(June 8, 2009 at 3:10 am)scameter Wrote: 1. Do you think it is possible to know why the universe exists?
2. How do you think morality can exist without objective authority or verification?
3. If there is no afterlife, what motivation would/should anyone have for living any particular way, such as trying to live ethically, civilly, healthily, or any specific way?
4. If there is no afterlife and no essential or ultimate meaning to existence, why should an atheist care if someone believes in a religion and, indeed, if believing in a religion would make their life easier, would that bother you as an atheist?
5. Can you be absolutely certain, without a doubt, that God or something supernatural does not exist?
1. Maybe. I am comfortable with an answer "I don't know."
2. Objective authority and verification comes from within ourselves, and our neighbours. People do not need someone from outside to tell them "If it harms no one, do what you want."
3. Because it benefits us. If I do not want to be robbed, for example, it behooves me to behave in such a way (I don't rob my neighbours). Morals and ethics are developed by societies so they can live with themselves. You don't need someone to come in from outside and say "Robbery is wrong."
4. Give someone a lie for comfort? That bothers me regardless of my undisclosed religious opinions. No, I do not think the truth needs to be defended by a lie.
5. The crux of Pascal's Wager. But if you believe that something supernatural exists, you are then stuck with the question, "Which something?" Or maybe, "All the somethings proposed by humans are wrong and it is really something different."
"Be ye not lost amongst Precept of Order." - Book of Uterus, 1:5, "Principia Discordia, or How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her."
