> Yeah, I think one of the issues people have with lack of intrinsic meaning is that they experience it as a loss.
This is kind of a clueless, dismissive response. If existential despair has not touched you, how marvelous for you. It passes most people by. I would not read that article and then smugly congratulate myself on this. Your self-satisfaction at being raised correctly is no different from someone being just fine with the answers they received in their Orthodox upbringing.
I grew up in a secular, non-religious household as well. There was no crisis of faith for me. There were simply no good answers and a lot of bullshit answers. Even pure empirical explanations are useless as to the why.
The article discusses why some people wrestle with existential questions like why are we here, what is the purpose of existence from a young age to the point of depression. There is nothing there about people being particularly religious, or having disappointed expectations.
I don't mean it as dismissive, just factual. Loss is hard. I'll leave its cluelessness for others to judge.
But you're wrong to say, "There is nothing there about people being particularly religious." The author describes it as the start of things for him, writing "I, on the other hand, had grown up in the Deep South in an insular culture that had limited vision and rigid beliefs; my loving parents were traditionally religious and tried to live conforming, righteous, and conventional lives."
This is kind of a clueless, dismissive response. If existential despair has not touched you, how marvelous for you. It passes most people by. I would not read that article and then smugly congratulate myself on this. Your self-satisfaction at being raised correctly is no different from someone being just fine with the answers they received in their Orthodox upbringing.
I grew up in a secular, non-religious household as well. There was no crisis of faith for me. There were simply no good answers and a lot of bullshit answers. Even pure empirical explanations are useless as to the why.
The article discusses why some people wrestle with existential questions like why are we here, what is the purpose of existence from a young age to the point of depression. There is nothing there about people being particularly religious, or having disappointed expectations.