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/lit/ - Literature

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3876151 No.3876151 [Reply] [Original]

I've been an atheist for nearly a year and ever since I have felt lost.

Even a year ago I was part of something local, something bigger than I was. I felt my life had purpose even if artificial and was happier.

For much of the modern western world there seems to be no replacement and no empathy for even the local community which religion I at least felt served a purpose. I never prayed once in my life yet still went as I felt a bond.

What are some books to set me on the right path.

>> No.3876155

Get into politics.

>> No.3876156

The holy bible by god

>> No.3876158

Albert Camus - The Myth of Sisyphus (coping in a meaningless world as an individual)

Soren Kierkegaard - Fear and Trembling (lengthy discussion of the irrationality but importance of religious faith)

>> No.3876170

>>3876158
Thank you.

I'm guessing that I can jump into those without much prior knowledge of philosophy, no?

>> No.3876178

>>3876170
Yeah, the translations I've read have been pretty straightforward. They're pretty short, but don't rush them or you might miss something

>> No.3876187

>>3876170

Not that same anon but you should really read 'The Sickness Unto Death' by Kierkegaard at around the same time. You don't need any real prior knowledge oh philosophy to get into him, assuming you aren't a complete tard. Don't worry.

>> No.3876188

Levin in Anna Karenina contemplates his lack of faith and struggles to find a direction in his life that he can apply himself to, which feels meaningful.
It's worth checking out OP.

>> No.3876213

The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. But honestly I've been an atheist for about 5 years now and I've yet to be in a real existential crisis. Maybe some people have a greater need for something bigger than themselves than others. But good luck in your search. I hope you come out the other side unscathed.

>> No.3876220 [DELETED] 

Good god OP don't be so interdependent on people, people fucking suck.

If you're so sad play poker with your buddies or do something to fill in that Sunday time slot.

Fuck, go back to church. Do you think half the people who are preaching that shit believe it for a minute? Fuck no, they're sick fucks who enjoy the power, prestige, and little boys.

>> No.3876226
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3876226

>>3876158

>tfw I want to read a tangible copy of Kierkegaard so bad but no moneys
>tfw my Nook is a $200 Netflix machine

>> No.3876237

>>3876226
it's like £4 on Amazon m8

>> No.3876249

Carl Gustav Jung

>> No.3876270

You could always join a pseudo-religion, e.g. secular humanitarianism, volunteer organizations, a sports-club, politics, militant Atheism, or PETA. Or you could rejoin your religious group and say you're religious even though you're not (if you agree with their vision of a better world, and you believe that what they're doing will get it there, then you can still support it even if you don't believe the mythology).

One of the beauties of Atheism is that it itself provides no compelling reason, outside of an emotional attachment to 'correctness', as to why you should not be religious.

>> No.3876298

Worship material possessions like the rest of us. It will fill the void.

>> No.3876306

I hate categorization of any sort. It can only ever lead to conflict. I guess, technically speaking, I'm an atheist, but I wouldn't refer to myself as such. Nowadays I tend not to dwell on 'meaning' and 'reason'. I just live in the moment, doing things for my own cause, and those I care about, safe in the knowledge that I'm content.

>> No.3876326

>For much of the modern western world there seems to be no replacement and no empathy for even the local community which religion I at least felt served a purpose.

marxism-leninism

>> No.3876333

>>3876151
Just buy a fedora and all will be well.

>> No.3876340
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3876340

>>3876213
>Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

This is a great place to start.

Also, I personally find chapters 1 and 2 of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament very good if you're having a crisis OP.

>> No.3876416

read psalms. im not even particularly religious and i love it

>> No.3876440
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3876440

Why can't you just embrace absurdism/nihilism? Am I the only one who can do this?

>> No.3876444
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3876444

>>3876440
That photograph frightened me profoundly when I was a kid

>> No.3876445

>>3876440

You haven't done it, you just delude yourself into think that you've done it.

>> No.3876446

>>3876444
I can see you William.

>> No.3876918

>>3876178
>>3876170
How can you say this? Fear and Trembling is a critique of Hegel. You need to understand Hegel, or at least have some knowledge of dialectics, to understand Fear and Trembling.

>> No.3876927

>>3876445
>projecting
Also, I see no difference.
Either way he believes he's embraced it, and that's what counts.

>> No.3876930

>>3876927
Accidental name sage

>> No.3876934

Get a psychiatrist now. No books will help you. In fact, they might hurt you.

>> No.3876946

Get into the Stoics. Someone named Marcus Aurelius already, which is a great suggestion, but I like Epictetus better. Get the Enchiridion, it's a very short little book full of practical advice.

"Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well. "

Definitely read the other Stoics such as Seneca well.

>> No.3876951

>>3876237
The Hong translations, which don't get caught up in archaic English, are still pretty expensive. I think his Journals and Papers are something around $120 or so.

The suggestions here are good, Ecclesiastes is a good edifying text, but I'd also suggest some C.S. Lewis, either Screwtape Letters or maybe Mere Christianity depending on if you want fiction or non. They sort of claim to be for non-believers who "want to be good but don't know how" or somesuch, but I think they're really for unsure Christians more than anything.

>>3876934
Psychiatrists have hurt me more than books ever have but you can have your opinion or whatever.
Even if you think it's a psychiatrist's problem, the solution is probably more sunlight and exercise and a more balanced diet.

>> No.3876970

why is existential philosophy the only philosophy that doesn't prior knowledge of previous philosophies?

>> No.3876979

Read the Book of Job and then make an ethical decision on whether or not religion is worth it.

>> No.3876984

>>3876951
>Even if you think it's a psychiatrist's problem, the solution is probably more sunlight and exercise and a more balanced diet.

How about you don't give advice you're not qualified to give?

>> No.3877002
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3877002

Stirner

>> No.3877036

>>3877002
I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky
I think about it every night and day
Spooks and morals just fly away

>> No.3877047

>>3877036

oh snap

>> No.3877048

>>3876151
http://www.adyashanti.org/library/The_Way_of_Liberation_Ebook.pdf

Get past the new age feel and give it a shot. Real spirituality is valuable.

>> No.3877057

"The Meaning of it All: thoughts of a Citizen- Scientist"

>> No.3877134
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3877134

>>3876984

>> No.3877156
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3877156

>>3877002
This.

>> No.3877178

>>3876984
OK, OP should eat a lot of frozen and processed foods and stay in his basement all day; sunlight and light exercise can bring nothing but trouble and would certainly not be recommended by a psychiatrist, and no one here has any valuable advice beyond "u should see a shrink I don't know nuthin." OP was a fool to make this thread and is only hurting himself, in my unprofessional opinion.

>> No.3877180
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3877180

I know this gets a lot of hate and take it with a grain of salt and all that, but it's got some recs

>> No.3877198

>>3877178
You shouldn't advise that. You're not qualified. This is a strictly credential-based forum. CFAs only pls.

>> No.3877202

>>3877180
Its a good chart really. Instead of beyond good and evil, there should be zarathustra, but thats about it.

>> No.3877263

>>3877180
Good stuff

>> No.3877292

>>3877178

Hes not a fool to make this thread, alot of what youre saying is right, hes onlya fool if he listens to bad advice from idiots.

>> No.3877434

>>3877292
Too bad for you "only listen to advice from a psychiatrist" is bad advice from an idiot, then.

>> No.3877769

Read siddharta gautama's speeches.

He knew what he was talking about

>> No.3877772

your kidding right what can be more heroic than struggling and living despite the 2nd law of thermodynamics

>> No.3877773

>>3877434
you're not qualified to make that assessment

>> No.3878030

>>3877773
I don't believe you're qualified to make such a claim.

>> No.3878080

>>3876326
Move to the suburbs. There's plenty of community shit out there with the soccer moms.

>> No.3878097

>>3876951
Do you like the Screwtape letters?

>> No.3878119

>>3878097
I thought it was fantastic, personally. I think many of the greatest Christian works have a strong ironic and even humorous edge--Galatians has a strong undercurrent of irony, for example, one that I think a lot of people miss (I've read that Jesus cracks jokes in the Bible sometimes but they're not really ha-ha funny). This is certainly at least partially because I'm a Kierkegaardboo, and Kierkegaard said somewhere the the Christian outlook is certainly the most "hilarious" imaginable.

The book is sort of geared toward a bourgeois audience, but it's very cleverly written. Some people might see it as too "clever," but I found it uplifting and edifying. idk if that means anything though, and I could undestand why someone without a Protestant background might not get much out of it

>> No.3878157

>>3878119

I agree with you about the undercurrent of irony. Lewis himself was a humorous man by nature, something I feel the light-heartedness or levity of Christianity can often produce. Mocking sin and mocking the devil is seen as the most effective tool against him, and the thing he hates the most. Other Christian writers like Chesterton share the literary eye-twinkling when they write on exposing evils. It really shows their unaffected optimism. The Letters were clever, and sure to provoke thought in anyone regardless of background, if people aren't repelled by Lewis' style of buddying up with the reader a lot.

>> No.3878172

>>3878080
No, move to a nice rural town. Suburbs will only induce great amounts of anxiety.

>> No.3878177

>>3876151
join a gang

>> No.3878251

Every grand meaning in life is pointless because the steps to realize any ultimate goal are all the same. Look up the paperclip maximizer.

Even with no goal, the result is the same. Everything approaches the singularity. Like a black hole, you can not see what it is, and trying to leaves you empty. You can only see what it is not.

>> No.3879534

>bumping on /lit/

>> No.3879548

just find something you really like
I tried reading philosophy, and on the way I learned that history was my forte