Ramblings

[spudtater]

Just saw Crucify Me on't telly. Interesting. I was half expecting it to be a bit of a publicity-seeking stunt, but something about the guy's demeanor convinced me that he was intensely serious about the whole thing. I cannot for the life of me ever imagine wanting to nail myself to a cross, but I do totally understand the idea that sometimes, there are things that you have to undertake as part of your own personal spiritual journey.

As far as him finding his faith again, I can say in all honesty that I'm happy for him. He initially lost his faith in a negative way, and though he said that it was losing his faith that brought about his depression, I have to say that from what I saw I would think it was the other way about.

Because, no, I don't want people to be unhappy. This is one of the big negative stereotypes about atheists; that they're unhappy people who want other people to share in their misery too. And it's one of the biggest challenges for any individual atheist to turn an initially very negative set of concepts (there is no God to love and comfort you, death is permanent, life is unfair) into a healthy and positive attitude to life (including concepts of freedom, dignity, and potential).

How should I bring this ramble to a conclusion? On a personal level, a person's faith or lack of it is really not that important. It's more important that they have hope, and mental health, and face the future with a positive attitude. Everybody's got their own spiritual journey to make, and I can appreciate Dominik's... even if I have my suspicions that he may be madder than a sack of ferrets.

Comments

[markadm.livejournal.com]

Hrmmm... I wondered about Dominik being a little bit wack when I saw it the first time, but I know he's serious. I agree that there are sometimes things you just have to do, whether it's in a spiritual journey or otherwise; also, I think you're right about the depression-apostasy dependency being one way.