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

[Hollie]

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.

False.

More often than not, the only appeals to gods I hear (and agree with) are along the lines of:

"Dear gods, please protect me from those who follow you".

 

[newpolitics]

Well, this is a conflict talked about by Nietzsche, that when one falls out of the christian faith, he falls into nihilism, causing cognitive dissonance. Certainly those who were devout and fall out of the faith, go through some extreme mental anguish to try and make sense of the world again without god. It takes time, but with it, comes the realization that god never existed, and none of it ever was true. it was just a fiction created by the mind. So, we are left to give our lives whatever meaning we ascribe to it, which is actually no different that a religious person's, its just that devout believers believe that god has put a stamp of approval on whatever purpose they choose or follow, but really, it is the same. You give your life meaning by what you value. If you value friendship and family, then that gives you're life meaning: relationships with others. If you value your vocation, then that gives you a purpose, and you might see it as a way to connect to, reach, and hep others. Many atheists and theists, have not found a purpose, and so search for their passion in life. I don't think this has anything to do with god, in either case. It is simply a theists beliefs that god is watching that he thinks gives him purpose, but this is only a belief, and although it may make him/her feel good or vindicated in whatever he/she chooses, it doesn't make it reality. So, in the end, we are all living for ourselves, hopefully to help others in some way. This dichotomy of altruism/selfishness is a complex one, but useful. We may all be intrinsically selfish, in that we want to feel good, but the paradox is that part of feeling good is forgetting what we want, and thinking about others. So, there is a built in altruism, that doesn't require god. It can be evolutionarily explained, and is something we all possess the capacity for, and gives our live meaning, because it connects us to others.

 

[newpolitics]

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

Actually, it is theists who have spent millennia trying to find arguments for the existence of god that are valid and sound. Any counter-arguments by atheists are just that.

 

[MarcATL]

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.

You're the first person to actually respond to the luck issue.

Thanks for an interesting read.

 

[MarcATL]

Well, this is a conflict talked about by Nietzsche, that when one falls out of the christian faith, he falls into nihilism, causing cognitive dissonance. Certainly those who were devout and fall out of the faith, go through some extreme mental anguish to try and make sense of the world again without god. It takes time, but with it, comes the realization that god never existed, and none of it ever was true. it was just a fiction created by the mind. So, we are left to give our lives whatever meaning we ascribe to it, which is actually no different that a religious person's, its just that devout believers believe that god has put a stamp of approval on whatever purpose they choose or follow, but really, it is the same. You give your life meaning by what you value. If you value friendship and family, then that gives you're life meaning: relationships with others. If you value your vocation, then that gives you a purpose, and you might see it as a way to connect to, reach, and hep others. Many atheists and theists, have not found a purpose, and so search for their passion in life. I don't think this has anything to do with god, in either case. It is simply a theists beliefs that god is watching that he thinks gives him purpose, but this is only a belief, and although it may make him/her feel good or vindicated in whatever he/she chooses, it doesn't make it reality. So, in the end, we are all living for ourselves, hopefully to help others in some way. This dichotomy of altruism/selfishness is a complex one, but useful. We may all be intrinsically selfish, in that we want to feel good, but the paradox is that part of feeling good is forgetting what we want, and thinking about others. So, there is a built in altruism, that doesn't require god. It can be evolutionarily explained, and is something we all possess the capacity for, and gives our live meaning, because it connects us to others.

I can understand how the former believer would descend into a life of mental anguish after falling out of faith.

Another interesting read.

 

[Mr Natural]

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

Same as a Theist but without the make believe characters and crazy rules.

 

[newpolitics]

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.

You're the first person to actually respond to the luck issue.

Thanks for an interesting read.

I would piggyback what was said, by mentioning that the earth has been impacted by periodic disasters, including meteors like the one that killed the dinosaurs, in the past. It is because of the immensity of space, that a meteor striking is merely probabilistic, not deterministic, as you seem to imply, therefore, it is something we would only expect only once in a while... the last time was 65 million years ago. Most of the debris in the solar system has been cleared up since its inception, now making up the planets themselves. Aside from the two asteroid belts in and outside of our solar system, and incoming random debris from outside of our system, there is no threat to the planet. That is not to minimize the threats that do exist from these places, but the chances are so incredibly small, yet there are some close impacts that we are anticipated to see in within the next thirty years, and we are constantly scanning the skies for such threats, and have come up with contingency plans in case a meteor is projected to strike us, such as ways to draw the object out of its trajectory path towards earth, using rockets or simply using gravity over long enough of a period.

 

[newpolitics]

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

~per the Good Book

First you have to demonstrate that a god exists before declaring there couldn't be any meaning without one. Otherwise, you're using an unfounded presupposition that god does, in fact, exist.

 

[newpolitics]

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.

Conversely, nobody talks about atheists more than theists. What's your point?

Anyway, I disagree with you. Nobody talks about god, more than believers.

 

[AVG-JOE]

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.

Luck is EXACTLY why Momma's Little Bastards are here to argue about it. Whatever 'it' happens to be.

Monkeys with air conditioning on a path that leads to Sentience or Death.

Religion is a step in the evolution of Sentience because no matter how smart the monkeys are, without organized industry they remain clever animals. Given time, evolution will discard it, like its doing with war.

Earth monkeys are lucky that so many religions survive at the dawn of instant global communications. I'm long in stocks... betting that the Earth monkeys are gonna make it.

If Momma's Little Bastards have a Father, his name is Time.

Mother Earth!

 

[oldfart]

@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?

Very good pickup. In the prior post I relied a lot on recieved Taoist though, but on this question I fall back on more personal belief. As a Taoist, I believe that the universe is unfolding not according to anyone's plan, but according to the rules inherent in itself. (This is one of the meanings of the word "Tao"). This process is not inherently good or bad, it just is. To oppose it is an error resulting in unpleasantness and acting in conformity to it leads to better results. All of this is essentially a leap of faith, neither facts nor reason prove it, but observation and contemplation tend to support it.

As a matter of scientific inquiry, I accept that the universe is very old and that it will long outlast our planet. I also believe that the universe is stochastic, that most things obey principles of probability rather than being absolutes. So, yes, I beleive there is a non-zero probability that earth will be hit by a large celestial object and all life will be eradicated as a result in any reasonable time frame. The probability grows larger the longer the time frame. I don't worry about if primarily because I do not see any way that knowledge of such an event would affect the way I choose to live.

Your post implies a couple of other issues which I will give my personal answer. My faith community holds as a tenet of faith that either no afterlife exists (which I believe), or that one exists, but that it must conform to the principles of Tao, so if we guide our actions in this life appropriately, we have nothing to fear about an afterlife.

This has some interesting corrolaries. First, we are not broken and do not need to be saved. No one can absolve us of the consequences of our own bad behavior. If you do evil, the consequences are not made less by saying you are sorry. I never claim that Taoist ethics are easy, they are much tougher than Christian ethics, where sincere regret leads to absolution and salvation, regardless of what you have done or its consequences.

Likewise we have no deity fuctioning as the Cosmic Hitman who strikes down and punishes all who have offended our sense of injustice. If there is an afterlife and it has a purpose, that purpose cannot be to even out by reward or punishment the good choices or bad choices we make in our lives. If we have been screwed by life, we have been screwed, period. No one is going to make it up to us after we are dead.

All of this has implications for the "meaning of life" and the quesion of purpose. No one can answer that for another human being. If I believe my life is worth living, no one else has standing to tell me that I am wrong. Conversely, I have no standing to judge anyone else's life in terms of objectives or success. Note that I still have opinions about there actions and motives, I just cannot define the meaning of their life or judge their success by my standards.

Some flavors of Taoism (usually labelled "philosopical Taoism") abjure theological content and concentrate on Taoist ethics and method (observation, contemplation, meditation, and reason) and can be appended to any religion. I know quite a few adherents of Christianity and other religions who do this. Taoism is not a package deal. You can take what appeals to you to use and skip the rest. There is nothing that prevents a Christian from practicing meditation or yoga. So while Christian theology is inconsistent with my flavor of Taoist belief, there are Christian Taoists who can reconcile Christian theology and Taoist method and philosophy, including a couple friends of mine who are at the same time Taoist priests and Jesuits!

 

[oldfart]

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.

Sorry to be answering out of order, your thread seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people and is moving quickly.

I'm not sure how you get from accepting life as a wonderful experience to be savored to "very hopeless". I have no hope of being "rewarded" in an afterlife. But then again I have no hope of being six foot four and looking like Robert Redford. I try to simplify my life and take pleasure in everyday life and small things. I notice the sun on my skin and the smell of morning air. I savor my food and enjoy the natural beauty of where I live. I enjoy time with my six grandchildren, even if two of them are all the way in Pittsburg. Every day I take time for contemplation, I read and discuss a lot, and enjoy the company of other people. Really, it's not so bad.

I have learned, however, that happiness is to a large extent a learned behavior. If you want to be happy, you have to work at it every day. I get pissed off and then have to think about what being pissed off is doing for me, other than making me bad company. Being happy is one of my life goals. It is something I have considerable control over; no matter the circumstances, I know I have the ability to make things a little bit better.

So I am puzzled by one thing: Where does this existential dispair come from? Is it uniquely Christian? [Tongue firmly planted in cheek]

 

[uscitizen]

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.

Never seen a preacher?

Or do you just like making absurd statements?

 

[HUGGY]

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.

I don't believe any true atheist is interested in fleshing out your delusion. There is no "god is" such and such because god isn't. An atheist isn't interested in all the ways a believer incorporates their hallucinations about a god in relation to anything. An atheists denial of a god isn't "like" anything. It is a simple concept. God does not exist. God is nothing. Your hallucinations are real. Just as any mental illness is real.

 

[Famine]

Atheists just want a title to fall back on for having rarely any morals and being able to do as they please and not be judged. Well they will be judged long before they can enjoy the sins of the flesh and leading a life with no purpose.The H.O.A will and can do what the Christians can't their non violent approach makes them seem weak or helpless.I assure we of the H.O.A are not if blood shed is needed then blood shed it shall be .Our horseman will stand as one and be judged for our sins but they will be well deserved to defend humanity from itself

 

[uscitizen]

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.

I don't believe any true atheist is interested in fleshing out your delusion. There is no "god is" such and such because god isn't. An atheist isn't interested in all the ways a believer incorporates their hallucinations about a god in relation to anything. An atheists denial of a god isn't "like" anything. It is a simple concept. God does not exist. God is nothing. Your hallucinations are real. Just as any mental illnes is real.

I have about 8 or more religious channels on my satellite. I do not recall any atheist ones.

 

[uscitizen]

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.

False.

More often than not, the only appeals to gods I hear (and agree with) are along the lines of:

"Dear gods, please protect me from those who follow you".

Many christians lie a lot

 

[jtpr312]

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.

I don't believe any true atheist is interested in fleshing out your delusion. There is no "god is" such and such because god isn't. An atheist isn't interested in all the ways a believer incorporates their hallucinations about a god in relation to anything. An atheists denial of a god isn't "like" anything. It is a simple concept. God does not exist. God is nothing. Your hallucinations are real. Just as any mental illness is real.

Really? Not interested? Then pray tell why so many dang posts on this thread telling us God doesn't exist? You spend as much time telling people Santa doesn't exist? Probably not because you REALLY don't believe there is a Santa. God on the other hand, it's not a matter of disbelief, ALL men are born with the belief in God, what you're experiancing is a separation from God. For your sake I hope God one day decides to call you to His Son.

 

[Hollie]

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

I don't believe any true atheist is interested in fleshing out your delusion. There is no "god is" such and such because god isn't. An atheist isn't interested in all the ways a believer incorporates their hallucinations about a god in relation to anything. An atheists denial of a god isn't "like" anything. It is a simple concept. God does not exist. God is nothing. Your hallucinations are real. Just as any mental illness is real.

Really? Not interested? Then pray tell why so many dang posts on this thread telling us God doesn't exist? You spend as much time telling people Santa doesn't exist? Probably not because you REALLY don't believe there is a Santa. God on the other hand, it's not a matter of disbelief, ALL men are born with the belief in God, what you're experiancing is a separation from God. For your sake I hope God one day decides to call you to His Son.

“ALL men are born with the belief in God”?

There is no reason to believe that.

Can you support that statement - that we are implanted with monotheism or any idea of gods at all?

Babies seem to be blank slates, devoid of anything but instinct (eat, defecate, sleep, that sort of thing). They also display curiosity and experiment with their environment, so they seem far more in tune with the processes of science as opposed to those of faith. If you raise a baby in a Hindu culture, it will almost certainly embrace Hinduism; if in a Christian home, Christianity. All theistic beliefs seem to be externally brought to human beings, none of them display inherent hardwiring. If you raise a child devoid of god concepts in the middle of a remote jungle, the child will not arbitrarily and spontaneously generate theism.

I am not a theist, I am an atheist and your statement that presumes we are implanted with a god spirit requires it to be supported or discarded as mere speculation (and you're entitled to speculation).

 

[HUGGY]

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

I don't believe any true atheist is interested in fleshing out your delusion. There is no "god is" such and such because god isn't. An atheist isn't interested in all the ways a believer incorporates their hallucinations about a god in relation to anything. An atheists denial of a god isn't "like" anything. It is a simple concept. God does not exist. God is nothing. Your hallucinations are real. Just as any mental illness is real.

Really? Not interested? Then pray tell why so many dang posts on this thread telling us God doesn't exist? You spend as much time telling people Santa doesn't exist? Probably not because you REALLY don't believe there is a Santa. God on the other hand, it's not a matter of disbelief, ALL men are born with the belief in God, what you're experiancing is a separation from God. For your sake I hope God one day decides to call you to His Son.

You are an idiot. Don't hope anything on my behalf. It's none of your business.