Evolutionists, atheists what YOUR purpose, YOUR meaning to life?

You just mad a Good point tis why Atheism is not Viable

Atheism is, essentially, a negative position. It is not believing in a god, or actively believing there is no God, or choosing to not exercise any belief or non-belief concerning God, etc. Which ever flavor is given to atheism, it is a negative position.

In discussions with atheists, I don't hear any evidence for the validity of atheism. There are no "proofs" that God does not exist in atheist circles; at least, none that I have heard -- especially since you can't prove a negative regarding God's existence. Of course, that isn't to say that atheists haven't attempted to offer some proofs that God does not exist. But their attempted proofs are invariably insufficient. After all, how do you prove there is no God in the universe? How do you prove that in all places and all times, there is no God? You can't. Besides, if there were a proof of Gods non-existence, then atheists would be continually using it. But we don't hear of any such commonly held proof supporting atheism or denying Gods existence. The atheist position is very difficult, if not impossible, to prove since it is an attempt to prove a negative. Therefore, since there are no proofs for atheisms truth and there are no proofs that there is no God, the atheist must hold his position by faith.

"Since atheism cannot be proven and since disproving evidences for God does not prove there is no God, atheists have a position that is intellectually indefensible."Faith, however, is not something atheists like to claim as the basis of adhering to atheism. Therefore, atheists must go on the attack and negate any evidences presented for Gods existence in order to give intellectual credence to their position. If they can create an evidential vacuum in which no theistic argument can survive, their position can be seen as more intellectually viable. It is in the negation of theistic proofs and evidences that atheism brings its self-justification to self-proclaimed life.

There is, however, only one way that atheism is intellectually defensible and that is in the abstract realm of simple possibility. In other words, it may be possible that there is no God. But, stating that something is possible doesn't mean that it is a reality or that it is wise to adopt the position. If I said it is possible that there is an ice cream factory on Jupiter, does that make it intellectually defensible or a position worth adopting merely because it is merely a possibility? Not at all. So, simply claiming a possibility based on nothing more than it being a possible option, no matter how remote, is not sufficient grounds for atheists to claim viability in their atheism. They must come up with more than "It is possible," or "There is no evidence for God," otherwise, there really must be an ice cream factory on Jupiter and the atheist should step up on the band wagon and start defending the position that Jupiterian ice cream exists.

At least we Christians have evidences for God's existence such as fulfilled biblical prophecy, Jesus' resurrection, the Transcendental Argument, the entropy problem, etc.

But there is another problem for atheists. Refuting evidences for Gods existence does not prove atheism true anymore than refuting an eyewitness testimony of a marriage denies the reality of the marriage. Since atheism cannot be proven and since disproving evidences for God does not prove there is no God, atheists have a position that is intellectually indefensible. At best, atheists can only say that there are no convincing evidences for God so far presented. They cannot say there are no evidences for God because the atheist cannot know all evidences that possibly exist in the world. At best, the atheist can only say that the evidence so far presented has been insufficient. This logically means that there could be evidences presented in the future that will suffice. The atheist must acknowledge that there may indeed be a proof that has so far been undiscovered and that the existence of God is possible. This would make the atheist more of an agnostic since at best the atheist can only be skeptical of Gods existence.

This is why atheists need to attack Christianity. It is because Christianity makes very high claims concerning Gods existence which challenges their atheism and pokes holes in their vacuum. They like the vacuum. They like having the universe with only one god in it: themselves.

As a race of sapient and (supposedly) intelligent beings, it is a great insult to assume that we cannot decide on a purpose for our lives by ourselves.

I have decided that my purpose is to study the universe and find out how it works, and then share that knowledge with everyone else. Why? Because it is interesting, because it is the key to elevating ourselves beyond the constraints most other species must live by, improves the quality of life of all humanity, and sates the hunger for knowledge that I and most people have. But most of all, because I want to.

Yes, I will die. Yes, everyone will die. The mortality rate for human beings remains a constant 100%. Yes, our greatest achievements will crumble and be forgotten, this is a given. But it does not matter: we are here now, and we will be here for some time to come. We will grab life by the balls and make what time we have worthwhile for US.

Because if the only point of life is to die, as is a common feature of religion, that i sad and far more pointless. Life is here, life is wonderful, life is visceral. It is also hard,often cruel, and a struggle for survival. And we keep on struggling, it's in our nature, and staying alive is a crucial component of achieving our goals.

All our greatest medicine does simply delay the inevitable. We are just going to get hungry again. We must battle and eventually lose against entropy, that's basic thermodynamics. But the time we have until then is the most precious time we will ever have. Do not waste it.

As a race of sapient and (supposedly) intelligent beings, it is a great insult to assume that we cannot decide on a purpose for our lives by ourselves. I have decided that my purpose is to study the universe and find out how it works, and then share that knowledge with everyone else. Why? Because it is interesting, because it is the key to elevating ourselves beyond the constraints most other species must live by, improves the quality of life of all humanity, and sates the hunger for knowledge that I and most people have. But most of all, because I want to. Yes, I will die. Yes, everyone will die. The mortality rate for human beings remains a constant 100%. Yes, our greatest achievements will crumble and be forgotten, this is a given. But it does not matter: we are here now, and we will be here for some time to come. We will grab life by the balls and make what time we have worthwhile for US. Because if the only point of life is to die, as is a common feature of religion, that i sad and far more pointless. Life is here, life is wonderful, life is visceral. It is also hard,often cruel, and a struggle for survival. And we keep on struggling, it's in our nature, and staying alive is a crucial component of achieving our goals. All our greatest medicine does simply delay the inevitable. We are just going to get hungry again. We must battle and eventually lose against entropy, that's basic thermodynamics. But the time we have until then is the most precious time we will ever have. Do not waste it.

The fact that we'll have no memory of our life after we die doesn't make life pointless, it makes death pointless. So the absence of an afterlife really only affects the purpose of life if your purpose is waiting to die.

If you want a purpose that will seem important in hindsight, there isn't one. That pretty much goes without saying, since there won't be any hindsight. But just because enjoying life won't seem important when you're dead doesn't mean it isn't important while you're alive.

By that logic you would never do anything unless you expected it to have an effect on your existence after death. So unless you believe in a god who rewards asking questions on the Internet, what is the purpose of asking this question? Of course you point out yourself that the purpose is educating yourself about others' views, but surely the views of atheists won't be of much value in the afterlife even if there is one. You're using part of your life for the purpose of obtaining knowledge that will be useless to you when you die. That seems to me like a pretty atheistic interpretation of your life's purpose.

With regard to your additional details, you are still evaluating purposes from the perspective of a corpse and dismissing them on the basis that their positive effects are not eternal. Obviously if we exist for a limited period then nothing we do is going to improve our position forever. But if doing something means we're better off than we would otherwise be, doesn't it make sense to do it? Even if the effect only lasts for a day, or a year, or a lifetime?

Incidentally, if there is an afterlife then healing the sick and feeding the hungry might be a nice way to impress god and get yourself into heaven, but you're not actually doing the sick and hungry people any favours by keeping them here, are you? If death is the end then postponing it is significant. If death is the beginning then shouldn't we envy the sick and starving and hope to live a short, pointless life so that we can skip quickly to the infinitely more important part?

I really just don't see how life being the entirity of our existence makes it pointless.

its not a wall brad, its soemthing you dont understand or agree with

but its quite a simple fact of life that i do

i am alive, so i live, because im alive, now,simple

what should i do?

just sit in bed like a lump of dead flesh and die?

thats rather silly seeing as i AM alive now, and CAN do soemthing

why woudl i NOT do soemthing is the real question

*i care because im alive NOW

if a make a botch of it, i suffer NOW, i feel bad, depressed, sad, unhappy, alone, etc etc NOW, so we do our best to avoid that because it doesnt feel good , NOW, while we ARE alive

*the benefit is NOW, not when you die, the benefit is while you are alive

believers are so concerned with the after life, not this life, well most atheists consider THIS life, NOW

why, because we have it, here and now, simple really

*maybe you dont get that we atheists have love for our familys, a biological need for our genes and ourselves to survive just like every other human, who has or has not got a beleif in god or whatever

so if they suffer, when we live and die, our being dead wont stop them suffering, and wont stop us NOT wanting them to suffer when we are alive, NOW, wont take away our love for them that we have NOW

*i have never said man is inherently good, i beleive no such thing, and i dont know any atheist who does, thats a beleivers claim

*nothing makes it "so special" ,again, thats a beleivers claim, not an atheists, we just think , we are alive, so may as well live, nothing "special " about it

*the "importance" of that species is the same as ever other species

its alive, it has survival instincts so it continues to survive, thats it, we live because we are alive, and we are alive because we live, and so it continues for the existence of life

yes, if the universe ends it was all in vein, THEN , but not NOW

and we are alive NOW

whats so hard about that to understand

we are alive, so we will live

that IS the logical conclusion

I'm not an atheist, but I'm not so ignorant to think a supreme being with supreme intelligence mind's whether an individual believes in 'him' or not, 'he' would need no such reassurance. Most 'god botherers' are hypocrites anyway, you know to look lustfully on a woman is as good as committing the actual sin of adultery, and so to not remove the log from one's eye, how can blame be cast upon one's brother.

Man's search for meaning by Victor Frankl, I liked this book and what made me quite impressed was most of the guys in there were reciting the Lord's Prayer everyday, if something similar happened today, the bulk of us would probably be rapping 'many Men' by 50 Cent!

The point is this compadre is rather than throw scorn and derision to the way of 'athiests' rather 'be the way' for them, since, my brother, they are yours too.

Ask not what will happen to me but what will happen to them...

"I am not trying to be facetious just trying to follow this to its logical conclusion" No, you're not, you are making the assumption that in spite of the majority of human population finding meaning or reason to live without the benefit of your religion for thousands and thousands of years (around 200,000), that your religious view is the only thing that give life meaning. This is a fairly closed minded approach.

Why do you think that life *has* to have meaning or an afterlife to be worth living?

Life has a few goals, to reproduce and to continue life. Every creature has a built in desire to live and to reproduce. Many have also have a instinctual need to preserve others of their species or more appropriately their group. We are no different. Just because you believe differently does not change the facts.

Edit:

And yes you are going in circles in a way as you have your belief about life and are using it to try to interpret the facts, rather than objectively studying the facts and forming a conclusion. We know that your method is rarely successful, if ever.

Working for the common good of mankind in the here and now rather than seeking personal salvation in some mythical and unproven afterlife.

Religionists seem to love quoting your "Scripture" - here is a quote from mine:

If we have chosen the position in life in which we can most of all work for mankind, no burdens can bow us down, because they are sacrifices for the benefit of all; then we shall experience no petty, limited, selfish joy, but our happiness will belong to millions, our deeds will live on quietly but perpetually at work, and over our ashes will be shed the hot tears of noble people.

History calls those men the greatest who have ennobled themselves by working for the common good; experience acclaims as happiest the man who has made the greatest number of people happy.

Marx, Letter to His Father (1837)

I don't believe in god any never will, for me I never asked to be born, it just happened and now im stuck with it.

The reason I live is because I haven't got the guts to kill myself yet as nothing really bad has happened to me to make me want to commit suicide, however if by some chance I got run over by a truck tomorrow then I wouldn't really care to be honest as everyone dies.

I know deep down that the rules of this world are complete bull and just made up by some people to keep some sort of order in this world.

Only a very small percentage of us will make any difference in the lives we live and really I see life as more a curse than a blessing because I don't like the thought of losing everything i've attained throughout my life just because im going to die.

There is no god, there is no devil, and there's not a single shred of proof to argue against that.

Just because someone doesn't believe in god, they are now just a bunch of chemicals? No one believes that.

Because we are going to die then we should just waste the 80+ years we have on this planet? Not make it better for the next generation? That's silly.

How does art, science, etc, benefit god? Why wouldn't it exist to benefit man?

We aren't supposed to care about our family, our offspring and want to preserve the world, make it better, for them?

Just because we don't believe in an ancient book written by a bunch of nomadic goat herders doesn't mean our lives now have no meaning.

At least we aren't treating this life as a waiting room and just sitting around waiting to die.

EDIT: So we should just let the sick and hungry suffer? That's pretty sickening. Every life has value, it's too bad your religion teaches you differently.

We are giving you answers, it is you that is choosing not to listen or understand them.

We don't look forward to an afterlife since we realise this life is it. So we get up in the morning to just live. If there's nothing else then why waste this life?

On the other hand, a believer COULD waste this life - with the belief that all will be forgiven and heaven is waiting, why would a believer bother to get out of bed in the morning?