How did you cope?

你是如何應對的？

What do you believe in?

你相信什麼？

How do you avoid nihilism?

如何避免虛無主義？

If there's truly no God or the specific God concept that I was raised to believe in, now what?

如果真的沒有上帝，或者我從小就相信的特定的上帝概念，那現在該怎麼辦？

If there's no grounded meaning or morality, how do you exist?

如果沒有基礎的意義或道德，你如何存在？

How do you move on?

如何繼續前進？

How are you not paralyzed?

你怎麼不癱瘓？

How are you not afraid?

你怎麼不害怕？

And on and on and on.

如此等等，不一而足。

So often the focus of this channel is talking about having a mind shift.

是以，這個頻道的重點往往是談論思想轉變。

That shift is shifting away from that with which we were indoctrinated towards.

這種轉變正在擺脫我們被灌輸的觀念。

Shifting away from that which we accepted without good reason.

擺脫我們無端接受的東西。

And often that looks like the deconstruction and deconversion of our childhood religions.

而這往往看起來就像是對我們童年時期宗教的解構和改造。

Primarily what I have focused on on this channel is the deconversion of Christianity, where I put forward case after case after case for why we can know that this God is not real and why this religion is actually harmful or potentially harmful.

我在這個頻道上主要關注的是基督教的解構，我提出了一個又一個案例，說明為什麼我們可以知道這個上帝是不真實的，為什麼這個宗教實際上是有害的或有潛在危害的。

And thus our responsibility to wake up, to have actual good evidence and reason to believe if we are going to, and if we cannot come up with those things, have the courage and the open-mindedness and the discipline to leave those things behind.

是以，我們有責任清醒過來，如果我們要相信，就要有實際的充分證據和理由；如果我們拿不出這些東西，就要有勇氣、開放的心態和紀律，把這些東西拋在腦後。

But often it stops right there.

但往往到此為止。

And so today I want to try to answer a lot of those questions that get posed to me all the time.

是以，今天我想嘗試回答那些經常向我提出的問題。

I understand the terror.

我理解這種恐懼。

I understand the existential dread.

我理解存在的恐懼。

I understand the hopelessness or despair.

我理解那種無望或絕望。

I understand the loss and lack of community.

我理解這種失落感和社區的缺失。

But for as negative as all of those things can sound and can be, I believe there is more than a silver lining.

不過，儘管所有這些事情聽起來和做起來都很消極，但我相信還是有一線希望的。

I believe there is real opportunity, true freedom, and beauty that comes right alongside accepting the truth wherever it may lead.

我相信，無論真相指向何方，接受真相都會帶來真正的機會、真正的自由和美好。

And I want to talk first about what I hear most, and that is this incorrect association with atheism and nihilism.

我想先談談我聽得最多的問題，那就是將無神論與虛無主義聯繫在一起的錯誤做法。

Nietzsche is someone who is good to bring up here because Nietzsche defines passive nihilism as this bad thing.

尼采是一個很適合在這裡提出來的人，因為尼采把被動虛無主義定義為這種壞東西。

If it is causing you to just lie in bed and let the world pass you by and believe that you shouldn't do anything or care about anything if there isn't some objective morality or meaning, he views that as a negative, which is hilarious because so many people, when they think of nihilism, they think of Nietzsche.

如果它讓你躺在床上，任由世界從你身邊流逝，並認為如果沒有客觀的道德或意義，你就不應該做任何事或關心任何事，那麼他就會將其視為一種消極的東西，這很搞笑，因為很多人一想到虛無主義，就會想到尼采。

Nietzsche saw the collapse of traditional religious and moral frameworks.

尼采看到了傳統宗教和道德框架的崩潰。

There's no denying that.

這一點無可否認。

As people begin to collectively lose their belief in this particular god and creator, a lot of his critique was on Christianity, there is going to be a byproduct of that, or multiple byproducts of that, one of them being this passive nihilism.

當人們開始集體失去對上帝和造物主的信仰時（他的很多責備都是針對基督教的），就會產生一種副產品，或者說多種副產品，其中之一就是這種被動的虛無主義。

But Nietzsche did not embrace this.

但尼采並不接受這一點。

He fought against it.

他與之抗爭。

He rallied against it.

他奮起反對。

Nietzsche has this idea of the will to power.

尼采提出了 "權力意志 "這一概念。

In its core is an affirmation of life, of accepting the challenge of redefining value, to embrace the uncertainty and the struggle as opportunities for increasing yourself, becoming greater, actualizing.

其核心是對生命的肯定，對接受重新定義價值的挑戰的肯定，對將不確定性和鬥爭作為提升自我、變得更偉大、實現自我的機會的肯定。

He viewed the decline of these traditional moral concepts based off of their religious connotations as something beneficial.

他認為，這些基於宗教內涵的傳統道德觀念的衰落是有益的。

We get to re-evaluate on a case-by-case, issue-by-issue basis.

我們可以根據具體情況、具體問題進行重新評估。

As soon as I left God behind and my particular religion, I had to ask myself, why do I believe what I believe now?

我一離開上帝和我的宗教，就不得不問自己：我為什麼要相信我現在所相信的？

Why is this bad?

這有什麼不好？

How can I consider it bad?

我怎麼能認為它不好呢？

What is good?

什麼是好？

What should I be striving towards?

我的奮鬥目標是什麼？

You become a blank slate, and that's terrifying, but again, that's freedom.

你變成了一張白紙，這很可怕，但同樣，這也是自由。

The very fact that we get to define meaning gave meaning.

我們能夠定義意義這一事實本身就賦予了意義。

I think that it's still going to be subjective and we have to understand that, but that doesn't mean we haven't been able to pull together as cultures and societies to define things that are beneficial versus less beneficial and do our best to help generate that benefit for as many people as possible.

我認為，這仍將是主觀的，我們必須理解這一點，但這並不意味著我們不能作為文化和社會團結起來，確定哪些事物是有益的，哪些是無益的，並盡最大努力為儘可能多的人帶來益處。

It doesn't always go well.

並不總是很順利。

Nothing does.

什麼都沒有。

There's no perfect system, and if you think Christianity had all the answers, we're going to cover that in just a minute, why it's okay to let go of Christianity, that it's not all it was cracked up to be, and this could be said for pretty much any religion.

世界上沒有完美的體系，如果你認為基督教有所有的答案，我們馬上就會講到，為什麼可以放棄基督教，因為它並不是它的全部，這幾乎可以適用於任何宗教。

Long story short, Nietzsche saw nihilism as this segue, this necessary temporary condition that occurred when one lost what was their previous grounding, and that it would be up to us to make that transition away as religion fell.

長話短說，尼采認為虛無主義是一種轉折，是當一個人失去了先前的立足點時所產生的一種必要的暫時狀態，而隨著宗教的衰落，這種過渡將由我們自己來完成。

There was going to be kind of this dip and then hopefully this revival, if you will, and I found it to be true for myself that just because when you leave something it's hard or even makes things worse, it doesn't mean you were wrong to leave it.

我發現自己的情況也是如此，當你離開某件事情時，雖然會很艱難，甚至會讓事情變得更糟，但這並不意味著你離開它就是錯的。

It doesn't mean the thing you were leaving was good, beneficial, or true, and it doesn't mean that things can't get better because of it.

這並不意味著你要離開的事情是好的、有益的或真實的，也不意味著事情不會是以而變得更好。

I think this is true in almost every aspect of life.

我認為這幾乎適用於生活的方方面面。

You can see that as you start to expand your awareness and perspectives of how other people have thought about this and the fact that other people have thought about this, that other people have dealt with this, it can A. give you some comfort, B. maybe teach you something.

你可以看到，當你開始擴展你的意識和視角，瞭解其他人是如何思考這個問題的，以及其他人思考過這個問題、其他人處理過這個問題的事實時，它可以 A. 給你一些安慰，B. 也許會教你一些東西。

Whether you agree with it or not, you're at least starting to figure out who you are, and C. can hopefully make you feel less hopeless because there's action here.

無論你同意與否，你至少開始明白自己是誰了，C. 希望能讓你感覺不那麼絕望，因為這裡有行動。