then you question is a valid one. However, if you find yourself in my position, (absent of any *knowledge* of an afterlife, not comfortable taking such a lofty claim on such faulty evidence, and as such preferring to stick with the "I don't know, but I doubt it" kind of answer) then you question doesn't hold even a drop of water.

[chefranden]

And so I ask:

1. What is the point of life without a God?

2. What happens after we die?

3. Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

A. I would love valid and thought out answers. Feel free to include answers to other related questions that I may not have asked. But you should get a general idea of what I am trying to ask from these three questions. Don’t be surprised if I ask another question to your response, this is not meant to be aggressive on my part; I am just searching for further understanding.

I do have my own answers of course, but I will not include them yet to avoid tarnishing the dialogue.

 

B. TO THE CHRISTIANS WHO WANT TO DEBATE, PLEASE BE ADULTS AND HOLD YOUR TONGUES THIS IS NOT A DEBATE. LET THE EX-CHRISTIANS ANSWER HONESTLY WITHOUT FEELING LIKE THEY ARE GOING TO BE VERBALLY ASSULTED (which seems to happen from both sides on this site, a lot).

 

Thanks for reading and responding,

Thebeliever

 

Thanks for being polite.

 

A. Define Valid please. Do you mean logically valid, or do you mean answer conforms to your world view.

 

B. This is the lion's den. Verbal assault is allowed. The Colosseum is where we try harder to be polite.

 

1. I find the question invalid because it assumes ChristianGod as an axiom. There is no point to life except as a human construct to satisfy human social needs of belonging and individual need of fulfilling desires. Gods are among these constructs. God/religions act as compensators* for desired rewards* that are difficult or impossible to obtain by individual or group efforts. See Stark and Bainbridge; A Theory of Religion.

 

*Compensator: a substitute for a real reward. Reward: what ever humans will incur costs to obtain.

 

I agree that life is easier to live with a "point". I disagree that a god is necessary to construct a "point'. In fact I doubt that Christian God is your point to life unless you are a monk.

 

2. You rot.

 

3. What ever point one has constructed. In my case family and friends.

[godlessgrrl]

Greetings, Believer.

 

What is the point of life without a God?

Before I answer, let me offer something.

 

I am an atheist. I don't believe there is a god. I also don't believe that there has ever been a god. Assuming I am right, that means that every person who ever existed has had to figure out how to get through life without a god. It means that religions exist not because there was a god that guided them, but because humans made them up, for whatever reason.

 

So perhaps there are really two questions here:

 

1. What is the point of life at all?

2. What is the point of life without a belief in god?

 

What's the point of life? I don't know. I don't think it has any big cosmic purpose, I think it just exists. On a smaller scale I suppose that the immediate purpose of life is to perpetuate more life, but that's a function of the way living things work rather than any predetermined cosmic plan. On an even smaller scale - that of individual sentient beings - the point or purpose of an individual life is up to the individual to decide.

 

What's the point of life without a god-belief? See above, for the most part; but consider that the question implies that life without a god belief is not worth living.

 

You probably already know that isn't true. I am an atheist and I find plenty to live for; in fact I'm even more determined to live now that I no longer believe in god, or in an afterlife. This is the only life I know I have for sure, and I want it to last as long as possible, and I want to make it as interesting and enjoyable as possible.

 

I don't value my life because a deity gave it to me, I value it because it's in short supply, and therefore precious.

 

What happens after we die?

Our brain ceases to function, consciousness evaporates, and our body begins to decay. People dispose of what remains behind, via organ donation, burial, cremation, exposure, what have you. With any luck they remember us with more fondness than hostility. Unless we did something remarkable, in about a hundred years we will be forgotten completely.

 

Or something like that.

 

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

I don't know. What do you want the point to be? I think that's what everyone has to figure out, if they want to live.

 

I've survived an awful lot of really shitty things - rape, abuse, a bad marriage, unemployment, illness... I've also lived with crippling depression and, at times, powerful suicidal thoughts. But for some reason I never actually offed myself. I think I just want to live more than I want to die, y'know? Maybe it's sheer instinct.

 

But it's probably also stubbornness, plus curiosity. I'm too interested in what the future holds. If I end my life, I won't get to find out. I might lose everything I have - family, friends, resources, health, what have you - but I think I'd still be excited by the possibilities life has to offer anyway. And I'd still be a stubborn bitch and just keep going, like I always have.

 

I can't answer what the point of enduring suffering is for anybody else, though. Maybe for some people, there is no point, and you just have to let them go, if that's what they really want.

 

Hope this helps a little.

[Mriana]

And so I ask:

What is the point of life without a God?

What happens after we die?

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

I really hate such questions, but OK, if it will help you understand:

 

1. Family, pets/animals, the environment. We are all interconnected and I personally love animals and nature. I also love my my family. One more thing, I also like to better myself and society. Then there is also caring for others via reason and compassion.

 

2. We become plant food. OK so other things eat off our bodies too, but the idea that a vegetarian dies and becomes plant food is like giving back, after I die, what I took from the earth. (BTW, I hope to be cremated, so plant food is basically all I will be when all is said and done. I see that as poetic justice. )

 

3. So life sucks. It's just part of life and pain doesn't last forever. Remember the saying, "This too shall pass"? Same principle, but one has to strive to change what sucks about life. The point of enduring the pain? I do have my sons, who are now grown, but I look forward to having grandkids one day and I adore my pets, other animals, nature, life in general, even though there are some downs in life. I hate the downs, but that doesn't mean I can't try to make things better.

 

I value life because it is precious- even other animals' lives. Once someone dies, that is it. You can't bring them back, but they can live on in your heart and mind, via memories.

[Kuroikaze]

But when a person from a secular or atheist perspective asks me these same questions that I presented to you, I really do not have much of an answer for them.

To give some perspective, these people are very down on their luck, they don’t have a home, if they had a family they have been abandoned by them, and usually don’t have any friends. (That is why the last question was kind of depressing)

It is very easy to tell someone “God loves you” but if that means nothing to them it is not going to help them. I am not going to cram my religion down their throat just because they are vulnerable. But at the same time I would really like to be able to tell them something or be able to help them to create their own hope.

 

I am reminded of a scene from Full Metal Alchemist (yes anime, you can find some deep stuff in there sometimes)

 

Its at the end of the second episode. Edward, the main character in the show (who is an atheist by the way) has just exposed this local priest as a charlatan. The priest said he could preform miracles and he had promised this girl rose that he could bring her dead fiancee back.

 

Rose: What do I have to live for now that I know Cain won't come back? You tell me that, Ed!

Edward: You'll have to find that out on your own. Move forward. You've got a good strong pair of legs, Rose. Just get up and use them.

 

I can't say that would necessarily cheer everyone up, but it helped me to think this way. I spent a great deal of my time both just before I left Christianity and right after I left quite depressive. Though no one had died, it almost felt that way, I had lost the single most important and defining aspect in my life, and I found myself asking a question similar the one Rose asked.

 

At the time I watched this show, I found this advice very helpful for myself. Realizing that I, not the whims of some supernatural force or fate, was responsible for my own happiness was quite empowering for me. I stopped thinking of myself as the victim of some cosmic game, and started realizing that stuff just happens and to move on and stop worrying.

 

Truth be told, for me, religion was the CAUSE of my anxiety and depression, not the cure.

[Astreja]

There does not need to be a future "meaning" in order to have meaning right now.

 

When I was eleven years old, I had a vision of Life, the Universe and Everything. I scanned the universal timeline in My mind, and watched entire civilizations arise and crumble. I realized that "eternity" not only does not imbue life with purpose -- It utterly demolishes the concept.

 

The only place one can find meaning is in the present moment, and you must find it on your own initiative. The moment you hand off that responsibility to another being, it is no longer your meaning.

[Dagan]

What is the point of life without a God?

 

To live. There really isn't a point. Life just... is.

 

What happens after we die?

 

The earth continues to revolve around the sun. People continue to cry, laugh, eat, drink, make babies. Our bodies decompose.

 

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

Because the moments of joy and pleasure are so bright, so powerful, so amazingly refreshing, that it makes it worth enduring all that stuff. It's worth driving four hours up a mountain with screaming kids and a wife with a bladder infection and me with a headache just to get out at the top, watch the sun over the valley below, watch the alpine lake sparkle, watch the marmots and picas waddle and whistle, and to see the looks of wonder on my kids' faces at the glory around them. And it's worth enduring painful relationships and painful diseases and painful work environments because they encourage us to strive for more, and to see the value in a good conversation with a trusted friend, in a moment of glory at work, in triumph over a disease, or grace in defeat.

[Naiya]

If your life only has meaning because of God, then I feel very sorry for you indeed....wow.

 

It's not hard to find meaning in other things--for example I hope that I can contribute to science and improve the human condition a little bit for future generations. Maybe one day I'll make some music or write a book that will become popular and my words of wisdom will be remembered forever. Even if I fail in all those things I can know that I had a great time living and I was lucky to have a good life here. And if I become nothing but fertilizer for the grass, that's not so bad either. nice and peaceful if you ask me.

 

Personally the idea of living forever sounds horrific to me. What the hell do you do?? Play scrabble over and over for a thousand years? Ugh.

[mwc]

The real reasons I ask these questions is because of my volunteer work, I often deal with a wide variety of people suffering from drug addictions, depression, anxiety, and the list goes on and on. Many of these people suffer from suicidal thoughts. Many of these people are not religious.

 

It is very easy for me to talk to a religious person about having hope and helping them to endure their pain because this is what I am most familiar with. The common ground of religion helps me to become a friend and a support system for them so they can get back on their feet emotionally and psychologically. This is because a religious person is able to feel loved even when they have lost their friends and family because they are loved by something bigger or have a bigger purpose. There suffering is smaller than the glory they are meant for. (This is not a personal belief; this is just stating how people react).

...

But still it is still very difficult to tell a person who is drowning in pain and feels no love, that their life is worth living.

Some lives aren't worth living. Maybe those people should be dead? So why don't you let them die? You obviously care for them. Or is it just something you do as a religious side-effect? If you actually care whether they live or die then you have something beyond religion to offer these people. You have honest compassion that comes from you to give them. Isn't that better?

 

You try to say "A 'god' cares for you." A being you've never felt, seen, heard or encountered in any way "cares" for you. But you forget the real person that is saying those very words. All the people like yourself that are reaching out to these people and saying these very words. If you didn't show up would "god" suddenly appear in those buildings? I've been to churches when no one else was there. They're empty. Vacant. Cold. There is no "god" without the people. You are the connection to these people. You are their hope. They don't need a "god." They need more people like yourself. People willing to reach out to them on their own terms.

 

mwc

[Guest PhucWadGawd]

And so I ask:

What is the point of life without a God?

What happens after we die?

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

I used to ask atheists the exact same thing when I was a Christian. I thought non-theists lived very empty lives compared to the hope I derived from my faith, my god. Now that I'm on the other side (a long, painful, arduous journey probably not unlike discovering your spouse of 20 years has a whole other family on the other side of town, or the people you thought were your parents aren't actually your parents, or you were born a different gender than you are now, etc. Yes, THAT jarring ... ) I think I can answer you respectfully, but you might be dissatisfied by the answers.

 

What is the point of life without God?

To live in the here and now, knowing that this life is the only one you have instead of passively waiting for things to be made right, waiting for God to make it up to you or whatever. Other than that, I don't know. It's okay not to know. Religion seeks to give fairy tale, pat answers to unanswerable questions. I'd rather not know than to adopt a frictional framework just to make myself feel better. What's the point of living in denial?

 

What happens after we die?

Probably the same thing that happens to everything else that dies: We die. Period. Consciousness ends. Life processes recycle our bodies and we live on in other ways as scattered molecules, but we don't know about it. So live the best life you can NOW. Leave a lasting legacy. Do something that helps people NOW. Lift a finger to be a positive influence in other peoples' lives. Praying actually doesn't do anything -- only if you tell someone you're praying for them do they know that you think you're doing something for them. They might feel good to know they're in your thoughts. (But you can tell someone you care and you're thinking of them without saying, "I'll pray for you.")

 

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

Pain can be a good teacher to those who are willing to learn from their suffering so as to avoid the same pain in the future. How much of our pain is self-imposed, I can't give you an exact percentage. Atheists, theists, and everyone in between, have the ability to learn from painful, sucky life moments and to move above and beyond them.

[white_raven23]

To give some perspective, these people are very down on their luck, they don’t have a home, if they had a family they have been abandoned by them, and usually don’t have any friends. (That is why the last question was kind of depressing)

It is very easy to tell someone “God loves you” but if that means nothing to them it is not going to help them. I am not going to cram my religion down their throat just because they are vulnerable. But at the same time I would really like to be able to tell them something or be able to help them to create their own hope.

 

 

Remember Believer, the people you are working with have emotional and behavioral problems. Atheists have as many mental problems as christians do...that is a human issue, not a religious one.

 

I do congratulate you on trying to have some nonreligious answers for the nonbelievers you are trying to help.

 

What is the point of life without a God?

 

My life has purpose for me, and is all mine to define. It is MY responsibility to make my life happen, no one else's. It is mine to make or break, mine to be proud or ashamed of near it's end.

 

My life is mine to make. The people you are trying to help? They need some goals. Goals indirectly related to their recovery. Simple stuff, like promising to try something completely new once a month be it a hobby, or a new food. Another thing would be to learn something new each week. We live in the information age...a SIN would be to stop learning!

 

 

What happens after we die?

 

I don't know. I don't pretend to know. But I will say this, I actually have less worry about that as a nonbeliever than I did as a believer. The process of dying itself, from what I've read about people losing consciousness during high grav experiments turning out to exactly like NDE's is actually comforting. My brain will shelter me as much as it can during the process of ending. After it's over... I don't know...but I take comfort in that fact that no one else knows either. It is all something we will ALL do eventually...so worrying over it just eats up the time I have to be doing something I can be happy (even if only for myself) about doing later.

 

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

Because of all those times life DOESN'T suck. Death is an eventuality. It will happen when it happens. Hastening the process in any way means abandoning all the potential experiences you have not yet done.

 

People often treat life like an enemy instead of like a friend. And they treat the world as an enemy right along with life. It's wonderful that you are trying to work with these people to see a different perspective...but always hold your own mental health first and foremost. Don't let their hopelessness rub off on you. Do what you can for who you can, but accept that some people you just cannot help because they just don't want it.

[Legion]

The process of dying itself, from what I've read about people losing consciousness during high grav experiments turning out to exactly like NDE's is actually comforting.

Interesting tid bit there. Thanks White Raven, now I'll have to look it up.

[Guest ephymeris]

You may not need more answers but I'm going to leave my 2 cents...

 

What's the point of life without God?

For me, simply, the point of life is the experience, mentally and physically. Deity or not, to me life is a gift full of happiness, challenge, boredom, frustration, sex, sensory stimulation, love, anger, euphoria, depression, and on and on. Why would I not grab onto this and ride as joyously as I can. Life is hard but to me the only other option is nonexistance which isn't scarey but seems like it would be a good deal less satisfying than what I have now.

 

What happens after we die?

Right now, things tend to point to fading back into nonexistance, like before I was born. I have no recollection of the time before and soon after my birth, I have no reason to assume death will be different. Dust to dust and all that. My optimistic view is the energy that causes my neurons to fire, heart to beat, and lungs to take oxygen into my blood (to me not a soul or spirit) will rejoin the universe and continue to be a part of energy that is found everywhere or whatever. I know, that's totally hippy and crackpot, that's why I'm leaning towards nonexistance with a hope for the latter. I'm not afraid of death but I will admit the worst thing about death is that I know one day my husband and I will die and we'll never see each other again. I'll never know him as he is now after death. I just can't worry about that though because death is inevitable. Not one ounce of worry will stop it from coming for us all.

 

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

The point?!? Yes, life can truly suck but also be ridiculously WONDERFUL. That's the point. Things would have to be pretty damn bad for me to give up on life. I have my limits but I wouldn't know for sure until I experience them. If I was Terry Schiavo, with a terrible brain injury I'd want to die. If I was a level C1-2 quadriplegic or a burn victim, I'd want to live. I've already been through some pretty shitty stuff including sexual abuse, physical abuse, rape, and christianity (though others have been through worse) and I want to live to experience all life has to offer.

 

As for volunteer work and your difficulty helping those without faith, I am from the other side of the track. I'm an atheist who listens to patients tell me how they are relying on god to heal them or thanking god for their physical improvements or cursing god for their affliction. I've also worked with people with psyche and addiction issues who were homeless. I just listen to them, I think that's what people want. Your idea of trying to encourage them by reminding them (without blaming them) that they have a lot of power over their life and situation, is a good one because it's not a lie. I have found that most people don't need platitudes, they need help. Pointing out concrete resources and putting them in touch with these resources to meet their needs is usually what is most helpful. I don't just tell my patients what they want to hear, I fix their problems by pointing out every solution/option I'm aware of. Hope that helps. Keep up your volunteer work, it's invaluable to the people you help and people like you are so needed in this world, as I'm sure you're well aware.

[angelinabee]

What is the point of life without a God?

 

- Eating good food, making friends, having sex, watching fun movies, enjoying the beach and the mountains, reading and learning, hobbies, family, and so on and so on... You don't need a magical sky fairy to worship to enjoy the things worth enjoying about life.

 

What happens after we die?

 

- In my opinion, the same thing that happens to dogs and cats and hamsters and horses and so on when they die. You rot and cease to exist. Why do you need to be sent to a magic lollipop land in the clouds to be able to endure life? It's unhealthy.

 

Life sucks sometimes, what is the point of enduring the pain?

 

- My life has become significantly less painful after separating myself from the chains of christianity. I don't feel overwhelming guilt about exploring my sexuality, reading whatever I want to read, and doing what I want without worrying about burning in a mythological oven-land. Strangely enough, after leaving the fold I've also become a *more* responsible, ethical person.

 

(edited to fix a spelling error)

[pitchu]

Believer,

 

I'm an atheist. My husband (Jewish) does work on issues of poverty and homelessness, and through that has had many contacts with Catholic Workers and just plain ole Catholics who, like you, are dedicated to doing right by people who need a lot of help.

 

My opinion is that such work often shakes the very foundation of one's convictions, sense of self, sense of humanity, sense of purpose. The needs are so overwhelming and one's individual resources are so limited.

 

If I were you, I would try to accept that any smallest kind act may serve. Believers and unbelievers, all, understand human kindness.

 

Good luck to you in all you do.