(January 5, 2012 at 12:11 pm)amkerman Wrote: Can life have meaning w/o God? I mean I understand how we could perceive it to be have meaninb w/o God, but that perception is just illusory isn't it? Without God aren't life and death ultimately meaningless?
It seems so. I find a lot of stuff meaningless, not just life, but everything any theist ever said, too.
Quote:As far as I can understand EITHER life has real meaning and there must be something real which we call "God" or "meaning" OR any "meaning" in life is illusory and people choose to believe in the illusion of God to give their life meaning.
Waffle. WHY does life have to have meaning, and WHY must there be god?
Quote:Believing that meaning is real but that "God" is illusory doesn't make any sense. It's exactly the same belief. It would just be another unverifiable belief for which the word "God" has been replaced with the word "meaning".
Who said meaning is "real"? It's a concept. I might say something along the lines of "I conclude that life and death is meaningless in the scheme of things, however I give my own life meaning" However what I'm really saying is that I'm doing stuff that satisfies me...
When I die, any meaning I ascribed to my life, dies with me.
Quote:If someone could explain how life has real meaning without "God" I am all ears. Honestly I'm not trying to get into an argument I just want to hear the rationalization.
Depends on your definition of meaning, it's nothing more than a concept anyway. For me, the universe is meaningless.
Quote:If you believe it can't and it doesn't that's fine, it's just a difference of opinion. I AM NOT ATTACKING ANYONE's BELIEFS.
Furthermore, since all of our understanding of reality is based upon our perceptions, isn't the belief in the validity of human "perception" exactly the same as a belief in "God"? They are both ultimately beliefs in the unverifiable.
Why would god be unverifiable? I see no good reason why that should be the case.
You are currently experiencing a lucky and very brief window of awareness, sandwiched in between two periods of timeless and utter nothingness. So why not make the most of it, and stop wasting your life away trying to convince other people that there is something else? The reality is obvious.
