Taz writes:
Despite my strong atheism and skepticism, I have recently begun to wish there is a god and there is an afterlife.
I've personally never stopped wishing such a thing. There's nothing wrong with wishing, in fact there's many benefits like "hope" and striving forward with a positive drive.
However, I am very careful about constantly reminding myself that this is indeed, just a wish. There currently is no known, validated evidence to promote confidence for such a wish being a part of reality. This present fact restricts me from ever using this wish as a basis for any decisions that are above "just for fun" on my importance scale.
In fact, I find it very strange if someone existed who
didn't "wish" (in the sense of "it would be nice if it were true") that there was some benevolent being watching and caring about each and every one of us. I don't see a downside to such a thing.
For our resident atheists, will you use spirituality as a mean to comfort when faced with total planetary annihilation?
I most certainly will. But, well, my use of the term "spirituality" has nothing to do with "the God of the Bible" or anything specifically relating to the supernatural (although this is not specifically excluded, either). My use of the term spirituality is more related to anything that can provide an inner sense of peace and comfort that is controlled (consciously or not) by one's own mind.
In this sense, merely thinking of things that are comforting (like, perhaps, a serene beach scene with birds in the background) is spirituality. This may or may not fit in the with the popular definition of the term. But I fail to see how there is any practical difference.
Along these lines, when faced with impending doom, I most certainly will make use of spirituality to ensure that I can provide myself with a sense of hope and calm. This will allow me to assess the situation and continue to do whatever it is I actually can in order to help the situation for my loved ones and myself in any way possible. What I will not be doing is active prayer of any form, including focusing on only asking/waiting for some being to come and save me. Time spent soley repenting or waiting on a beneficial future is time wasted that could be spent on doing something that may actually help bring about that same beneficial future. I can wish/hope/ask-for-help-from-anyone-who-can-hear-my-thoughts in the back of my mind while I'm actually doing something that may have an impact.
If this world has taught us anything, it's that the only thing that affects the physical nature of this universe is other things that are physical in nature. An important physical event such as "impending death for everyone on the planet" is not the time to ignore such facts and suddenly rely exclusively on spirituality, it's the time to use the facts we have to do what we can. Whenever (if-ever...) I am confronted with an important spiritual-only event is the only time I will ignore the physical and focus the majority of my resources on spiritual aspects.
But yes, I will use spirituality as a tool to prevent myself from being shocked or paralyzed with fear. This is an area where we can use irrationality to prevent 'giving up' in a situation where rationality would tell us there is no chance. Even if there actually is no chance, I'd rather go fighting and facing my demise than sitting and waiting while "rationally" giving up.
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