What Is The Meaning and/or Purpose Of Life To An Atheist?

[oldfart]

I'm curious to know from atheists, what is their understanding of the meaning and/or purpose of life?

I have read the thread to avoid repeating another's post, but I haven't seen a couple of important points yet.

First the term "atheist" is a relative term; I suppose we are all atheists with respect to Seth, Jupiter, and Odin. Given American culture I suppose you are referring to someone who is not Jewish, Christian, or Islamic (believing in an Abrahamic God) and perhaps also excluding the Hindu and several other traditions. I fit that definition, as do Confucians, many Buddhists and Taoists, and a good assortment of other faith tradiions. And of course there are people outside any specific faith tradition who simply reject all traditional gods. What these all have in common is two things:

1. They believe that personified deities (those who are attributed with human characteristics such as love, anger, requiring obedience, capable of being bribed, cajoled, and so forth) are human constructs designed for purposes of social control.

2. They believe that the main question for religion or philosophy is not "Does God exist and what does God want of us?" but rather "How should a wise person live their life and treat other people?"

The difference is most apparent in the "Kill all the cats" test. Suppose you have a religion of the Abrahamic variety. Some of the behavior of this personified god is disturbing; Abraham is ordered to sacrifice his son and Job is tormented as the result of a bet for the god's entertainment. One also recalls the Rev Jim Jones and the poisoned Koolaid. So such a god is perfectly capable of ordering someone to kill innocents for no apparent good reason. This appears to be identical to psychopathic behavior. What in such a religious system tells a follower what voices in their head are really from god and which are not? Does it make any difference?

So many atheists start off with how they should live and treat other people as the central question. Many Christians only get to it as an afterthought. Some never get to that discussion at all, their theology is simply a justification for their bad behavior, because they are god's chosen righteous people and are entitled to kill who they can and steal what they will. Most Christians do not believe this, but I have dealt with a surprising number who exhibit this sociopathic behavior.

So my personal answer to you is that my purpose in life is to live according to the principals of Tao, observing the Three Jewels of humility, moderation, and compassion. I do this because I am happier and more satisifed with my life when I do so.

I image that the majority of atheists believe in the Big Bang Theory, or some version thereof...what's the meaning of life....if we are all here by some chance?

You spend way too much time in Contemplating the Emptiness of Outer Darkness. What does the ultimate orgin and fate of the universe have to do with how you raise your children? Will you love them less one way or the other? Scientific curiosity is a wonderful thing. Just don't think of it as a substitute for thinking about human interaction.

 

[uscitizen]

In a response or complementary, rather, to chess' great thread...http://www.usmessageboard.com/religion-and-ethics/165908-what-is-death-to-an-ahteist.html

I'm curious to know from atheists, what is their understanding of the meaning and/or purpose of life?

I image that the majority of atheists believe in the Big Bang Theory, or some version thereof...which in essence states that we are all here by chance, some happenstance of a big bang that somehow ended up creating life from some amoeba or similar form that resulted in us, humans beings at the end/top of the food chain.

Along with that theory, the world is millions of years old, I just read someone's post in the other thread using "eons." Which raises another question of, why are we, humans, so lucky? How is it that we are on this planet for "eons" and we haven't had a catastrophic event, such as a meteor that obliterates this planet? Why hasn't it happened as yet? What's stopping it from happening? That seems to be quite a lot of luck to just end up being living beings, as we are, AND not having massively catastrophic event occur like that. No?

Anyway, back to the original premise...what's the meaning of life....if we are all here by some chance?

Life is life. Make the most of it while it lasts.
There is no proof that anything exists after this life to reward us.
Actually all currently known science says that there is no after life.

 

[hjmick]

Who says there has to be a meaning?

Is it not enough to live, love, laugh?

 

[uscitizen]

The meaning and purpose of life is simple....


Rep Power

You need to accumulate as much Rep Power as possible during your life. When you meet that great Moderator in the sky:

- Those with the highest Rep Power get front row center seats in heaven.

- Those with double digit Rep Power get standing room only in heaven

- If you have negative Rep Power or god forbid, a Red Star

I was told the exact opposite. You're clearly wrong and should join us or you'll be sorry when we're finally raptured.

did you forget?
The rapture happened last year.
No one missed the 6 people that qualified to go.

 

[Unkotare]

Who says there has to be a meaning?

You do.

 

[MarcATL]

I'm curious to know from atheists, what is their understanding of the meaning and/or purpose of life?

I have read the thread to avoid repeating another's post, but I haven't seen a couple of important points yet.

First the term "atheist" is a relative term; I suppose we are all atheists with respect to Seth, Jupiter, and Odin. Given American culture I suppose you are referring to someone who is not Jewish, Christian, or Islamic (believing in an Abrahamic God) and perhaps also excluding the Hindu and several other traditions. I fit that definition, as do Confucians, many Buddhists and Taoists, and a good assortment of other faith tradiions. And of course there are people outside any specific faith tradition who simply reject all traditional gods. What these all have in common is two things:

1. They believe that personified deities (those who are attributed with human characteristics such as love, anger, requiring obedience, capable of being bribed, cajoled, and so forth) are human constructs designed for purposes of social control.

2. They believe that the main question for religion or philosophy is not "Does God exist and what does God want of us?" but rather "How should a wise person live their life and treat other people?"

The difference is most apparent in the "Kill all the cats" test. Suppose you have a religion of the Abrahamic variety. Some of the behavior of this personified god is disturbing; Abraham is ordered to sacrifice his son and Job is tormented as the result of a bet for the god's entertainment. One also recalls the Rev Jim Jones and the poisoned Koolaid. So such a god is perfectly capable of ordering someone to kill innocents for no apparent good reason. This appears to be identical to psychopathic behavior. What in such a religious system tells a follower what voices in their head are really from god and which are not? Does it make any difference?

So many atheists start off with how they should live and treat other people as the central question. Many Christians only get to it as an afterthought. Some never get to that discussion at all, their theology is simply a justification for their bad behavior, because they are god's chosen righteous people and are entitled to kill who they can and steal what they will. Most Christians do not believe this, but I have dealt with a surprising number who exhibit this sociopathic behavior.

So my personal answer to you is that my purpose in life is to live according to the principals of Tao, observing the Three Jewels of humility, moderation, and compassion. I do this because I am happier and more satisifed with my life when I do so.

I image that the majority of atheists believe in the Big Bang Theory, or some version thereof...what's the meaning of life....if we are all here by some chance?

You spend way too much time in Contemplating the Emptiness of Outer Darkness. What does the ultimate orgin and fate of the universe have to do with how you raise your children? Will you love them less one way or the other? Scientific curiosity is a wonderful thing. Just don't think of it as a substitute for thinking about human interaction.

I don't spend time contemplating outer darkness as you put it.

As a Christian, I just wonder what motivates an athiest, what hope do they have. How does it feel with the world view that this is life and that's it. To me it seems very hopeless, however the way you describe it's just matter of fact. You've accepted it and content with making whatever this life has in store for you the end-all and be-all.

Thanks for your response.

 

[MarcATL]

@oldfart,

As good as your answer was, and appreciated, it didn't address the point of earth's luck.

How do you rationalize that?

That was where the consideration of the universe and the "Outer Darkness" as you put it comes into play.

According to your belief, we could be obliterated by a mega meteor like tomorrow and that would be that.

Would you agree that that means we've had quite a LOT of luck up till now...no?

 

[AVG-JOE]

What the hell is SO wrong with The Great Unknown being a mystery?


I think the more telling question is Why do Earthlings so badly NEED to have an absolute answer to the question of what lay beyond death? What makes them willing to give up on the only life that they know exists to secure a place in some theory that can't be proved?

 

[AVG-JOE]

All I want is a blowjob and a pizza- Ill Bill

I'd ask for a daily blow-job and a daily pizza if the opportunity arose, but that's just me.

 

[FA_Q2]

Yes, we are by definition VERY LUCKY to not have had a catastrophe of epic proportions happen upon us. Your science tells us that there's lots and lots, in fact, millions and millions of meteorites, planets, debris and other things that somehow haven't fallen on us. Why hasn't something twice, three times or five times the size of earth smashed us to smithereens over all these millions and millions, yea billions of years?

It's luck according to what science dictates.

However, according to my belief, it's evidence of order and that God is in control.

First off, it is not MY science. It is just science.

You’re misguided in your belief that such events are very common and we are somehow lucky to not have had them. You need to go back and study how solar systems are created and you might realize that astronomical events that you are speaking about happen on a sliding scale and become more uncommon the older the earth gets. We are also talking in time frames that the human mind simply cannot comprehend. We see things pass on this earth in the short hundred years that we are here. Astrological events and major impacts are not measured in the hundreds, the thousands but in the MILLIONS of years that occur between them. The earth’s age is in the BILLIONS. This is far more than anyone can truly comprehend considering the extremely short time that we are here. Again, the dinosaurs would not claim to be so lucky, life here has been wiped out precisely because of astrological events before. It is going to happen again. It just takes the vast amounts of time to pass to give them the chance.

You also need to understand that while there are millions of rocks out there, there are not that many that pose a threat and we are sitting on a ball that is approximately 9000 miles in diameter. The distance to the sun is a whopping 93 MILLION miles. To Pluto – 3,670,000,000 miles. In other words, we occupy .0000002 percent of the space within our solar system. Gravity helps take care of most of those rocks as well, keeping them contained within their own orbits.

Basically, no, it is not a matter of luck. If you are attributing it so then that is simply a matter of not understanding the science.

 

[HUGGY]

The chances of an impact with a piece of space debris large enough to cause serious damage to our planet is rare and seems to be getting rarer as most of these collisions have already occured. There is only just so much of the stuff. Asteroids don't breed. That said, there are still a few out there that could wipe us out.

Asking if we should feel lucky to be here I would refer that question to the dinosaurs. Our watch has been brief compared to the time they were at the top of the food chain.

Our best "luck" is having evolved to a state where we can recognise enough of the characteristics of what we inhabit and the neighborhood in which our domain resides.

In spite of the reluctance of most humans to shuck off the ignorance of "supreme being" envy we can actually see deep into the heavens that earlier men could only speculate on.

As for our "noble" purpose we can extend our species life span past what earlier inhabitants were capable of. We can reach out with the spawn of our imagination and divert incoming rocks with technology. There is a distant limit to what we can do to ultimately save earth from the inevitable death of our sun. The main problem is that to cheat death several billion years into the future we must conserve the resources to do that as they are finite.

It does not appear that the system we employ as the engine of our prosperity, free enterprise and capitalism, has no such altruistic end game.

Bottom line...we will eventually need to move earth or it's enhabitants to a new sun.

The continuation of the social "ponzi scheme" known as religion is wasting valuable resources and may in fact be the actual cause of our inability to survive as a species as we have spent our last dime and time on fantasy outcomes.

"Luck" is not a real thing. It is the most simplistic and irrational explaination of any circumstance.

 

[rightwinger]

"Life sucks and then you die"

 

[Skull Pilot]

Life is simple.

People complicate it.

 

[2ndAmendment]

I'm afraid there wouldn't be any meaning because without God they are nothing.

~per the Good Book

 

[jtpr312]

To spend as much time as possible making up arguments against an entity they say does not exist.

 

[Hollie]

I was told the exact opposite. You're clearly wrong and should join us or you'll be sorry when we're finally raptured.

God watches this board and keeps track of your rep

If you neg too much.....God knows

You have no idea how right you are brother rightwinger.

God knows the very number of the hairs on our head.

I’ll never really understand the “What Is The Meaning and/or Purpose Of Life To An Atheist”, question.

Theists often recite this need for religion to give them a purpose in life or more alarming, to coerce behavior. I understand entirely this perspective as the history of many religions delineates a pyramid structure of authority. I'm certainly willing to learn and to express. I have no "agenda" other than to find the truth as best I can. In fact, I would love to find a god-paradigm that works. I am not pessimistic because of my atheism, but eternal life and a perfect being and so on-- all are very attractive promises. I just need the model to provide credible evidence as to its veracity and not crumble under even the most cursory of scrutiny.

The fact is, most of humanity has lived and died having no experience with man's currently configured / invented Abrahamic religions or gods. In fact, history tells us that the religions and gods currently in vogue will whither and die as most religions and gods have done so in the past. The vast majority of religions have failed over time, and we have every reason to believe all "modern" new fangled religions will eventually fail as well (there is no reason to believe Jesus or Zeus or the Mahdi will ever come back and as the years roll onward and they don't return, religions will fall further and further out of favor, just like the promises of Mithras are now dust).

Religionists overwhelming inherit their parents religion or the majority religion. That seems intellectually lazy for anyone to do. It would be a gross misuse of our inherited ability to discern and to discriminate. The same spirit which drives us to acquire knowledge and to find all the answers in this universe, can hardly 'lay me doon and die' when it comes to the ultimate questions when the answers to existence are appearing to be within our grasp. Not surprisingly, none of those answers suggests any of the currently or previously configured gods.

 

[chesswarsnow]

Sorry bout that,


1. It takes just as much faith to not believe in God than it does too believe in God, the one has no promise, the other comes with promise, its you who decides.


Regards,
SirJamesofTexas

 

[AquaAthena]

"What Is The Meaning and/or Purpose Of Life To An Atheist?"

I really wouldn't know, but I can only hope it is the same as mine and that is to make the most out it and live life each day, as if there were no tomorrow.

 

[dblack]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlaoR5m4L80]Let The Mystery Be - Iris DeMent H.Q. - YouTube[/ame]

 

[2ndAmendment]

To spend as much time as possible making up arguments against an entity they say does not exist.

haha, yes -- nobody speaks more about God than an atheist.