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The first one being, I've never really understood the atheist position, insofar as it seems as much a matter of faith as any religion you'd like - to say there's definitely no god seems about the same thing as saying there definitely is, when surely the atheist is a sceptic before anything else ?
Well, the best I've seen the answer to this question put is in Tom Coates' pretty perfect post in the "Choosing a Spiritual Path" thread. Basically: surely it's absolutely ludicrous to say that it's a matter of faith to take the default position of "x does not exist"? I can say with perfect confidence, "Invisible pink unicorns do not exist." Is this a matter of faith? Just because there're a lot more people arguing for the existence of god than the existence of invisible pink unicorns, doesn't mean the burden of proof should be on the person taking the position pointed to by all logical evidence, rationality etc.
Second point being, and it's a bit more contentious, does it actually matter what anyone does, if this is basically it ? If you're just going to die and there you go, well it's over, why on earth would you worry about anything you do/did ? You could be Ed Gein or whoever, if that's what you wanted, you could live your whole life out like Patrick Bateman, or that guy who's in charge of The Daily Star, and it would mean nothing whatsoever, according to say the Stephen Hawking view of the world.
Many atheists will be happy to tell you that just because they don't believe in a god, and therefore believe there is no "divine purpose", there is still inherent meaning in life itself. Indeed, I'd say it seems a pretty tragic position to *need* some higher power to dictate a purpose to one's life, whether it be belief in the higher power, to treat people in x, y and z way, or to spend life making as many clay hippopotami as possible.
However, I'm not going to claim belief in any inherent purpose or meaning. Yes, I believe that life is essentially meaningless. But I also believe that jsut because nothing means anything, doesn't mean it isn't real; sure, feelings are just a load of electrons or whatever whizzing around in one's brain, but it doesn't make them any less real. And technically, yes I do believe that everything is predetermined, simply by cause-and-effect on an infinitesimal scale, but I still consider the perception of free will to be, in effect, the same as "true" free will, and just as valid.
Do you have any idea of how liberating that is? "Happy nihilism", as it were. "No, nothing means anything, so we may as well ignore all the accepted rules and live just by the effect one's actions have for oneself and on others." Create your own meaning, it leads to a much better life than following a path set out in a book. |
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