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

To continue living... ie... staying clear of death...

 

That's what all of the folks who think they are headed for an eternal bliss while those who disagree with them burn in hell think. Welcome to the club.

 

the only way that horrible truth bomb can be digested is to imagine it's come from hysterical emotions. it's always funny when they answer challenges with "oooh, you're all angry and stuff! - therefore I win!", instead of actually answering the question.

 

I notice it when folks start talking about "their" holy ghost." 'Course I don't believe in ghosts......holy or otherwise.

 

the old holy ghost, eh. another character from their Canterbury tales of whom they apparently know absolutely nothing. they also don't know what spiritual means, or what a soul is. they CLAIM they do, but when you ask 'em for details, they either a) give a dictionary definition, or b) waffle meaningless weasel speak. I've never yet heard a proper, practical definition from a living breathing Christian - for god, the holy ghost, or the soul. I wonder why that is

 

Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiides in to thread.

Don't forget realities like this:

Not, knot, and naught.

Aaaaaaand....

The desert got deserted in the desert.

Slllllides out of thread.

 

The fight you fight isn’t good. It’s just shadow-boxing based on the false historical ‘analysis’ of neoliberal knobheads. You should get your priorities right: Religion is not the enemy, the lack of social justice is. And the more Dawkins and Co. distract you from that fact, the more energies you waste on spouting meaningless BS rather than heeding your own advice to promote a worthwhile charity or political movement, be it secular ATTAC or PAX CHRISTI, one of its religious allies.

It’s kind of funny how you frame that paragraph with two contradicting statements. The one at the beginning is correct: I am indeed sure that a desire to live honestly and ethically is NEVER useless. That’s why I try to live by my conscience, which is in the best good old Catholic tradition of Thomas Aquinas: http://www.aquinasonline.com/Questions/conscience.htm. Luckily unlike Luther, my Churches founder, my conscience rarely gets me into conflict with my 21th century churches politics . It’s a church mostly populated by people whose ideas about honesty and ethical living are rather similar to mine.

Why should this information impact me even if it was true? Yesterday I watched a rather fascinating documentary about the Mandelbrot-set. For me to stand in awe of God’s creation when seeing the beauty of fractals doesn’t require first engaging in a theological debate with their discoverer (I have no idea what Mandelbrot’s religious views were). Likewise I suspect you don’t feel you either have to denounce human genetics or to become a theist, only because the leader of the Human Genome Project is an outspoken Christian.

 

The weak and dependent must have a crutch....it's been that way since the beginning. Religion seems to offer a band aid for an open wound but their asses will die exactly like the rest of us. The sad part......they will never know how wrong they were.

 

Please define "weak and dependent".

 

my dear, I spend a vast number of hours every week doing just that. what makes you think I'd recommend causes if I didn't subscribe to them myself? I've long since abandoned a comfort-driven lifestyle and actually walk the walk - unlike huge numbers of armchair moralists. and no, religion is not THE enemy, it's one of many. but the link betwixt spastic consumerism, anti-intellectualism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, galloping capitalism, and the Abrahamic faiths is pronounced.

- - - Updated - - -

I was merely interested in hearing how it makes the average theist FEEL. Do you find yourself automatically justifying it, that sort of thing. You might not (actually I'm sure you don't), but others might.

 

Praying folks. People who have to be comforted with a fairy tale every time there's a death in the family. People who have the audacity to ask their friends for prayers for everything from a head cold to a sick pet. I've been to no less than 100 Christian funerals in my life and they always say the deceased is with the lord, with the angels, at rest with god, passed through pearly gates, etc. Why can't people just accept the fact that everything on this planet is born or hatched, is young, then thrives for a while then dies? Dying is death.....that's why they call it dead.

 

Except we don't really have to die to be taken up to heaven.

God has taken people up into heaven without them dieing.

 

funny too, how the sadness at Christian funerals is no less than that seen at heathen funerals. that god of theirs does the crappiest job ever at comforting people, evidently.

actually, thinking about it, the 'best' funeral - in terms of lack of sadness - I've been too was that of a dyed-in-the-wool anti-theist. his life was celebrated in high style, and the wake was utterly wonderful, with plenty of exchanging of funny memories of the man, his foibles dissected affectionately, and his very particular person generally talked of with great love and cheer. not a single theist at that gig, from memory. at least, none known.

 

So, the children who are born sick and unable to walk are not belonging to the group called 'weak and dependent'?

 

I suspect that I might fall into the category that you erringly speak of here. However one does not have to care whether there is a god or not to be deeply offended by people who teach children that EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD deserves to be TORTURED FOREVER unless they drink the same flavor of Kool Aid that another person does. And just because you personally do not take offense to this EXTREMELY offensive theist propaganda does not mean that it is not offensive or that those who are offended are irrational.

Now in partial answer to the OP

 

If a lion kills a gazelle that's nature. If Hitler kills 6M jews in the name of Jesus (he did) christians just claim he was an atheist. Never mind that they STILL believe that christian death camp commandants can get into heaven while their Jewish victims are doomed to be tortured in hell FOREVER! And that is theism.

 

That is really strange. I loaded that picture into a graphics processor that I have: zoomed in as far as I could without getting into the distortions created by pixelation, and I could not find any evidence of me being there. Was the posting intended for only one person and that one person is located there?

 

It basically means, to my understanding, that there is no inherent purpose for which people are born. You're not born to fulfill a destiny or function, you're born because that's what periodically happens 9(ish) months after sex.

This of course, does not mean that you can't choose to have great goals, but life does not come with them pre-packaged.

 

So much for God having everything 'predestined'. So much for God being a dictator of your thoughts and decisions.

 

Good on you.

That link is only pronounced for those who are dumb ass prejudiced enough to throw Francis of Assisi into the same pot with Creflo Dollar, Desmond Tutu into the same with Fred Phelbs, Nana Asma’u with Boko Haram, etc.

I could easily give you examples how religion furthered intellectual thought, women’s rights, standing up for more justice in society and even for the rights of homosexuals. But I’m sure these examples won’t bother you much, because you obviously quite like the black and white blinkers you wear.

You lost me. Which thing? What exactly are you on about here?

 

I don't think there should be an issue if a person believes in a GOD or does not believe in a GOD or simply admits that there is no proof to be able to state either a GOD does exist or does not exist and the last group is where I am as an Agnostic.

I believe our issues come from when one group or another attempts to push or force one of the other groups into accepting their ideology or attempt to subvert our Constitutional Rights.

I am aware that there are groups of Political Action Atheists that act to preserve the Right of Freedom of and from Religion.

Agnostic Groups tend to be the ones trying to end the madness.

Religious Groups tend to be the ones trying to instill their specific ideology upon others.

If people could just respect other people right to believe what they want....we would not have these issues.

AboveAlpha

 

Well, considering that Agnosticism is a neutral position, then what you should do is drop completely out of the discussion and quit favoring one side over the other. By showing that favoritism, you cannot retain that neutral position and therefore become hypocritical.

 

Correct, those concepts are BS.

 

Life is meaningless, yes. I am a nihilist. As I've said, even if everything is meaningless, I can still choose to act as if it did have some meaning, can I not? I don't see the contradiction here. Yes, arguing about this is pointless in the absolute sense, as is your nitpicking. But as I've said, I still choose to act as if it did have meaning, because I want to. That's not a contradiction. I'm just saying life is meaningless, so I might as well do whatever I feel like.

I don't see how that's arrogant in any way.

Did not.

No, that idea is kinda neat. I'm just admitting that in the absolute sense, it's all meaningless anyways. It's not a value judgement, it's an observation of reality.

 

No, they belong to the group "god obviously doesn't care about children"