To all non-religious people?

Question

I'm not religious... yet... but lately i've been asking myself, If there is no god, then what are we? Why do we continue to care if there is no purpose to us? How do you get by WITHOUT a god? Where do we go from here?

Answer 1

You have just identified the reason many people believe in god. Which, in my opinion, does not justify belief. If the only reason you believe is to give yourself a purpose in life, then you have created that image for your own purposes. It is a form of self denial, a coping strategy, defense mechanism.

Who says there is no purpose for us if there is no god? For that matter, if there is a god, it seems to me that our only purpose is to please him. Why not please your self instead.

Our purpose is to improve ourselves, to evolve into something better.

Answer 2

We are the ones who have to improve ourselves. The gods really have their own concerns and you can't expect any of them to always be there when you need them. Even the Bible God. If you want to be a better person, you will do what it takes to make the changes in yourself. That's the essence of the Buddhist philosophy. Self change towards becoming a better person with the intervension of Divine beings as being only optional. Reliance on another, even a god, is a crutch.

Answer 3

We are humans: animals that have evolved the capacity to think about these sorts of things.

We continue because living sure beats dying. And besides, it can be a lot of fun.

You get by without a god by just living life as you want, making yourself and others happy, enjoying things.

We go on. I'm sorry if that's not enough.

Answer 4

Would you rather live your life in the service of a non-existant being, living only for what doesn't even exist? Or would you rather live your life, being free and doing whatever makes you happy (provided you don't hurt anyone else)? My purpose in life is to take what I can from it and contribute what I can to it. If someone remembers something I did at some point in the future, then I'll be immortal anyway. And if not, at least I know I wrung out as much pleasure as I could. If you only get one shot at life, you're bound to make it worth so much more. I persoanlly can't even begin to imagine living my one life in the service of some vicious, judgemental superbeing that considers everyone sheep. What a waste of a life.

Answer 5

Godlessness is not meaninglessness.

Make your own meaning. Save the planet. Raise some great kids. Write a novel. Break the land-speed record. Whatever. A life lived in the pursuit of something is not wasted or meaningless.

Answer 6

In circles perhaps. I do think everyone needs some sort of spiritual foundation,whatever it may be. Without it,one is simply an empty vessel that generally ends up getting filled with the mass media.

Answer 7

An invisible sky daddy ain't going to give you a real purpose. You need to find it for yourself. Go do some volunteer work or something. Get a family (that is what did it for me) Find a great job. But don't just make up something to think that you have a reason to live.

Answer 8

I u need to be part of a cult or to worship anybody in order to feel like u have some purpose in life then u have a low-self esteem issue.

Answer 9

I get by the same way I've done for the past sixteen years.

We are human beings, a very, very fortunate product of evolution. We care because morality has helped our species to survive.

Where do we go from here? The only direction there is to go - forward.

Answer 10

You see no man knows if there is a God or not but every man knows there is indeed something greater than themselves. So, stay positive with all things and do what's right and you won't have to worry about any form of consequence from a higher power.