I have to admit that I considered suicide when I struggled with my belief in God and an afterlife and gradually concluded that neither were true. Occasionally I still think about dying and get a very depressed feeling. I'm still working on a good reason to live beyond the instinct of survival and my fear of dying. On the other hand, is a happy, but false idea worth keeping? Not in my case.

It may make you happier thinking Britney Spears or Marilynn Monroe loves you, but it doesn't seem a good idea to maintain a worldview too different from the world that actually exists.

If believing in an afterlife makes you happy, then it's difficult for me to argue against keeping the belief unless you allow it to unduly affect the rest of your thinking. If you believe too many happiness-promoting unscientific ideas like a personal God and a life after death then you will probably be more susceptible to other faith-based anecdotal-based ideas like UFO aliens, ESP, faith healing, miracles, nontraditional medicine, etc., which slow the progress of society and some of which can kill you.

• Re: Believing makes you happy. - yanniru - February 23, 2001 - 15:33 UTC
  • Re: Re: Believing makes you happy. - alexander - February 24, 2001 - 01:22 UTC
    • Re: Re: Re: Believing makes you happy. - yanniru - February 24, 2001 - 12:50 UTC
      • Back from afterlife. - alexander - February 24, 2001 - 21:49 UTC
        • Re: Back from afterlife. - yanniru - February 24, 2001 - 23:28 UTC
          • Re: Re: Back from afterlife. - alexander - February 27, 2001 - 00:14 UTC
            • Re: Re: Re: Back from afterlife. - yanniru - February 27, 2001 - 14:22 UTC
              • Back from afterlife. - alexander - March 1, 2001 - 04:16 UTC
                • Re: Back from afterlife. - yanniru - March 1, 2001 - 13:14 UTC