dqualk Wrote:So I'm curious... aww that spark of wonder, it seems to me that there are two worldviews out there with a high view of reason. One states that there is love, there is beauty, there is meaning. The other states, that in truth there is no love, beauty or meaning, these things are actually the result of material interactions etc. The only love, beauty and meaning are actually just a lie that we believe because it feels good (which is ultimately irrational, but who cares right?). This always boils down to Theism (in its broadest sense) and atheism in its material sense.
Your argument is already seriously illogical. Material in nature =/= No beauty, meaning or love.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is a statement about one's aesthetic attraction to objects concepts or relationships - What difference does the existence of a god make to a person having an aesthetic attraction to something else? Absolutely none.
Love is a set of interrelated emotions, there is the love associated with kinship, the emotion that holds together friendships and wider families, there is the love associated with partnership and sex that binds marriages and there is the love associated with stewardship that gives us reason to care for our children and dependants - The addition of some cosmic being to this equation makes no difference - This question should illustrate that: Does god's love exist without other beings? If that is the case then God loves rocks and hydrogen and vacuum energy and has done so for longer than he ever loved us - If this is the case then love is unimportant and can be applied to the inanimate - If God's love is contingent upon a relationship with other beings then it is no more special than any other love and is contingent upon interaction in the exact same way that human love is.
Meaning only exists in a fleeting sense, grounded in and contingent upon our desires. If the lack of cosmic meaning is a concern to you the only response I can think of is "So what?". The fact that you desire some cosmic meaning says naught about whether or not there is one. Given a logical and analytical approach to reality there is none to be found, and we just have to accept that - Reality is what it is regardless of what any of us want it to be - It all comes down to a simple question, do you value comfort or truth? The truth doesn't exist to make us feel good, delusions however do and arise all the time for that exact purpose.
Quote:The point of all this rambling is to arrive at a Cross roads between meaningfulness and meaninglessness. Why would anyone choose to accept a reality void of meaning? Christianity, especially Catholicism, is not irrational. In fact, Reason is strongest when it flows from the Ultimate Reason; reason is stronger within Catholicism than it is in any other worldview, especially atheism.
Comfort it is then...
And before you try and claim my life is void of meaning perhaps you would like to make the incredibly obvious distinction between personal meaning and cosmic meaning. The absence of cosmic meaning does nothing to diminish the contingent and emergent meaning we experience.
Oh, reason you say? Perhaps you would like to show us your reasons for thinking that this ultimate being exists, after all, your worldview and all of these supposed benefits like your 'stronger reason from ultimate reason' are entirely contingent upon the presupposition that this being exists. If God does not exist then your 'reason' is bankrupt.
Quote:So why choose to believe that there is no meaning, when there is such a BEAUTIFUL system given to us by the God-man Christ, which is so meaningful?
In Christ
I, in my subjective experience of aesthetics, find the idea of an algorithm creating a hierarchy of complexity to be far more beautiful and profound that any concept of an absent cosmic parent and his 'son' coming to save us from the sin they planned from the dawn of time (everything happens according to God's plan right?).
Your 'Christ-man' is a fantasy and belief in him is something that is entirely unjustified. Enjoy your delusion while it lasts, I will continue to find awe, satisfaction, beauty and meaning in the reality that I am justified in believing, the reality that has more to offer me than I could ever hope to take use of in my fleeting and finite existence.
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