Atheism, Nihilism and the Meaning of Life
Written by admin on February 25, 2009 – 3:12 am -Tags: atheism, christianity, death, die, dying, eternal, heaven, hella, is, knowntje, Life, meaning, nihilism, objective, of, Purpose, subjective, the
Posted in Atheist Definition | 25 Comments »
By 0zyzzyz0 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
I just want to get …
I just want to get across that it shouldn’t even be controversial that meanings and values and purposes and understandings and “Why?” and “Why not?” etc are all subjectively constructed within contexts relavent to them. There’s no need or place for anything transcendent [outside of their relational, contextual existences] to be an external ascriber of meaning or purpose. To be transcendent is to be outside of their relational environment — to be irrelavent or even nonexistent for them.
By Tazwegian on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Pfft I get bored …
Pfft I get bored with MMOs after a couple of hours, let alone an eternity. that.
By buffdaddy3144 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Which god?
Which god?
By buffdaddy3144 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
This is going to go …
This is going to go over a lot of people’s heads, lol
By 0zyzzyz0 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Example: Think of …
Example: Think of my getting my action on with your sister. Go ahead… Think of this old grizzled geazer doing stuff u’d get a little upset about. Does the action have intrinsic meaning? ~~~ Bzzzt The answer is “No.” It has contextual, personal meaning. Some of us might agree that it means this or that and to others these actions will mean something else. Knownjtje buildsa snowman. What does it mean? Something to him and something different to the guy whose kitchen he built it in.
con’t
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“You’ve failed to …
“You’ve failed to provide a case that shows how personal meaning is greater than ultimate meaning.”
yes I have, the lab example
“Why do you have to do something? What is your motivation? ”
enjoyement
By TheIrrationalAtheist on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“we dont lose our …
“we dont lose our subjective personal meaning which is whats important”
You’ve failed to provide a case that shows how personal meaning is greater than ultimate meaning.
“true, but I exist so I have to do something with it. If I never was born that would be fine as well ofcourse ”
Why do you have to do something? What is your motivation?
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“If our life holds …
“If our life holds no ultimate meaning? Simple, because there is no reason for our existence, this is a cosmic accident, nothing placed us here. If we are here for no reason—we lose meaning and purpose.”
we dont lose our subjective personal meaning which is whats important
“How so? It wouldn’t matter if you existed or not, let alone the universe existing or not ”
true, but I exist so I have to do something with it. If I never was born that would be fine as well ofcourse
By TheIrrationalAtheist on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“but why does that …
“but why does that matter?”
If our life holds no ultimate meaning? Simple, because there is no reason for our existence, this is a cosmic accident, nothing placed us here. If we are here for no reason—we lose meaning and purpose.
” I would argue that the only thing that matters is the meaning you can apply yourself. ”
How so? It wouldn’t matter if you existed or not, let alone the universe existing or not
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
but why does that …
but why does that matter? You haven’t explaind that. I would argue that the only thing that matters is the meaning you can apply yourself.
By TheIrrationalAtheist on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
No, not at all. Our …
No, not at all. Our existence simply has a reason for why we are all here, and an intelligent transcendent cause, that caused it all—if we are here for no apparent reason, came from nothing, by nothing, to go into nothing, we hold no reason or purpose for our existence; life becomes brutally absurd. You, yourself, may apply some sort of meaning, but it holds no ultimate authority, you hold no ultimate meaning, purpose, or reason for you existence, your life holds nothing
By 0zyzzyz0 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Sometimes we share …
Sometimes we share communally values and common understandings. Think of how we ascribe meanings in language through tacit agreement.
Example: I work closely with journalists. There is an understanding in the profession of how we weave facts and information within comprehendable contexts. We provide perspective through demonstration of how things relate. All understanding is dependent on how things are related within contexts of understandings. And so it is also with meaning.
con’t
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
What you mean by …
What you mean by meaning is “what we are meant for” but please explain how that is important, remember the person created to be used to harvest organs from. What we are meant for can be a very very bad thing for us personally
By TheIrrationalAtheist on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“With God, …
“With God, something gives life (and persons) ultimate and objective meaning. ”
You’re confusing meaning that God gives personally and meaning that God gives to our existence. Yes, God gives my personal life meaning, it’s no delusion. But what I am arguing is that God has placed us here, we exist for a reason and for purpose, according to you, we have no reason for our existence or purpose, so are our lives. You may apply meaning yourself, but it’s meaningless in a meaningless universe.
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
very well said
very well said
By 0zyzzyz0 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Migkillertwo, You …
Migkillertwo, You are so frustratingly demonstrating the most common of misunderstandings about nihilism.
What Knwontje describes in the first 3 minutes or is simple, cold, indifferent reality. Reality, nature, life, death, consciousness, etc do not have intrinsic value in isolation in and of themselves. This needn’t be a cause of despair. We have the unique, conscious ability to construct meaning subjectively, personally, relavent to each of us. Sometime we share, communally…
con’t
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“there is nothing …
“there is nothing keeping someone from brushing it aside if he or she has the capability to do so”
which is a bitch. Fortunately in most cases people like that cant flourish in society build on empathy and helping the weak. Sometimes they can like hitler and stalin etc, but eventually their regimes die out as well.
“With God, something gives life (and persons) ultimate and objective meaning. ”
what exactly is that objective meaning and moreover why is that a good thing
By TheIrrationalAtheist on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“With God, …
“With God, something gives life (and persons) ultimate and objective meaning. ”
Exactly. If I might add God, gives us a reason for existence, if we are hear for no reason or purpose, it wouldn’t matter if this universe existed or not. I just don’t see you getting out of this tje, sorry bud
By migkillertwo on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
yes, and we need to …
yes, and we need to remember to talk about meaning and metaethics the same way. if we humans give value to eachother, there is nothing keeping someone from brushing it aside if he or she has the capability to do so. With God, something gives life (and persons) ultimate and objective meaning.
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
“There ARE genuine …
“There ARE genuine altruists out there. ”
I wasnt denying that. But whats your point?
and regarding value, well lets take something non-conscious for example this laptop, its universally and objectively meaningless, it doesnt matter if it exists or not, but it matters to me, I give it some value.
and we human beings give eachother value. remember that we are the arbiters of meaning of value since we are conscious beings and therefore capable of valuing things
By JonathanClement140 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
Well, actually, I …
Well, actually, I don’t really believe in a heaven like the one the Abrahamic religions describe. Personally, what I’d LIKE to happen is to keep my memories until I truly did start to get bored. Then I could hit the “reset button” if I wanted to. What do I think WILL happen? You’ll be reincarnated, but what you become is completely random, and you don’t remember anything from your previous life. (Unless universes of infinite variety is true.) Eventually, you would be you again.
By migkillertwo on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
There ARE genuine …
There ARE genuine altruists out there.
probably The ultimate implication of nihilism and why it is absolutely horrible is the field of metaethics. What gives humans rights would be their ultimate value. WIthout God humans have no value and ethical judgements become ultimately meaningless
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
you assume that you …
you assume that you can forget things in heaven
I also would argue that there are in fact not an infinite amount of thing to do, but even if there are that doesnt mean that you cant get bored, there are also an infinite amount of numbers but they are all equally boring
By Knowntje on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
” Why dont we work …
” Why dont we work only for ourselves and adopt an egoist mentality? ”
People in general ARE extremely selfish, me included, which leads to many many problems. Being selfish is definitely not always in your best interest. If you betray people you basically end up being alone which isnt quite enjoyable compared to experiencing friendship and love.
By JonathanClement140 on Feb 25, 2009 | Reply
But that could …
But that could never happen because there’s an infinite amount of things to do. Also, like I said, after a time, you’d begin to forget about the things you’ve done.