1/ Here& #39;s another thing to consider:

Materialism is the attempt to achieve non-suffering by diverting nature& #39;s naive course, e.g.

- Lying to loved ones
- Sexual gratification without love
- Getting high on drugs

All of this is "lying" to nature, so to speak. Pre-empting her. https://twitter.com/tom_username_/status/1244025411975229441">https://twitter.com/tom_usern...

2/ The ultimate version of this is life itself.

Fleshly existence is in defiance of default existence (i.e. indifferent ideational bliss). Trying to keep your material existence intact is diverting nature& #39;s natural course in order to achieve short-term non-suffering.

3/ Materialism is a kind of impatience: "No, I want pleasure in *this* time-frame. I don& #39;t want to wait until marriage."

The denial of God and the afterlife is this exact same phenomenon, but to the utmost extent.

It& #39;s the firm conviction that *now!* is what matters.

4/ Existence has two sides:

- Original spirit/consciousness/perception

vs.

- Desire/will/cause-effect entropy/route of least burden/decay

Or as Schopenhauer puts it: Representation vs. Will

Original spirit is extracting yourself from route of least burden/will/decay.

E.g.

5/ With raw perception (what we tend to call these days "meditation"), you rise above the mechanistic decay of physics.

i.e. You become meta-physical and identify as consciousness itself.

Without perception, you degenerate into materialistic confusion. https://twitter.com/tom_username_/status/1233056095247138816">https://twitter.com/tom_usern...

6/ So to relate this the first part of this thread:

By surrendering your perception to an external mechanistic worldview, you no longer have to perceive the world as it really is. You did this because it promised non-suffering in a quicker time-frame

This is why you& #39;re atheist.