On religion and "need"

[True Dough]

I figured I'd make this an OP so hopefully others will comment.

In another Religion thread, there was mention of a "void" or a "yearning" in people's lives.

I replied that I experience no such thing. Another poster responded to me with:

"Born a complete person needing nothing. Do you know how rare that is?"

Now that's a mistake. That poster implied that I need nothing. Of course I have needs. I need to be loved. I need to have someone to share my life with. I need someone I can communicate my personal thoughts to, and someone for whom I strive to make life better. That would be my wife.

I need a sense of purpose. I need affirmation. I need money. Those needs would be filled by my job, which fortunately isn't a drain, like some people's occupations.

I need to feel like I'm helping others. So I am a hospice volunteer.

The needs in my life are fulfilled. Some of them by good fortune, some of them by my own hard work.

I try to be a good person, and none of it involves praying to a higher power, or even believing in the existence of god.

I happen to be in a good place during this portion of my existence here on Earth. Even when things haven't been so good, I've not turned to religion. I've had sleepless nights and high anxiety, but I leaned on family members or close friends for moral support. I got by.

Should I ever lose my wife or my job or other things in life dear to me, it will be devastating. That said, I have no intention of blaming the loss on a mythical being or asking that mythical being to make my life "whole" again.

[yallerdawg]

1. Very good!

You satisfactorily filled that hole, that void each of us finds within ourselves.

It's not that you don't have one, then.

[True Dough]

7. Thanks

I am quite content. I have bad days, like anyone, I suppose. But I have no "yearning" or "void."

[Pope George Ringo II]

2. I am at peace with what I don't understand.

There are things beyond my grasp in any but the vaguest details, which others understand. There are things which nobody understands--yet. And there are things which nobody will ever understand. But there is nothing in the "I give up, it must be magic" category, and there never will be. I have no need for fairy tales to comfort me in the face of the knowledge that our entire galaxy is really rather insignificant, never mind one over-developed primate with a blindingly quick lifespan on a temporary rock circling an unexceptional third-generation star.

Cowardice and ignorance make a poor combination in the best of times, but they really limit one's view of the splendor of the universe and even our tiny corner of it. 'Tis far better to open one's eyes fully and take in all the beauty and wonder around us on its own terms, rather than refuse to see the processes of our world in all their natural glory.

So I guess you could say I have a "need" to have reality which is really the applicable need.

[Act_of_Reparation]

3. I don't like not knowing things.

But I'm more comfortable not knowing than I am pretending I know.

[trotsky]

5. This right here. n/t

[Mariana]

4. Some people do that a lot.

Instead of responding to what you actually said, they just make something up and respond to that instead. It's very difficult to have a conversation with someone who engages in that kind of dishonesty.

[trotsky]

6. Ah, the old "god-shaped hole."

I'm of the opinion that most believers can't help it - they're just too indoctrinated.

Those who continue to say that despite being told otherwise, those are the assholes.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. I'd say it's a "hole-shaped god"

People project onto their imagined deity whatever they feel they're missing in life.

Since the bible is vague and self-contradictory, people can imagine their god any way they want.

And they imagine (or are told) that he's exactly all the things they need.

[trotsky]

9. By jove, I think you've got it! n/t

[Lordquinton]

10. A poster speaking for everyone in the world?

Was G-man all over them for doing that?