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 Topic: Dealing with nihilism

 (Read 7307 times)
  • 1« Previous thread | Next thread »
  • Dealing with nihilism
     OP - January 12, 2015, 09:38 AM
    I've been a nihilist for some years now (2004-2005?). I am not arguing the case for it or against it, it was simply what the road led to. It hit me hard at first and thought about ending my life (was tough at first). Now I am generally happy most of the time, but I still go through periods when the meaningless of everything gets me down. Despite what this perspective might imply, I am happy and find joy in life and wish to continue to do so.

    How do you deal with it? I push it to the back of my head and go on with my life, but how long will that work?
    "Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to."
    هذا من فضل جدي
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #1 - January 12, 2015, 11:56 AM
    I'd have to say that nihilism has been a product of my depression, which probably isn't the best reason for becoming a nihilist. However, as you've pointed out, this isn't a thread for defending or arguing against the stance.

     I just bottle it up alongside most of my feelings, it used to have an ok success rate.

    Quote
    the meaningless of everything gets me down


    I know what you mean man, I can switch from being happy to being cold in an instant. The "cold" feeling lingers for far longer than any short-lived moods of happiness.

    Anyways, sorry if my non-advice wasn't helpful, but it seems that we both deal with it in a similar way.

    And as for how long it will work? It hasn't worked in the last 3 months for me, which have probably been some of the worst.  As a last-ditch effort, I'm now trying to ignore reality.


    My mind runs, I can never catch it even if I get a head start.
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #2 - January 12, 2015, 03:02 PM
    I'm the same.  In general I find my very existence meaningless and would without a doubt bow out, if I had the choice (no responsibilities).

    I just plod along really.  That's the only way I cope.  I have something to do, look after the kids, it's hard but at least it gives me a purpose.  Obviously I feel that even their existence is meaningless in the long run, but I get through it by recognising that to them, it is not meaningless.  To them, life still seems worthwhile.  It's all real to them. 

    It means nothing to me.

    I think absent that purpose, I honestly don't know how I would keep going.

    Some days though, on those rare occasions, I can see life as full of meaning to me.  Good company, good scenery that you can feel connected to, that reminds you of how beautiful the world really can be.

    But they are rare days.  Grin
    Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit.
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #3 - January 12, 2015, 03:19 PM
    I'm starting to find beauty in nihilism.

    I am but a mere grain of sand in a cosmic beach that is perpetually distending.
    My mind runs, I can never catch it even if I get a head start.
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #4 - January 12, 2015, 06:20 PM
    Lol nihilism is the product of my very existence too, people think i'm depressed but i'm not, just indifferent to many things..  i over think everything so much so that i can predict the outcome to a situation before it happens, that then makes life a bit unsurprising and dull - well sometimes not all the time lol     
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #5 - January 12, 2015, 07:47 PM
    As some have mentioned, knowing how insignificant things really are, it's very easy to become indifferent to things other people think that matter.
    Quote from: Qtian on January 12, 2015, 03:19 PM
    I'm starting to find beauty in nihilism.

    I am but a mere grain of sand in a cosmic beach that is perpetually distending.

    That realization has set me free of many self imposed restrictions. I see beauty of simple things and it has provided me with insurmountable patience that some may mistaken for apathy.
    "Ours is the age which is proud of machines that think and suspicious of men who try to."
    هذا من فضل جدي
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #6 - February 06, 2015, 09:25 PM
    edit
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #7 - February 24, 2015, 09:28 PM
    Just curious about Nihilism, at which point is the cutoff where reduction no longer occurs? Or is it a case of peeling onion layers?
    One only acquires wisdom when one sets the heart and mind open to new ideas.

    Chat: http://client01.chat.mibbit.com/#ex-muslims
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #8 - February 24, 2015, 10:43 PM
    Quote from: kulay on January 12, 2015, 09:38 AM
    How do you deal with it? I push it to the back of my head and go on with my life, but how long will that work?


    That's what I do. I try to keep busy and occupied so I don't have to think about how stupid & meaningless life is.

    But it hits me sometimes.

    I try to keep a little hope in my heart that there is something yet to be discovered or achieved. That keeps me going.

    For a while, anyway Smiley
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #9 - February 24, 2015, 10:54 PM
    It annoys me that one of the arguments often put forward for why religion is true, is that without religion your life has no meaning and you would commit suicide.

    Now I'm not going to argue that this is not true - I'll leave that to the very many atheists who are perfectly happy and have absolutely no desire to end it all.

    What annoys me personally is, even if their claim had some truth to it - and for me personally it does - how the hell does that mean religion is true?

    Plus of course: Can one believe in something one finds irrational and absurd, simply because one doesn't want to be depressed?

    Is it really possible to shut your eyes tightly, click your heels, and say "I do believe... I do believe... I do believe!!"
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #10 - February 24, 2015, 11:12 PM
    Quote from: PhysMath on February 24, 2015, 09:28 PM
    Just curious about Nihilism, at which point is the cutoff where reduction no longer occurs? Or is it a case of peeling onion layers?


    I don't quite understand what you are asking here, PhysMath?
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #11 - February 24, 2015, 11:54 PM
    I mean, nihilism is the belief that elements to life and the universe are not meaningful if I understand it correctly. So I just wanted to ask, at which point does someone say "this doesn't have meaning"? Or is it literally universal?

    I used the term reduction to refer to it in essence as a reductionist idea. But you can correct me again if I'm wrong. I don't know too much about it!
    One only acquires wisdom when one sets the heart and mind open to new ideas.

    Chat: http://client01.chat.mibbit.com/#ex-muslims
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #12 - February 25, 2015, 12:22 AM
    Well I don't label myself as a Nihilist as such, I just share the view that life seems pointless and meaningless - and the world full of a great deal of suffering and pain that seems to have no purpose.

    The point at when I came to that view pretty much coincided with my loss of faith in Islam.
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #13 - February 25, 2015, 08:58 PM
    The day that I became an atheist, or realized that I truly was an atheist (it was a process), I remember looking into the backyard of my parents' home.  It was spring, and the wind was whipping through the forest there, shaking the lilac bushes under a fairly clear blue sky.  I thought about the previous events that had led to that moment, the unfolding of evolution over billions of years, the scope of existence and its vastness, and the comparative insignificance of the entire lifespan of humanity measured against deep time.

    I honestly think that reflecting on the nature of the universe inspires a sort of awe and wonder that is more significant than the meaning I ever took away from Christianity.  Sure, there's no purpose or meaning to any of it, but there is a chain of causality that reaches back to the beginning of time and space, both of which are vast.



  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #14 - March 25, 2015, 04:30 PM
    Nihilism and depression does not go too well for me. I do have the thought of ending it as I started becoming more atheistic. It is not just the thought of "there is no meaning in this", it is the excruciating pain of existing without a meaning when I really yearned for it deep inside. My depression is and anxiety is a huge part in influence it though. Without those it not a painful experience in my mind.

    I do realized that "religion" may satisfy the urge for meaning by saying a god have put you for purpose. I understand why people hold to beliefs so strongly, this is a thing which makes people live another day.

    I don't know, I am going with Hassan and to stay busy and occupied. To me all I know that makes me live another day is because you'll die one day and get plenty of rest don't need to rush to get out.

    I like what gsaseeker say. I feel like that before. A sense of being humbled as you know the universe is not build for you.
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #15 - March 26, 2015, 01:59 AM
    I must say I've been dealing with similar blues although they haven't been quite crippling. I start thinking about how all that I am can probably be reduced to the interactions of molecules with each other and all I have ever done or accomplished is really because my genes and environment have shaped me to act in that way.

    I tend to overintellectualize things and that can start to bum you out. The world quickly begins to lose its magic as you realize that everything around you is merely obeying the laws of nature and life is nothing particularly different.

    However, I find it helpful to spend time with children who really see the world as the wondrous place it is. To a child, simple things make all the difference. A child has not yet started dividing things up and looking at the world for functional value. Children revel in doing absolutely simple, meaningless things to thrill them. I once taught a robotics camp for kids aged 6- 10. To keep them in line, we had a point system where I would give kids who were behaving points and kids who misbehaved lost points. Whoever had the most points at the end of the course would get a cheap little prize. I realized that the prize didn't even matter, the kids would do all they could to win just because they just wanted to win, to be recognized. This meaningless little behavior game would make the day of whoever won.

    I think we all start growing up and we've forgotten all about how it was like to be a child. We just push forward towards whatever career or personal milestone is next and then the happiness of our achievement is short lived and we wonder if this is all there is to life. Instead of learning to enjoy the meaningless around us and find happiness in the moment as we did as children, we demand meaning from the world around us.

    I say find something or someone that makes you feel the sort of passion and enthusiasm for life as you once had when you were young and stick with that person/thing. Finding meaning in life is not suited to be an intellectual pursuit. Sometimes it really is better to let the heart lead the way
    "I moreover believe that any religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system."
    -Thomas Paine
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #16 - March 26, 2015, 09:50 AM
    ^That is so true, well said !  I remember last year, my eldest daughter was packed and ready to go off to university, before leaving she slumped herself down on the window sill and watched  a bunch of kids of about 10-11 years old playing accross the street, she sighed and said, "mum it's not fair i want to be a kid again, everything was magical back then, now i've hit reality" she chocked me up..  I don't think suffering from nihilism is through just having no religion or faith, although being an athiest can contribute toward it, i think it comes through being overly conscious and over thinking the meaning to everything, you can still be a depressive nihilist with a religion, like "whats the point to an after life, whats the point in being eternal, whats the point to anything anywayyy" .
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #17 - March 26, 2015, 10:03 AM
    Ultimately everything is meaningless, but it doesn't have a negative effect on me. Ultimately, I don't matter. So what? I'm here right now. I'm alive right now. The people I love have no ultimate worth. So what? They have worth to me. They don't need to be known and loved by all people for all time to be known, loved and happy in the time they have. Ultimately there is no meaning. So what? My own life has meaning to me. The fact I give it meaning doesn't lessen that in my eyes.
    `But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
     `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad.  You're mad.'
     `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
     `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #18 - March 26, 2015, 11:30 AM
    Quote from: Quod Sum Eris on March 26, 2015, 10:03 AM
    Ultimately everything is meaningless,....
     
     [center][b][i]Ultimately at a fundamental level of particle physics everything is meaningless, So what? 
    but it doesn't have a negative effect on me.
     Ultimately, I don't matter. So what? 
    The people I love have no ultimate worth. So what? 
    My love to them and their love to me worth to me.
    I don't care if  ultimately there is no meaning. So what?
     My own life has meaning to me. 
    The fact I give   meaning to my life to the life of other's doesn't lessen that in my eyes.
    I'm here right now. 
    People, I'm alive right now.
    I don't care what happens after I die but I do care when I am alive.[/i][/b][/center]

    So you are an atheist  or clooooooose to an atheist.. now cutting some  wonderful words from your post which I am going to re-post somewhere else,  I am going rain insults  on you  .... fucking atheists..



    Quote
    "Two guys break into an atheist's home," Robertson said in the speech. "He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters.

    "Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot 'em and they take his wife and then decapitate her head off [sic] in front of him."
     
    "And they can look at him and say, 'Isn't it great that I don't have to worry about being judged? Isn't it great that there's nothing wrong with this? There's no right or wrong, now is it dude?'"


    You.....   fucking stupid atheists.. DUCKS RULE yeeeeehhaaaaaaa..
    Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything   
    I renounced my faith to become a kafir, 
    the beloved betrayed me and turned in to  a Muslim     
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #19 - March 26, 2015, 05:04 PM
    ...and then the murderers/rapists accepted Jesus before they died and lived happily in heaven for eternity while the atheists daughters and wife who had been brutally raped and murdered spent eternity in divinely ordained agony.

    Talk about nihilism...
    "I moreover believe that any religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system."
    -Thomas Paine
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #20 - March 26, 2015, 06:32 PM
    Afraid I don't have much for your question kulay, other than distracting yourself and pushing it to the back of your mind.

    BTW, you still around dude? Hope you haven't decided to leave us for good.  Cry
    Quote from: yeezevee on February 11, 2016, 02:05 PM
    how fuck works without shit??


    Let's Play Chess!

    harakaat, friend, RIP
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #21 - March 26, 2015, 10:56 PM
    Quote from: yeezevee on March 26, 2015, 11:30 AM
    So you are an atheist  or clooooooose to an atheist.. now cutting some  wonderful words from your post which I am going to re-post somewhere else,  I am going rain insults  on you  .... fucking atheists..

    (Clicky for piccy!)

    You.....   fucking stupid atheists.. DUCKS RULE yeeeeehhaaaaaaa..

    Wow. He's an idiot.
    `But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
     `Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad.  You're mad.'
     `How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
     `You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
  • Dealing with nihilism
     Reply #22 - March 27, 2015, 01:53 AM
    I often struggle with this myself.

    I find a kind of satisfaction in viewing myself and all life as just another form of the universe that will one day change and take another form of existence when I die, as it did when I was born and as it has been doing throughout my life. I think this is from somewhere in Buddhist philosophy.

    As others have mentioned, I keep myself busy with day to day activities which give me purpose and the will to keep going.
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