Quote from jem:
To answer the question posed many pages ago. Betrand Russell said life would be meaningless.
Jem, I find this interesting because the lack of meaning in life is one thing that kept me going on god even though I'd long thrown away most of the other stuff.
However, since I've offiially dumped ideas about god, I think I can look at it a little more objectively.
What does the existance of god add to "meaning"?
What does it mean for life to be "meaningful"?
I know that the first thing theists usually think when asked this is "well, if all we do is eat, shit, make babies and then die, life is just pointless".
The thing is, even with a god, that is still what you do. Even if you were to then move into heaven, what would be the
point of your life there? What "greater purpose" would there be in existing in heaven? Logically, such an existance would be just as "pointless" as anything here on earth.
Of course, those things are "too far" for most christians and other theists to think about. "Get to heaven first, then worry about that" seems to be the operating principle.
In my opinion, the issue is really one of emotional satisfaction, "happiness", if you like. To me, the theist believes that he cannot be emotionally satisfied, or happy, unless there's his actions on earth serve some "ultimate purpose".
The fact that there is absolutely no way we could ever ascertain what such an "ultimate purpose" is (and it's not heaven) doesn't seem to bother the theist, the important thing is that it's there.
Personally, I find this highly illogical. Just because, in the atheistic worldview, everything is
ultimately meaningless does not mean that everything is meaningless at every point along the way.
A leaky roof is, of course, ultimately meaningless, even to me, however, if my roof is leaking it's meaningful in moment, in the sense that it pisses me off enough to go and do something about it, and that would be true whether there's one god or ten.
Viewing our lives as a series of moments to moments it is easy to see how we develop a sense of 'meaning'.
As for the fabric of society being ripped apart with no god. Please fill in the blanks here:
1) There is no god.
2) X
3) I kill myself, cheat, lie, steal etc
What is the 'X' step that leads to (3)?
I don't kill myself because I enjoy life too much. I don't cheat (usually!) because often the consequances are too harsh, I don't lie (usually) because of consequances, I don't steal because...wait for it...consequances, I don't murder because....guess!
As for doing the Benny Hinn thing, that is a great idea! There are big dollars to be made doing that! However, at the moment, I find the study I'm doing in biology and financial markets (working towards CFP) to be too interesting to give up just to blindly pursue money. However, being the next Benny Hinn is certainly viable! There are millions of suckers all too ready to believe almost anything. Why? That's what religion does to ya! And that's the point of this thread!
