God and mental illness

4266 Views 19 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Qk8, 2 mo ago

Scattered

Discussion Starter · Jul 10, 2005

I think on my darkest of days I and many others would have liked for there to have been a loving compassionate person, energy, force, etc to come down from the sky and whisk us away from all our troubles. On my worst days (that started my experience of DP) I was in a state of such anxiety, despair, and hopelessness that I simply layed down and hoped that some supernatural being would take pity on me and save me from myself. Of course this idea can be dangerous.

I've found that the more I look at this world the emptier it seems. I see endless suffering that grows worse each day. I may not experience this because I am priviledged but I notice horrible deaths resulting from starvation, disease, terrorist attacks, and other acts of violence. The more I notice this the more I feel disconnected and seperated from a world that seems to have no purpose. It is as if this world is a temporary station where we are whipped, prodded, insulted, and made to feel insecure and doubtful before we begin the slow process of dying.

So I look for an explanation for this suffering. I look to christianity, buddhism, hinduism, and other faiths. I analyze myself and my mind trying to intuit some sort of answer. But nothing comes. I'm reminded at the lack of compassion, purpose, and meaning that surrounds me. I see people grasping at sand trying to desperately make sense of chaos. They need the religion they believe in and I am willing to accept that as reasonable. However, I cant accept any of these religions. I can't get past the obvious delusions and lies that one must tell himself before surrendering himself to the supernatural.

I feel like I need to surrender myself to something that does not exist. Because it does not exist and it seems like a last line of defence then there is no hope. I have no faith in fake gods, and I have no faith in mental health institutions that don't understand this problem. I have no faith in a society that expects me to play by its rules, bite the bullet and become successful so I can buy lots of things and pretend to be happy. But I also have no faith in people who wear robes, study religious texts, and speak of false religious awakenings that play to their desire for happiness.

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Homeskooled

· #12 · Jul 14, 2005

Dear Scattered,
To borrow a phrase from a character we seem to be mentioning on the forum alot lately, the Oracle, having faith is an awful lot like being in love. You either have it and you know it, or you dont. When your feeling it, you cant fathom life without it. When you dont have it, you cant see the sense in it. I tend to see that it creates mutually exclusive attitudes like this. I'm trying to bridge these two attitudes and bring a more balanced view of the natural and supernatural world into my life. I dont want to devalue a secular way of looking at things - it has its advantages. But I dont want to lose sight of shooting for ideals higher than myself or this world. The only way to understand it again, or to see if it has any value, is to pick "it", meaning faith, back up again, dust it off, and use it. Pray. And dont just ask God for things. Tell him what you are going to do for him, and why. Give him a day, try to follow his commandments for a day, tell him why, ask for his help, and at least just "pretend" to have faith for a day. The big problem is treating god like a slot machine. Put a prayer request in, pull the lever, get a jackpot. Most of the benefits of faith, both internal and external, come from when we actually put it into practice. Like I said, its like being in love. You either got it, or you have no clue what people are talking about.

Peace
Homeskooled

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Homeskooled

· #16 · Jul 15, 2005

Just don't get carried away and try and fool yourself into thinking that you won't get burnt playing with matches.

Martin, God doesnt exist. There are no matches to get burnt with. You will send the same, meaningless prayer into the same, empty void, only to be met with a profoundly empty echo. And if you choose to live by the ten commandments for a day, perhaps a Sunday, you will make that empty prayer in a church surrounded by other people of faith, spend the rest of the day following the ten commandments, and then, aha, yes! You will indeed be burnt... For you will have lived a day for something other than yourself. And when the day is over, you will once again take up your old habits, and begin the cyclical existence you call life. Call this way of looking at it Homeskooled's Wager. If God doesnt exist, you cant lose.

Peace
Homeskooled

PS- The point of this post is not to seem witty, funny, or to score a debate point over the space-filler in our lives we call the Internet. It is to point out that you may feel that there is a void in your life because there is a void. Do not disregard this possibility. Apathy of the spirit is a hard thing to shake. But it clouds the intellect, until you cant imagine any other kind of existence. I dont want to debate the merit of this suggestion. You're old enough to know your own life and your choices better than anyone else possibly can, especially me. But you need to take a good hard look at your life, and choose a new path. I'm just pointing out a possible option.

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Homeskooled

· #19 · Jul 20, 2005

I said that reason is imperfect. It is. It has severe limitations, even if you have an intellect as great as mine..... :wink:

It isnt faulty. It is a tool which should be used. But our reason doesnt have the capacity to answer all the questions we can ask. Its limited. It can usually answer "What" questions. "What are we made of ?" " What is here?" "What are Homeskooled and Martin always arguing about?". But it has a much harder time answering questions about intangibles. The "Why" questions. "Why were we made?" "Why are we here?" "Why are Homeskooled and Martin always arguing?". These mysteries are beyond the scope of human reason. You can either accept or reject the hypothesises put forth to answer those questions. The leap which is taken to accept the answer is called a leap of faith. Reason should guide that leap, but it will never be certain. Our reason cannot grasp something outside of our own, narrow human experience. But this is also why the longer one experiences a lack of spirituality, like a lack of anything else, such as happiness, the more clouded one's memory of them becomes. Now go spend a day doing good, darn you! (To answer your first question, I will not answer the why - the proof is in the pudding- my personal suggestion for "which" would be that you attend Mass at the London Oratory. Very Beautiful, very solemn.)

Peace
Homeskooled

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