Find me a reason to be alive without religion

>not self centered
>my loved ones and community

It's fun.

There isn't a slowjack in existence that can express my reaction to you not understanding that doing things for other people is not self centered.

Of course it is self centered if you select the people you do things for according to their closeness to you. You fucking intellectual suicide.

I struggled, and continue to struggle with this too user. I often felt hopeless at many points in my life, but I always looked back on the good parts. My first (and still only) gf who I loved so dearly, my close friends and the laughs and good times we shared, the joy of spending time with family and the personal enjoyment of music, art and philosophy. I know it sounds cliche, but it really is the little things user. I often wondered what life was worth living for after I left religion, and perhaps we will never know. But, from my own experience, love, friendship and personal fulfillment are the best things to experience in this life, and, in my opinion can positively affirm it.

What religion and why did you leave?

hedonism

sorry, i'm retarded and forgot to remove that name. i didn't sage your thread bro

I was a Roman Catholic. My family was never very religious, but I went to catechism, was confirmed into the church and was even an altar server for a while. Despite the fact that I was never strictly religious, it was still comforting to believe in a God and feel as though there was some higher spiritual purpose to life. At around the age of 14, I started to develop severe OCD along with Tourette's Syndrome which varied in intensity. I started asking why I, a faithful servant of God and my church, had been stricken with this malady that was tormenting me daily and severely fucking up my life. I prayed every night for help and deliverance from the pain of my affliction, yet nothing happened. So I started to contemplate the problem of evil and eventually started watching classic fedora YouTubers like Thunderf00t and The Amazing Banana. As dumb as it sounds, they really did make an impact on me and convinced me that religion was probably false and eventually, through further independent thought and investigation of the arguments they laid out I became an atheist. I eventually later started to consider myself an agnostic since I felt like atheism is, in a sense, a faith. I was 14 or 15 at the time and I'm 21 now, so I've been an atheist/agnostic for about 7 years.

I just keep living to appease my family and friends. I drink and workout to occupy myself

so you can watch me fuck your mom

What do people find appealing about religion? Is there some sort of emotional thing or is it just being designated a purpose by someone else.

this

...

Similar story happened to me, except I've progressed a little farther and went back into Roman Catholicism. There is still hope for you in Christ. Everything in the world makes so much more sense under the prospective of God as counter intuitive as it seems.

a sense of purpose and community mostly

no it doesn't, everything makes more sense when not under that perspective. how can you say genocides, starvation, inequality, murder make sense through god when he wants you to love everyone?

why were roman catholic priests raping little boys then? and whenever anyone tried to stop it they got swept under the rug?

Because you instinctively fear death.

Thanks man, I appreciate the advice. I don't know if I'll ever go back since the idea of God just doesn't make sense to me given what I know about the world and its properties. Perhaps I may return, but I don't see it as likely. I've just been trying to go forward creating meaning through love, friendships and the enjoying the breathtaking experiences of life.

>alleviating the suffering of people in your close proximity makes you a bad person
>you should send aid to Africa and let people suffer around you and that makes you morally superior
??????

No. Define it for yourself.

>genocides, starvation, inequality, murder make sense through god when he wants you to love everyone?

Wouldn't being Catholic inspite of it all be the best thing you can do?
>le relentless optimism
Nietzsche forgot that paganism was relentless optimisim in the face Fate's determinism

Because once you love god, god will love you back and make you feel better :3

You yourself as you understand yourself to be a thinking being that if were to be deceived by some superior being were to still remain and thus know yourself to always exist, know that because the likeliness of a superior being is less than the mostly reasonable experience of yourself, then it must be assumed that there is very unlikely a being that is actually superior to yourself. TL;DR: (You) are God. Without (You), there can be no external experiences, and thus, EVERYTHING MUST BE a figment of your creation, and potentially, of your design.
You help your loved ones so they will continue loving you. Your self interest is affected by the love of your loved ones, ergo, you are acting in self interest.

How did Austria-Hungary, the Soviet Union, and the Holy Roman Empire deal with its various ethnic groups living under the same rule?
pic related, concrete bollards recently installed in Melbourne to prevent vehicle attacks

that was supposed to be a new thread

Philosophy > History. Prove me wrong. [spoiler]Protip: you can't[/spoiler].

There are chemicals in my brain that make me not want to kill myself. That's all there is to it, and that's fine by me.

context?

all of it

well then it's subjective

How does accepting a proposition as true give you any actual 'purpose' that isn't just as rationally defined as the purpose you'd define if you DIDN'T accept that proposition?

You don't think the Greek gods are real, therefore your life has no purpose, according to you.

See, even that is problematic, because I used the word 'real'.
Real refers to things that EXIST in REALITY.
The gods of Greece have existence, but not REAL existence.
I'd challenge you to find me a supernatural being that was also 'real' in that sense.

>I just ruled out your point of view a-priori, hah looks like I win again

Because your mother and father (or some adult, at least) wanted you to be alive.
Also because life for most people is at least somewhat enjoyable.
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Eat, drink and be merry.