Question about atheist and the point of life?

Question

For atheists, what is the point of it all? I mean if life is nothing but 40-80 years of taking breaths and heart beat, buying a few music albums, chasing after a few fashion fads, work some random jobs and then poof nothing, doesnt that make life the most stupid and pointless thing ever.

And as an atheist, why obey any law or elevate your character at all if there is no point to it all - if we are all just stardust and nothing else. Why not just live life grabbing and taking whatever you can with the short amount of time you have?

Maybe thats why children of atheist tend to dress up in black and hang out at the mall being delinquents cause they were never told life was about something more

Answer 1

this is what scares me about christians. You make a lot of judgements. As if only children of atheists dress up in black and hang at malls. Gays, "kids in black" and every other type of person christians claim to be against come from christian homes as well as atheist homes.

Why do atheists bother to live? In their mind they have even more reason to enjoy life. It is the christian who should be ready to die since they feel they have more to look forward to in death. As far as elevating character, christians only elevate character by their own twisted definition. The people responsible for various holy wars certainly were not elevating character. You are so blinded by your own self-righteous BS that you are transferring it to others. Is your own fear of not having purpose your reason for believing as you do?? If so, fine, but putting it on others is just stupid.

BTW, most serial killers come from christian homes, as do most pedophiles.

Answer 2

"Life starting" is a colloquial term. It's useless for scientific purposes. Technically, the gamete is the product of the synthesis of both the egg and the sperm. Both the egg and the sperm cells were alive at the point of conception, and they never "died" when they synthesized. Technically, the new organism formed as soon as fertilization occured. But this is fairly irrelevant to any moral questions. Why would the four cells produced from fertilization be of any more or less intrinsic value than any other cells? These cells can be subsumed back into the body of the mother. They can split off, as the cells undergo mitosis, to form two seperate organisms. You seem to be stuck on mind-body dualism. Most atheists don't believe in "souls". There is absolutely no evidence to support the existence of souls, and a large body of evidence that indicates that the behaviour of human beings is largely a product of the brain. Souls have no scientific credibility, and thus should not be discussed if we're paying attention to things like "material evidence". We should only take into account what we know. The real question is, when (if ever) does the fetus develop the relevant properties to be considered as a person? Further, what are these relevant properties? These questions cannot be answered by science alone; they involve value judgements. However, there is a general consensus in the scientific communty that fetuses are sufficiently developed during the third trimester to be worthy of some moral recognition. Others judge this point based off of independence from the mother's body. I would agree with the scientific community at large that the fetus becomes morally relevant at around the third trimester, for many reasons, which I won't list in full here. (this does not address the mother's right to bodily autonomy, which requires another response) I will leave my prior questions unanswered, becauase I don't have a good objective response to them. But they are still important, if only to guide one's analysis of the moral relevance of the fetus. (which is the real question here)

Answer 3

Since we do not believe in an afterlife, we believe that we must make the most of the time we have been given. My life is beautiful enough as it is, thank you. As far as the "why obey any law" question is concerned, I obey laws and try my best to live a moral life to make both my limited time as well as everyone else's comfortable, enjoyable and productive. Hard to live a good life from a jail cell or constantly battling everyone else as well as the law.

I have a question for you and it has to do with the fact that you seem to NEED a religion/god to have a point to it all and obey laws. What happens to you if it were proved beyond a shadow of doubt that God does not exist and it was all a lie? Will you start to run amok slaughtering, raping and pillaging like your religious forefathers or be driven into a suicidal depression? I think you should be watched!

Answer 4

I believe atheists are generally rationale, objective people who don't want to rely on what they perceive to be an irrational belief system to govern their lives. To them, living life without belief in the afterlife is more courageous and honest because there are no strings attached. There's no threat of punishment, no everlasting bliss etc. etc.

I don't share this opinion, but I can understand it.

It's too bad that the author of the question made the stereotypical comment in the last paragraph. This is an interesting question that whose underlying meaning was stomped by easy answers and objections to the judgmental tone of the question.

British author, and philospher CS Lewis was an atheist until he was 30 when he turned to Christianity. He wrote a remarkable little book called 'Mere Christianity' which is basically an explanation of his view on the nature of man, and Christianity in general. I suggest it for everyone even slightly interested in what Christians believe.

As an atheist Lewis struggled with a concept of God mainly because he reasoned that a just God would not allow such an unjust world.

One day he realized that his sense of justice that kept him from believing in God, must have a source somewhere, but where? If the universe was just a random spinning collection of atoms, and he was part of it, why would he have any sense of right or wrong at all? He came to the conclusion that if the universe was just a meaningless collection of atoms with you as part of it, then you should have NEVER discovered that it was just that! Think this through. The depth of the statement is very subtle but very logical. The example he gives is if a creature always lived in darkness it would have no need for eyes to see the light. Light wouldn't exist. However, the fact is that we do have a sense of justice (the eyes of the soul) which is derived directly from our creator (the light of God).

Answer 5

Well If the only thing making you elevate your character is your fear of god, Id rather you stop pretending, personally. The sooner you are locked up the better-because theres no telling when you are going to snap.

Most people have a sense of decency, and its simply a personal choice they make. You see, human beings are really amazing, because their own survival is not the most important thing to them. More important is our Ideals, our concept of ethics and beauty- we would rather die than live in an ugly world, you see? A good human doesnt need a God to make him good, he doesnt need any reward at all. You might find this hard to imagine, but almost everyone around you, even these 'delinquents' at the mall are more concerned with ethics and beauty than their own survival. You are the real freak here, my friend, and there are very few people like you.

Answer 6

As an atheist, I have a question. Why would faith affect living a regular life? I have ambitions, I have goals, I have dreams, I have fallen in love, I have had my heart broken. It is life, and life and the experiences that it offers are worth living. I do not need to live in fear of judgement, I do what I feel is best in any situation. What compells me to do right? What compells me to make the world a better place? Emotions and Morals, I was raised in a very strict catholic household and I have a strong moral base, but simply don't have faith because I didn't find faith practical or logical. Instead of living in fear, and doing what I think would give me the best chance of getting in heaven, I live driven by emotions. I do what makes me happiest, and very rarely break my moral restraints. Why not break the moral restraints if there is no judgement? Because it doesn't make me feel good if I hurt someone, or commit a crime... I lose respect for myself, and respect from others. All poeple of every faith have the same physical make-up, and experience feelings.

Answer 7

You could look at a couple different ways... As an atheist you might have more fun in life doing whatever you want to do without having to think about God in the process. As Christians we should not expect that just because someone is an atheist that they don't enjoy life. Paul said, speaking of Christians during that time, "if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most pitiable." We don't serve Christ for what we get in this life... and it often seems that those who don't serve Him get more out of life.

Bad assumption on your part.

Answer 8

lol, wow how silly.. that's the same as me saying

"if Christians believe god forgives all, why don't i just rob, kill and do drugs all day, then tell god I'm sorry and he will let me into heaven"

its because most people don't have to rely on a religion to know right from wrong. they just know.. i guarantee just as many of the "delinquents" hanging at the mall, had strict religious parents. then they realized how fake and controlling it was.

and yes atheists are making the most out of our precious tI'me here.. while you are waiting for "god" to let you into heaven, im taking in as many of the beautiful fruits this world has given to us.

don't you think that the meaning of existence is waaaaaay more unbelievable than anything that man has come up with and written in a book. its bound to be sooo much more unbelievable

Answer 9

That's right, stick to what you have been told since childhood about the man in the sky. We'll be getting on with our lives while you come out with dumb questions like that.

If you really were interested in the meaning of life you would at least make a cursury study of a biology book. But no, the (man-made) God and Bible tells you all you need to know.

So why bother to ask the question?

Answer 10

The purpose of life is to make more of it. But humans have the ability to define their own purposes. Carl Sagan said: If you want your life to have significance, do something significant. As for actions, they should be driven by an appropriate moral code. Such a code derives from evolution, which applies to societies as well as to species: a society which lives by a sound moral code will survive preferably to one that does not. (Consider the late and unlamented Soviet Union.) Religious claims to be arbiters or preservers of morality are specious.

Answer 11

i'm an athiest, but that doesn't mean i don't strive to be a good person and such. it's just that i dont believe i need to be a good person to go to a "good place" after i die. i want to make a difference in the world to make the WORLD a better place, i do things for myself, family and friends and the environment i live in because i can see all these things and i know they are real. the existence of a "God" to me means nothing because there is no proof, only faith, and quite frankly, that is not enough for me. if i can make a difference because i feel it is neccessary, and not because i feel "God" sent me here to do so, it makes the feeling of doing a good deed just that much better.