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

It's interesting that right below what you quoted above in Merriam is the below.

Full Definition of AGNOSTIC

1
: a person who holds the view that any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and probably unknowable; broadly : one who is not committed to believing in either the existence or the nonexistence of God or a god

How does this change what I said? The definition of agnosticism is not a difficult thing to understand. Anyone who believes it is knowable isn't an agnostic.

Define spiritual. Atheism is atheism anything beyond that is something else.

If religion is not to blame for those atrocities than it can not be given credit for anything positive done in it's name either.

And please tell me what is the core transcendent message in condoning slavery? Everyone who believes knows the true message of the bible.

No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.
George Bernard Shaw

Atheism is the rejection of a credulous claim nothing more. Believers tend to project their perspective onto atheists because they have no other frame of reference. Religion is a failed attempt at understanding our world, our reality. You are adding contents to nature that do nothing but confuse the reality of it.

It's interesting that you would put it this way. The gang culture was a product of an ideology causing suffering to entire race of people over hundreds of years. They didn't just wake up one day screaming ride or die because of some egocentricity. Gang culture is actually better than the immorality spawned by religion because it is a reaction to injustice rather than injustice masquerading as righteousness. Religion stifles ones perspective, it boxes it in while giving the illusion of clarity. "I know my actions are moral because they are ordained by the highest authority." "I know my actions are just because I do them for the greater good." Religion separates the body from the mind, it calls nature a sin and refuses to understand that which must be understood. Free will is an illusion and as long as people continue to believe we have it the reality of the human condition will always be distorted and out of reach.

You actually didn't have to go into any of that. Just show the places in this world were my statement is not true vs the places where it is.

I understand that at least to a point. I've actually thought about this quite a bit and I feel as though it gives a good contrast between fantasy and reality.

 

If, as you say, obviously, can you point to where in this world it is obvious that God does not care? Can you provide tangible PROOF that God does not care?

 

9 million children die every year before they reach the age of five. Going by the demographics seeing as how most of these children die in the poorest places on earth most of their parents are deeply religious. Some of them are praying at this instant for god to spare their childs life and those prayers will go unanswered just like they did a second ago and the second before that and that and that and that, day in day out every year.

Any god who would allow children to suffer and die in this way and their parents to grieve in this way either can do nothing to prevent it or doesn't care to.

 

Nowhere in your comments is there shown any PROOF or even acceptable evidence that God is the one who does not care. Your closing comment is nothing more than a supposition based on your own preconceived notions of what a 'god' would do. Do you KNOW any of those gods or a possible god? Then what do you use as a basis for your conclusion?

 

Then you don't see anything that's worth seeing - which of course is not a problem for you, since nothing is worth seeing from your professed perspective, so "enjoy" your meaningless life.

You won't think so when the consequences finally become inescapable.

 

Of course not, just like you can't provide proof that god exists......I was stating from the viewpoint of those who do believe in a god...a nasty one who doesn't care how children suffer or he would fix it..

 

If you recognize the improbability of you being able to prove that God does not care, then why have you asserted that God does not care?

Do you specifically know of any of "those" that you speak of? Have they spoken of God as being "nasty" and "don't care how children suffer"? If you do, then I would suggest that they are not true believers in God.... else they are speaking of some lesser god.

 

I'm sorry English is so difficult for you.

 

No need for your apologies.. especially as they relate to your opinion of what you think of me. Why? Because you don't know me or my capabilities.

 

I think atheists who say life has no meaning are reacting to theists who insist that serving an imaginary being is the only reason for their existence, if that is what gives your life meaning, then life is meaningless.
In the long run, mankind will become extinct, even if we travel to the stars, and outlast the sun, even if we travel to other galaxies, eventually there is nothing, proton decay insures this.
But as a humanist, I deeply value my life and my experience, because it's all I'm going to get, there is no afterlife, no pie in the sky when I die. Whereas I see theists throw their lives away for nonsense.

 

If members of both sides could all learn to respect the others beliefs that would be possible.

AboveAlpha

 

There is that nasty word again... "respect".... Without an agreed upon definition of that term by all participating members, it can have many meanings and some of them would not be acceptable to others (regardless of which side they are on).

 

Respect in this case can be easily defined.

Simply exercise your rights of Believing what you like as long as it doesn't hurt anyone and do not attempt to interfere with other peoples same right.

AboveAlpha

 

Kind of hard to live by such a standard when there is so much of the throwing of innuendos pertaining to 'how stupid' someone is or how someone has a 'mental condition'... Then there are those who don't make the direct statements but will make agreement with those people who do make such statements. Yeah.. that shows a lot of respect.

 

You just reminded me.

A persons belief system should never become a personal issue and people should not care what another persons religion is..

AboveAlpha

 

Very well put.

All the Deep Dramatic Discussions of the Meaning of Life are just silly, they don't change a thing.

Bottom line : we live, we die....and discussing it won't change that.

 

Life appears to have no meaning at first glance once any element of the supernatural is taken away. It's the logical viewpoint of an ideology that says that humans evolved by accident. But what these nihilist atheists don't understand is that meaning does not necessarily equate to scientific meaning or significance in the wider Universe - we don't need to be scientifically meaningful or have a God-given purpose to have meaning, we can create our own purposes in life.

 

Tell that to the non-theists who come to a Religious discussion group because they don't believe in Religion so that they can hold religious discussions with religious people while mocking religious people for holding a religious belief system.

 

How dull would it be to have a discussion with only people who agree with you, particularly when discussing a topic nobody is allowed to question or improve on.

 

What improvements have you made upon any discussion on this forum? Remember, before you answer that question, the phraseology you used "..improve upon." , is ambiguous.

 

You don't need to believe in an afterlife to believe in eternal consequences. While no individual may survive death, what they do while they live most certainly will.

 

that last is such an important point. and the fact that our hero was moved to condemn our activity indicates that fear of questioning god is alive and well in 2014. all the more reason to keep up the good work !

 

Clearly, a question was asked by the OP in this very discussion, and I've responded to that question.
Does that not fulfill the purpose of the thread (and forum)?
Would the forum be "improved" if nobody responded to questions, or focused (as you seem to) on making personal remarks?

 

The perception of meaningless is a reaction of frustration to the constraints of physical reality. It is akin to the midlife crisis of “Is this all there is?”

In order to overcome such frustration, one must fathom some kind of plausible context for those constraints. One must accept the need to extend one’s scope of awareness.

This cannot be accomplished without addressing matters outside the domain of our physical reality. The process of cause and effect must be adhered to, but possible purpose must not be automatically excluded.

All that exists is based on consciousness and energy (Einstein said that matter is just a field of energy). The apparent solidity of matter is an imposed condition that we cannot readily escape from, but it is totally illusory. An electron does not have energy and mass: it is just a point having the properties of energy and mass!

The entropy of physical matter must increase with the passage of time, with its complexity, energy and power diminishing as it becomes increasingly disorganized and homogenous.

Consciousness however is not bound to that obligation. It can ride the tide of progressive evolution. Its entropy decreases as its complexity, energy, power, and organization increases. Yet consciousness even in a more developed state is just energy, and science has not yet succeeded in cracking its intangibility.

To make progress, one must go with the flow, but not by blind groping into the unknown. The best minds have already paved enough of the way for the rest of us to see the light.

Our physical reality is a mock up, our playpen for kindergarten consciousnesses. Physical consistency gives it the necessary structure, without which rudimentary beings could make no sense of anything and have no grasp of personal competence and responsibility.

There is a bigger picture beyond the one we see directly: it is the multiverse and beyond. We are participants in a grand theme, and the light of our being does not extinguish after we have made our last physical gesture. That’s what ultimately gives life meaning.

 

I'm sure it feels good (and meaningful) to imagine such a thing. To imagine a great puppet master ... JUST beyond our understanding ... and that it's all Grand, and we're all Light Beings, destined to live forever!

For some of us, this earthly life, and the wonders it contains, is enough for 1000 meaningful lifetimes. And I include the wonders yet to be discovered in our solar system, and our galaxy, etc. There's no reason to think man won't one day move on from this lovely orb