Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forumWhy don’t you atheists just go out and kill yourselves?
Sounds like something I would normally see in the religion group...
True, most Christians phrase it rather more delicately, but atheists are regularly informed by a certain kind of believer that our lives can have no value if we do not believe in their God. What is the point, they ask, of being kind or loving, caring about suffering or doing anything at all, if one day we just die?
It is true that in the absence of a divine plan our lives have no externally determined purpose: an individual is not born for the purpose of becoming a physician or creating a spectacular work of art or digging a well in an arid corner of Africa. But are the sick less cured, the pleasure to the art-lover less intense, or the thirst of parched villagers less slaked, simply because a man sought his own purpose rather than following a diktat from on high? Do we really need a deity to tell us that a life spent curing cancer is more worthwhile than one spent drinking in the gutter?
Why should we not find satisfaction in alleviating suffering or injustice, just because were all going to die one day? The very fact that this life is all we have makes it even more important to do everything possible to reduce the suffering caused by poverty, disease, injustice and ignorance. To describe such attempts as meaningless is to say that avoidable suffering does not matter, hardly a moral stance.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/how-do-atheist-find-meaning-in-life/2012/01/18/gIQAbiFP8P_blog.html
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)I've always thought this was such a silly thing to say, as well as its attendant "why don't you go out and kill, steal, and rape then?".
My standard response has always been: "You mean that's what you'd do if you were to lose your faith?". That usually shuts them up.
Why can't the theists understand that to us life is even more precious precisely because we believe it's the only one we're going to have?
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)I will have to remember that one and use it. I want to see the look on the face of the person who starts this shit with me again.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)since they all think their tickets are punched for heaven and it's sure not pleasant here on earth. They stammer for a minute and then usually scream an obscenity at me and stomp off.
But I'm rid of them.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Because the almighty hath set his canon 'gainst self slaughter.... y'know.
So they don't do that because they were told not to as well. They don't do anything they aren't told to do or not do apparently.
Who the hell wakes up every day and thinks "what is my purpose?". Your purpose is to live your life. Duh!
Why don't I kill and rape? Because I don't want to.
What a bunch of stupid questions theist always come up with.
TransitJohn
(6,932 posts)I'm an atheist, not a nihilist.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,279 posts)backscatter712
(26,355 posts)And not only that, help others to live their lives to the fullest. Being atheist does not mean losing empathy or morals, it in fact has made them stronger for me.
Make this life here on Earth a good one - it's the only one you've got. I'd say this makes human life especially valuable in my eyes. Compare this to the religious fanatic who's strapped a bomb to his chest to take out the unbelievers, thinking that when he blows himself up, he's got a free ticket to Heaven.
BiggJawn
(23,051 posts)Conversation kinda cools off after that...