by kassad84 26 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
the point is not that you will get hungry again, the point is that you are an accident, and will one day cease to exist completely, and what ever decisions you took - preparing or not preparing a meal - was just a waste of time
So? What is the point of worrying about that? You didn't exist for billions of years and it didn't bother you, why should not existing for billions more?
I feel sad for people who feel that their life is meaningless without santa claus, I mean god. The fact that they feel life is bleak and meaningless says a lot more about their theism than my atheism. The fact that our time here is short makes life more meaningful not less.
Sometimes people are hired to inventory, catalog and label things in a warehouse.
The labels will enable an inventory and catalog for an Art Museum.
Let's stop and ask ourselves how 3 different sorts of hired labelers might handle such a task.
1. An honest and diligent person would open each crate and view the contents. If a crate contained a statue, the worker would
try to determine what it was titled and the name of the sculptor. The label such a person put on this crate would be trustworthy.
2. A haphazard and lazy person might open crates and simply guess at anything he could not recognize. The label this person put on the crate would only partially reflect the actual contents. To accept a guess as a true label would be to undermine the very purpose of a catalog.
3. A totally clueless and ignorant person might ask the nightwatchman if he remembered when such and such crate was delivered. What did others "say" about what's in it? He might even give a naive and childish description. The label on this crate would be totally unreliable.
The person who wrote the article on Atheism and Doubt are Spiritual Phenomena could have been writing about our three persons with their labeling task.
We might ask ourselves what worthless methodology and Spirituality might have in common.
Any attempts by humans to understand what was not known eventually end up becoming one of the three categories above.
1. Exploration, measurement, comparison and description
2. Exploration, guesswork, fantasy
3. Anecdotal word-of-mouth, imagination and pure nonsense
The fact that ignorant people can be both honest and dishonest, intelligent and idiots really does affect their opinions on what is TRUE.
The labels we place on reality are only as good as the exactness of the one on one MATCH between reality and description.
SKEPTICISM is a tool for careful people who keep the chain on the door when a stranger knocks.
DOUBT is a tool for people who ask for credentials, I.D. and believability before they open up to strangers.
ATHEISM is often a strong reaction to being fooled and lied to in the past.
SPIRITUALITY is a mushy mess where a FACT should be. It is a smudged label by a careless label maker.
Excellent analogy, Terry. I use that in the future. Plagirize with pride, we call it.
Mankind will always be better off in the endeavor to understand are self and the world in which we live
by using a rational logical perspective to all things, by virtue of are own intelligence.
Doing so has shown to be much more valuable and beneficial for are own human experience, than to derive answers from
unforeseen imaginary spirits or gods, which on the other hand have shown over human history to be a detrimental folly.
We live today so that we can live tomorrow, well maybe not the Jehovah's Witnesses,
they live today so that they can live for the next month's publishers report .
How can a person, with no sense of personal eternity, live with purpose? Mentor the young. Plant a tree. Write a book. Be confident that their ripple today will echo on in the universe.
