Causing depression

Last week in James Randi's newsletter was this email from a reader:

Up until three months ago, my contentment and joy in life literally revolved around my perceived “relationship with God/Christ,” efficacy of prayer, and gracious heavenly payout. Now that I know this mode of thinking and dream isn't reality, I am experiencing very real – and I'm told, “clinical” – depression, something I have never experienced before. I have endured any past tribulation through reasoning, "God 'has my back'” and is somehow using this adversity to “make me stronger,” and “I can get through anything in this life because it's only temporary and in the end, eternal bliss awaits me.” I thought that, like other Christians, I had effectively already won the "after-life lottery."

Now I know my winning ticket is worthless. I had been duped, and worse, my life-sustaining purpose crutch had been yanked out from under me. Side note: I truly believe that if you could convince Christians in the USA that there was no Jesus/God, there would be a major, depression-laden backlash.

I have sought medical treatment. Ironically, the two psychiatrists and three psychologists I have seen, sincerely believe that a belief in a “higher-power” is essential to recovery. Further, they have all suggested, or flat out told me, that “my lack of faith” could be the cause of my depression. And the psychiatrists have also loaded me up with a litany of pills – none of which have worked.

This week, Randi prints some responses from readers. They encourage him to find joy in the world, even in his own mortality; offer him their experiences; express some anger at his therapists; and provide him with resources. None of them address something that struck me.

Of course his "lack of faith" is the cause of his depression.

Cripes, people: he's spent his whole life in thrall to a delusion, with the people he trusted most lying to him. Of course he's depressed to find that out. That's why the pills aren't working: his depression isn't caused by a chemical imbalance - he has a valid reason to be depressed.

The thing is, he'll get over it. He'll see that Carl Sagan was right to say, "it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

He'll come to understand that those folks - well, most of them - didn't mean him harm. And he'll discover that, although he did indeed spend a long time believing in something that wasn't so, and that now he has to make his own way in the world, that's great.

In Christopher Brookmyre's wonderful novel Not the End of the World, one of the characters muses on his own transition from believer to atheist:

When it was playing-for-keeps time, when life was drawing a line in the sand, he suddenly knew which side he stood. It was cold, dark and scary that side of the line, and there was nobody there to help you, but once you're there you can't return. Once you've seen behind the backdrop, you can't walk out front again and believe that what's painted on it is real. The world this side of the line is indeed a more foreboding place, but even though you have to tread with more caution, you walk with more dignity.

It is indeed depressing to grow up. But adults not only have more responsibilities and more troubles than little kids, they have more wonder and more fun. Because they know. And they get to experience what Richard Feynman called "this fantastically marvelous universe", what Lucy Kemnitzer "this great and creatorless universe, where so much beautiful has come to be", and Richard Dawkins "an extremely beautiful place, and the more we understand about it the more beautiful does it appear." He'll feel what Sagan felt when he said, "The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. From it we have learned most of what we know. Recently, we have waded a little out to sea, enough to dampen our toes or, at most, wet our ankles. The water seems inviting. The ocean calls. Some part of our being knows this is from where we came. We long to return."

No, Earth is not god's footstool. The stars weren't made "to separate the day from the night" or to "be for signs and for seasons". The universe is bigger and grander than that, and we are part of it as surely as a star.

As Adrian Barnett said:

This is a godless universe and it thrills me that I have the chance to ride along with it, even if only for my few decades of awareness. Many people turn to religion saying, "But there has to be more to it all than this." To them I say, "Look around you! What more could you ask for?" In terms of Truth, Beauty and Wonder, all the world's religions cannot compete with a clear, cold, moonless night. We are star-stuff, you and I. We are children of the supernova and our beginnings lie in the death of a star.

What temporary depression can stand up to all that?