Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rosemary LYNDALL WEMM on June 12, 2010 at 12:14pm

This level of depression is not normal but responds quickly to appropriate treatment. The untreated disorder is often fatal. Please get some professional help asap.

Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on June 12, 2010 at 2:50pm

Michael, your poem is disturbing. Pause a minute, take a deep breath, and think about how you're going to get out of this mental state. You have the best part of your life ahead of you. Do what you have to do in order to look at life differently.

Also, get out of the vampire/devil head in your other poem. Don't allow your mind to harbor these nihilistic thoughts. You can do it. Start disciplining your mind.

Above all, listen to Rosemary.

Permalink Reply by Joe Fausnight on June 13, 2010 at 1:56pm

Michael, I have to agree with Rosemary and Richard here. Remember, the mind is an extension of the physical body, and just as you would treat an illness to the body, you have to seek treatment when you have an illness of the mind. There is no shame in that. First find out if there is a medical treatment that can help, and then seek out a workable philosophy. I wrote a book (Going Godless -essays and info at http://goinggodless.com) which specifically addresses how we deal philosophically with the existential gloom of becoming atheist. You are a self-aware, intelligent being, and though that may not be a divine miracle, it is a pretty amazing thing, a very rare and precious thing in a vast and mostly lifeless universe.

Secondly, some of the greatest artists and writers in history have been suicidal prone, and all too often we the rest of the world loose them to their self-destructive urges. If you can channel that passion into your artistic work, we will all be better off.

We atheists can't simply give up religion without replacing it with something to fill the gap. That is why most of us are secular humanists. We are atheist, not by choice, but because we feel there is in fact no God, regardless of how much one might want to believe life has a divine meaning. But most of us are secular humanists by choice: it is a set of values and principles, belief in the way things should be. We have to find meaning and purpose, and often the reason we don't find meaning and purpose is because we are focused on the self.

I will also recommend you look into Buddhism, not as a complete belief system, but because it provides much useful philosophy that the atheist can live by. If you take Buddhism and toss out the supernatural parts of reincarnation and universal karma, you have me, a solid atheist and monist-materialist.

Hang in there, guy!