for the atheist?

Question

how can you feel like you have a purpose in life?

i did not mean it to be offensive, i'm just curious! sorry

Answer 1

I have three beautiful kids that I raise...that's my purpose. Who are you to judge anyone for their beliefs. watch this and then try and come up with an argument for me. www.zeitgeistmovie.com

Answer 2

How can I feel that I do not have a purpose in life. I always have purposes, and there is still a lot of things I want to do.

How do Christians feel there is any purpose since they view the world as just a temporary stop on the way to heaven? A transitory place that will be soon destroyed anyhow. Why would a Christian ever feel any need to understand it or try to make it even a little bit better for the future generations?
I guess that they don't and that is why they think their only purpose is to suck up to God.

Answer 3

A. How is god choosing a purpose for you any better than if you choose a purpose for yourself? And if you are wrong about god, then you are just deluding yourself, so you might as well be doing heroin all day.

B. There are several different secular ideas about the purpose of life. Some question the question itself, "what is the purpose of life?" What does that really mean? Is it like asking, "What color is saturday?"

There are existentialist, which is basically choose any purpose you like.

I have found virtue ethics to be most appealing. It is an ethical theory developed by aristotle which focuses not on what we should do, but who we should become. When you say purpose, you are implying some sort of destination. A virtuoso violin player is someone who plays the violin well; likewise, a virtuous person is someone who does human stuff well.

Or think of it this way: When you say you had a good meal, saw a good film, and read a good answer on yahoo answers, what characteristic ties those three uses of the adjective "good" together? Good means "on target." So a good person is a person that is on target.

So what is the target? It is a maximized and balanced application of your human nature. Aristotle thought of human nature consisting of three parts: The vegetative part (pretty much your health, homeostasis) The appetitive part (your built in desires for food, sex, companionship, etc) and the rational part (your intellect, knowledge, etc). Plato had some other ideas about what made up human nature, but you get the gist of it--you want to use all of these to their full potential without ruining any of the other ones.

For example, having sex is good for the appetitve part, but having it recklessly can be bad for your vegetative part. So you want to find a balance, and Aristotle called this the golden mean. Most of the attributes we think of as being inbetween two vices--courage is in between timidness and recklessness.

The greeks had a term for if you had your vegetative, appatitive, and rational parts working together swimmingly--Eudimonia. Translated it kind of means happiness or fluroushing. Eudimonia is the well functioning of all your natural parts. And as we learn more about humanity through things like anthropology, psychology, economics, etc. we get greater insight into how we can make those parts of human nature work better.

But I'm sure there are several atheists reading this who disagree, who may perhaps be existentialist or nihlist. But for the purpose of your question, there is one thing you need to think about--and 99% of the theist I talk to haven't wrapped their head around this point.
Being infinite doesn't mean it is valueable, and something that is finite is not valueless.

When I explain thoughts about living the good life without god, usually a comment will follow such as: "So, you die, the sun explodes and ruins everything you built, big deal." But how does there being a heaven make life any more valueable? And isn't good going to destroy this earth all the same? If fact, the opposite happens--belief in the afterlife sucks all possibility of value out of this life. Sometimes I like to ask people if they believe in the afterlife. Not because I believe in it, but it is still a good question because it tells me what that persons highest attainable goal is. Usually blank stares will follow if you ask the question "Do you believe in life?"

In order for life to have value, it has to be finite. Value is that which you want to gain and keep. This presupposes some sort of choice, which itself presupposes some sort of limitidness. If you had infinte time, could you ever waste time? Could you ever value the time you had? If you lived forever, could you ever really value your life? So my guess is that belief in the afterlife is forged out of regret; from people who want to know "why don't we have more time?" when the question should be, "why don't we do more with the time we got?"

Answer 4

I'll turn this back on you, Mari - what is YOUR purpose in life? Did you gain that soley and ONLY from religion, or have you found your purpose though other means - education, interests, likes and dislikes?

Assuming that those who don't believe as you do have no purpose in life is paramount ignorance, and purposeful ignorance at that. You and Jasin - who I will say needs to learn a whole great deal more than you do - need to actually talk to atheists you know and look at their lives. And you do know atheists, whether you'll admit it or not.

Answer 5

I don't see how religion can give you a purpose in life, except to go out and proselytize to feel good about yourself. I had a great and exciting day today soaring ridge lift at the seacoast cliffs under blue skies. I have a loving wife, I am charitable, kind, educated, well off, and love the knowledge about the universe that has been gained for the benefit of all through science. I thought the purpose for theists was for the afterlife, that you will "get" something after you die. Good luck with that.

Answer 6

I'm not an atheist, I'm Catholic, but I feel the need to reply to your question. Your question is very rude! Whether someone wants to believe or not or believe in a different god, we all have purpose. As a Catholic, I believe that God created it all and loves us all. Even if some of us don't love Him back. But we all have purpose, no matter what we believe. If we are hardened criminals, homeless, disabled, victims, hermits, etc. we are all here by God's will and it's up to us to find out our purpose and strive to perfect it and help others, even if it's only one other person.

Answer 7

The purpose of life is to give life a purpose and the goal is to enjoy it.

Answer 8

Well, I have a wife and 2 children that I love dearly, I have a wonderful job and and nice home. I enjoy life and I'm generally happy.

Why are you so hung up on having a purpose other than being alive and making the most of the life you have...?

Answer 9

My purpose in life is life. To live it the best way I can. To love others and make life easier. To enjoy the time I have on earth.

Answer 10

My purpose is to be kind, enjoy family and friends and do what I can to make this world a better place for all that live here now and in the future. How hard is that to understand?

Answer 11

My purpose in life is to help my fellow humans who are less fortunate than myself through charities which I volunteer my time 3x a wk as well as help abandoned and orphaned animals. I prefer to live in the here and now, not in some imaginary afterlife. What about you? What is your purpose in this life that allows you to have such a high and mightly attitude?