Meaning in Life

I was trolling around the internet when I found this post by a guy who commented here when this blog was a half hour old.

Apparently Simon is having a debate with Nan somewhere. Whatever, doesn't really matter but Nan said this:

"More important for you to discuss with yourself is if the beginning is so random and disputable (which it most certainly is not for me) then will the end be as random and pointless? In which case, anything in between then and now is irellivent and pointless. In which case we are not really talking about ANYTHING right now and even your arguing for the rightness of evolution is absolutely pointless, futile and will never ever matter. As it stands, in your world view you absolutely must embrace the futility of all things and hence you will know that what we say doesn't matter even as much as what you say doesn't matter. Your worldview negates your own argument. Mine, on the otherhand makes this discussion worthwhile, it gives meaning to the beginning, the middle and the end of this universe. It even gives meaning to what we are discussing now. It gives meaning to this invention of the internet even!"

Simon responded with a post about how Christianity makes humanity a life without purpose.

I want to take the other tack. Atheism as a life WITH purpose.

Nan assumes that if there was no grand purpose to the beginning of life, and there is no grand purpose to the ending of life, that there is no grand purpose to any individual life inbetween when the reality is that this is a load of hooey.

You make your own purpose in life and this doesn't mean your purpose is any less valid than if it were assigned to you by God as some sort of holy homework assignment.

Many people over the centuries have dedicated themselves to the betterment of their fellow man.

Dr. Norman Borlaug dedicated his life to feeding starving people. He has literally saved the lives of millions. His efforts made the world a better place. Was his life meaningless?

John Brown dedicated his life to freeing slaves in the American south. He may well have been a certifiable lunatic but there is little doubt that his actions helped precipitate the Civil War which ultimately freed all the slaves. Was his life meaningless?

One can legitimately question whether the meaning of Brown's life is positive or negative. He used violence in an attempt to spark more violence. Meanwhile, it's likely that the Civil War would have happened eventually anyway because divisions were just so deep.

Meaning is not necessarily positive. Take Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. He had an ideal in mind and decided to persue it through a campaign of terror. Now clearly his ideal is daft and his methods were murderous but in his own twisted mind, he was trying to benefit mankind. His life had meaning.

Atheism is a World of Beauty and Infinite Wonder

Some believers say that Atheists cannot believe in anything that hasn't been concretely proven to them. To a certain degree, this is true. Some believers take this to mean that atheists live in a world of boring facts with no beauty or sense of wonder.

That's just bullshit.

Beauty is not a question of belief or non belief, it is simply a personal preference. A stunningly beautiful sunset is stunningly beautiful to people who like sunsets. A stunningly beautiful desert scene is stunningly beautiful to people who like desert scenes but may be just a bunch of rocks to the guy who likes sunsets.

I like sunsets. I like rainbows. I like forest scenes, ocean scenes, and the color blue. I don't need to believe in a God that created them to think they're beautiful; I merely need to look at them and smile.

A sense of wonder is similarly variable. A believer may look at an ocean and feel a sense of awe at the majesty of creation. I look at an ocean and think "Holy shit, that's a lot of water." The immensity of it impresses me and I suppose there's a certain amount of awe in that, but what really makes me go "Holy shit, that's impressive!" is the triumphs of human achievement.

When I look at the ocean, I'm generally looking at the Atlantic because I live on the east coast. I stand there and look out and I cannot help but think of the first non-explorer Europeans that came to this part of the world. They packed their families in boats for a long ass voyage with no guarantee that they're going to survive the voyage let alone that they're going to survive whatever settlement they made. They left behind everything and almost everyone they knew because they thought they could make a better life in a far away place they had never seen. That takes an amount of courage I can only barely comprehend.

I tell people that there are only two things I have seen that were as impressive as they were cracked up to be. The first one is the Grand Canyon. People try to explain how old the world is and it's just a number that people can't get their minds around. At the Grand Canyon, you can see it. You stand at the edge and you realize that this river carved this canyon and you look at the various layers in the earth and it just blows your mind.

The other thing, believe it or not, is the Sistine Chapel. I was there in 1989 and they were almost done with their restoration. The thing you don't understand when you look at pictures is the scale of the thing. It's pretty freakin' big, and the colors were stunningly vibrant. Michelangelo spent years working on that ceiling, they're stunningly beautiful, and Michelangelo was primarily a sculptor. I don't do anything as well as Michelangelo did that, and I certainly can't produce something that good in my second or third best discipline.

The world is an astonishing place full of beauty, mystery, and wonder and it doesn't take God to see that.

What this is

I have never been a religious person but I never really took it seriously. Lately I have grown more and more convinced that any religion is dangerous and that fundamentalist evangelist religion is exceptionally so.

It is dangerous not just in the sense of car bombs and planes flying into buildings, but in an every day life or death sense.

The President of the United States wants to ban research using stem cells. The people who do this kind of research tell us that these cells are an extremely promising avenue of research that could lead to real life solutions to real life or death issues. Stem cell research could lead to a cure for diabetes or cancer or any number of illnesses and conditions.

I am not a scientist. I am not one of America's leading intellectuals. I am just a guy trying to get through this world as best I can, and this blog is my way of fighting the dangers of religion.