/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17212962]

I just found out my dad has cancer and I need a book about the meaning of life or religion.

[Anonymous No.17212971]

Ha

[Anonymous No.17212973]

https://vocaroo.com/1gmmUvxXIfmV

[Anonymous No.17212978]

>>17212962
Through a Glass Darkly by Gaarder. It's about an angel who visits a girl dying of cancer to troll her about empiricism.

[I hate women No.17212979]

>>17212962
>I just found out my dad has cancer

[Anonymous No.17213013]

>>17212962
I'm sorry to hear, Anon. I thought my dad had COVID this year (fortunately it turned out to be something else) and have researched the same topic of the "meaning of life" in the following books, that go from linguistics, to anthropology, to psychology:
>(Advances in Psychology 122) Charlotte Mandell and Allyssa McCabe (Eds.) - The Problem of Meaning_ Behavioral and Cognitive Perspectives-North Holland (1997)
>(Cognition and Language) Hans Hörmann (auth.), Robert E. Innis (eds.) - Meaning and Context_ An Introduction to the Psychology of Language-Springer US (1986) (1)
>Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen - Game Theory and Linguistic Meaning (Current Research in the Semantics Pragmatics Interface) (2007)
>Alexander Batthyany, Pninit Russo-Netzer (eds.) - Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology-Springer-Verlag New York (2014)
>Bradd Shore - Culture in Mind - Cognition, Culture, and the Problem of Meaning-Oxford University Press (1996)
>Dale Mathers - An Introduction to Meaning and Purpose in Analytical Psychology (2001)
>David Papineau - Theory and Meaning (1979)
>Jesse Bering - The Belief Instinct_ The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life-W. W. Norton & Company (2011)
>Niels Henrik Gregersen - From complexity to life_ on the emergence of life and meaning-Oxford University Press, USA (2002)
>Roy F. Baumeister - The Cultural Animal_ Human Nature, Meaning, and Social Life (2005)
>Ulf Hannerz - Cultural Complexity_ Studies in the Social Organization of Meaning-Columbia University Press (1992)
Tl;dr. There is no inherent meaning in life. Sorry.

[Anonymous No.17213016]

>>17212962
Truly understanding the meaning of life only allows you to realise that the ugliness you experience in life is merely a reflection of your soul. Are you truly ready to accept that your father's cancer is nothing more than the physical embodiment of how the world views you?

Truly understanding and accepting your role in life may give you the power to entirely remove his cancer but this understanding usually comes at the cost of removing all need to remove it. The fundamental truth, when understood, removes all ties to the meaningless relationships we have. You'd be better off finding a hooker who looks a little like your mother and slowly dying of syphilis. Painful, yes, but much less so than the realisation that you are the root cause of all suffering in the world.

[Anonymous No.17213019]

>>17212979
>>17212971
Not nice. I know you're young, and probably deranged, but there's no need to sully your soul with such negativity and disconnection from your humanity.

[Anonymous No.17213033]

>>17213013
Did you look up anything on god? My whole family are atheists but I figure if there's ever a time to get into religion it's now.

[Anonymous No.17213054]

>>17213033
>Jesse Bering - The Belief Instinct_ The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life-W. W. Norton & Company (2011)
Explains religious belief as a side effect of our evolved Theory of Mind (aka Intentional Stance).

[Anonymous No.17213055]

>>17212962
Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation by Ian Stevenson

[Anonymous No.17213141]

What kind of cancer?
It's pretty treatable this days most of time.

[Anonymous No.17213176]

>>17213013
>psychology
You are a retard

[Anonymous No.17213186]

>>17213141
stage four prostate

[Anonymous No.17213188]

condolences anon

[Anonymous No.17213189]

Anon, the answer is the Bible. Begin with the Gospel of John. Do not be afraid to seek help understanding it if you have trouble.

[Anonymous No.17213218]

What about the Tibetan book of the dead?

[Anonymous No.17213226]

I'm sorry OP. Maybe some stuff from CS Lewis? I know he comforts a lot of people and the smartest guy I know loves him.

[Anonymous No.17213259]

>>17213016
Wow man no need to be such a downer

[Anonymous No.17213264]

>>17213226
Actually his a good recommendation

[Anonymous No.17213294]

>>17213226
seconded. he helped me a bit when i was grieving

[Anonymous No.17213339]

>>17213189
I'd start with matthew

[Anonymous No.17213388]

>>17213226
>>17212962
Mere Christianity

[Anonymous No.17213422]

Read the Stoics

[Anonymous No.17213444]

>>17212962
There’s no need for external meaning, let’s work on things that are tangible and within yourself, Buddhism, Taoism, The Upanishads and Stoicism are all very worth looking into

[Anonymous No.17213593]

>>17212962
Mein Kampf

[Anonymous No.17213618]

This is the best one I read. Proves the Christian God, even as opposed to the Muslim or Jewish God, and why you have to follow conservative Christian teachings.

[Anonymous No.17213682]

>>17212962
Anon I'm assuming you're asking this out of despair because you love your old man, that being said you'd ought to put down your gay books and spend whatever time you have with him during his final days.
That being said I recommend to you pic related.

[Anonymous No.17213706]

>>17212962
My father has cancer and possibly even has COVID. I know how you feel and I wish I could let you know that I care. Good luck.

[Anonymous No.17213732]

The problem I've always felt with atheism is "what does it mean by god"
It's very easy not to believe in a specific defined construct of god. but when you start to explore the subject you begin to question that prior construct's validity as a representation of god.
I am still quite agnostic by just what "god" means but I realise the more I explore the topic that this concept somehow has some foundation.
Something is definitely visible behind the cracks in the image of what I thought was meant by god, but at this point I am still unclear as to what I am looking at or what I consider god to be.

After all this theistical waffle on my part I would recommend talking with him.
When my grandma knew she was dying she seemed unable to properly let things go, she kept starting things or coming up with these grand ideas but I don't know how well she was really able to deal with it.
But I think one should not fear death, it is only one step on the journey and it comes to us all in time.

[Anonymous No.17213765]

>>17213706
Same to you

[Anonymous No.17213801]

>>17212979
>>17212971
Fuck off.

Sorry OP. Rough hand.

[I hate women No.17213820]

>>17213019
You’ll talk like a woman but you’ll never be one. Sad

[Anonymous No.17213844]

>>17212962
No, you need a therapist to talk through your troubles.

[Anonymous No.17213873]

>>17212962
The only meaning we can ever find in life is what we are experiencing in the moment. The intersection of our surroundings, stressors, emotional state etc viewed through the lens of the cultural and social identity and personal beliefs makes any concept of an objective meaning of life flawed from the outset.

Allow your emotions to guide your reason, and ultimately you will find that meaning is a meaningless concept.

Fuck niggers and kikes.

[Anonymous No.17213908]

>>17212962
Sorry anon, best of luck for you are your dad. I personally find Montaigne's essays comforting, the essays on mortality in particular
>>17212979
You have to be 18 to post here

[Anonymous No.17213934]

>>17212962
Sorry to hear this, anon. My dad died of cancer a few years back, and I found Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl very helpful in thinking through a lot of my feelings.

[Anonymous No.17213994]

>>17212962
Book of Disquiet connected me with memories of my dad, though the book has no reference to dads, lots of ideas in the book are in the vain of phenomenology so it made me remember things of my past with a newly found appreciation. He died of cancer when I was 13

[Anonymous No.17214005]

>>17213618
>Proves the Christian God
you need an IQ of over 80 to post here

[Anonymous No.17214045]

My dad died of brain cancer 6 months ago. Worst shit I've seen and experienced in my life, extremely blackpilled since then.

[Anonymous No.17214127]

>>17213820
But Anon, im a cis woman

[Anonymous No.17214141]

>>17212971
>>17212979
Epic meme xD
shut the fuck up

[Anonymous No.17214178]

>>17212962
The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Trust me OP

[Anonymous No.17214252]

Timshel

[Anonymous No.17214366]

>>17212962
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/boowa/straight.html#intro

From the introduction:

>These talks — except for the two marked otherwise — were originally given for the benefit of Mrs. Pow Panga Vathanakul, a follower of Venerable Acariya Maha Boowa who had contracted cancer of the bone marrow and had come to practice meditation at Wat Pa Baan Taad in order to contend with the pain of the disease and the fact of her approaching death. All in all, she stayed at Wat Pa Baan Taad for 102 days, from November 9, 1975 to February 19, 1976; during that period Venerable Acariya Maha Boowa gave 84 impromptu talks for her benefit, all of which were tape recorded.

[Anonymous No.17214404]

>>17212962
Really sad to hear anon - my stepdad has cancer too. It's some bullshit, really is, not much more to say than that - not much more is needed to be said tbqh.

Something they don't tell you is that cancer medicine fucks with your mood, he's going to be a grumpy asshole who is hard to be around, but at the same time you are scared that he's going to, you know, die. It's really some bullshit - really is, anon.

[I hate women No.17214828]

>>17214141
Seethe faggot

[Anonymous No.17214865]

>>17214127
You will NEVER be a woman.