We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world – its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is, and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence, and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it.
— Bertrand Russell, Why I am Not a Christian
Purchase Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion
I first read Russell’s “Why I Am Not A Christian” in high school, w-a-a-a-y back in the Pleistocene, and those concluding words have been with me ever since. That lecture is a treasure, and belongs on everybody’s reading list.
I just want to be happy without depriving anyone else of happiness. I gave up grandiose and self-sacrificial notions of purpose and community several years ago.
I like George Carlin’s take on why we’re here. Mom and Dad screwed one Friday night after getting drunk.
I have found it easier to face negative outcomes now that I don’t believe in a God who could intervene and fix things. When I was a Christian, I would pray for someone’s healing, for example, especially when prognosis was grim. There was the hope that God would intervene, but the pressure of keeping one’s “heart” pure and not getting mad at God if he didn’t heal the person (he never did). That hope really got in the way of handling the situation from a reality-based perspective. Now, my attitude is, “This person is dying, and I am going to focus on spending quality time with them which benefits us both” rather than ignoring reality and hoping for divine intervention.