Why do some atheists say that "life has no meaning"

Being an atheist is one thing - one doesn't necessarily have to believe in a "God" to believe that life has some type of greater meaning - however I see some atheists who adamantly insist that 'life is meaningless' - why is this?

I don't have a problem with people just not believing in a god, but this "life is meaningless" form of atheism I think is unhealthy - because if life is meaningless, then why care about anything?

 

I understand it as kind of a shorthand. There are a few atheists, mostly recently switched ones in their late teens, who actually see life as meaningless in an unhealthy way, but most people talking about this are saying only that there is no ultimate meaning. They, myself included, subscribe to an absurdist philosophy with regard to the meaning of life.

The absurdist approach (in my interpretation) says that if there is no ultimate meaning, then there exists no standard for how ultimate a meaning must be to be "the" meaning of life. Therefore, we are at liberty to construct our own. One can see this as insignificant, but if one believes there is no ultimate meaning, then this meaning is the most important meaning in our lives.

So critics of this will then point out that that would make us at liberty to make up stupid meanings, like something which would allow us to steal or rape, but it turns out that humans tend not to construct such meanings. Some call it the intrinsic goodness of the human mind, but I prefer to call it humanity's unwillingness to call itself immoral. Even the arguably most evil people in the history of the world all thought they were doing good. Sometimes, they were pretty badly mistaken and they stopped double checking their actions, but very rarely from malice.

 

In the post-modern age (philosophically and culturally) ascribing one's own meaning to anything is seen to be unavoidable at best. We inevitably construct our own subjective interpretation of the 'intrinsic features' of the universe. Cultural and even scientific constructivism takes this into account...they heretofore had fallen victim to the erroneous "myth of the given" of Naive Empiricism.

But this same principle of having no meaning can as easily apply to spirituality...this is not an atheist discovery or concept. In Vedanta and Buddhism, the world is seen ultimately to hold absolutely no meaning at all of it's own. The current state of the entire universe is based on the causes and conditions since beginningless time, and any meaning co-emerges with a sentient beings mind of an objective event (yep the Buddhist beat out the western philosophers on that one).

And in "A Course in Miracles" in the Christian Faith...the very first contemplative lesson is "Nothing I See Means Anything" and goes on to elaborate ... I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me ... I do not understand anything I see ... These thoughts do not mean anything...

So as you can see, atheist don't hold the rights to a meaningless approach to the world. I just think many atheist (not all) are unaware of the deeper domains of consciousness/existence (unprojected intrinsic features of the universe). Also, the spectrum of all the constructed reality of humans can be mapped, and the atheistic relative constructivisim approach is not the most sophisticated kid on the block (just a couple stages above the fundamentalist).

 

I have never heard of these "Atheists" before...maybe a few depressed folks in the movies, but not in real life.

Perhaps you are confusing "No Meaning" with a different meaning than yours?

 

I don't think that in that aspect theists and atheists are so much different.
The answers from theists are one of two:
1. We do not know the meaning of live, but god does.
This reason is the same as there is no reason to life the atheists will give you.
2. The reason to life is to worship the god.
This reason is found already in the earliest scripture known to humans, some 5500 years ago.
The Mesopotamian theology stated that humans were created to do the work of the gods to free the gods to do other things. Later religions changed the meaning of "work for god".

So In short, I don't think that anyone knows what the meaning of life is, or if there is a meaning at all.

 

The meaning of life changes as the person/culture develops through psychological stages. Those at the highest stages of development reflect the most cutting edge, comprehensive, integrated worldview and relationship to life. Couple that with people who have stabilized deeper states of consciousness "subtle, causal, nondual" and I believe those people would at least have the best perspective, from which to answer a question of what the meaning of life is.

 

Quantum mysticism is not even wrong.

 

Because they believe life is meaningless?

Well there can be a difference between some grand overall purpose for the existence sentient life and specific fleeting meaning to individual lives. I don't believe there is any grand meaning to everything (certainly not one we have any awareness of) but life itself can be a pleasant experience and we can each make it significantly more or less pleasant for ourselves and others.

I'm not sure this is all that different to some religious beliefs, particularly those which speak of some eternal and positive afterlife for which our mortal life is relatively insignificant. To me that poses very similar questions of why bother with this life, which can be answered in a similar way to my own.

 

Perhaps you're thinking of nihilists? It's nihilists who typically say "life is meaningless".

 

It is a logical conclusion.
IF there is no god,
1. Life is a cosmic accident.
2. there is no soul.
3. there is no afterlife.
4. we have no other purpose beyond personal survival.
5. we are competing with other species (and our own) for the earth's resources.
6. our only 'purpose' is to propagate our genes, as an instinctive drive to reproduce.
7. There are no consequences for our actions other than from natural law or other human's reactions.
8. Happiness, peace, contentment, love, altruism, etc are chemical reactions for collective survival as a species, & have no other meaning.
9. To sacrifice for another is the height of stupidity.. only a deluded fool would do that. It is an overreaction of an instinct to propagate the species, nothing more.
10. there is no moral or natural law, other than to survive. The strongest survive.

How can there be any other 'meaning'? We live. We die. There is no point, or significance, or purpose. What logic could conclude otherwise? What difference does it make?

In contrast, some theists believe that your thoughts, words, & actions will have eternal consequences. There is a reason for our existence, even if it is defined differently by different 'religions'. So of course, their motivations will be quite different than the pure naturalist, who only has this life as a factor.

 

I have a purpose in life. My purpose is to live long enough to create another human being and to raise them and protect them until they create another human being. That really is the only purpose any life has on earth and likely anywhere else in the universe. Now while I am fulfilling my purpose, I realize that in order to succeed, I need to work with others, respect the rule of law, be as honest as I can, love and be loved and care for my fellow travelers in this life. That is my purpose. What I do with my down time is up to me. I can use it worshiping a god or doing science or making art or flyfishing or being the best athlete or the best businessman or whatever the hell I want to do. Now at any one time, I could decide that I no longer want to pursue my purpose or that I have fulfilled my primary purpose or that I am bored with life, sick, tired, desperate, hopeless and kill myself. I could become a nihilist. It is all up to me. What shall I do today? Tomorrow?

 

So you think the natural reaction to reality is depression?

No wonder you believe in God....otherwise you would simply off yourself.

Strangely, I do not.... yet manage to be pretty happy and relatively altruistic.


It makes me a bit sad however to now know that all the worlds animals live a life of misery...might explain Lemmings.

 

Why can't there be a soul or afterlife? Why couldn't those things happen by cosmic accident as well?

 

If its the idea that meaninglessness and lack of a god go together maybe its because they are going too deep into existential absolutes.

It works like this...
Am I an individual? Does being a part of other things take away my individuality? Does being an amalgamation of millions of parts, a long history of evolution and a history of previous cognitive steps by the human species leave me with any part of myself that is mine?

Are my actions determined (by absolute logical progression), or do I have free will? If logic always works and there is always one inevitable result of any action then the future is also determined by this. Are my actions, no matter how complex and and hard to predict, part of this logical progression; or do I break logic if I so choose?

so...
If I am not truly an individual and my actions are predetermined and there is nothing and no one (god) to ultimately make sense of my existence I have (has) no meaning.

The thing is the last step only comes from a familiarity with the concept of god. The absolutes are not really answerable questions. And meaning to me is something always present that exist most strongly when we focus on what matters to us and disappears when we try to isolate it.

 

Life isn't meaningless, it just didn't come preloaded with meaning. You have to find your own.

 

Why NOT care about anything?

Ultimately since your life is meaningless the least you can do is indulge your emotions so you die happy. It doesn't matter that the emotions themselves are ultimately irrational and meaningless, they make you feel good so...well, why not enjoy yourself?

There's too many near-suicidal nihilists, I'm a positive nihilist.

 

'Depressing?' What does that mean to an atheist? Some chemical imbalances in the brain, causing feelings of melancholia? Or, are you meaning it as 'hopelessness?' Why would you have 'hope'? What do you look forward to, hopefully?
We're talking reality, here, & facing it with logic, not hiding behind any sugar coated dreams of meaning. If you are 'pretty happy', that is a normal animal quality, & has nothing to do with your belief system. Plenty of theists are depressed or happy, & their beliefs do not necessarily contribute to that.. it might, but not 'necessarily'.
'Altruistic' is a bit confusing, with no basis. It also depends on your definition.

How can one 'believe' in a soul or afterlife, yet dismiss the belief of a higher power? Both assume a spiritual realm. How can one be possible, but the other not?

 

The very simple answer is that there simply is no meaning to life. 'meaning' is a very human concept. There's no such thing anywhere else other than in humans' minds.

Of course, it can be unhealthy to to believe there's no meaning to life, just like it can be healthy to believe there is meaning, both neither tell us anything of whehter there actually is meaning or not.

 

Don't ask me! I don't assume that I'm the highest power in the universe! So by no means am I the expert on that.

If you look towards religion to explain what you can't understand, then you can't be a-thiest, can you?

Science, philosophy, and even science fiction postulate the existence of things like a collective unconscious. Oral traditions that have nothing to do with religion speak of afterlife. Why would an a-theist reject these non-religious ideas out of hand? The only reason I can think of is that the claimed a-theist is actually anti-theist, rebelling against the prevailing religious climate more so than being totally free of all notions of deity.

Please understand that I'm not saying this as a criticism; only as an observation. I welcome the opportunity to discuss other points of view!

 

Yes, so am I. I've reached the conclusion that 'I' doesn't really exist, nor does morals, free will, meaning to life, emotions etc. It's all just human abstractions and illususions. And when you die, 'you' are literally gone forever. That's nihilism right there, but does that mean I have to be a patethic idiot and do stupid stuff because of it, like cut my arms? No! Because even if it's an illusion, I might as well be happy, even though happiness is just some chemical reactions.

 

It's sort of an existentialist approach, atheists do not believe in God or a god because there is no evidence to support the claim. If a god does exist it is beyond our knowledge and you cannot be given the meaning of life from nothing. We believe that we give our lives meaning, that indeed it is the only way for your life to have meaning. Theists are not so different, because there is no evidence to support the claim of their gods existence they are simply choosing to believe that it does thereby giving their lives meaning.

In the end it makes no difference. I believe, or I should say it makes sense to me that much like the illusion of free will the meaning of life is another mechanism for our survival and understanding after all consciousness is a heavy burden to bare. As Gandhi said, "Whatever you do in your life will be insignificant but it's very important that you do it". The quotes vary but the meaning is the same. In terms of the universe it is highly unlikely that anything we do matters. It's possible that another planet far off in this galaxy or another had life and civilization at one point and has long since died. Just think for a moment that it's true, what did their lives mean? We will never know because to the universe it at least seems to have meant nothing but to the people who existed there in meant everything.

We can contemplate all we want but there is only one way to escape the river of life an consciousness, until then we are bound to it and we will fight in various ways to remain so.

 

I just like to follow the logic.. based on the assumptions. It seems you are doing that, too.

I agree that the 'evidence' from the collective consciousness & history of humans points to the existence of a supernatural or metaphysical realm. It is not empirical, at least to us, since we cannot repeat it, test it, or observe it in a controlled setting. But that just means it is outside of the scientific method.. & more like a historical event than natural phenomena.

And you are quite observant to see the 'anti-theist' bent of many.. they are not coldly logical & scientific, but hysterically emotional & hostile to the concept of god. If anything, this only adds evidence to the existence of a spiritual realm of some sort, since the irrational, almost 'spiritual' hostility directed toward any mention of the supernatural drives them into an irrational rage.

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. ~Eric Hoffer

He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him). ~George Orwell

 

I for one an not hostile on the concept of a "God"...actually hope there might be one. I am however, one who dismisses the ones people have made up over the years because they make no sense to me and seem completely fabricated.

I think perhaps people get a bit defensive of their God belief....which also makes no sense, why would an all powerful sky fairy need to be defended?

 

Examples? To me, life has whatever meaning or significance we thinking beings choose to assign to it. There is no objective reality beyond that to point to, unless possibly you want to recognise the meaning of life in the things life tends to do on a daily basis, like eat, sleep and have sex

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It makes sense that people defend something they've been told to believe in on pain of death and eternal torment..

I wouldn't mind there being an eternal loving being who would provide me an eternal existence of happiness either, but somehow I just don't see it happening.

 

There is a misconception being presented in this conversation that I feel compelled to address.

I am an agnostic/atheist/anti-theist.

Firstly I must submit that any agnostic must be an atheist and any atheist must be an agnostic. The reason for this is simple. Agnosticism states that there is no way to know whether or not a god exists. Atheism states that there is no evidence for a god. If there is no way to know whether or not a god exists than agnosticism accepts that there can be no evidence for said existence and if there is no evidence than there is no way to know.

Second and to my main point anti-theism is the position that theism is harmful to humanity and society much in the same way that racism or sexism is. Theism is a position based on credulity, it is a belief that makes claims about the natural world, claims that must affect the believers perspective. To be against theism is simply to be against a dogmatic ideology.