Optimistic Nihilism: A Psychologist's Personal Story & (Biased) Professional Appraisal of Shedding Religion

by David Landers

I’ll continue to call myself “spiritual but not religious,” only now the “spiritual” will refer to the belief that quantum physics (or something) is in charge of it all.

QF is mentioned here for the first time, should be better supported why

They spoke with authority, charisma, and a glow that made it clear that we new-age spiritualists finally had it all figured out, that science and spirituality are the same, and no one will be left out. Now that’s really beautiful: a universe where everyone is granted eternal life. And again, what a shame that the rest of humanity can’t see these truths, but instead continue to kill each other because they’re too immersed in their respective myths.

Very radical...

However, heading in the direction of understanding may be sufficient to convince one that even the human mind is a product of nature and doesn’t require a God to have created it.

Who even claimed that?

Staying ahead of the meaninglessness that pursues us. That’s a very provocative thought, that sometimes our ambitions are motivated by fears of meaninglessness.

What does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea is ludicrous, if it is not monstrous. It means to know that one is food for worms. This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating yearning for life and self-expression—and with all this yet to die.

Personally, I’m ready to admit that a large motivation for writing the book that you’re reading—with all of its narcissistic autobiography and egocentric grandstanding—is to cope with my own anxiety about not existing anymore.

Obviously

Yes, religion does solve all the problems of “living matter.” Death? Not a problem, because it’s not really the end. In fact, something that is so much greater than life that it’s inconceivable awaits me. Life until death? Well, it’s not the drudgery it seems, because no matter what I do, I “do all to the glory of God.”20 And when it all becomes too much to handle, I just put everything in his hands. That may sound like a cop-out to some, but it’s not. Oh no, to the contrary: The more I’m able to trust God and surrender to his will, the greater being I am!

some patients will quit just as they start to get better. I now appreciate why, because even pain can be paradoxically soothing, if it’s familiar and predictable. Sure, it hurts, but at least I know what to expect from day to day. Plus, if I change—even for the best—it necessarily means that I’ve been wrong about reality until this point. Never mind; I’ll just stay put, as I prefer predictable and right.

Today, it’s a challenge to avoid being bombarded with news stories and images that affirm our mortality, in Technicolor and very large numbers. So, of course we’re freaked out. And of course we cope by distracting ourselves through rat-racing, shopping, and trying to leave our marks through accomplishments, including children and books like this one. And of course society isn’t complaining, because our productive distraction is the machine that makes society function. And of course religion has irresistible appeal, because it readily accounts for all the chaos without demanding much introspection, contemplation, or analysis, instead appealing to faith. Perhaps religion itself is just another mindless distraction.

I’m ranting. We atheist writers can’t resist it.

For someone writing a book with Nihilism in the title, I’ve read very little of Nietzche. However, I have read a book about him, What Nietzche Really Said.

Although there is no objective meaning to life, its value is immeasurable.

IN MY LATE TWENTIES, as I began to accept that I was an atheist—and later, a nihilist—

We seek rest by combating certain difficulties, and when these are conquered, rest becomes intolerable, for we think either of the troubles we have, or of those we might have.

Perhaps the colonization of America was a speciation of sorts. It must have taken a special type of person to get on a boat during the 16th-19th centuries and make his or her way across the Atlantic Ocean to these mysterious lands. Those people were dissatisfied with the status quo in Europe, and ambitious and restless enough to do something incredible about it. And here we are today: a nation of restlessly ambitious people.