Life without God, Meaningless?

[Parth]

Currently doing a YouTube debate with an Atheist, his question to me is: If you were persuaded that God does not exist, would you then consider your life to be meaningless?

What do you guys think? What is the best way to answer this question?

 

[Tinker Grey]

You may want to go up to the Christian's only section. Because, you see, there are atheists here.

And since I am one, obviously I'd say I don't need gods to give meaning to my life.

 

[Davian]

I recommend the Exploring Christianity forum.

 

[Redac]

Would the idea of life being meaningless really bother you that much?

 

[Blayz]

You could just answer honestly. Would you consider it to be meaningless? Assuming there was some period of time before you were a Christian, was your life meaningless back then?

 

[Danyc]

You could just answer honestly. Would you consider it to be meaningless? Assuming there was some period of time before you were a Christian, was your life meaningless back then?

This. Answer the question honestly.

 

[David Jerome]

"Meaning" is subjective. Even if God were proven without a doubt to exist, that wouldn't give our lives "meaning". For example, the Bible says that man was created for God's "glory". Some people might find an existence dedicated to worshipping someone else, rather than live for their own happiness, meaningless.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

Only those who pin meaning to a deity will be disappointed by the insight that such a deity probably does not exist. If you don't do that in the first place you won't end up disappointed.

 

[Received]

Life without God isn't necessarily meaningless, just as life with God isn't necessarily meaningful.

Meaning stands for the collection of activities that are happiness-inducing. If something gives me meaning, it gives me happiness (in the non-superficial, more Aristotelean sense).

And it's absurd to say that atheists aren't happy.

 

[Eudaimonist]

A life without God is not meaningless, but unhappy. In the depths of one misses the meaning of life.

Life has plenty of deep meaning for me. It might not be precisely the same meaning that you have in your life, but it is meaning.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Eudaimonist]

Currently doing a YouTube debate with an Atheist, his question to me is: If you were persuaded that God does not exist, would you then consider your life to be meaningless?

What do you guys think? What is the best way to answer this question?

I recommend... honesty.

Would you consider your life to be meaningless? If you held your own newborn baby in your hands, would you seriously consider that to be meaningless for you? Or would its meaning transcend any particular beliefs or lack of beliefs you had on theological issues?


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[OldWiseGuy]

The true 'meaning' of a believing life is the transcendant personal benefit hoped for by that person, or 'pie in the sky', if you will. I fully enjoyed life before my conversion but added the dimension of thankfulness to it after, thus enriching it greatly. That said I don't know how anyone could honestly answer the question until they fell away from the faith, and had sufficient time thereafter to consider it.

 

[dlamberth]

If you were persuaded that God does not exist, would you then consider your life to be meaningless?

Here I am a Lover of God to say that living life itself is what gives meaning to a person. Not God.

.

 

[dlamberth]

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']

A life without God is not meaningless, but unhappy. In the depths of one misses the meaning of life.

A belief in God is not a requirement for happiness. In the depths happiness comes from within.

 

[quatona]

Currently doing a YouTube debate with an Atheist, his question to me is: If you were persuaded that God does not exist, would you then consider your life to be meaningless?

What do you guys think? What is the best way to answer this question?

Do you feel that answering honestly might run you into problems in the debate?

 

[GrowingSmaller]

In this context I take "meaning" to be a sense of purpose. So the question is, can people have a sense of purpose to their existence without a God to command it for them. Yes. Constitutionally, I believe people are "ethically situated" i.e. live in a world-of-value (eduvational value, entertainment value, value of relationships, instrumental values etc) and have to respond to it. I think they are bound by nature to try and decipher what is truly good for them (of real and lasting value) and to work towards it. Such is the purpose each of us is bound by nature to live with and perhaps in some way live as. For me I tend to agree with eudaimonist and also sam harris, in that something fluorishing or welfare are worthy objects of persuit.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Another way of looking at human purpose is to say we are destined to try and maximise the value of our life. This may be conceived in different ways (religiously, serving others, partying, personal development, earning money etc etc etc). There are as many different conceptualisations are there are people, probably. I think the answer is objective, and there are right and wrong answers. For instance if one starves to serve God, and finds value in being of value to Him, but either God does not wish for that action, or God does not exist, then the apparent value of starving is an illusion. Or if one parties to maximise happiness, but ends up with liver problems, then maybe the decision was not so objectively productive in the long term. So there are different concepts of maximality, but all cannot be equally true - assuming that the claims are truth apt in their own way (ethics and axiology are undeveloped branches of physics, and perhaps must remain philosophical, lets put it that way), but I think they are.

 

[brightlights]

That would depend on what you mean by "meaning". If we're talking about cosmic meaning -- that your life contributed to something of abiding importance -- then I find it hard to see how life without God could have meaning.

But if we're talking about purely personal meaning or temporary meaning then life without God can certainly mean something to someone.

 

[Gadarene]

Of course it can be meaningful. There won't be "objective" meaning in the sense that Christians etc define it, of course, seeing as their God's opinion is what constitutes something being objective ಠ_ಠ

But of course, if you reject theism, you will reject that idea as well, and you will hopefully come to realise how unreasonable it was to ever expect meaning of that kind. Your expectations will adjust.

 

[Elioenai26]

Of course it can be meaningful. There won't be "objective" meaning in the sense that Christians etc define it, of course, seeing as their God's opinion is what constitutes something being objective ಠ_ಠ

But of course, if you reject theism, you will reject that idea as well, and you will hopefully come to realise how unreasonable it was to ever expect meaning of that kind. Your expectations will adjust.

Unreasonable.... hmm... is that your opinion, or are you asserting that as a fact that is true for everyone?