the meaning of life
Feb. 13th, 2008 08:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eMet a nice old guy yesterday on the bus who started chatting to Margaret and me. He had decided to destroy a lot of his paintings that he'd made for his wife in retribution of the affair she was having with a younger man. Apparently his wife was a deeply religious woman so he couldn't understand what had gone wrong. He thought she needed to go to church more.
I gently pointed out that religion may be the problem, not the solution, and that everywhere in the world that religion is strongest, you'll find that violence, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, etc, are also strongest.
He acknowledged that much of the world's violence is religiously inspired, but asked, "If there is no god then what point is there?" I was trying to formulate a proper answer to this when I lost my opportunity as the conversation moved on.
It amazes me how many times I've heard religious people ask this question. They ignore the obvious answer, that life is for living. What else could it be for?
The weird thing is that although religion purports to give a meaning, when you lift the curtain of paradox and obfuscation you find nothing there. They will say that god has a purpose for us, but when you ask what that purpose is, after a few misleads and conjectures you generally find them happily stating that we can't know what god's purpose is. I don't understand how religious people are not unsettled by how lacking it is to say that if there is a god he has a purpose for us but we can't know what it is. What they are saying is that someone tells us that some unknowable being exists who has an unknowable purpose for us so that makes it all okay. That isn't a purpose. It is an absolute lack of reason dressed up to look like something meaningful might be lurking behind.
It seems to me that when you look at life with a clear eye you see that life itself has one major purpose: to perpetuate life. But we are subset of life that is intelligent, which has given us a second goal: to learn. Being part of a social species brings a third purpose: to care for one another.
Simple logic gives us the most noble triplet of reasons to exist:
I gently pointed out that religion may be the problem, not the solution, and that everywhere in the world that religion is strongest, you'll find that violence, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, etc, are also strongest.
He acknowledged that much of the world's violence is religiously inspired, but asked, "If there is no god then what point is there?" I was trying to formulate a proper answer to this when I lost my opportunity as the conversation moved on.
It amazes me how many times I've heard religious people ask this question. They ignore the obvious answer, that life is for living. What else could it be for?
The weird thing is that although religion purports to give a meaning, when you lift the curtain of paradox and obfuscation you find nothing there. They will say that god has a purpose for us, but when you ask what that purpose is, after a few misleads and conjectures you generally find them happily stating that we can't know what god's purpose is. I don't understand how religious people are not unsettled by how lacking it is to say that if there is a god he has a purpose for us but we can't know what it is. What they are saying is that someone tells us that some unknowable being exists who has an unknowable purpose for us so that makes it all okay. That isn't a purpose. It is an absolute lack of reason dressed up to look like something meaningful might be lurking behind.
It seems to me that when you look at life with a clear eye you see that life itself has one major purpose: to perpetuate life. But we are subset of life that is intelligent, which has given us a second goal: to learn. Being part of a social species brings a third purpose: to care for one another.
Simple logic gives us the most noble triplet of reasons to exist:
- to be life-enhancing
- to learn about ourselves and the world around us
- to care for each other
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Re: More purposes for life
Date: 2008-03-14 09:09 am (UTC)Nice answer. :)
I think I've decided I'll greet all other religious people as fellow atheists. When they object that they aren't, I'll say, "Sure you are. You don't believe in Thor, Poseidon, all the Hindu gods, the multitude of gods of various tribal people around the world. You are an atheist. I just disbelieve in one more too."
I got the idea from a talk by Richard Dawkins.
So kiddo, how the heck are ya? I hope you are having lots of fun and enjoying life.
Re: More purposes for life
Date: 2008-03-14 11:54 am (UTC)I am very good thank you? Having a ball being very busy with art, Di, family & etc. I had been going through all my old internet sites today and I also got a card from Margarat. I have printed off a pic which I will turn into a card for her and send on Monday.
Both of you turned up on the same day :o
I really should be doing assignments for Uni but I am very good at procrastinating. That is a long word that you can dilly dally around by the time you get to the end of it;)
Casey, Kyoko and Reiji are expecting another baby. They don't know what it is yet but they are hoping for a girl to balance the family out. They don't really mind though. It's due in August.
The womyn who I was house sharing with moved out. I am here trying to survive on my own. I think I can manage. Time will tell.
Di is putting on a Gilbert & Sullivan show in England in August. I am supposed to be building a prop but I can't seem to find where you get large blocks of polystyrene foam. I will keep trying.
Anyway what have you been up to? I had a quick look on lj and still like your stuff. Casey had used one of your stories as inspiration for teaching english to one of his classes.
I am off into the bush tomorrow to collect some clay to test for ceramics. I will go to the old gold digs around Creswick . I can't possibly do any more damage than what has already been done. I only need little bits to test. There is a very white powdery clay there which intrigues me.
Nauty is still bouncing around like a kangaroo. He never stops. He asks to go outside by coming up to me and then walking to the door with me following behind like a good little humyn that I am. He then stands still while I put his lead on.
There's no creek here as I am in Ballarat Suburbia but he still likes to go out and pretend to stalk the birds. He is hilarious to watch while he shadow boxes the insects. The insects usually win.
Bye for now and I will in touch again.
take care
Chrys