MovieChat Forums > The Theory of Everything (2014) Discussion > What is love to an atheist?

What is love to an atheist?

posted 10 years ago by lca-blog
226 replies | jump to latest

I watched the movie today and it got me thinking a lot. The idea of having nothing after dead and no God gets me to think of something.

I googled my question to google and I came up with this. http://www.strangenotions.com/atheists-love/

I'd like to hear your opinions on this. My intentions are not to offend atheists. I just want to understand how it works.

By the way, Stephen Hawking is a perfect example of the 'problem of evil' - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil - a common hypothesis to why there is no God, I believe.

[–] ChristianWoolf 10 years ago

what's scary is that a human being is judging another human being based on his religion.

"The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy - it's all that matters." (A.H)

[–] RKharlamov2001 10 years ago

Well that's pretty normal. Believing in something without basis or evidence tells you something about a person.

[–] robbrama 10 years ago

Love is acceptance.
Why would it be different for an atheist?

[–] Saltpeter 10 years ago

I tried being an atheist & decided it's too hard. You know what the toughest part about being an atheist is? There's no one to talk to when you're having an orgasm!

[–] soupphysics 10 years ago

If you choose to go along with a delusion, because reality is hard, then you're aware that it's not real, and therefore not actually religious, but just choosing a life style.

[–] soupphysics 10 years ago

It's absurd to think love and religion have anything to do with each other.

[–] Aryaaa 10 years ago

Its called nature?
We're animals afterall.

Caveman go back to your massmanipulation indoctrination, leave IMDB.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] jmichael3387 10 years ago

Despite all these well articulated answers....the bottom line is this:

It would be totally depressing if there was no God. Or no afterlife. I'd be depressed every minute of my life if I believed that. Anyone who says different is just fooling themselves.

[–] SomethingOrAnother 10 years ago

So you want to live forever in some form?

[–] d_n_croft 10 years ago

It's not totally depressing, I find joy in things. Sorrow comes hand in hand with happiness, that's just life so make the best of it before it's over.

[–] svenrufus 10 years ago

I'm not in the least bit depressed, certainly not every minute of the day. To be honest, thinking about it is something that I only do very occasionally, and then I'm quite happy to just go 'Hmm, would be kind of nice to know what happens next, but hey ho.' You see, it doesn't bother me because I know that by the time I get there, I won't know a thing about it (being dead and the absence of an afterlife and all that) so why fret.

Fooling myself? Nope. Neither am I arrogant enough to assume to know the mind of someone else with a different belief system from mine. I don't need a god to help me through my life. Knowing this is it means I make damn sure that I do my best now, and enjoy it while I can. There's no fall back, no dress rehearsal. Just get on, do the right thing, do it well, hopefully leave something good behind, but when its done, its done. Without wanting to patronise you like you did to atheists, I feel sorry for you that you lack the courage to make your own way through life, make your own decidions, without a crutch to lean on, but if it works for you, good luck to you.

[–] jmichael3387 10 years ago

I'm not trying to be patronizing. I'm just saying how I honestly feel. If I thought that in a few years I would just be gone, disappeared, turned to nothing....I would be very depressed.

Deep down an atheist has to think that maybe he's wrong. That somehow he might live on somehow. Or how could he not be depressed? I can't understand that. Making the best of the time I have left wouldn't make me feel any better. Maybe my inner make-up is just different than that of an atheist. Or maybe some atheists will learn before it's too late. Anyway, I couldn't handle it. I don't think that's weak....because getting through life would be pointless anyway.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] svenrufus 10 years ago

OK, I apologise for the patronising/arrogant comment. I think I'd just not really expected there to be such a strong religious theme to these boards when I checked in, and I got a bit snappy. You just happened to bear the brunt of that.

In a (hopefully) more constructive tone then - I think that pretty much everything you say about 'an atheist has to think maybe he's wrong...etc' I could turn round and say that is how I feel about religion. I quite simply do not give any thought to religion. I don't wonder about whether I'm right or wrong, I'm more likely to wonder at how people can beleive in something for which there is no evidence. (I don't want to get into a theological debate, I'm just saying what I think).

Do I think that it is all ultimately pointless? Yes, ultimately, it is, but in the meantime - what a trip! What an amazing world, what a vast and incomprehensible universe! FOr me the wonder at where we find ourselves is all the greater for it being random, rather than by design. I love that it is all from nothing and all for nothing. I'd hate to live my life thinking I was someone/thing elses creation and plaything.

We do have a very different outlook on life, and as much as I really don't understad your view, I try to respect it. Sorry again if I bit your head off, but trust me, I'm in no need of sympathy for not believing - I'm far from depressed, but I am in awe, and I am excited and curious about what comes next, knowing that it is up to me alone.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] rereboy-903-525228 10 years ago

Despite all these well articulated answers....the bottom line is this:

It would be totally depressing if there was no God. Or no afterlife. I'd be depressed every minute of my life if I believed that. Anyone who says different is just fooling themselves.

Really? And the notion that there's an all-mighty being that can destroy you any time he wants to or send you to hell for all eternity because of any criteria he establishes, whether you agree with it or not or if you find it fair or not, is a comforting thought?

Or the fact that people have killed each other in his name for thousands of years and continue to do so today, and yet he doesn't care enough to stop it or show us with one of his miracles that its wrong and show us the correct path?

Or the fact that even if you go to heaven, you would exist forever and ever and ever and ever, billions, trillions, endless years, with no end? You would be forced to exist beyond any concept of measure of time that any humans can possibly have?

This is all comforting to you? You would be depressed without it?

[–] footnotegirl 10 years ago

I don't believe in any god. Or really an afterlife. I'm not depressed. Life is great. Every day brings new challenges, new joys (and new sorrows too, but you couldn't see the stars if the sky was never dark). Just because you can't handle existence doesn't mean that other people can't, you know. Please, speak only for yourself and not others.

[–] objviewer 10 years ago

I don't believe something because it makes me feel good; I believe something because I think it is true.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Krustallos 10 years ago

My intentions are not to offend atheists. I just want to understand how it works.

It works exactly the same way as for people who believe in a god or gods. I've known plenty of religious people and seen nothing to make me thing they experience romantic or familial love differently. And whether you call it a "soul" or a "personality", the non-physical aspect of who we fall in love with is basically identical.

The linked article is nonsense. If love really was a question of finding a "soul-mate" we would never fall out of love and divorce wouldn't exist. Clearly not the case (despite the best efforts of the Catholic church).

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

[–] cargolot 10 years ago

Wow, when I read that I just think the opposite:

What is love to a religious person?

Me myself, I can't concibe a third "person" (god) involved in any spect of my love circe with my couple. But I respect anybody can, of course. I always respect other peope, in any aspect, as long as they respect the others and their own freedom. (I'm thinking a little about fanatics here).

Peace!

Spain