A Pathetic Existence
Humans are constantly seeking meaning and purpose in their lives; they want to feel that they matter in the grand scheme. Atheists have come to terms with the fact that there is no ultimate purpose and, so, assign purpose to their own lives.
But let's imagine God is real, and that everyone's life is validated by his/her existence. This god has a plan for each person's life and, when they get to Heaven, God reveals just how vital their role was in his Plan. All these people feel fulfilled and content that they mattered. They are not just debris floating in the deep, dark, lonely space.
Now let's imagine being God. You're all alone in space, drifting through time with no purpose. You have no one to talk to; no one who cares you exist. What do you do? You have a lot of time on your hands after all, and so you create human beings (and other animals) whose sole purpose is to acknowledge that you exist and that you matter. Without the existence of these creations, no one knows you; you are just debris floating in the deep, dark, lonely space.
God is just as irrelevant without his creation as humans beings feel they are without a Creator. Without us, he/she has no purpose. This is much like the question that is always begged when Creationists say that nothing cannot come from nothing, yet somehow God can come from nothing. If human beings can have no purpose outside of a Creator, how can a Creator have purpose outside of a Creator? If there is no Higher Intelligence to acknowledge even the existence of God, how is his/her existence meaningful in the grand scheme of eternity? It's not.
What is more pathetic than the striving of human beings to prove their superiority to other floating debris is the striving of a god to prove its superiority to other floating debris. No matter how far out you go, nothing can validate the life of any one being but that being itself. No matter how much praise this imaginary god gleans from his creation, his/her life is just as meaningless as the rest of ours...
...unless we claim our own lives. "I think; therefore, I am." I am; therefore, I live. I live; therefore I will live... and love, and learn, and make the most of it while I am alive.
But let's imagine God is real, and that everyone's life is validated by his/her existence. This god has a plan for each person's life and, when they get to Heaven, God reveals just how vital their role was in his Plan. All these people feel fulfilled and content that they mattered. They are not just debris floating in the deep, dark, lonely space.
Now let's imagine being God. You're all alone in space, drifting through time with no purpose. You have no one to talk to; no one who cares you exist. What do you do? You have a lot of time on your hands after all, and so you create human beings (and other animals) whose sole purpose is to acknowledge that you exist and that you matter. Without the existence of these creations, no one knows you; you are just debris floating in the deep, dark, lonely space.
God is just as irrelevant without his creation as humans beings feel they are without a Creator. Without us, he/she has no purpose. This is much like the question that is always begged when Creationists say that nothing cannot come from nothing, yet somehow God can come from nothing. If human beings can have no purpose outside of a Creator, how can a Creator have purpose outside of a Creator? If there is no Higher Intelligence to acknowledge even the existence of God, how is his/her existence meaningful in the grand scheme of eternity? It's not.
What is more pathetic than the striving of human beings to prove their superiority to other floating debris is the striving of a god to prove its superiority to other floating debris. No matter how far out you go, nothing can validate the life of any one being but that being itself. No matter how much praise this imaginary god gleans from his creation, his/her life is just as meaningless as the rest of ours...
...unless we claim our own lives. "I think; therefore, I am." I am; therefore, I live. I live; therefore I will live... and love, and learn, and make the most of it while I am alive.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on -
Like!
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on
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Maybe. Maybe I am.
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Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on -
That's a very novel and thoughtful insight, Cara. I like it and agree with it.
Whenever I think I have a novel idea, I Google it to see if it really is. You should Google yours: I think this point of view might be unique.
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on
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Well, I Googled it and found this written about the Trinity.
Here's a bit of circular logic:
Very significantly, the answer lies in the trinitarian being of God. Love is the epitome of all virtue and the highest expression of holiness. And God should not have to depend upon his creation to actualize his capacity to love, for that would make creation as important as the Creator because the Creator would be incomplete without his creation. But the Bible introduces love as an interpersonal quality requiring a subject-object relationship that is available in the Trinity because of the Father-Son relationship through the Holy Spirit. The trinitarian God is complete in his love relationship without reference to his creation. The Father loves the Son before the creation of the world (John 17:24). The infinite personal medium through whom this love is communicated is the Holy Spirit, and he is the one who pours the love of God in our hearts as well (Romans 5:5). The final answer that I could give to this college girl was to appeal to the Trinity, where good always existed without any reference to, outside of, and before evil.
In essence, the paragraph admits that God would be incomplete without his creation, but then denies it because the Trinity allows God to exist unto himself. God is love. God loves Jesus. Jesus loves God. Jesus loves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit loves God. God loves the Holy Spirit. There! Problem solved.
Not.
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on
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Ha! I love it! Even still, this little triad mycellium's existence is meaningless, too. Just because it loves itself doesn't mean it has purpose. I love myself, after all. If that's all it takes to have purpose, then I think we're all set.
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on
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Oh, I think the Holy Ghost would have to be at the bottom. He's the one who got left behind when Jesus left, to be our comforter or something. Jesus is the intermediary, so he'd have to be in the middle.
Gosh. God kinda looks like a dick though...
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Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on -
Your mushroom looks a lot like the aminita; the destroying angel.
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on
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Atheist Exile... what happened to all your posts??
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Lafont on -
It's like what my 11th grade english teacher said: "Think of yourself in relation to the world, then to the galaxy, and then to the universe. A single life is so small, the universe does not care whether we live or die." so that puts things into perspective.
Also to follow up with what Christopher Hitchens said: "you ask 'Why Me?' and the universe answer back with 'Why Not?'"
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on
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If only they knew that that viewpoint necessarily meant their god has no meaning outside of an external source as well. Even God cannot be a purpose unto his self. The logic simply falls apart or starts winding in circles.
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