(March 13, 2014 at 8:08 pm)Lek Wrote:

(March 13, 2014 at 7:46 pm)whateverist Wrote: Amen. I'd also like to know why he doesn't think his own decision to go all in on goddidit doesn't count as creating his own meaning/purpose. It is his own decision to assign meaning there. How hard can it be for him to understand that others make their own choices too and, gosh darn it, sometimes we just don't choose what he has chosen.

I did answer the question you referenced. It was a couple days ago. I also understand that others choose differently than me. My original question was related to whether atheists care about the "why" of our existence or not.

Ultimately, whether or not you claim to attribute meaning to a god, atheists and theists agree: The only meaning that is meaningful is the meaning you create. Your meaning is found in imagination. Mine is found in being a conscious being in a world full of other conscious (or so I mostly assume) beings.

(March 13, 2014 at 8:19 pm)Simon Moon Wrote:

(March 13, 2014 at 7:33 pm)Lek Wrote: I 've experienced the same thoughts. How could anybody stand to live forever? It sounds very scary. Actually, I think most people have the wrong notion of the afterlife. According to scripture, we will be physically resurrected on the last day. We will have physical bodies and will eat and drink and all that stuff - the bible speaks of the great feast. The bible also says that after the resurrection we will live on the "new earth", possibly a recreation od Eden. So I imagine we'll probably have jobs to do and so on and need an abode of some kind. Though worship of God will be the biggest thing, our existence will be physical. As far as the"eternal" part goes, we probably won't exist in time and will be living in the moment and will have no thought as of the length of time. Nothing says we will know everything God knows and we'll probably continually be learning. Before you go off on this because of preconceived notions of the afterlife, the latter part of this post contains my personal idea of possible senarios, but the parts about the physical body, the new earth and the feast are in the bible.

Are the new bodies a reproduction of when we were in our prime?

What about those that had deformities in this life, will they have an un-deformed body in the afterlife?

What about those with mental retardation? Will they get a new brain in the afterlife?

What about those that died in the womb or as infants? Do they get a fully grown body?

You seem to know a lot about what happens in the afterlife, please inform us.

Read 1 Corinthians, chap 15. Our bodies will be like Christ's resurrected body. No aging, no sickness, no death, etc.

Takes too much faith to believe in that when God did such a terrible job designing these bodies.

(March 13, 2014 at 8:08 pm)Lek Wrote: I did answer the question you referenced. It was a couple days ago. I also understand that others choose differently than me. My original question was related to whether atheists care about the "why" of our existence or not.

How specific an answer are you hoping for? Are you seeking marching orders, an assignment of some kind? When you're younger and pursuing an education and life experiences, I suppose that is a kind of purpose.

Once you've gotten a sense of the 'lay of the land' and what you care about you are largely on your own to assign yourself to the projects of your choosing. What has changed is the flexibility you have in your choices. At one time, your birth parents and their circumstances would have entirely dictated your prospects. Now we are not quite so thoroughly indentured to the happenstance of our birth. That puts the onus on us to choose for ourselves. Admittedly it is a relatively new development in the affairs of men, but there are clear advantages. Welcome to the modern world.

@OP how would you feel if God said that your role in life is to make meaning out of your true love?

"God wouldn't say that" in 3... 2... 1...

(March 13, 2014 at 7:33 pm)Lek Wrote: I 've experienced the same thoughts. How could anybody stand to live forever? It sounds very scary. Actually, I think most people have the wrong notion of the afterlife. According to scripture, we will be physically resurrected on the last day. We will have physical bodies and will eat and drink and all that stuff - the bible speaks of the great feast. The bible also says that after the resurrection we will live on the "new earth", possibly a recreation od Eden. So I imagine we'll probably have jobs to do and so on and need an abode of some kind. Though worship of God will be the biggest thing, our existence will be physical. As far as the"eternal" part goes, we probably won't exist in time and will be living in the moment and will have no thought as of the length of time.

So god's solution to this is to brainwash me so that my perceptions of linear time change? Because that's the only way that's going to happen; human consciousness is temporal.

Quote: Nothing says we will know everything God knows and we'll probably continually be learning. Before you go off on this because of preconceived notions of the afterlife, the latter part of this post contains my personal idea of possible senarios, but the parts about the physical body, the new earth and the feast are in the bible.

Even if I go to heaven with exactly the same level of knowledge as I had when I died, eternity is enough time for me to learn all the things it's possible to know, and to get bored of them. The only way to avoid that is for the afterlife to not be static, but that would require god to create more things, calling into question whether god's initial plan to bring us all to heaven gradually had any point to it at all.

We're making comments abut how we think the afterlife will be, mostly based on human perceptions gained from experiences in this world. Scripture says it will be great, and since I have chosen to believe scripture, that what I'm looking forward to. As for my life here - I lived trying to do it my way for quite awhile and didn't find it fufilling. I believe in Christ. This is where I find my fufillment here and I'm also looking forward to the life to come.

(March 16, 2014 at 1:58 pm)Lek Wrote: We're making comments abut how we think the afterlife will be, mostly based on human perceptions gained from experiences in this world. Scripture says it will be great, and since I have chosen to believe scripture, that what I'm looking forward to. As for my life here - I lived trying to do it my way for quite awhile and didn't find it fufilling. I believe in Christ. This is where I find my fufillment here and I'm also looking forward to the life to come.

So u tried it one way and it didnt work? One way is not enough. . Try it another way.. dont give up that easy.. ur settling

(January 30, 2014 at 11:48 pm)Lek Wrote: I have a powerful desire to know why the universe exists and our purpose for existence as individuals. I don't see science as a way to discover this. Do atheists search for the same thing and, if so, what is their source or method? I think most atheists don't see any purpose at all.

The purpose of life is unique for every person. As every person's life is unique. The purpose of a religious person's life, as I was once one, is to keep gazing at a supposed after life. Christians especially have their eyes here, and their eyes focused elsewhere, which to me is a selfish way to live THIS life. Becoming preoccupied with an after life, if one exists, robs a person of his/her life, here and now.

Fixating on an after life to me, cheapens this existence, and how often do we hear Christianity preach that ''we are here temporarily, it's the after life that matters most.''

Sad to me, really.