Reply to 'Without God, life is meaningless'
Posted on: March 13, 2007 - 5:13am
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Reply to 'Without God, life is meaningless'
"Ah, so you use God as a security blanket. You fear the universe, you are lonely, so you cling to your invisible friend."
Sorry. Getting frustrated. The point I'm trying to make is that we need to call theists out with light ridicule and scorn rather than pure logic all the time. "Life is so complicated! Please God, save me from this fearful universe." Stop being a child and acting out of fear!!! The universe exists. Fucking deal with it!
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Previously, as a believer, I thought that Camus' question (of suicide) was open and shut: If there's no god to bring meaning to this life, the only thing to do is kill yourself.
Well, I stopped believing, and I'm still here...
There are no theists on operating tables.
It's pretty stupid - why would you want to end the only life you have unless it is going so horrible that oblivion is preferable.
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Becuase they think the more you have of something, the more it's worth?
They're right. Without God, life is meaningless.
But they're using the word "meaning" as some cosmic, God given meaning to everything. We're all pieces in God's transcendent puzzle. Everyone is a unique and beautiful snowflake.
If there's no God then there's no meaning in the above sense.
Their error is in thinking only God can give meaning to something.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Proverbs 14:12
Oh, no! Someone quoted the Bible. My argument lies in ruins!
Life without god is meaningless? Egads, we'd better keep this hushed up else we'll have a global animal and plant suicide epidemic on our hands! Oh the horror, trees jumping off cliffs, animals disembowling themselves on any sharp object, plankton beaching themselves on every shore!
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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I'm reminded of Monty Python's Meaning of Life with the tree and the leaves that commit suicide (in autumn).
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Oh, holy shit.
Another Defense By Redefinition! I didn't even catch this one, but it's true. "Meaning" has two different meanings.
My meaning in life is living. A theist thinks there has to be an end-goal, and that the tube worms living by the volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean were put here by God as a way to further his divine purpose of creating man and sending lots of people to hell for not believing in him.
I must ponder this and come up with a suitably sarcastic rebuttal.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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Nice points being made in here.
Yes... "without my imaginary friend, I don't have someone to give me meaning, I have to go to all the bother of doing it for myself, and that's hard!"
And what "meaning' does theism give people anyway? That everyone is worthless, that their works don't matter at all? That the best they can do is concede how worthless they are and beg some god to save them, despite their admitted worthlessness?
And then what? They go to 'heaven'... a place that even theists never bother to discuss in detail? A place that even theists appear not all that willing to go to (they seem to want to live as much as me)?
Anyone ever see or hear of the Left Behind series of books? Its supposed to be about the rapture and the end of the world, but book after book after book comes out, and all the major characters are on earth, and the story focuses on earth..... almost as if theists know that there's no actual point of just 'getting to the heaven' part because that's utterly boring.
So this is the 'meaning' theists have?
1) I am worthless
2) If I admit I am worthless then I get to go to a 'very special place' that I, paradoxically, will do will everything in my power to AVOID in the meantime.
Where exactly is the 'meaning' here?
Theists assert, but they never examine their assertions... get them to examine them, and they'll admit, tacitcly, that there's nothing there.
"Hitler burned people like Anne Frank, for that we call him evil.
"God" burns Anne Frank eternally. For that, theists call him 'good.'
"I must ponder this and come up with a suitably sarcastic rebuttal."
May I just say that I get a huge kick out of your sarcasm, and it makes this place more worthwhile. And that your picture (Rambo Kitty) is a total hoot!!!
I've been asked a number of questions that I consider completely, utterly, hopelessly irrational ...
- without god, isn't life meaningless?
- how can you be a moral/good person without god?
- how come you're a good person when you weren't spanked as a child?
I could go on, but these three are the ones that particularly boggle my mind. They are so self-evidently ridiculous that I don't even know how to begin. Let's see, I'm a good and nonviolent person because my parents didn't hit me! I'm a moral person because I have empathy for my fellow human beings and by the way, if you ever lose your belief in god does that mean you're going to start doing all kinds of immoral things because he's no longer there to punish you? And the meaning of life? We're all struggling with that one boyo. But, personally, if I am "being all that I can be", and if I'm helping someone else "be all that they can be", and if I'm using my talents to enlarge the amount of happiness in the world, and if I am happy, and ... (the list goes on and on)
... then who can possibly say that my life has no meaning?
Karen and her hounds
creating art ~ creating a new life
Great point. If there is a God what exactly is the meaning of life? If no theist truly knows the meaning, what exactly is the point in claiming, "Without God, life is meaningless."?
A serious question for theists: Do you honestly think that quoting the bible is a serious argument? Or that it will somehow convince us of the "error of our ways"?
Many, many of us know the bible much better than the average theist and we find it to be a disgusting, contradictory and sometimes poorly-written tome. It doesn't impress us. In fact, reading the bible is what caused many of us to become atheists in the first place.
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