Atheists: What opinions do you have on the following quote from Bertrand Russel?

Question

He said: "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purposes is meaningless". Does this mean that atheists do not believe that life has any purpose. That's pretty sad, I would say? So I can just off myself now and get it over with?

Being successfull in life and having meaning in life is two completely different things.

And, by the way, I don't want to kill myself!!

Answer 1

You don't have to assume there is a god, to have a purpose.

One of my purposes in life has been to try to understand the universe. In this quest I have read the Bible from cover to cover and looked into many religions and scientific beliefs.

I have also had my own personal experiences, which I attribute to mystical things like god, magic or whatever.

There is however very little scientific evidence to show that mystical things really exist, or that God or any other mystical beings interfere in the day to day life of the physical universe.

My own personal feeling is that there is something magical or mystical in the universe and that prayer or magic or visualization or whatever you want to call it does work to some extent in some situations.

I do not however believe I have to ascribe to Christianity to be right with God. This by definition makes me a non-believer and damned in the eyes of many Christians.

From my investigations into science I believe the bulk of the evidence suggests that extra-universal intelligences (beyond our limitations of time and space) do exits and that our existence has has purposes vital to plans of godlike creatures beyond our understanding.

This would make me a theist, but a non-christian one.

My personal opinion of the Bible is as follows; If the Bible is true:

God wants mankind to have a loving relationship with God rather than trying to bribe God with good deeds or religious practices.

God has provided us with enough for everyone but through fear or greed we hoard up more than we need and take from others rather than sharing and cooperating.

God's intellect and vastness is beyond our limited understanding and each individual needs to go through their own journey and will have an individual understanding of the universe and have a unique understanding of God and have a unique personal; relationship with God.

People should be careful of knocking others beliefs because it is likely to cause offense if you try to push correct ideas that others are not ready to hear, and it is possible that they might know something that you don't, such that your ideas may have obvious flaws in their eyes.

Answer 2

Interesting quote.
I, as an atheist, do not question my life's meaning or purpose. I feel that I am the sole master of my own destiny, my own purpose. CARPE DIEM, sieze the day. It is very hard to explain, but my lack of belief does not mean I don't believe that my life has a purpose or meaning, I just do not feel that there is a superior being guiding me through every second of my life. I think of my life as a game of chess, every move is critical and I try to stay 5 or 6 moves ahead, taking into account the situation and all the possible counters moves I may be faced with, and when I experience a counter move that I hadn't considered in my original plans I have to rethink my strategy and plan my future moves based on the situation at hand, the options, and the possible outcome of each reaction to my actions. Life is only meaningless to those who make it or want it to be meaningless, and the lack of a belief in God doesn't necessarily mean a lack of belief in a purpose or a meaning to life. I respect other's beliefs and hope that they can respect my non belief.

Answer 3

You have misunderstood the quote. The point is not that life has no purpose, but that without God the question /itself/ is meaningless. Much like asking: "How many inches long is the smell of a rose?" is grammatically correct, but makes no real sense.
Look at it this way:
"the question of life's purposes" -- subject
"is meaningless" -- predicate

I don't think it's sad at all that life has no inherent meaning; that one must find or make their own meaning is an honest, beautiful endeavor.

Forgive my candor, but the cosmos plucked you from nonexistence...what the hell gives you the right to think the cosmos owes you anything at all, let alone 'purpose'?!

Answer 4

He was wrong. He may have contributed the infamous teapot and various other arguments to the atheist case, but that doesn't mean he's right all the other time. Consider the Nobel Prize winning Dr K Mullis who invented PCR (very much alive btw) who believe there are raccoons hopping about which can talk and glow in the dark.

Just because someone may do a U-turn with their own theory doesn't necessarily mean it's defunct. I can make a cake, decide it's bad and throw it out of the window even though there was nothing wrong about it.

Answer 5

Don't off yourself. At least read Victor Frankel and the book "Man's Search for Meaning."

I think the Christian author E.F. Schumacher, may have gone one step beyond where Bertrand stopped. I recommend his book "A Guide for the Perplexed." He argued convincingly against scientific reductionism and I'm sure that Bertrand would not argue against his solid use of logic.

"Russell and Moore strove to eliminate what they saw as meaningless and incoherent assertions in philosophy. They sought clarity and precision in argument by the use of exact language and by breaking down philosophical propositions into their simplest grammatical components." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell

"As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. "

"He believed religion and the religious outlook (he considered communism and other systematic ideologies to be forms of religion) serve to impede knowledge, foster fear and dependency, and are responsible for much of the war, oppression, and misery that have beset the world."

Answer 6

Oh, and how does a god give your life any more of a purpose or a meaning? If you look at things it really doesn't you really don't need a god to tell you right from wrong and that your wrong actions negatively impact the world and society. It's pretty sad that people feel that they have to have an invisible string tied to them to make them do right.

Answer 7

I am assuming, like so many quotes taken from atheists, this one was either purposefully or for the sheer sake of ignorance taken out of context. We usually make such sarcastic remarks before getting to the point.

I personally think it's sad that you have to place faith in some kind of imaginary spirit to have a purpose in life.
I don't even care about purpose as long as I can enjoy this one existence I have.
But I won't judge, go waste your one and only life praying to ghosts and fairies.

Answer 8

Life is it's own purpose.

"An Atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist thinks that heaven is something for which we should work for now - here on earth- for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist accepts that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, subdue and enjoy it. An Atheist thinks that only in knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. "Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to 'know' a god. An Atheist knows that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He knows that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter. He knows that we are our brothers' keepers in that we are, first, keepers of our lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now."

Would you rather believe it is one huge unfair test that everyone has to pass, no matter how disadvantaged they are?

Answer 9

The purpose of all life is merely to live. Each human has the ability to choose their own purposes. A question to you is: Why do you need to be given a divine mission in order to enjoy life. Can you not findd happiness? Start looking around instead of up. Life is a goodthing.

Answer 10

Life itself has no purpose. And that's actually a great thing.

It means we can add every purpose to it that we want. We can add Love, Friendship, Understanding, Empathy, etc, etc. And that gives life purpose.

Great, eh. Sounds a lot better to me than living with the so called purpose of "being nice, because else I won't make it to an afterlife".