When I was growing up people talked about how they felt about life. Me and my family and friends would talk about God, spirits, how life began and what the meaning is. No one got angry that you brought up God or whatever crazy theory you had (life is a simulation for example. I never see or hear these conversations anymore.

In-group out-group sociology. Belief in God is now a thing that defines 'our kind of people' and gives license to hate 'their kind of people'. This was not always true in America.

Just to touch on a belief that I have here is one of my views. There are things within every person that they are meant to do. Most people ignore this "encoding" and they never hear its message. Those who do try to follow the path are frought with anger,depression, and a constant struggle between good and evil in an effort to find the truth.

Evolution has caused you, like every other human being ever, to believe you are special. Small children will naturally assign purpose to inanimate objects, because that's a good working model of the world for survival. However now we have overwhelming evidence that we're not special, we must resist that temptation and be rational.

Whatever pushes me forward has brought great struggle. I want to be a good man, but it feels like something trys to drag me down and fighting it is a never ending battle. I believe there is an answer for me. Something great will happen in life. I am meant to be alive on this planet, durring these times. My time could have came and gone long ago or could have never came at all, but here I am. So I will await the event that I am supposed to see.

What is your evidence for predestination?

To address your lets be logical/we are not special mindset I will submit this to you. The very basis of life is so incredibly amazing (science cannot creat it) that simply being alive is the greatest thing the universe can offer.

I have no evidence for anything, it is just a disccusion on what you think life is.

Didn't it kind of start in the late 40s? Maybe the early 50s. The early Cold War, when communism and godlessness went hand-in-hand.

I also remember having deep conversations with my family, and those conversations are pretty much the reason I don't care much for religion anymore, and thus don't care to have more "deep" conversations.

I vividly remember asking how humans could have been created five days after the Universe if the Earth alone is billions of years old, whereas our species is not. I didn't get a very convincing answer. Mind you, I was like six or seven at the time, and already thinking the Bible is full of it.

Deep converstaions do not have to be composed of relegion. Lifes meaning can be one that we all define ourselves.