As most of you probably already know, I recently left my conservative Christian faith and am now wandering aimlessly in the depths of agnosticism. Actually, I am not so much wandering aimlessly anymore, thanks to the internet’s abundant resources for skeptics and a couple of awesome atheist friends, who were more than willing to point me in the right direction, and, of course, Google.
One resource that I have enjoyed immensely is Point of Inquiry. I have been downloading it from iTunes and listening to it on my podcast. Although I do not agree with every guest, I have benefited greatly from hearing these different perspectives on belief, morality, the meaning of life, and other topics.
Today, I was listening to an episode from back in May with Jeff Schweitzer, author of Beyond Cosmic Dice: Moral Life in a Random World
When you first encounter the idea that there’s no god and no imposed meaning in life, it’s frightening. It’s like you’re looking into a void. But, if you can jump across that abyss to the other side, it’s unbelievably liberating. It’s unbelievably enlightening and so freeing to know that you’re not under the whim of this mysterious thing acting in ways that you’ll never understand, that you actually have control over your destiny, within the constraints of chance, of course. So, not only is it not nihilistic, it’s the opposite of that. I think it gives a much brighter vision for life than religion provides.
Amen to that.
I think Sartre would agree with you.