All I am, and all I'll ever be is a brain in a body

Day 15. What do you believe in? And not just God or atheism.
Seriously, if I could sum up what I believed in, I would just point people to this song. That says it all in words better than I can manage. However, I shall attempt it here.

I am an atheist. I think I have always been an atheist, although I went through a period when I was about 15-20 of desperately trying to give myself faith (mostly this consisted of studying various religions obsessively) because I thought I needed it. What I realised was that what I really needed was rituals and a sense of community, and that you can have them without the belief in God (which was always where I fell down in my quest for religion; I couldn't make myself believe).

Above all things, I believe in words and people. That is, I believe human consciousness is a wonderful, beautiful and terrifying thing, and that words are the most perfect expression of that consciousness. When I think about what a tiny accident it was that this universe exists, that this galaxy, this solar system, this planet, this combination of circumstances that produced conscious beings exist, I'm almost overwhelmed. I find our smallness, the slender thread of luck that caused us to exist and be conscious both beautiful and terrifying.

I believe that this life is all there is, and that it is essential to live it in the way that feels right to you. For me that means gulping down experiences, feeling the full range of human emotions, and thinking about everything so much it makes my head hurt. I want to look back on my life and know that I lived, I loved, and I was loved.

My beliefs are not a comfortable or comforting thing. I find my comfort in words, and the stories they tell me, and in people and the places they take me and the person they make me.

( the other days )

I will attempt to catch up, but we'll see if I make it to Day 30 by the end of the month.

All I am, and all I'll ever be is a brain in a body

Day 15. What do you believe in? And not just God or atheism.
Seriously, if I could sum up what I believed in, I would just point people to this song. That says it all in words better than I can manage. However, I shall attempt it here.

I am an atheist. I think I have always been an atheist, although I went through a period when I was about 15-20 of desperately trying to give myself faith (mostly this consisted of studying various religions obsessively) because I thought I needed it. What I realised was that what I really needed was rituals and a sense of community, and that you can have them without the belief in God (which was always where I fell down in my quest for religion; I couldn't make myself believe).

Above all things, I believe in words and people. That is, I believe human consciousness is a wonderful, beautiful and terrifying thing, and that words are the most perfect expression of that consciousness. When I think about what a tiny accident it was that this universe exists, that this galaxy, this solar system, this planet, this combination of circumstances that produced conscious beings exist, I'm almost overwhelmed. I find our smallness, the slender thread of luck that caused us to exist and be conscious both beautiful and terrifying.

I believe that this life is all there is, and that it is essential to live it in the way that feels right to you. For me that means gulping down experiences, feeling the full range of human emotions, and thinking about everything so much it makes my head hurt. I want to look back on my life and know that I lived, I loved, and I was loved.

My beliefs are not a comfortable or comforting thing. I find my comfort in words, and the stories they tell me, and in people and the places they take me and the person they make me.

( the other days )

I will attempt to catch up, but we'll see if I make it to Day 30 by the end of the month.