Why do so many people NEED to believe in a greater purpose?

gringojj

I am an atheist. I believe that this is the only life we have, there is nothing more. I have no greater purpose. My purpose is here today and now. Someone recently told me that is a sad way to live.

In life there are ups and downs. I hold myself accontable for all that I do. I dont look to a time when everything will be perfect, because to me perfection is relative and therefore impossible. This world is perfect now.

Why do so many people need to have a greater purpose? Is it easier to have hope and faith that one day things will be better? Does it make it easier on the conscience? Is it easier than facing yourself and your life? Easier than holding yourself accountable?

What is your reason?

jgnat

Why do so many people need to have a greater purpose? Is it easier to have hope and faith that one day things will be better? ... Is it easier than facing ...your life?

I do. My daughter discussed this the other day. She asked the question rhetorically, why she and I always take the positive spin on our relative situations. We answered at once: "Survival." I have been through some horrific events that would have broken a weaker woman. But I had responsibilities, two children to raise, I had no choice, I had to be good to give them a future. So I picked myself up and tried again. After twenty years of hard labour, I set two young adults off to make the best they could of their lives.

Sadly my son developed a debilitating mental illness. Heartbreaking, yes. Do I spit on the effort and love I poured in to my two children? No! I have faith in both my children. I say this after my son hit rock-bottom this last spring, a drug-addicted street bum living out of dumpsters. I committed my own son. That single self-sacrificing act, risking my son's enduring hatred, set in motion a chain of events so that my son's circumstances are now vastly improved. He has no outstanding warrants. He has a warm, dry place to stay. And he has a phone so he can call his mom any time. What more can I ask for?

I have seen co-workers who drudge through the same work I do. They only saw where they were trampled. Meanwhile I was digging up the muck looking for the pony. Today, they are still miserable and I am a manager. Do the math.

Perhaps an athiest can accommodate my sort of Christian ethic this way. People like us may be hard-wired for faith, to keep us going in the face of impossible odds.

tetrapod.sapien

i'm with you gringo. there is no reason. there is no freaking meaning.

look at me. i am an animal. i also have a dog. he is an animal too. he eats, sleeps, sh*ts, f*cks, has a brain, has limbs, has eyes. and so do i. WOW! GO FIGURE!! really, from an evolutionary perspective, there is no higher meaning. there is no pinnacle that we are all working for. evolution doesn't give a crap if you exist or not. and what's more, is evolution really doesn't give a crap about you if you are over 30 years old.

people say, "but tetrapod, there still must be meaning and beauty and awe?" and i say that it is all relative to our own individual, thick headed ape brains, so why freaking worry about it? what are you gonna do? huh? spend 60 years finding "meaning" after "meaning", and then just f*cking die? no thanks. i plan on freaking partying a bit before then.

if there is no meaning to existence, then what is the point? why worry about it? why does there have to be meaning? higher order? a utopian place where civilization is at it's finest? why do we have to torture ourselves like that? it's such a crock of sh*t.

what would i give a fuck if the entire human race, all of the animals, all of the biodiversity, and everything just all died tomorrow? what do i care if my descendents have a better world to live in than i did? what do i care? i don't! i am not going to be around, looking down from some freaking silver lined cloud, so what the hell do i care? i want to do something for myself for once! and please, none of this "well, you know tetrapod, there are a lot of people in the world with your attitude, and that's why there is so much suffering." - because i know that already. and you wanna know something? i don't freaking care! okay? kay then.

what meaning is there to the universe? evolution is the only meaning i can see, and although it works fine, it is in itself a totally meaningless concept as far as "we" are concerned.

so then, what is the meaning of our existence?

as far as i can tell, sex, drugs and rock & roll are the only meanings that i can see anywhere in this existence. nihilism, selfishness, epicurianism, music, laughter, love, hatred, good, evil, light and dark, hard core sex, drugs, escapism, and of course raw rock and roll. gangsta rap or Bach, whatever the hell makes you rock harder. trust me, the universe is sexy if you let it be sexy. but it's not good or evil. it's both. and so i will be good and evil too. i will be indifferent. immorality? just as meaningful as morality. and again, i don't give a crap if anyone thinks that is a depreaved way to live. depravity is universal truth as far as i am concerned.

man, there is NOTHING to be ashamed of. nothing nothing nothing. you are an animal. ebrace your biology. if culture gets in the way, shed it. embrace the things that make you tick. the things that turn you on. the things that bring out your soul, your inner animal. and be a god. it's so simple.

TS

gringojj

Very interesting jgnat. 2 and a half years ago I was in your sons shoes. I had been a heroin addict for 4 years. I had done jailtime. The summer of 2003 I was homeless and a good day for me was one when I found donuts wrapped in plastic in a dumpster behind a bakery.

I was an atheist then and still am. I realized that my life sucked. If I were religious, I could have said to myself just keep going and heaven will come soon enough. As an athiest I decided this was my only life. If I wanted it to get better and enjoy every day for the rest of it it was up to me. I got clean and sober. Now I am married and have 3 wonderful kids. My heaven is right now. It couldnt get any better.

gringojj

Tetrapod,

tetrapod.sapien

Perhaps an athiest can accommodate my sort of Christian ethic this way.

jgnat,

i am an atheist. and you wanna know what i think of you? personally you, jgnat? okay:

i think you are the best xian i have *ever* met (or learned about) in my entire life. and i totally mean that.

in my eyes, xianity has one redeeming factor. and it's you. i am not being sarcastic. i mean it. take it as you will, but know that you are the last xian in my eyes.

take care,

josh

DanTheMan

Tell us how you really feel tetrapod :)

kid-A

People like us may be hard-wired for faith

Exactly, and there is increasing biological evidence for a genetic basis of faith. I am clearly missing the gene since I can never remember a time in my life when I required a supernatural template for my life. I have always been completely satisfied with my life as a biological organism that was born, will eventually die, and be reduced to the molecular consituents from which I developed. I have no comprehension of why people need faith save for using it as a form of psychological anaesthesia. Frankly, whatever works, use it. We should all believe or not believe according to our own genetic disposition.

Undecided

I'm sort of a flip-floper. Some days I think maybe there is a creator and some days I don't. What really gets me doubting is if the universe couldn't have just happened, then how could God have just happened? There is so much evidence of design in the creation, but so much evidence of stupid design, like viruses, parasites, oldage, so many health problems. Life is like some God didn't get it right or doesn't care about life here on earth. Oh I forgot, he had his son killed so we could have it better in another world, or was it God who died if you beleive the trinity, or maybe one third of him died.

It seems we are stuck with what we got now, so we better live it to the full(and I don't mean drugs, alcohol, sex indiscriminately).

Ken P.

tetrapod.sapien

(and I don't mean drugs, alcohol, sex indiscriminately).

that's good, because you really, really had me worried there for a minute ken.

TS

Why do so many people NEED to believe in a greater purpose?

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