What is the Purpose?

[Neo-Scholastic]

And with religion? How does life become any less hollow? That is the fundamental question here. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE? What purpose does religion give you?

The purpose is to love the Lord and extend the love of Jesus Christ to others.

[Whateverist]

.. any form of atheism that denies teleology makes life a hollow gesture.

I surely do not see why that should be. Hollow because it leaves out what exactly? The satisfaction of knowing one acts in accordance with the Author's intent? That assumes there is a play going on and we've all been given our lines.

[Neo-Scholastic]

I surely do not see why that should be. Hollow because it leaves out what exactly? The satisfaction of knowing one acts in accordance with the Author's intent? That assumes there is a play going on and we've all been given our lines.

If love is a physical process it has no meaning. In the absence of a god, any feeling of love or movement towards desired ends are the inevitable outcome of initial conditions over which you had no control.

[Joel]

I surely do not see why that should be. Hollow because it leaves out what exactly? The satisfaction of knowing one acts in accordance with the Author's intent? That assumes there is a play going on and we've all been given our lines.

If love is a physical process it has no meaning. In the absence of a god, any feeling of love or movement towards desired ends are the inevitable outcome of initial conditions over which you had no control.

What gives it meaning is the special feeling it provides the person/people that are in love. Feelings that are solely for one person.

[Baalzebutt]

I have read the replies from both Mystic and Chad and I still fail to see what percieved purpose religion brings.

Mystic, it seems to me that everything you describe can be worked for and achieved just as easily without a god.

Chad, if loving god and spreading his disease...uh...I mean "word"...is the purpose, I don't really see how that adds anything to ones life beyond having something to love which is just as easily fulfilled with a partner and family.

What I am really asking is, why is an atheistic existence viewed as purposeless by theists? What goal, other than getting to heaven, does religion offer in day-to-day life that is better/nobeler/more desireable than life minus religion?

[Ryantology]

I surely do not see why that should be. Hollow because it leaves out what exactly? The satisfaction of knowing one acts in accordance with the Author's intent? That assumes there is a play going on and we've all been given our lines.

If love is a physical process it has no meaning. In the absence of a god, any feeling of love or movement towards desired ends are the inevitable outcome of initial conditions over which you had no control.

You assume that life, and love, only have meaning if you can call it objective. All this tells me is that your life means only what your dogma says it means, which is that you are the tool of some distant and uncaring god, to be used as he wishes, discarded if he wants, and love him no matter what he does to you. If souls were real, God would be crushing them.

[Neo-Scholastic]

I have read the replies from both Mystic and Chad and I still fail to see what perceived purpose religion brings.

Terms like 'meaning' and purpose' do not apply or make sense in a purely physical world without God.

[Mystic]

it seems to me that everything you describe can be worked for and achieved just as easily without a god.

Well an eternal inheritance of actions and living reality of actions, I don't think can be possible without a spiritual world. As well, intrinsic purpose means it's your purpose regardless of your own opinion or other people's opinions.

While you can value honor for example, I personally find it hard to do so without belief honour has an intrinsic value.

I had a discussion before about this, but I don't think it's possible to give something value without believing it should have value. And for me to believe it should had value, I personally need to believe something as a basis to that, other then we simply believe it due to evolution making us prosper by such beliefs.

The same goes for purpose. I can't find myself giving something purpose unless I believe it should be given that purpose.

[Ryantology]

I have read the replies from both Mystic and Chad and I still fail to see what perceived purpose religion brings.

Terms like 'meaning' and purpose' do not apply or make sense in a purely physical world without God.

Terms like 'meaning' and 'purpose' indeed have no objective application.

[Whateverist]

If love is a physical process it has no meaning. In the absence of a god, any feeling of love or movement towards desired ends are the inevitable outcome of initial conditions over which you had no control.

Perhaps we should be more humble in accepting the gift of existence on its own terms. We have access to love as we find it and honor on the terms we accept (or have been conditioned to accept). Whatever. Perhaps we would have it be a fairy tail of absolute meaning, clear cut good and evil, with ever after waiting at the end. But if that isn't what is offered should we be so ingracious as to spurn the amazing gift of existence as we find it out of loyalty to the one we can imagine? Not me.