God and your own thoughts

serotonin_wraith

I hate to be left alone with my own thoughts. I don't mind silence if I'm reading, but my mind always has to be focused on something. So at home I always have the TV or music on in the background. When I wake up I don't like to lie there - I get up and do something.

I also don't believe in a god.

So, I'm wondering if there is a correlation between those who don't mind being left with their own thoughts, and those who believe in a god. First we'd have to see if there is some kind of a match, and if there is, what could it mean?

frankiespeakin

Being alone for a time can be very disturbing to some, it can be very transformative. Sometimes shamans are made through the process of prolonged isolation, as usually the typically unconscious part of man becomes more conscious.

As far the belief in God and there being a:

correlation between those who don't mind being left with their own thoughts, and those who believe in a god.

I guess that would depend on the type of God image one subcribed to. I don't know if there is a God, not enough evidence to say either way, but I do beleive in a "God image" or archytype, mine is not very single minded or of expressed purpose, but still waiting deep in the center of my psyche directing everthing that I do while I appear to be choosing for myself what to do in my conscious mind.

Clam

I love being left alone with my own thoughts. As a child who believed in God I didn't like it one bit. I often used to lay awake contemplating eternal oblivion. Later in my early teens I landed in the JWs and what a relief it was to realise I had been given the choice to change what I had thought was the inevitable. This however came with a new set of anxieties. I believe there to be a creator but I don't know what he is or what he wants. What might be relevant to this post though is that for a long time I've been indifferent about dying. Since I've become comfortable with my own mortality I've been very happy to be left alone with my thoughts. When I was confident that Jehovah was in charge of my fate I wasn't. Does that turn what you're saying on its head?

I don't really see how there would be a correlation here, but it's an interesting question. There's the implication that a comfort device is missing. In my experience atheists are happy that they have no invisible means of support.

Clam

fresia

To be alone with one's thoughts I think is good for meditating and looking into oneself and feeling connecting to the what ever you need or want. But isolation for long periods is not good for mental health, and the suicide rate among the lonely is growing espeacially among men, women seem to cope better on their own but that is not a good deal either.

Humans are social creatures and need others to interact with.

Awakened07

I'm an atheist, and I have always loved thinking, even after I stopped believing - probably more so. After all, I have had to think in order to establish what I was going to believe or not believe after leaving the JWs. That said, I also often have the TV on in the background while I do other stuff. And I tend to do the best thinking when I have gone to bed and am supposed to sleep, which can be annoying in that sense, but I don't mind being alone with my thoughts, no.

IP_SEC

No corrolation with me.

I need a lot of time alone. Only reason I need noise is because the tinnitus can be deafening.

I am most at home inside my own head. Do not believe in any gods, ghosts, angels, demons, spirits, sprites, brownies, or otherwise bipedal demigods... except for the horned god... I dig that pimp.

serotonin_wraith

Thanks for your thoughts. Looks like there isn't a match at all.

I think of those who have gone into caves for long periods and had visions and so on, or believed a god was with them. As a species we need contact with people, so left in isolation would the mind make up a being to talk to- similar to Tom Hanks in Castaway when he made a 'person' out of a ball just to talk with someone? Left alone with their thoughts, they could be more open to the idea of a god talking to them and guiding them. They may hear thoughts/voices and think it was more than the subconscious.

To those who have a belief in a god, they may have found this connection after being left with their own thoughts. Since I avoid that when I can, that need has never come about in me. But I could be barking up the wrong tree with all of this- it would seem so anyway.

ex-nj-jw

I enjoy being alone but if it's too long then I can get a little lonesome (does that make sense?) I just enjoy my space. I always have the T.V. on I need background noise.

I don't believe in god - I don't feel that I need some invisible being to be a good person and make good choices.

nj

changeling

I don't believe in god.

I have a very noisy brain.

I now do yoga to quiet my brain and I love it!

changeling

nvrgnbk

I love being left alone with my own thoughts. As a child who believed in God I didn't like it one bit. I often used to lay awake contemplating eternal oblivion. Later in my early teens I landed in the JWs and what a relief it was to realise I had been given the choice to change what I had thought was the inevitable. This however came with a new set of anxieties. I believe there to be a creator but I don't know what he is or what he wants. What might be relevant to this post though is that for a long time I've been indifferent about dying. Since I've become comfortable with my own mortality I've been very happy to be left alone with my thoughts. When I was confident that Jehovah was in charge of my fate I wasn't. Does that turn what you're saying on its head?
I don't really see how there would be a correlation here, but it's an interesting question. There's the implication that a comfort device is missing. In my experience atheists are happy that they have no invisible means of support.
Clam

I like this quote with regards to embracing one's mortality, which is not the same as having a death wish( LOL!) ...

Epicurus to Menoeceus:

"Accustom yourself to believing that death is nothing to us, for good and evil imply the capacity for sensation, and death is the privation of all sentience; therefore a correct understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life a limitless time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality. For life has no terrors for him who has thoroughly understood that there are no terrors for him in ceasing to live."

God and your own thoughts

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