The Meaning of Life for Atheists

The only thing you know about a person refering him her/himself as an atheist is that this person does not have any beliefs in a supernatural beeing. You know nothing of what she/he believes about anything else.I AM an atheist, that means i do not believe in anything supernatural. Everything can be explained by naturalistic means. Nothing resides outside our world.That, however, has no impact on what i think is the meaning of life.I do not think i have any given purpose in my life. I have only the purpose that i chose;
Beeing happy with my life.For me, to stay happy, i need to keep the people around me happy. By keeping them happy, im happy. Simple as that.The things i myself enjoy, besides love and social life ofcourse, are simple things; I develop and i write. That's enough for me.I even drive elderly people to church every sunday.. im just that nice!And no deity told me to..

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Objectively yes(sorry i don't mean to be harsh). Subjectively, no, no way. I am sure you have a thousand reasons to live.

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But that is a contradiction; if I have subjective meaning, then my life is obviously not meaningless. If I lack objective meaning, that just makes me the same as everybody else, since I don't believe that any such thing exists.If meaning is so objective, why are we finding it so elusive? If it is objective, can you prove that it exists?

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But your ancestors made you possible through sex. Not because they found philosophical reasons, or love or peace 40 millions years ago.

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Exactly the problem. That my ancestors started having sex is nothing more than a phenomenon, no meaning is involved. Meaning requires conciousness and the first sexually reproducing organisms were not concious.

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From the POV of a God-free nature, the objective purpose of human life is replication.

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Nature does not have a point of view.If I remember correctly, you are not an atheist. Why so keen to tell others what they think? From my point of view, reproduction is simply part of the "how" of life. It is not part of the "why". Indeed, I do not believe that there is an objective reason "why" beyond human action (and perhaps not even there). There is no such thing as objective purpose or meaning. All such things are human constructs.That I think this at all suggests that you do not understand atheists as well as you think you do.Mutate and Survive

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"The Bible is like a person, and if you torture it long enough, you can get it to say almost anything you'd like it to say." -- Rev. Dr. Francis H. Wade

Very little need to differentiate between atheists and theists here. Both groups need to find meaning and will seek meaning in very much the same ways. In this, both groups are virtually identical.The only difference is that atheists will be far less likely to seek meaning through association with invisible friends. Or in fanatical crusades against ideas and beliefs that are different from their own, no matter how slightly different.

Here's something that a lot of EvC non-theists might identify with. Igtheism, or Ignosticism.Often, when theists ask the question "do you believe in God", they say it as though there's some generally accepted described thing that we all understand, so we know what they're talking about. So, I'm often tempted to ask "what do you mean by this word "God"? Describe this thing, please. Then the answer, of course, varies, depending on which theist is talking, indicating that lots of different gods are being believed in.An Igtheist (ignostic) is someone who thinks that a meaningful definition of God must be presented before the question of the existence of God can be discussed. In other words, what the hell are we talking about? Then, if the definition given cannot be falsified, the ignostic considers the question of the existence of God (per that definition) to be meaningless.Some Ignostics just skip the first bit, and consider the basic question "does God exist" as meaningless. It sounds a bit like a kind of ultra-agnosticism, and could be described as a kind of non-theism or weak atheism, but the distinction from agnostics is that igtheists are not saying that the question can't be answered, but that it's meaningless.I have some sympathy for this. "Does God exist" is a bit like asking "do doodlubumfloops exist". Why bother with the question?Anyway, I thought I'd introduce the synonymous terms "Igtheist" and "Ignostic" to EvC, just to add to the general confusion. I think I'll be an Igtheist/Atheist myself for a few weeks, to see what it feels like.The igtheistic answer to the O.P. question on the meaning of life for atheists is that it's a meaningless question. More on IgnosticismEdited by bluegenes, : extra word deleted (parsimony)

I wonder what people mean by "life" and "meaning"For common notions, I suspect that the phrase "meaning of life" may be a category error. In other words,is "life" the sort of thing that "meaning" can be applied to? As an example, it makes no sense to talk of a square circle.The fact that a question can be constructed in language does not guarantee that the question is legitimate.

No i cannot. But it's entertaining to watch the 2 sects fight for their respective dogma. Atheists claim to know that there is no God/creator because they have sufficiently well explained reality(while science hasn't) and religious folks have the Bible as the ultimate tool for explaining everything(although their reality does not in any way conform to the reality we experience).To anyone who's not attached to these 2 radical schools of "thought", watching the debate as it unfolds is pretty amusing.

Bullshit. Atheism simply means one does not beleive in god(s). That does not mean we "know" god(s) do not exist. Some might say as much, but many of us simply find no reason to believe in any deities. There is a rather large difference, and it has nothign to do with how well science has or has not explained the Universe, and everything to do with the fact that there is no evidence supporting the existence of any deities. Assertion X is not necessarily the default position if Assertion Y fails to explain something. The default position is "I don't know." As if "religious folks" were constrained exclusively to the Bible.You seem to enjoy conflating rather large and heterogenous groups into incredibly stereotyped monolithic homogenous blocs. Not all Atheists have no religion. Not all Atheists disbeleive in god(s) for the same reason. Not all religious people are Christian, and not all Christians even accept the Bible as some "ultimate tool for explaining everything."This makes your posts woefully inaccurate and infuriatingly simpleminded. At first, reading your various misconceptions regarding evolution, Atheism, and religion were amusing, as well. Then you kept making the same errors after being corrected, and doing so to a greater degree each time. Now you're a broken record, and I question your ability to actually process information and learn.

Why are you lying to yourself about what atheists claim? How can anyone know that there are no gods? Think about it. If there's a proposition for which you have no evidence, it doesn't make sense to believe in it. Let's try one. There's a chest full of gold buried in your backyard. Surely, if you have no evidence for this you wouldn't believe it. But if you were digging in the yard, and found it, you would. You don't walk around claiming to know there's no treasure under your backyard, do you? There's absolutely no need to go through life believing in things for which there is zero evidence. Not believing in Zeus is easy, don't you agree? You don't have to explain reality at all to lack faith in him. What a parochial world you live in. Most of the world's religious people have never read the Bible, and aren't Christians. If you really want to see two sects fighting, there are many places you can go in the world and witness that, literally. Fighting and killing. But the two sects will be two religions. Try Kashmir. I did, long ago, and got caught up in the crossfire.

Exactly, you believe god(s) do not exist. And you fight for your beliefs. As I said it's fun to watch the 2 belief systems, which are radical to anyone who's not brain-washed into believing any of the 2 "options", fight for their dogma. Yes, belief. It's also the foundation of all religions. Including Atheism. Cool, sounds logical but dismissing all possibilities of a creator of some kind is radical. If that were the case, there would be no atheism, but just religion and agnosticism. Yeah right, and not all bears are bears, some are birds. I guess Bertot is an athesist who believes in god. I obviously didn't mean the Bible is the only holy book, but thanks for finding "holes" in my position. Why? Because I don't believe what you believe? No, I don't claim to know how nature works with 100% certainty. No scientist does. No biologist does. Only atheists do, you know everything about evolution with great certainty. That's great! Stick to your beliefs, it seems all human need some form of religion - whether it's christianity, judaism or atheism. Yes I am. Because I don't know everything that you know with the certainty you believe you know it. BTW, I have no desire to "process information and learn" about your beliefs because to an unpredjudiced observer both positions are radical.

No, it's a lack of beleif in gods, not a beleif that are no gods.

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soon I discovered that this rock thing was true
Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil
Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet
All of a sudden i found myself in love with the world
And so there was only one thing I could do
Was ding a ding dang my dang along ling long - Jesus Built my Hotrod Ministry
Live every week like it's Shark Week! - Tracey Jordan
Just a monkey in a long line of kings. - Matthew Good
If "elitist" just means "not the dumbest motherfucker in the room", I'll be an elitist! - Get Your War On
*not an actual doctor

And if you fight against those who believe in gods, it means that you vehemently believe that you are right. Certain religious ideas sound downright radical but that doesn't mean a Creator is out of the question(to those who have not embraced radicalism).ATHEISM according to dictionary.com:1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beingsIt's not wrong to have beliefs, IMO it is wrong if you fight for your beliefs because it conveys that you are taking your beliefs way too seriously. It means that you consider your beliefs are the right ones over the others. And the certainty implied in the debates here of both sides is what i have been referring to as a "rather amusing" circus. Now i don't plan to reply no matter how stupid i look from the POV of individuals belonging to one of the belief systems as this is offtopic. Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

Fighting against other beliefs strongly implies that this lack of belief in gods is much closer to a radical belief that there are no gods.(though i am sure it doesn't look so to the individuals who hold those beliefs strongly).

Who's fighting?

Why do you even bother to debate when you ignore most of what is said? Especially when the only bit of my message that you did reply to involved your admission that you cannot demonstrate the existence of this "objective meaning" you are so keen to foist upon me.If you can't demonstrate that there is objective meaning and you don't believe it yourself, why waste time?

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But it's entertaining to watch the 2 sects fight for their respective dogma.

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Ah, that's why. You are trolling. Sad.

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Atheists claim to know that there is no God/creator because they have sufficiently well explained reality(while science hasn't)

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Who are these mythical atheists? I never said that, or anything like it. If you are going to try and put words in my mouth, could you try and make them less stupid please?I do not know that there are no gods. I believe that there are no gods. I happily admit that I could be wrong. Attempting to portray this position as religiose is simply mudslinging. I suggest that you try asking people their opinion instead of pretending that you already know what it is.

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and religious folks have the Bible as the ultimate tool for explaining everything(although their reality does not in any way conform to the reality we experience).

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You imply that you are more sympathetic toward religion than I am, yet I would never resort to such a woefully unfair characterisation of how religious people think. Religious people, even those who are actually Christian, do not explain everything by reference to the Bible. Do you really think that Christians use the Bible to explain how their cars work?

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To anyone who's not attached to these 2 radical schools of "thought", watching the debate as it unfolds is pretty amusing.

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In other words, you are behaving like a child. Do grow up Agobot.Mutate and Survive

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"The Bible is like a person, and if you torture it long enough, you can get it to say almost anything you'd like it to say." -- Rev. Dr. Francis H. Wade

Here is another way of looking at the topic.Life is a property/process that is displayed by an incredibly tiny percentage of the matter in our universe, namely living things.Nuclear fusion is also a property/process that is displayed by a somewhat larger, but still very tiny percentage of matter in our universe, namely stars.So what is the meaning of nuclear fusion?What is the meaning of stars?If you can see the absurdity in those two questions, you may be able to see why I find ideas of an intrinsic meaning of life so absurd. Life is nothing special. It may be unusual, but it is only our anthropocentric outlook that persuades us that we are meaningful.In truth, everyone must find meaning for themselves.Mutate and Survive

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"The Bible is like a person, and if you torture it long enough, you can get it to say almost anything you'd like it to say." -- Rev. Dr. Francis H. Wade