Brilliant, Alabama Superthread

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unico said:
I have to disagree here. After being faced with the difficult truth of life's fragility, I feel like people and situations are fleeting. Everything is temporary. But I think love is a renewable energy source, so to speak. People die, but I think their love for us will last forever. We'll take with us memories, images, etc. and feel that love again (eventually.)

Dreams are the only thing that can remain constant for me. When my world came crashing around me, and I didn't have dreams, or a goal or sense of purpose, I just felt like I was falling in a neverending well. But my dream is really all I can cling to right now, and lately it is what gets me through the day.
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Love to me is something that comes and goes, that changes, and that more than any other emotion is completely unreliable. I no longer trust it.

As for dreams, I have no dreams any more. Goals, yes, but dreams, certainly not. They are too divorced from reality for me and are never fulfilled.
 
Screwtape2 said:
No Khan. Some things you have to deal with. I don't want them to tell me none of it is real when they don't know. It would be a useles waste of money.
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Now, this post right here relates to what I was saying above. Being able to relate these feelings is an obstacle in and of itself, but being receptive toward those you're attempting to relate to is another issue entirely that needs to be dealt with before counseling is considered.

Over the passing weeks, it has become increasingly clear that you, at this point in your life, are not particularly receptive to the thoughts and opinions of others. And not just their opinion of your state of mind, but about nearly any other subject imaginable. If you want to take a shot at counseling, you need to confront yourself on this matter first because, yes, from a practical point of view, it would be a waste otherwise.
 
coolian2 said:
Not remotely. It boils down to that i believe there is no point wasting - for want of a better term - the present on the premise of the afterlife, which, touch wood, is some time off.
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I agree with this. The present is all we definitively have. If an afterlife exists, it is lost in the mist of the future. Let's enjoy what we know we've got.
 
Screwtape2 said:
They are going to tell me I'm lying and that I need medication when I have accepted this. I don't want to be locked up or overmedicated.
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Any psychiatrist worth your time and money and their profession would not tell you that you are lying. You might need medication, and it can help you - simply taking something for depression does not mean you are overmedicated!!
 
Varitek said:
Any psychiatrist worth your time and money and their profession would not tell you that you are lying. You might need medication, and it can help you - simply taking something for depression does not mean you are overmedicated!!
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I take medication for depression but it doesn't work at all even after trying just about every one out there. I pretend it works so I don't have to go through drug after drug again. No medicine works and I doubt any ever will. I have to battle through these things alone. I know who and what I am. I don't want someone who doesn't know question that.
 
Axver said:
I agree with this. The present is all we definitively have. If an afterlife exists, it is lost in the mist of the future. Let's enjoy what we know we've got.
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I wrote out an incredibly long piece on this issue in FYM about 6 weeks ago. Care to read?
 
Screwtape2 said:
I take medication for depression but it doesn't work at all even after trying just about every one out there. I pretend it works so I don't have to go through drug after drug again. No medicine works and I doubt any ever will. I have to battle through these things alone. I know who and what I am. I don't want someone who doesn't know question that.
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Hmm. To get medication you need to see a psychiatrist, right? Did you actually open up to them and talk to them?
 
Screwtape2 said:
I believe as science destroys the concept of God it actually opens up a million possible ways we go on after death.
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Honestly, that makes no sense at all. It's not simply that I disagree with you, it's just that I don't understand how science and the afterlife relate in any way.
 
Screwtape2 said:
We just work on my social anxiety. We never talk about deeper things.
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Maybe that is the problem, and why the medication didn't work. If you didn't reveal all of your thoughts, beliefs, problems, the fact that you carry around this weight and why and where ti comes from, the fact that you struggle to supress your evil....then they cannot accurately diagnose you and treat you. You need to open up to get help
 
LemonMelon said:
Honestly, that makes no sense at all. It's not simply that I disagree with you, it's just that I don't understand how science and the afterlife relate in any way.
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I think they relate in that the same way science for me disproves god, it also disproves an afterlife....
 
Varitek said:
I think they relate in that the same way science for me disproves god, it also disproves an afterlife....
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1. Science cannot disprove any sort of supernatural deity (it could, perhaps, disprove a text, but not the idea itself). They work on two entirely different planes. Therefore, it also cannot disprove an afterlife.

2. Screwtape believes in an afterlife of some kind, so he wasn't assuming that science could disprove an afterlife.

So, yeah, I have no idea what he's talking about.
 
LemonMelon said:
It is getting pretty late, huh. Surprised Mia stuck it out that long.

http://forum.interference.com/showpost.php?p=5064558&postcount=291
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As one of the atheists with no afterlife to live for, I am perfectly fine with this life being all I get. I think it's strange that people need the concept of an afterlife either to make life worth living and inspire them to live better OR in some cases I think it's used as a crutch to write off not having a great life - you suffer or fuck up but there's the afterlife to make up for it.

I live for pleasure in the moment. Now this doesn't literally mean, every moment I seek euphoria, but I live to have meaning. I get this from learning, from social interactions and relationships, from seeing and experiencing things (for me, a lot of travel), from reading and writing and watching movies and seeing art and listening to music. And it doesn't bother me that I'll be gone and nonexistent and that everything I was will cease. I'm living to be happy and fulfilled now. Don't get me wrong - I'd like to leave my mark on the world, both in the field I'm interested in (not necessarily going to happen) and through people I meet and have relationships with. And I know it'll be a small mark but that is really enough for me. :shrug:
 
I'm late to this discussion, but I went back several pages and got caught up. So let me start with my fifty cents for Screwtape:

First, I certainly know what it's like to suffer depression and be miserable. I've been in and out of therapy for nearly half my life. I've been on a handful of different medications, and only recently found a type and dosage that helps. I suffer mainly from strong social anxiety, but that leads into depression. I've been through more than my fair share of dysfunctional family issues. Everything from poverty to legal issues to emotional abuse. I have scars up and down my wrist from cutting myself whenever I got upset. I still have to fight that urge sometimes.

In my experience, when visiting a psychiatrist/therapist/counselor, the important thing is to find one that you click well with. I've had five or six different therapists. Only the last two have been worth their salt. A good therapist should respect your unique ideas (especially because they pertain to religion) even if they might seem a bit "crazy", it's possible that a therapist will be able to work with you about your thoughts, feelings, social awkwardness, and depression without trying to steer you away from your specific ideas/beliefs, if that's what you want.

You shouldn't fear being locked up. Legally, they can't commit you unless you're an immediate threat to yourself or someone else. And even if they felt a short stay in a mental health facility would help, they can't keep you forever, and it's not as bad/scary as it seems. Usually they don't keep people longer than 72 hours.

As for the medication you're receiving, if it's not doing you any good, then you shouldn't be taking it. It took me way to long to finally grasp control of my own treatment. I spent years on and off of Zoloft and it wasn't doing me a lick of good, no matter how much the dosage was adjusted. Eventually I got to a point of "No more Zoloft please!" and now I'm on a low dosage of Cymbalta. Before starting it, I was skeptical about taking anything at all, as I generally don't like being drugged up, but I said I would be willing to take the medicine for a little while just to see how it worked out. That was at the end of last summer, and I've stayed on it because it's working. It takes just enough of the edge off to allow me to be a less angry/irritable, not get upset as easily, and be less nervous in social situations, without changing my personality or negatively affecting my moods (as Zoloft did.) Might I ask which medication you're on? I know a few things about a lot of them.
 
LemonMelon said:
Honestly, that makes no sense at all. It's not simply that I disagree with you, it's just that I don't understand how science and the afterlife relate in any way.
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Science is seen as magic until you see the man behind the curtains. We are all from the cosmos. Our dreams are its dreams. Our emotions are its emotions. The universe is a wonderous place. Altered realities, time, states of consciousness, and other dimensions make it so there are so many possibilities. You just have to believe and dream up the possible ways.
 
LemonMelon said:
1. Science cannot disprove any sort of supernatural deity (it could, perhaps, disprove a text, but not the idea itself). They work on two entirely different planes. Therefore, it also cannot disprove an afterlife.

2. Screwtape believes in an afterlife of some kind, so he wasn't assuming that science could disprove an afterlife.

So, yeah, I have no idea what he's talking about.
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OK you can't disprove an abstract concept, I knew I was exposing myself using the word, but I'll take the Dawkins view that science shows that god and an afterlife are so incredibly unlikely as to be not true.
 
Varitek said:
As one of the atheists with no afterlife to live for, I am perfectly fine with this life being all I get. I think it's strange that people need the concept of an afterlife either to make life worth living and inspire them to live better OR in some cases I think it's used as a crutch to write off not having a great life - you suffer or fuck up but there's the afterlife to make up for it.

I live for pleasure in the moment. Now this doesn't literally mean, every moment I seek euphoria, but I live to have meaning. I get this from learning, from social interactions and relationships, from seeing and experiencing things (for me, a lot of travel), from reading and writing and watching movies and seeing art and listening to music. And it doesn't bother me that I'll be gone and nonexistent and that everything I was will cease. I'm living to be happy and fulfilled now. Don't get me wrong - I'd like to leave my mark on the world, both in the field I'm interested in (not necessarily going to happen) and through people I meet and have relationships with. And I know it'll be a small mark but that is really enough for me. :shrug:
Click to expand...

Good for you. Really. We're all different, and it's not just our spiritual beliefs but also our perspective and general view of life that influences our desire for an afterlife. That was the point of the post. Seems obvious, but I needed to get that out at the time.
 
LemonMelon said:
1. Science cannot disprove any sort of supernatural deity (it could, perhaps, disprove a text, but not the idea itself). They work on two entirely different planes. Therefore, it also cannot disprove an afterlife.

2. Screwtape believes in an afterlife of some kind, so he wasn't assuming that science could disprove an afterlife.

So, yeah, I have no idea what he's talking about.
Click to expand...

I do think you can and have disproved God. However the possibility of an afterlife or at least something more after death is entirely plausible.
 
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