Hacker News Reader

Comment by didgetmaster | Hacker News Reader

You don't have to 'hit rock bottom' to have temporary times of despair in your life. Even if you have a lot of things going for you, we all have times when we feel sad, depressed, lonely, in a rut, overwhelmed, or other negative emotions.

If you find yourself in one of those times, convince yourself that it is only temporary and look for the good. Help someone else out because serving others will give you a boost. Surround yourself with uplifting people. Make small steps if that helps.

Some people give religion a bad rep, but faith, hope, and charity are real and uplift the soul.

View on HN

I'm one of those people that from a young age gave religion a bad rap.

The problem is nobody ever told me about its utility. I was just dragged to church every Sunday and occasionally lectured on God / etc. It was really easy for a young mind to get cynical about it especially amongst a family that was very preachy.

I wish someone had said "whether or not you believe in THIS god, there is utility in believing in SOMETHING higher than yourself. When you grow up, and are deep into your work life, there will be dark days when you will have nothing that can comfort you, other than the belief that things will get better, and that someone or some thing is more in control than you think".

I wish someone had explained that there is immense utility in the community of religion. That you could end up in your 30s without much of a broad social community. Sure friends, sure family, but not really belonging to any community bigger than those (other than work).

I feel like the religious people around me as a youth really failed. There IS actually a good reason to have a faith. It doesn't have to be because you're afraid of going to hell. There's actual utility in it, mental utility.

If religion was a net negative, it wouldn't have survived for... well, since monkeys grew a rigid spine. The negatives tend to come from people exploiting others' dependency on its usefulness.

Everything has pros and cons, but some other behaviors that have survived for a really long time are murder, war, and (since it came up in this thread) alcoholism, which are not generally very well regarded.

This isn’t to say religion is necessarily like those things, but it does indicate a flaw in the idea that behaviors that stick around mustn’t be so bad.

Murder can kill mass-murderers, and some wars can result in lasting peace. Everything in moderation.

(Alcoholism has a massive component gifted to us by the genetic lottery, so it's really unfair to bundle it with these things.)

Despite this, I bet you agree that murder is a net negative that has survived for longer than religion.

> I wish someone had explained that there is immense utility in the community of religion. That you could end up in your 30s without much of a broad social community. Sure friends, sure family, but not really belonging to any community bigger than those (other than work).

This is actually huge.

I went from being dragged to church as a kid to "screw this I'm an athiest now!".

However as I got older, I realize there is tremendous benefit in exactly what you are pointing out. There is a large community of people who generally care about each other and help each other out, etc.

It doesn't matter the specific religion. I've moved to areas where I attended the local Unitarian Universalist church for this reason. They don't practice any specific religion, but the community aspect of it was a big help, because in the past I've been in situations where I was truly alone and could have used some support. It's comforting to know there is a group of people out there willing to help you if you get in a bind (and you would do likewise to them).

I consider myself a pantheist now, so I will listen to pretty much anything people want to say regarding faith. That's up to them.

You don't need organized religion to have that sense. Please, everyone, read and apply:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World

The problem is that religion perpetuates itself by adherence to a set of shared beliefs, so it cannot survive a significant proportion of followers saying "these beliefs aren't literally true but the benefits of community and belonging are absolutely worth it."

If faking belief weren't so detrimental to the soul it would be an obvious choice for those people with a stubborn habit of needing proof.

Needing proof certainly can be annoying habit, especially when it comes to matters of meaning and purpose which is what religion provides for a lot of people.

People find meaning and purpose in science too, but of course if you dig far enough you realize that that the proof problem is never really solved.

So, you gotta have faith wherever you turn. One of the reasons I've also become more open to spirituality as time has humbled me a bit.

There’s pie in the sky when you die! Your post is perhaps the biggest load of tripe I’ve seen on this forum.

You may be proving his point…

> we all have times when we feel sad, depressed, lonely, in a rut, overwhelmed, or other negative emotions

I'm in one of those states right now. Unhappy with work. Uncertain about money. Poor health. It really piles up.

> If you find yourself in one of those times, convince yourself that it is only temporary and look for the good.

I'm fortunate enough to know that it's not permanent. I've been in these states before, and I've gotten out of them. It's just hard to see through the fog of uncertainty though. My brain doesn't work well when it's stressed.

For me, it helps to have a project that bring me joy. I've been doing a lot of hobby coding. It's really nice to code for myself again. I haven't really done this much hobby coding for 20 years, and it's like meeting an old friend.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope your recovery is speedy my friend, Merry Christmas

Thank you.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com