The first step to overcoming your problems is to understand that your problems are not yours. If you think they are your problems you may be able to solve them but you will never overcome them.

Think about this. God does not judge because He can but because He knows. If you have to be told, you don't know. If you have to discover, you don't know.

And because God knows He does not have to judge.

If you, as a human being, are unsatisfied with what humanity has become you cannot solve that problem by getting rid of the "bad" parts. You have no example of that approach in nature and nature is your only teacher.

The worst part of my wife's funeral service was the funeral service, and I feel the same way about all funeral services. We advertise them as celebrations of the decedent's life but the primary focus of these services is on what the individual has done during their lifetime. There is very little focus on what that person was -- his/her sense of identity. Even at those rare moments when the person's essence is mentioned it is in the context of what that person did. We are obsessed with activity and that is not entirely a bad thing. But what each of us does is just a role each has been given to play, and each does what anyone in similar circumstances would do. But what each of us is; that is where the rubber meets the road.

A good way to demonstrate what I am driving at is to restate the last two sentences to read: But what we do is just a role we have been given to play, and we do what anyone in similar circumstances would do. But what we are; that is where the rubber meets the road.

What meaning we derive depends on how we are thinking.

Summer time?

Aristotle was correct when he said that "One swallow does not a summer make, nor one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy." But we must be careful not to conclude that the swallow is just an illusion if it is not yet summer. One event does not indicate a trend only if you are anticipating a trend. Summer or not the swallow has appeared and, in the context of life, its arrival has meaning. After all, one has no meaning unless you have two.
Or, does it?

I don't understand why theists find atheists or agnostics to be objectionable. One must first define something before one can disbelieve it. Saying "I don't believe in any gods" is not a reasonable answer to "What god don't you believe in?" Since anything can be a god that would mean that the valiant atheist does not believe in anything. The person who does not know whether there is a god is as threatening as the person who does not believe there is a Santa Clause. Theists should be more concern about theists who do not believe in the full power of their god.

Think about the choices you made today. Do you think they were your choices? They were not. You do not choose to do the things you do any more than a pitcher chooses to pitch a baseball game or a basketball player chooses to shoot a three point shot. Each does what he does because of the team to which he belongs. The choice to make choices is determined by the groups to which we belong. So, don't get angry at the people who do things you do not like. Their responsibility is limited by the type of world you have helped to create. Each of us is because we are.