Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
I am a Catholic convert. Despite this, I still turn to atheist existentialist types for wisdom. This may trouble some readers, but it shouldn't. When I read those guys, they confirm for me again and again a truth that I have come to embrace. If God does not exist, then life is not worth living.
When Nietzsche declared that God was dead, he set in motion a project doomed to failure. This project was to find a way to live and function and even find happiness in a godless universe. None of the godless philosophers after him achieved anything on this project. Much of what they discovered about life was identical to what you will read in Ecclesiastes except without the consolation at the end of that biblical book that God is in control and will bring all things to a good end.
This world has nothing to offer. There is nothing to recommend it. Once you become an atheist, life is reduced to the material and the pleasurable. There is nothing greater to make a meaningful life. Even your work amounts to keeping yourself entertained during the day. This is why many call it an "occupation." The rest of us call it a job. For some people removed from having to work for a living because of status and good fortune, a job is merely a thing that occupies your time and keeps you from being bored during the day. Instead of building sand castles, they build real castles with the only difference being the time horizons of the two structures. Ultimately, everything returns to dust.
When you're an atheist, your existence begins as an accident that turns into a comedy and ends in tragedy. The enormity of this realization drives some to suicide. As a Generation X guy, I remember Kurt Cobain killing himself. That was a shocker for the young because Cobain had what many of us desired--wealth, fame, a job without heavy lifting. Yet, Cobain was a profoundly empty individual. Then, more recently, Chris Cornell followed Cobain into the abyss by killing himself. Cornell had the same things as Cobain. but none of it mattered to him. Nothing in this material world can fill the spiritual emptiness.
The abyss is nihilism. That is what Generation X had and still has. Despite coming of age in a materially prosperous time, the Gen Xers did not have God. They were materially rich but spiritually bankrupt. Some found God while others lost themselves in their careers, families, and liquor cabinets. Essentially, the Xers left their ditto mark on what the Boomers gave them.
The Millennials are blessed with being too stupid to realize their misery. The epitome of this generation of imbeciles is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aka AOC who is a walking comedy act who writes her own jokes with punchlines every time she opens her stupid mouth. Her ilk demonstrate that ignorance is truly bliss. Millennials are a generation of mental defectives from the complete morons to the Aspies on the autism spectrum. When that generation finally puts its hands on the wheel, we are truly doomed.
Millennials lack wisdom. Wisdom can take two varieties, but they both lead to the same destination. Life without God is not worth living. Some embrace God as I have done. Others fling themselves into the abyss. This leaves you three options--ignorance, the abyss, or God. If you've read this far, ignorance is no longer an option for you.
I used to think it was possible to find and live a meaningful and purposeful life without God. I know now that this is impossible. We were made for God. Our hearts desire God. Nothing less than God will suffice. And that is the secret to life. We should believe in God and love Him with all of our beings. This is the only thing that matters in this life and makes life worth living. Everything else is folly and misery.
