The Paris Attack Debate Thread

[alfred russel]

Why should an atheist be suicidal? It's the theist who is the plaything of a powerful, capricious being.

Because his living body and and his dead one have the exactly the same intrinsic value.

Is this the answer? I just cleared my calendar and was about to resign my job and stock up on food and toilet paper so I could devote 3 months to properly contemplate this, but I guess I don't need to anymore. Thanks Raz!

[The Brain]

You can live 3 months without toilet paper.

[Eddie Teach]

Speaking from experience?

[Razgovory]

Why should an atheist be suicidal? It's the theist who is the plaything of a powerful, capricious being.

Because his living body and and his dead one have the exactly the same intrinsic value.

Is this the answer? I just cleared my calendar and was about to resign my job and stock up on food and toilet paper so I could devote 3 months to properly contemplate this, but I guess I don't need to anymore. Thanks Raz!

No, you don't need to clear your calendar.  You just need to keep in your mind at every waking hour.  At work, at home, in the morning, at night, all the time.  Imagine being in an elevator for all eternity.  Imagine your desperation to get out, and how you can't.  Imagine screaming, clawing at the door, imagine crying. Imagine your own skull, old and dry and yellowing.  Imagine that all you ever were in confines of that funny little bone.  Imagine how people walking by it not giving it a second thought.  Imagine the atoms of your body floating in space billions of years from now all floating separately across the cosmos for eternity.  Now think about those things at least every half hour for three months no matter what else you are doing.  Good luck!

[Eddie Teach]

Yes, thank God for the sweet release of Death.

[alfred russel]

Why should an atheist be suicidal? It's the theist who is the plaything of a powerful, capricious being.

Because his living body and and his dead one have the exactly the same intrinsic value.

Is this the answer? I just cleared my calendar and was about to resign my job and stock up on food and toilet paper so I could devote 3 months to properly contemplate this, but I guess I don't need to anymore. Thanks Raz!

No, you don't need to clear your calendar.  You just need to keep in your mind at every waking hour.  At work, at home, in the morning, at night, all the time.  Imagine being in an elevator for all eternity.  Imagine your desperation to get out, and how you can't.  Imagine screaming, clawing at the door, imagine crying. Imagine your own skull, old and dry and yellowing.  Imagine that all you ever were in confines of that funny little bone.  Imagine how people walking by it not giving it a second thought.  Imagine the atoms of your body floating in space billions of years from now all floating separately across the cosmos for eternity.  Now think about those things at least every half hour for three months no matter what else you are doing.  Good luck!

Is it okay if I imagine that there is a really cute lady stuck in this elevator with me?

[Razgovory]

Nope.  Actually you should totally not do what I just said.  It's a very, very bad idea.

[11B4V]

Yes, thank God for the sweet release of Death.

[DGuller]

They kill themselves because they're unhappy and don't enjoy the experience of living.

Bingo.  Now pain and unhappiness don't happen to dead people in the materialist viewpoint and because life has no intrinsic value it is better to be dead then to be unhappy or in pain particularly if you don't see a way alleviate those circumstances.

You could have an intrinsic feeling of empathy, and imagine how your suicide will affect the people you know.  You could also have the intrinsic feeling of self-preservation, and just not actively fight it.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Your above-stated concerns about oblivion should, if anything, keep an atheist from every contemplating suicide.

Then you really haven't thought enough about the subject.  Go ahead, think about it some.  Think about it for three months straight and come back and tell what you think.

I am no stranger to existential anxiety, believe me. Those episodes invariably lead me to look for ways to cheat death. Existence is infinitely better than the alternative; There's no room for hope in oblivion.

[mongers]

I'd guess most of the people killed the Friday before last had some notion about the meaning in their lives/of life, but seems to me people with a distaste for lives that are different or that they couldn't appreciate took it away from them.

It's rumoured those that carried out the slaughter believed in an all powerful, compassionate god. 

[Razgovory]

They kill themselves because they're unhappy and don't enjoy the experience of living.

Bingo.  Now pain and unhappiness don't happen to dead people in the materialist viewpoint and because life has no intrinsic value it is better to be dead then to be unhappy or in pain particularly if you don't see a way alleviate those circumstances.

You could have an intrinsic feeling of empathy, and imagine how your suicide will affect the people you know.  You could also have the intrinsic feeling of self-preservation, and just not actively fight it.

Yes, but those are still subjective feelings.  Chemical reactions. Are they objectively worth anything?  Not really.

[Razgovory]

Your above-stated concerns about oblivion should, if anything, keep an atheist from every contemplating suicide.

Then you really haven't thought enough about the subject.  Go ahead, think about it some.  Think about it for three months straight and come back and tell what you think.

I am no stranger to existential anxiety, believe me. Those episodes invariably lead me to look for ways to cheat death. Existence is infinitely better than the alternative; There's no room for hope in oblivion.

There is no room for hope, period.  You will die.  The Earth will die.  All free energy will die.  There's a reason why there's a link between suicide and atheism.  It's why I want to believe in a God.  It is a hope, however slim.

[garbon]

Very odd.

[Razgovory]

Very odd.

That's what they said at Fulton State Hospital.