Question for Atheists

[Lek]

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.

Christ teachings were quite relevant to life on earth. He was concerned with improving the lot of the poor and sick. He didn't just say "suffer now, but heaven is coming, but healed and fed. His parables were mostly all about life situations which also carried a spiritual message. Christians are concerned with life on earth, as we were called to care for all of creation. I need to support my family and prefer to find work that is satisfying. I've got a house and a couple of cars, but they will be gone some day. I'm always looking for enjoyment in this life, but it is temporary and the best is yet to come. I find enjoyment in commenting on this forum. Of course, there are avenues that I don't pursue because they are against God's desires. But, like I said before, going after those things which provided temporary pleasure, didn't provide fufillment or satisfaction. I have received more satisfaction from christianity. Though I don't see this as happening, if I'm wrong I won't care because there will be nothing left of me after death to regret my life here.

[Cyberman]

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 it's all a matter of opinion?

[*Deidre*]

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.

Christ teachings were quite relevant to life on earth. He was concerned with improving the lot of the poor and sick. He didn't just say "suffer now, but heaven is coming, but healed and fed. His parables were mostly all about life situations which also carried a spiritual message. Christians are concerned with life on earth, as we were called to care for all of creation. I need to support my family and prefer to find work that is satisfying. I've got a house and a couple of cars, but they will be gone some day. I'm always looking for enjoyment in this life, but it is temporary and the best is yet to come. I find enjoyment in commenting on this forum. Of course, there are avenues that I don't pursue because they are against God's desires. But, like I said before, going after those things which provided temporary pleasure, didn't provide fufillment or satisfaction. I have received more satisfaction from christianity. Though I don't see this as happening, if I'm wrong I won't care because there will be nothing left of me after death to regret my life here.

I wish all Christians would speak as you do. You, are speaking from your heart, and not ''preaching.'' For that, I thank you.

I suppose we will all find out for certain, one way or the other, after we die. That's the common ground EVERYONE shares, regardless of the labels.

[Lek]

I suppose we will all find out for certain, one way or the other, after we die. That's the common ground EVERYONE shares, regardless of the labels.

We agree. Also, thanks for the compliment.

[Khansins]

@Khansins

---

" My dear respected brothers and sisters, we have to ask ourselves a further question. When you see a bridge, a building or an automobile, you automatically consider the person or company that constructed it. When you see a large ship, an airplane, a rocket, a satellite; you also think about how incredible it is. [You know by its design who the maker is.] When you see a super international airport, nuclear plant or an orbiting space station you have to be thoroughly impressed with the engineering dynamics that are involved. Yet, these are just things that are manufactured by human beings. So what about the human body with its massive and intricate control systems? Think about it.

Think about the brain: how it thinks, functions, analyzes, retrieves and stores information, as well as distinguishes and categorizes information in a millionth of a second, all of this constantly.

Think about the brain for a moment. (And don't forget the fact that you are using your brain to consider itself!) This is the brain that made the automobile, the rocket ships, the boats, and so on. Think about the brain and who made that!

Think about the heart. Think about how it pumps continuously for sixty or seventy years [taking in and discharging blood throughout the body] maintaining steady precision throughout the life of the person.

Think about the kidneys and the liver and the various functions they perform. The purifying instruments of the body that perform hundreds of chemical analyses simultaneously and also controls the level of toxicity in the content of the body. All of these are done automatically.

Think about your eyes, the human cameras, that adjust, focus, interpret, evaluate, discern color automatically, naturally receiving and adjusting to light and distance.

Think about it-Who created them? Who has mastered their design and function? Who plans and regulates their function? Human beings do this? No, of course not. What about this universe?

Think about this. This earth is one planet in our solar system, and our solar system is one [of possible many] solar systems. Our galaxy, The Milky Way, is one of the galaxies. There are ONE HUNDRED MILLION GALAXIES in the universe. They are all in order and they are all precise. They are not colliding with each other. They are not conflicting with on another. They are swimming along in an orbit that has been set for them. Did human beings set that into motion and are human beings maintaining that precision? No, of course not.

Think about the oceans, the fish, the insects, the birds, the plants, bacteria, and chemical elements that have not yet been discovered and cannot be detected even with the most sophisticated instruments. Yet each of them has a law that they follow. Did all of this synchronization, balance, harmony, variation, design, maintenance, operation and infinite numeration happen all by chance? Do these things function perfectly and perpetually also by chance? No, of course not. That would be totally illogical and foolish. In the least, it indicates that however it came to exist-it exists beyond the realm of human capability. We will all agree to that. The Being, The Almighty Power, God, The Creator who has the knowledge to design and proportion created all of this and is responsible for maintaining it. HE is the only one that deserves praise and gratitude.

If I were to give each one of you one hundred dollars for no reason, just for being here, you would at least say thank you. What about your eyes, your kidneys, your brain, your children, and your life: Who gave you all of that? Is He not worthy of praise and thanks? Is He not worthy of your worship and recognition?

Our purpose in this life is to recognize The Creator, to be grateful to Him, to worship Him, to surrender ourselves to Him and to obey the laws that He has determined for us. It means worship is our purpose in life. Whatever we do in the course of that worship, [i.e., the eating, the sleeping, the dressing, the working, the enjoying,] between birth and death is consequential and subject to His orders. But the main reason for our creation is worship. I don't think anyone who is analytical or scientific will have much of an argument with that purpose. They may have some other reason with themselves-but that is something they have to deal with between themselves and Almighty God."

---

Also, Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Anyways, the sad thing about the text which you quote, apart from the fact that it is a more boring rehash of Paley's watchmaker argument... what I find so irritating is that the preacher is apparently willfully ignorant. He either lies or is wrong about several things which are well understood by science - he is just not on the necessary level of scientific discourse to be taken seriously by me, in other words, he sounds like an idiot. Case in point:

Think about this. This earth is one planet in our solar system, and our solar system is one [of possible many] solar systems. Our galaxy, The Milky Way, is one of the galaxies. There are ONE HUNDRED MILLION GALAXIES in the universe. They are all in order and they are all precise. They are not colliding with each other.

(emphasis of particularly stupid parts mine)
First of all, it's one hundred BILLION galaxies in the observable universe. Well, whatever, three orders of magnitude can happen. We know that there are many many other solar systems, but hey, maybe the latest Kepler data eluded the writer of these lines.
The point is, whoever wrote this rant apparently didn't bother to really learn anything about the cosmos, and that really makes me sad, because such ignorance is passed on to people like you.

Of course Galaxies collide, not only are Galaxies like ours formed by collisions of smaller ones, indeed we are in a collision course with Andromeda. Here's a many particle simulation for you depicting the development in the next few billion years




I'll leave you with an inspirational picture of NGC5426 while you can contemplate how profoundly you are being misled.



By the way, that's a photo, not an artist's impression. Reality is so much more interesting than the simplistic fairy tales of your preachers. And I'm not even going into the complete ignorance of evolution on display here.

Think about the brain for a moment.
Think about the heart.
Think about your eyes

Alright. So let me explain this. What he meant was this. Everything in this world is in correct order and in perfect calm state. When sun rises in the morning from the east , it will always rise from the east. It will never rise from the west. But when it does , that day will be the Day of Judgement( Our belief ). All the Universe's particles are in constant struggle with each other. The collision in cosmos is also a struggle to achieve a perfect order. 99% of the universe is expanding. They expand by either struggle or collision with other particles.

So by saying that nothing collides with each other is Ofcourse wrong. And I perceive that the speaker was well aware of the fact i just described above. Clash of things must happen to gain a content state in this universe.

[Chas]

Also see this. Scientific Research of Prayer: Can the Power of Prayer Be Proven?

By Debra Williams, D.D. ( http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm)

Do you really call that a scientific paper?

The rest of your citations weren't any better.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

"But how can an eye have evolved??"

Billions of years.

I often think that people who think evolution is false fail to remember just how long billions of years actually is.

[Alex K]

So by saying that nothing collides with each other is Ofcourse wrong. And I perceive that the speaker was well aware of the fact i just described above.

I am aware that you have to do this kind of gymnastics in order to remain religious, reinterpreting the obvious to mean the opposite, but please understand that I am not quite as well-trained in the art of bending over backwards as you.

Oh no, he wasn't aware, he said "They are all in order and they are all precise. They are not colliding with each other". That's what he said, if he meant the opposite but it's impossible to tell from the text, what other things does he maybe mean completely differently from what is actually in the text? Maybe he really wants you to become an atheist, because by "belief in God" he really means "there is no God"?

[Fidel_Castronaut]

So by saying that nothing collides with each other is Ofcourse wrong. And I perceive that the speaker was well aware of the fact i just described above.

I am aware that you have to do this kind of gymnastics in order to remain religious, reinterpreting the obvious to mean the opposite, but please understand that I am not quite as well-trained in the art of bending over backwards as you.

Oh no, he wasn't aware, he said "They are all in order and they are all precise. They are not colliding with each other". That's what he said, if he meant the opposite but it's impossible to tell from the text, what other things does he maybe mean completely differently from what is actually in the text? Maybe he really wants you to become an atheist, because by "belief in God" he really means "there is no God"?

It's like when folk say the Quran says the Earth was/is a sphere, despite the fact it really isn't a sphere at all.

[Cyberman]

Alright. So let me explain this. What he meant was this. Everything in this world is in correct order and in perfect calm state. When sun rises in the morning from the east , it will always rise from the east. It will never rise from the west. But when it does , that day will be the Day of Judgement( Our belief ).

Well done for confirming that there can never be a 'Day of Judgement'.