You people never cease to amaze me with the cool topics you bring up.
When I accepted the fact, that I truly believed, that I existed in a world without a God, that was incredibly defining for me. Of course there was much that lead up to it, but there was a condensed period of time where it all came together.
Speaking of God....and Christ if I may....
Originally Posted by Autumn
He told me then that love is when you would die for someone. That was a heavy statement for a 6 year old to assimilate, and I took it at face value. After he said that, I always defined my love for someone by whether or not I would die for them.
It wasn't until I was older that I realized he was referring to Christ with that statement. With that realization, I then had to re-define my standards for loving someone.
After already being an atheist, a father, a husband, son, brother, grandson, all these things that suggest the presence of love involved in a relationship, I never quite understood what love was or what it entailed. I certainly never thought I would or could die for anyone, with the exception of my daughters, but that is paternal extinct, I think.
There was an event where it could have been possible that I died for someone, someone I never met before. (it was not a close call or anything like that, I do not want to imply something false.) But there was an accident, a van was turned over-turned. A Mom and a young girl was inside. They need to get out as gasoline was leaking all over. A co worker and I jumped in that Van to help them get out the seatbelts and the car-seat.
At the time, I didn't know why I was willing to that. I was in fact afraid of risk.
I will get back to that, the conclusion I came to in hindsight.
Back to what I came to realize about love, particularly through Christ. After becoming an atheist. I had always made attempts to find value in the teachings of Jesus Christ. I mean, c'mon, "love thy neighbor" makes damn good sense. Anyway, though I don't buy into him being a relative of a God, I do buy into the fact that this idea of universal Love that accompanies his name, is fabulous. So a defining moment for me was understanding love, what it actually about. It is so ironic that Jesus helped teach an atheist this.
By considering Jesus, I was able to recognize, or last get the idea that love was equally dispursed. He loved everyone the same.
That was the key. Love is universal. It is complete. True love holds no boundaries. Which is why I brought up the car accident as a defining moment too. I didn't want to die for anyone else, particularly at that point in my life as I wasn't content with my life. However, in hindsight, I was able to conclude that my appreciation (love) for life, not mine particularly, just the idea of it, motivated me to act without thinking.
But anyway, the thing about love and Jesus is, that ever since I thought of love as having one definition that applies across the board to every one, if a person really truly wants to experience love, like Jesus did, like Mother Teresa, Ghandi, then to truly understand the experience of love would be to try to experience it fully.
Note*there is an entire topic about why people feel different towards others if love is universal. For the sake of time I will just point out that my theory is based on accompanying emotions. For instance, love for spouse, child parent, neighbor, the video store clerk, all the same. The thing(s) that make them unique to the particular relationships are emotions such as, passion, respect, admiration, gratitude, (just to name a few) and they have variable degrees. Those things contribute to the love helping make relationships unique.
So, it was Jesus who helped me realize this. Or at least consider it. And of course the way of thinking is an ongoing source of interest that is also subject to change. I am no Mother Teresa, but I try, often fail, but I guess i at least think about trying to experience this equal, universal love. It could be easily identified as a simple respect for life.
One of my biggest defining moments too, was the "ah-ha" moment (as this lady I met called it) that flicked the switch in my head when I realized drugs were part of the past. That was huge.
Thanks for allowing me to share.