Originally Posted by Rotaerk

Um, no, purpose isn't necessarily absent without God. Purpose is the intention that some being has in mind when they choose to do something. For instance, if there is a God, he had a reason, an intention, a purpose when he chose to create life.

People also have purpose when they chose to do things. When people lack goals, they fail to generate purposes for doing things, and thus they consider living, itself, to be pointless. When you say you are looking for purpose, you are just looking for something that can give meaning to your actions. God provides such a purpose... living up to the values and goals described by your religion.

However, this does not mean a God is the only source from which some can gain purpose. A person whose family was killed might live their lives for the sake of taking revenge on the killer. That is a purpose. A person who hates death might live their lives for the sake of conquering death. That is a purpose as well. God is only one solution to the search for purpose.

Originally Posted by Herkdriver

Even if Christianity is philosophy and nothing else. It is a guidebook for how to conduct one's life. I follow this as best I can, for in that- God exists, because I exist as do
my fellow Christians and our shared Faith.

Originally Posted by Ixtellor

It seems to me (the rationalist) that if you are just picking by gut feeling, wouldn't Buddism make more sense?

Buddism is like Jesus without 2 things:
(getting mad at money changers, and, "die by the sword"

The Dali Lama is the closest thing to a christ like figure in empirical history.

Ixtellor

Originally Posted by stekim

I'm not bitter. Like most Buddhists, I'm a very happy guy.

Originally Posted by C-D-P

You missed a key point in his argument.

Originally Posted by Herkdriver

Amen, you have searched for meaning. You've found meaning through Buddhism.

You walk beside in my journey. We walk together on different paths, parallel, but we are walking forward.

To me, the atheist just sat down in the road and says....C'mon God give me a walking talking 900' Jesus and then maybe I'll think about it.

Really, it's the laziest way to go through life if you ask me.

Respectfully.

Originally Posted by stekim

I think that's the old broad brush again! I'm a Buddhist, but also an atheist. Maybe some atheists are lazy, but may I suggest that what most religious people do, i.e. take on the faith of their parents, is lazy, too. And many religious people never question their faith or its teachings. That's incredibly lazy. To me, the atheist who spends time questioning is far less lazy than the Baptist who never questions anything. To me, when you have a country where 95% of the people are Shiite Muslim, for example, you are talking about an intellectually lazy place.