Are atheists morose and depressed about existential questions?
I certainly don’t feel depressed about the lack of god-given meaning in my life, or even find existential questions worth worrying about. It’s rather liberating actually: instead of having meaning imposed on you from elsewhere, even though it may or may not fit the mold of your mind, you get to discover your own meaning and your own worth. It is not so much about the question “Why should I continue to exist?” as it is “How can I make the most out of the time that I have?” I suspect that some forms of existentialist thinking may have originated as a way for dissenters to the religiosity of their day to express themselves both (1) before Darwin proposed evolution and (2) as a way to avoid persecution for their doubts after Darwin. Before Darwin, the prevailing view was argument by design — if you didn’t agree with the design theory but didn’t have a viable alternative, people tended to consider you a fool. Now we have a satisfactory model that need not admit supernatural influences.
