Re: Curious about your beliefs
The bit about avoiding vices irks me. Why is music bad? Why are drugs bad? Why is pre-marital sex bad? What's wrong with homosexuality? The only answer religious people have for these questions is, "because the book says so."
I would wager there is something cultural about the Arabs of the time differentiating themselves from the Babylonians with regards to revelry, including drinking, partying, music, the usual stuff. Is music itself evil? No. But I bet this was a cultural distinction they made. The Persians under Cyrus also looked down on the poor Babylonians for living it up.
As for drugs and what not, absolutely nothing. There are clinics in Europe that actually administer heroin in set amounts to people. Like medical prescriptions. If you want to live your life with a crutch, and most will, that's fine. But as I mentioned with regards to religion, and even philosophical schools of thought like Stoicism, a happy, content life where you are fine simply being yourself, in your circumstances, is very hard to attain. And every school of thought seems to believe that being subject to your vices is not a recipe for this.
Even from a non religious point of view, I've read several interesting pieces that humans find fulfillment through balance and hard work. Yes, in those precious few minutes when you're high nothing is better. But in a few hours, and the next day, you come down and feel like something is missing. Nature is about balance and you cannot push your body to those levels of dopamine without craving more and more. You only appreciate the good with the bad.
A good life would be a hard days work and coming home to a simple life. Even if you're an atheist you have to agree we evolved hunting and working and spending nights around the fire telling stories among the tribe. The only entertainment was the heavens. I truly believe our reward centers are wired for that kind of life. Porn, Netflix, the internet, celebrity culture - they overload our primitive brains. I'm not saying we have to give up modern life. I just look at modern society like a zoo. We should make our zoo as close to what we find naturally rewarding as possible.
Turn off the phone for a few hours. Go walk outside. Exercise. Run until you puke. Try something hard. Really hard. In the moment it won't be as fun as Reddit, or YouTube. But you'll go to bed happier.
That ended up being a lot longer. Probably should have blogged it.