Atheism’s primordial problem: time. Especially when we arrive at atheism at an early age. I did pretend I wasn’t an atheist until I was 15 or 16, but in my mind the clock was already ticking. How much life can I get into this run against the clock. How many interesting places can I visit? Amazing food? Drugs? Music? Alcohol? Books? Sex? Knowledge? I keep making notes of everything I have to try, to eat, to read, to see, to plant, but days are so short. I hate it that My Atheist Life is gone and we were only distant blog friends/acquaintances- and his clock no longer ticks. I hope he experienced everything he wanted to experience while he could. I try to every single day; to turn this short life into an isle of joy.
Well said.
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With a permanently heavy heart. (perhaps it’s just enlarged from alcohol abuse 😛 )
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Indeed. My Atheist Life will be missed. I think he was only in his 50’s as well which makes his passing all the sadder.
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You have based the meaning of your life on satisfying your appetites.
There can be no life emptier or more meaningless than that.
Even the pagan Greeks and Romans understood that happiness is pursued through virtue (the pursuit of excellence) not vice (the pursuit of appetite).
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What is the pursuit if one is seeking the most excellent steak or the most excellent wine?
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Are you referring to the consumer or producer.
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Sometimes Eudaimon is defined not just as virtue but as the lack of regret – meaning having the satisfaction of having a life well lived, however the individual defines that. I suspect Pinky will be Eudaimon. But not just yet!
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Each person gives to their life the meaning they choose. I’ve chosen to experience everything I can while I can.
“The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.” O. Wilde
I’d say your idea of virtue is rather pathetic if you think it’s dependant on someone living like a repressed Victorian housewife.
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In fact there can be no life emptier than one spent intellectually wanking over the lives of others while they are getting on and actually living.
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Thinking about MAL (as I have since hearing this dreadful news), I think if more young people seriously considered their own death by imaging themselves on their deathbed at a much older age, we’d probably live differently because everything would suddenly be different from that perspective. I think that perspective shift is the first step towards wisdom.
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I’ve always been incredibly conscious of mortality, I think that’s why I spent my 20’s in such a rush, deathly afraid I might miss something.
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Well said Pink.
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What dreadfully sad news. I shall miss his words.
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Nicely put.
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This isn’t exclusive to atheism. Anyone whose belief system does not include reincarnation is faced with the realization that we only get one brief life span to “get it right” – however we define “right.”
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If you are able to do one big thing in your life that improves humanity, you have lived a good life, a life worth living. Comes the time when you slow down and nest more at home, the memories of what you accomplished which you will visit somewhat frequently, will give you great contentment. When you die, what you accomplished lives on, this is a form of immortality.
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