A real question for the atheists?

Question

I am not claiming any one religion is better than another, but for those who don't believe in any type of God, how do you explain life? Doesn't the idea of the universe being random and purposeless depress you?

Answer 1

The universe is bigger and infinitely more complex than we as humans have the ability to comprehend. Understanding the origin to an exact point ; short of a far more advanced race than ourselves, or a deity him/herself explaining it to us; is an excercise in futility.

The absence of explanation does not necessarily equate to randomness and lack of purpose. In fact, I would argue that it breeds intelligence, curiosity and progress.

Answer 2

If the only reason why people claim there is a god is that the other reason seems "depressing", then that isn't a good reason at all to be believing in a religion, is it? You must separate the two: what you would like it to be versus the actual factual truth. Just saying one thing doesn't change the fact that maybe life IS purposeless and the fact that there will be others after us and we will be forgotten. I mean, if a girl gets pregnant and she says she is not (because the other truth is depressing) does she suddenly become unpregnant?

To your life question: Life is simple-begining there were carbohydrates and enzymes and together formed a cell. Cells mutated and adapted to the environment and mutated to other species. Multiply that by millions and millions of years, its not hard to believe we came to exist. I mean, this is more plausible than believing in a omnipotent being in my opinion. I mean, we see microevolution every day in species of bacteria, viruses, and even small animals such as flies (I am a ph.d student in a fly lab).

Answer 3

I'm not responsible for having to explain life. Religions much like magicians try to explain life in a way that makes them seem wise, and authoritary.

The universe only seems random because we don't know how it works (and we never will.) I don't know why you're downing randomness, when the 'universe' relies on it so much.

It can't be purposeless because it exists. Why would something exist if it had no purpose? If I go into somebody's house and see a mop, I go "That mop must have a purpose."

Answer 4

If in truth we are together alone in the dark, if we are insignificant, unseen, if our lives are petty and purposeless, our acts random and unmerited, our thoughts in vain at best.. Then why would this be depressing. I once thought it might be, of course. It takes daring to fall from any faith and go it alone, trusting only yourself and your fellow man. The freedom of it though, while too much for most, is in itself more than enough reason to live and be ever so happy. So what if we're without purpose, even a fly that lives but one day will live happily and procreate. That said, we are 'blessed' with more intelligence than a fly, and a longer life as well - so true hedonism is a waste of our resources / resourcefulness. Just seek an active, happy life and be there for the ones around you - it's all the purpose we need.

Answer 5

Just because there is no higher power to assign us a given purpose does not mean that life has no purpose. Why does it matter how human kind was made? As people, we have inherant value simply because of are ability to think, feel and be human. Whether we are the creation of a god or a product of random chance and evolution is simply a question of our origin, not of who we are. Regardless of how life came about, the fact is that it is here, and that the world is full of people living thier lives as best they can. It's these people that give life meaning. Love, hope, charity, companionship, the search for a better way to live, the quest for knowledge, humanity itself: these things exist even without God. I find meaning in those around me. I find meaning in my friends, my family, and my life. My life is full of meaning and not depressing at all; I am a spiritually content athiest. I don't care what being did or did not create my family, I don't care where the ancestors of those I love came from, I don't care if my best friend is, by some chain, decescendent of an ape or, farther back, a speck of primordial ooze. What matters is who they are now, who I am now, what humanity is now. None of that requires God.

Answer 6

The universe can be nonrandom and purposeful without a supreme being.BTW random and purpose are both human misconceptions of the world around them. The Universe is definitely not random. If you understand the laws of motion then you understand random is an impossibility- what we think of as random is only "too hard to calculate". Another thing discovered in physics is that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed.Therefore the stuff we are made of and all the stuff around us always was and always will be. To give it a "purpose" would just be a human perception that would not change the fact that it just "is" and that's all we really can say before we start applying unknowns.

Answer 7

No it is not depressing. It allows us to take full responsibility for our lives. And you don't need God to have purpose. I believe that we are all connected by a universal energy. My purpose is to help other people. Situations come up in my life that help me to see a place where I can be of use. Sometimes things get really screwed up too. If there was a God, wouldn't he make sure things worked out well for those that worship him? I don't see that happening.

Answer 8

Life's randomness inspires me.
Why do you assume I lack purpose if I do not worship an abstract creator being, residing in the minds of others?

Try to expand your mind to the point where it accepts that it has limited scope and that just because we can formulate BIG questions, the answers may be so small so as not to exist...

Answer 9

Who says life is purposeless? Certainly not athiests!

Answer 10

Nothing actually depresses me. I am, however amused by the fact that some seemly intelligent people can be led like sheep with the "promise" of eternal life, by simply becomming a slave to a "god" who demands total, blind loyalty.