Drinking from Russel's Teapot

bluejayway — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:34:43 -0800

CharityFilter: Looking for a humanist charity to contribute to. Must not be extremist. Would also consider donating time and/or brain power. More details inside. First off, I am not looking for a debate on the relative merits of secularism/humanism/rationalism vs. religion/theism. I've made my informed decision and am looking to help an organization that supports secularism in general and promotes the teaching of evolution and the dissociation of religion and politics.

Said organization should not be of the radical, in-your-face variety. I don't want to support people who start shouting matches.

Any thoughts, HiveMind?

How do secularists deal without the comfort of religion?

giggleknickers — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 17:33:46 -0800

Religion fulfills certain psychological needs. How do non-believers manage without it? I'm an agnostic and I am constantly finding myself jealous of religious people. I think that religion fulfills many psychological needs and I'm definitely feeling the effect of not having those needs fulfilled.

I long for ceremony, ritual, rites of passage. I want a temple to pray at even though I have no one to pray to. I want to do that thing where the Christians all go down the aisle and take turns eating and drinking symbolic stuff. I have no idea why, but those things just seem to lift my spirits so much and I feel down without them. I was trying so hard not to fall asleep through the movie "Memoirs of a Geisha," but I perked right up when they started talking about making everything into a ritual as a means of making the mundane enjoyable.

They also help tremendously for the sake of focus. I'm tossing around the idea of getting a Wiccan book and doing a spell for any goal I have. I wouldn't actually believe in the magic, but doing a spell to improve my career would make such a difference in helping my focus on the goal and feel good about it.

I want something to cling to. I want some equivalent to "God has a plan" and "The lord will provide." I have heard religious folk saying "The lord gives me strength." Where am I supposed to find that kind of strength? Where does it come from? Where am I supposed to get it? I would love so much to be able to have some idea to concentrate on to help me struggle through hard times.

I want a guide for how to live. I wouldn't follow it blindly on faith. I would certainly do some picking, choosing, and editing of such a guide. But having to come up with it completely from scratch makes me feel so lost and confused.

I want some meaning handed to me. I get frustrated with people who say secularists can't possibly have any meaning in their lives, because I believe that a person should have their own meaning instead of the meaning some higher power handed to them. Still, they almost have a point. Coming up with your own meaning is hard. I want something external to help get me my meaning.

SO, after all that blather, I would like to ask my godless brethren how they fill these holes without religion.

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Drinking from Russel's Teapot

How do secularists deal without the comfort of religion?