Arrogant prick.
Heh. And to think I said you would reply with a single-sentence grunt, cofty. I guess it's my turn: cofty, you're a useless little cocksucker.
But, you make some interesting points later.
We both avoid dwelling on the fact that it will soon be over and ultimately it was " Vanity of vanities ". The difference is that I'm ok with that, I know I will die and return to non-existence. That doesn't stop me enjoying life and finding meaning in it, however transitory. You feel a need to pretend that there is more to life; an ultimate, perfect reality of which this is just a reflection.
I think that the point I am making is that the atheist position is that there really isn't any meaning in anything. You can certainly enjoy life and build things that will last some time and have children and grandchildren and so on. And those things are legitimately enjoyable. But they don't have meaning because nothing has meaning in this universe. We don't have a purpose that is different from the purpose of any other primate.
That's not necessarily a bad thing -- if reality is precisely as you say, then it is the only right thing. But -- getting back to the theme of this thread -- I think a great many people who are raised in atheist households find that your viewpoint is at odds with the human experience which they feel points in a different direction.
Your need for a greater reality does not make it so - its just your story that helps you deal with life. So be it, but don't get smug about your comforting delusions.
I don't think I suggested my need for a greater reality makes it so. What I suggested is that humanity has always perceived a greater end for itself than merely what we see. This search for larger meaning -- and the rejection of greater meaning that atheism necessarily implies -- generally leads people who are raised in atheist homes to not be atheist after a while. Not getting smug, simply pointing out a real weakness of the atheist proposal: it is far more compelling among those who convert to it than those who are raised in it.
Athiesm to me is just one invetiable aspect of critical thinking.
I suspect it is this that explains the survey. Many of those who later became religious were probably brought up by intelletually lazy parents whose atheism owed more to apathy than to reason.
Does it seem odd to you that critical thinkers are inevitably atheists yet the overwhelming majority of them are also intellectually lazy and motivated by apathy instead of reason? That seems odd to me.
No need to be such a prick Sulla.
There is some need, cofty.