Why are religious people proud? It doesn't seem like a very comfortable way to live to me. Different strokes for different folks.
Anyways, I don't look at it as not believing in anything, I look at it as not believing in what cannot be proven. If I had my choice of what I would like to believe I might try to make my own smorgasbord, I would like to believe that there was a god who created us and left us to our own designs not out of spite but for the sake of our independence, that the god in question created us all with inherent good, that we can be reincarnated as whatever we like so long as our karma is good enough, and that when I reach the end of my reincarnation cycle there will be virgins awaiting me in heaven, but there's no proof for any of that. Why would I believe that, then, if I knew the only reason I was believing it was because I wanted it to be true? There is no way of escaping the fact that I know I don't believe it's true, even if I can convince myself otherwise on the surface, or in other words I see it as really beliving in nothing.
What I do believe in is not supernatural, it is physical, sometimes metaphysical if you want to get technical about it. I believe in the power of creativity of humans, both as individuals and under larger cla$$ifications. I believe in the immense potential of humans to do good if properly directed. I believe that this world is part happenstance and part causality, but what's wrong with that? To me that makes it more beautiful, that in all we know of the universe right now we're the only place that has just the right conditions at just the right time to support life, and vibrant life at that. To me it's like a rainbow, why is it there? Because light shining at the correct angleis viewed from the correct perspective refracting off a concentration of water in the air. Is it any less beautiful because I know that instead of thinking that a god put it there? No, it's just as beautiful, maybe even moreso because it tells me that amidst the sort of organized chaos that is our world there can be perfect order of conditions to create beauty. To me that seems like a more appealing way of looking at it, because if there's a god instead of everything being the result of happenstance, good and bad, both the good and the bad are the result of god, which makes me feel a bit like a cosmic toy.
As for not believing in an afterlife, I look at it as a sort of yin and yang thing. I'm not really into any religion, eastern or western, but I believe there are laws of physics that can often be applied to other sciences, for instance action and reaction. That's simply a principle guiding transmission of matter, but I have found it to hold equally as true in terms of dealing with human emotions. In the same way, I think opposites and duality as observed in physics can be applied to the nature of the world. Opposites define each other, how would you be able to tell the difference between matter and space if one didn't exist? Space is inherently a lack of matter, and matter is inherently occupying space, duality. The sameI think holds truewith metaphysics, there can be no life without death, no existence without non-existence, no bliss without pain. The religious sometimes talk about non-existence being incomprehensible, but so is eternal bliss. If you're constantly happy, then what are you really? How do you define happy? Can you really be happy if you know there will never be sadness? To me it sounds like it would neccessitate an emotionally catatonic state as you'd only be feeling one way for the rest of eternity. I think people are afraid of losing life and some people can't stand the thought of that, but I look at it with that thought of duality, if I was not afraid of losing my life then would I still think of it as precious? Some people think of that fear as a bad thing, but to me it's what defines us, what defines life. I remember this one line from Troy and it's one of my favorites (lines, not movies) where Achilles says, "The gods envy us because they will live forever, but to us every moment is precious." The thought of the lack of a god or eternity doesn't depress me as much as the thought of the existence of them would for this reason.
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