“It’s a more strenuous path than the religious path, because you’re then going to say that there is no God, there is no reason (for anything), that people on Earth are the only (way) to provide any meaning. That’s a rough road to travel.
“When you lose a child, you’re telling yourself as an atheist, ‘I’m never going to see that child again in any form.’ That’s a hell of a lot harder than a religion, which gives you the consolation that you will see that child again in heaven. It’s hard being an atheist. It’s tough.â€
Boo hoo hoo. Cry me a river I lost a child and I'm never going to see it again. So I'm going to turn to religion so it can create an imaginary, completely unproven world for me in which I will see my child again. Just sad!
Our emotions don't change reality. So changing your philosophy for emotional reasons may be psychologically sound, it is still goofy from a rational point of view.
agrees with Hugo and The Mighty Ra
I am happy for her.
That's her problem.
It sounds like she was thoroughly indoctrinated as a child and did not loose that indoctrination as an adult. The quotes that you provided indicate this especially from the ideas that there *needs* to be a meaning and it's much more comforting to think that there is life after death.
I have a hard time with giving meaning to life, especially from the religious definitions of it, as it strikes me as trying to give meaning to a cloud formation or a four leaf clover. There are "meanings" behind these things, just not what a person would assume them to be without studying them.
I do understand the fear of death and wanting to always be with your loved ones, but simple desire does not mean that it is true.
Fear of death is the number one cause of religion.
I also disagree with her quote "people on Earth are the only (way) to provide any meaning"
Oh really? I find plenty of 'meaning' outside of human-made religion and 'deities'.
'Meaning' is in nature itself. All living things are our brothers and sisters, not just humans. The cosmos, time and space, etc, is a enormous mystery and innately humbling. Just to *be* is surely enough 'meaning'.
Anne ironically becomes that very thing she is trying to avoid; Christianity is enormously self-focused. It sees humans as the very epicentre of their 'daddy's' 'creation'. It's so obviously a man-made mythos for a man-centric view of everything.
I can think of few teachings that are more self-absorbed. At least Ann was honest, and basically 'fessed up that her religion gives her consolation that she will be reunited with her dead child.
Isn't that the meaning of religion? To 'conquer' death, if only in our minds?
I vote we have to face death as adults. Be every day thankful for our short time here, and know that death makes way for new life. Such is nature, no matter how tough it is to lose a loved one. Most of us have. We look for 'meaning' to our loss, when the truth is hard to face, that there may be no intrinsic 'meaning' to death, other than it happens, and if it didn't happen, there would be no life. Basic physics and biology.
Every life is a miraculous chance. Why throw it away hankering after 'eternal life'? Life is too precious to be wasted on wishful thinking for post-death experience.
May be she decided to find *god"
What do I think about Anne Rice converting from atheist to Catholic? Not much of a difference. She just traded one god for another god (herself for the pope). Now If she were to convert to Christian, then she would have traded a god for the God. Big difference.
“I stopped talking to God,â€
An actual atheist cannot actually say that, Anne Rice was never an atheist. It shows that the term is delibrately misunderstood. Not attending your church for a few years doesnt make one an atheist. Christians like to claim the conversion of an atheist, it makes them look strong and right.
i think that just because something seems like a nice idea, it doesn't mean it's true. wanting to believe in something isn't evidence for it. but i'm not going to criticise her for finding what comfort she can in a difficult situation.
i does rather seem like she way never really atheist, having a religious passion about something requires faith, which defeats the point of not believing. if you think god's there to not talk to, you must still think god's there... but just like people can't make themselves believe, they can't make themselves not believe, so there's no point judging anyone.
I think she is being honest about the psychological reasons that she has for being religious. I think we are all individuals though. For me the idea that we are the ones who create meaning if we wish is empowering, far more so then our purpose is to worship a deity. Even if I wanted to believe that we see those who die again it just doesn't seem realistic to me. Its sort of like saying, "why not believe in leprechauns when if you do you might just trip over a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow someday?! Doesn't everyone want to find some gold at the end of a rainbow?"
It's not "hard" being an atheist. If someone finds it "hard" to be an atheist, then they're not an atheist. An atheist is simply someone who doesn't believe other people's claims of the existence of God. It's not something you have to work at, and spend a lot of time thinking about. You either believe something, or you don't. It's like saying that it's "hard" to not believe in Santa.
Yes, it is painful losing a loved one. But you can't just turn around and say that you're going to start believing in God because it will make you "feel better" when you lose a loved one because you *want* to see them again in a magical afterlife, any more than you can just 'decide' to start believing in Santa because you want to think that there's a bunch of presents waiting at the North Pole with your name on them.
And the need to think that there is some sort of "higher" meaning to life is simply a need to feed the human ego. Just because we *want* there to be a "higher" meaning to life, doesn't mean there is a higher meaning to life. That isn't to say that we can't MAKE our lives meaningful, it just means that they are only as meaningful as we want them to be and make them ourselves. That is a much healthier way to look at life than just thinking that we're something super-special just because we were born. This ego trip that humans have been on for so long, thinking that everything was put here for us, and the sense of entitlement that comes with such an attitude is precicely what has lead to the downward spiral of society and our environment.
I think her books were good & her religion is nothing to do with me...
I think anyone who has been high or drunk or has a mood disorder such as bipolar will tell you that feeling sad or happy has nothing to do with reality!
I think Anne Rice made a mistake being an atheist in the first place. I am glad she became a Catholic because she now has eternal life and no more enmity with God. She has taken the salvation offered to her by the grace of God through the atonement provided by Christ on the cross for her sins
Catholicism is false and can't save, so she went from one unsaving belief system, to another unsaving belief system.
Catholicism cannot save. Only faith alone in Jesus saves.
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