FYI: There are non-religious recovery groups. Even if you are clean now you might find one useful.

@ "That without God nobody's heart can truly be happy or satisfied."
That is just so true. I have an unhappy and unsatisfying life as a university professor in South Korea. I teach 16 hours a week and spend the rest of the time prepping for classes that I have taught before (very little prep.) I get two months vacation each year. In fact I just got back from Macao, and then the Philippines. On October 24th I am planning a one week trip to Aknor Watt, Cambodia. I hate going, spending money, and doing the tourist thing but someone has to keep the hotels, restaurants, night clubs and beach resorts in business. It is just such burden on my shoulders but an obligation I must bear.

Can you even imagine what it is like for me. I have to stand in those long lines at the airport. I get scanned when I enter the airport. I get scanned again when I go through customs. They scan me a third time before I get on the plane. Then they take my bags from me and will not let me hold them for the whole three hour journey to Cambodia. What if I need a T-shirt or a bar of soap or something. I can't stand it. My hands feel so dirty. And then when I get there it is more waiting as the bags slowly make their way up the ramp and onto the baggage carousel. You know, I am convince that the airlines staff unloads bags in the order they like you. If you were a real dick on the flight, your bags will be last. If you tipped a lot of money and made the stewardess laugh, you get your bag first. My bags are never first because I am not funny.

Finally you get your bags and head to the front of the airport. This is where the Taxi guys assault you. They try to grab your bags "Hey! Need a Taxi!" These taxis are never metered. These guys want to charge me two or three hundred percent more than a metered taxi. And were are the metered taxis? Not in arrivals. I always have to find my way to the "Departures" gate to find a metered taxi. That means dragging my backpack up the escalators, sometimes several floors. Then I get thirsty!

Hell have you seen the prices in the airport. Just one coke is going to cost me $3.00. Way to ruin a vacation. If I buy one I will kick my self in the pants the entire vacation for being so stupid so I avoid airport restaurants and just suffer all the way back to the hotel.

When I get to the hotel the friendly smiling staff make me want to puke. "How was your flight sir." "Oh! FUCK YOU! Give me the damn key to my room and let me go to bed. BUT NO! Now they need a copy of my frigging passport and that takes 20 minutes because the damn printer is not working and some monkey in the back room is sketching my picture and taking down my information long hand. Then the desk clerk has to make the frigging door key. Yep! Everything is electronic so they gotta punch in the room code and the key code and stick the damn plastic key in the frigging little paper envelope hoping I will take advantage of the free meals and advertising they have included. And just when I think it is all over and I'm reaching for the key, some asshole snatches it from the desk clerk's hand and tries to help me with my backpack.

Ripping the backpack off the floor the jerk leads me to the elevators. What am I gonna do? Let him walk away with my key and my bag? The asshole won't even let me push the buttons. What if I wanted to stop on the first floor and look around a bit before going to the 12th floor? Obviously the moron will not let me open the door to my own room either. He opens the door and then slams my backpack down on a soft cushy bench by the door. I think it's over but NOOOOO!

Now he parades through the room, checking to make sure things work. He turns on the Air conditioner with one remote. He picks up another remote and announces "This one is for the TV." "OH THANKS! I thought it flushed the frigging toilet!" And then it is TIP TIME? "F:L OIUPOIIU)(|B*J_)(B&UI)T(&^%R&(^C %)*^TYB&) That." All the asshole did was push a couple of buttons, unlock my door and use the remotes. I have been doing those things since I was three years old. Am I an invalid?

So I dig through my foreign money that I received at the airport. I pull out a bill. How much is it? How in the hell should I know. If the assholes eyes light up I know it is too much so I keep thumbing through the cash until his smile goes away and give him a tip.

The rest of the vacation is spent recovering. But as soon as I am recovered I have to do it all again to get back home. I am ready to give up on the tourist industry. Let them go bankrupt. It's just not worth supporting them any longer. I could be donating money to kids with cancer. It would be a lot more fun.

It's not that atheists are miserable people. It's just that this world is a shit place to live in.

Welcome to the site.

Welcome to AR!
You have to remember that guilt of sin and fear of Hell are human constructs. I don't believe in sin or Hell. I believe in zero gods.