/atheism/ - Atheism

I have never understand what meaning of life christianism offers.

Is it "the meaning of life is you go to heaven when you die"? It's not what life is, it's what death is.

Is it "the meaning of life is that Adam was a nigger so now god want us to suffer, except that he sent his son died for our sins so we don't have to suffer but we suffer nonetheless"? It is an etiology of moral, it doesn't tell me what is the purpose of my life.

Or is it a god of the gap argument? "I am a 30 years old virgin and should kill myself, because I have autismo it's God's will"

>The only true meaning can be ordained by a divine creator who has given us a specific purpose in his grand scheme

How so? The divine creator could have made a completely meaningless existence on purpose. Besides, meaning is such a complex notion that barely anything can be confidently said about it at all

You only need one word.

Existentialism

>>7564

New word: martyrdomism

I don't understand what the question is supposed to mean in the first place.

Meaning as in the meaning of the word life?

Let's see what auntie Wiki has to say..

Life is a characteristic distinguishing physical entities having biological processes (such as signaling and self-sustaining processes) from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate.[3][4][5] Various forms of life exist such as plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria. The criteria can at times be ambiguous and may or may not define viruses, viroids or potential artificial life as living. Biology is the primary science concerned with the study of life, although many other sciences are involved.

Well that's a bit vague but it satisfies me, any further question?

Anime says the purpose of life is to stubbornly cling to life and reproduce.

>>7568

That's what Ghost in the Shell says.

>>7569

It's common sense. The purpose of life is one of the things Trigun keeps philosophizing on in it's episode previews

ep 22

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow8O960CQlM

ep 25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1--Q4IvT5U

>>7564

No, you yourself give your life meaning.

Meaning is just what your brain does to allow you to respond to the environment in a way that helps you.

Life has no inherent meaning. You can do what the fuck you want with it, whether or not that involves a search for meaning.

>>7569

Smith in the Matrix said humanity is like a virus incapable of forming an equilibrium with its environment and it's sole purpose is to spread to another organism once it exhausts it's current environment.

Why is it better that there is a "meaning"doesn't that just limit your freedom. As Hitchens put it it the wish to be a slave. It childish almost, it desire for someone to make your choices for you instead having to make your own purpose

>>7576

>When Neo explodes Smith from the inside, Smith gets the human faculty of being a virus

>>7575

>>7575

whoops

>>7575

I can't upload the picture for some reason.

http://i61.tinypic.com/2hprlg1.jpg

What is the meaning of life? Reprodunction. Passing your genetic traits onto the next generation. You might have noticed that this is something that all life is able to and does do, not just humans.

You're born so you must live long enough to reproduce.

But there's 7 billion people you say. But that's not what I want it to be you say. Then you don't have to do it. Humans are no longer bound by nature like once before. Now you have the chance to make up your own little meaning for what you want to do in life.

I don't see why this is so complicated for people.

>>7587

Reproduction is not the meaning of life, it's a way that life can continue existing but it's not a meaning for everyone, if people can choose to not reproduce it doesn't mean their life is meaningless and the life of some asshole who made 8 dumb kids is with meaning.

Reproduction is, it happens and living things do it, but not with a specific purpose. They just do it.

>>7594

>, if people can choose to not reproduce it doesn't mean their life is meaningless and the life of some asshole who made 8 dumb kids is with meaning

And there you go making the mistake of assuming that the meaning of life, that is life in general and not just humans, should be based solely on humans.

Every single living thing reproduces. It has become so important that it's an evolutionary advantage to be able to withstand/adapt to the environment, to escape predators, to outcompete others for resources (food, water, shelter, etc) all for the sake that one might live long enough to reproduce.

As far as a universal meaning of life goes, reproduction is closest one can get to it. Now if the question is if there's a purpose for intelligent life like humans, that is far more open for debate.

>>7594

>Christians have more babies than you

>their lives are more meaningful than yours

Checkmate!

>>7610

There is no more meaning. Our lives are the meaning to life. We have the potential to do whatever we want with them. Anyone who says otherwise is a sophist.

>>7610

From an evolutionary standpoint, they are far more fit because of it. You're actually doing worse for your position now.

>>7606

You're wrong, just because organisms reproduce it doesn't mean that the purpose of them is to reproduce. This is some bad logic, just because something can happen it doesn't mean it must always happen.

You can make the meaning of your life to reproduce as you are a human being, most animals don't get to choose that. But it doesn't mean that reproducing is the meaning of life, it's just the way life survived so far and the way our brains are wired to keep surviving. But we weren't made with a specific purpose of reproducing, no one created us and said "reproduce" and gave us a specific meaning to life.

We just exist now and we reproduce because we can and we want too.

>>7631

>You're wrong, just because organisms reproduce it doesn't mean that the purpose of them is to reproduce. This is some bad logic, just because something can happen it doesn't mean it must always happen.

Except it must lest that organism's specific traits die out. If an entire species fails to reproduce, it goes extinct. The fact that reproduction is vital to the existence of a species makes it, as far as a purposeless universe goes, the closest thing to an actual meaning in life there can be.

>>7634

> If an entire species fails to reproduce, it goes extinct.

That's right, and they didn't fail a mission because no one told them to do it in the first places, the species themselves gave meaning to what they do, and apparently life wants to continue to exist in most cases, because suicides happen.

Reproduction is the most important part of an organism, but it's not a purpose, if the species would die, no one would observe and say that they failed their purpose, since they weren't assigned a task in the first place.

If reproduction is the only single purpose than life can have, then you should go reproduce as many times as you can. But you limit yourself, or not do it, because you know that in the end you have some power to decide what to do with your life.

>>7554

I think what religious people want is for their lives to have some sort of cosmic importance. It reminds me of when I was 14 and going through babby's first existential crisis because I saw an episode of Nova and realized how insignificant the entire Earth is in the grand scheme of things. I think most people here realize that the grand scheme of things is irrelevant as long as it doesn't effect us and our own lives should be our own frame of reference for meaning, but religious people can't accept that and try to find (or more accurately, try to fake) cosmic significance in their lives by pretending that the all-powerful creator of the universe cares about the details of their life and has a purpose for them.

>>7637

Reminds me of the stargazer scene in Bakemonogatari, where his girlfriend admits her insignificance and says admiring the stars is enough to share, (1 minute in). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdB_OW2NExM

I remember a friend of mine making a similar at the age of 12 after he watched Contact. Then again, you might have also discovered your insignificance sooner from watching a baseball game with Haruhi.

>>7554

The meaning of life is subjective.