Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on April 28, 2010 at 6:44pm

Yeah, now THERE is a waste of time for ya...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by luvtheheaven on April 28, 2010 at 2:15am

Life is way MORE meaningful without some god there to make you seem insignificant. God supposedly decides things about your life, he's the reason you exist in the first place, he's the reason you die, he's the reason you go to heaven or hell. If you pray and want something to happen, God can know way more than you could ever know and God can have his own reasons for saying "no" to your desperate desire.

However if you realize there are no gods, no afterlife, no person controlling the Matrix (never saw that movie really but I think it applies, lol), then all of a sudden life is more meaningful. It's my life, I'm only going to live it once. If I want something to happen, no invisible god can stop it from happening, it's either just chance or I have to actually do something to make it more likely to happen. If I want to cure the sick and feed the hungry, I won't pray but instead donate money or actually deliver food and medicine to those in need, and be the person controlling the situation and helping. Your life is meaningful in that you've touched other people's lives and made imprints in their memories that last even after you die. If you have kids your life is meaningful because you created them and had you not had sex with that one person the child would not exist. Your life is what you make of it. Being free from the worry that god is going to be mad at you and destine you to hell or even destine you to a less-enjoyable life on earth just for doing something like oversleeping and missing church or having sex with protection when you're unmarried is so FREEING. You realize you're an atheist and God doesn't exist and there's no God that is all-knowing and is always monitoring your every thought... it's just amazing, freeing, relaxing, like a weight is lifted off your shoulder. Your life is more significant and meaningful because you're in control, you only live once and it's your chance to do something great if you want to, you have the ability to learn and discover and understand the world through science, etc.

As for the moral thing, atheists are more moral than many religious people - by MY moral standards. Someone who is religious can feel justified disowning their homosexual child. Someone who is religious can feel justified blowing up an abortion clinic. Someone who is religious can think God is on their side and it can lead them to feeling justified in becoming a Nazi or any other insanely horrible thing. Atheists don't have a God to support them, we judge what seems right based on various factors, it's a difficult to pin-down science, but we all feel empathy for each other, we don't WANT to kill each other, we don't want to just have sex if it's against the other person's will, etc. I mean maybe a few people with psychological issues do but that applies to more religious people than atheists (most likely because there are more religious people in the world than atheists). We are moral for lots of reasons and I'm not an expert but it's not because of a non-existent God nor a very flawed bible that condones insane sexism and condones slavery and other things most of us intelligent people now deem immoral.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on April 28, 2010 at 4:42am

I say it is meaningless

You say that other people's lives, from their own perspectives, are meaningless? That is the very height of ignorance...

I wont accept it if it is subjective because subjective morals makes Nazism moral.

...followed by even more ignorance, and barely coherent thought. Think before you type. Honestly, I find this repugnant.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David on April 28, 2010 at 8:29am

/You say that other people's lives, from their own perspectives, are meaningless? That is the very height of ignorance.../

I made it clear that that is my perspective.

//I wont accept it if it is subjective because subjective morals makes Nazism moral.//
If morality is relative then in 1940 Nazi Germany it was moral to kill Jews

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Silenus on April 28, 2010 at 9:27am

If morality is relative then in 1940 Nazi Germany it was moral to kill Jews


There is no such thing as an universal objective "good" or "evil".

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David on April 28, 2010 at 6:33pm

Then you are in no position to call God or anyone for that matter immoral

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on April 28, 2010 at 7:09pm

Um... the concept of "morality" is man-made, so yes, we humans can decide what is immoral and tell you you're being immoral. Yaweh is immoral because he's a murderer. We don't tolerate murderers in this culture, and we certainly don't bestow accolades of honor on them.

Oh yeah, and the concept of "god/gods" is also man-made, so I think we can pass judgment on that which we created. Man made god in his image, after all.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skycomet the Fallen Angel on May 2, 2010 at 1:27pm

Judging by their actions, Satan is more moral then Yahweh.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on April 28, 2010 at 1:10pm

The definition of "morality" is like the definition of "art". Everyone has a vague understanding of what it is to be moral, or what is considered art, but there is no consensus and much disagreement.

I don't believe morality is relative, but I also don't believe the concept is dependent on their being a deity to decide what is and isn't moral (especially not one who doesn't even follow his own rules).

Let's go back a few thousand more years when God commanded his chosen to destroy the Canaanites. Was that morally wrong? If you say "no" because God commanded it, then you have just condoned the mindset of those who murdered the Jews in the Holocaust. Hitler believed it was his God-given calling and purpose to wipe out the Jews (among others). There has been a lot of genocide carried out in the name of some god (very often Yaweh); more often than not, in fact. We can't say it's only okay to destroy nations in the name of the Judeo-Christian god and not in the name of, say, Allah (who actually is the same God, if you wanna get technical).

If it's morally wrong to kill the Jews because of one brand philosophy, then it's wrong to kill all nationalities and people-groups because of any philosophy, including yours.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on April 28, 2010 at 1:43pm

I made it clear that that is my perspective.

Actually, you made if fuzzy. The subject was "the meaning of life to an atheist" and then you start off with "I say it's meaningless". 'It' is ambiguous here. What does it refer to? Life is meaningless, or life to an atheist is meaningless? If it's the former, then the 'to an Atheist' in the title is redundant. This is, after all, thinkatheist.com.

...but I do see that my interpretation of what you wrote is not what you intended.


If morality is relative then in 1940 Nazi Germany it was moral to kill Jews

This, on the other hand, still remains an incredibly shallow and vastly over-simplified statement. The only response I can give it that truly does it justice is, "No, not really."

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David on April 28, 2010 at 6:35pm

Well if the people around you and the government you consent to is the source of morality then I dont understand where you are drawing this conclusion from

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Skycomet the Fallen Angel on May 2, 2010 at 1:44am

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• …
• 43
• Next ›
• Page