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We humans are a actually a link of the evolution of life on earth.Why would we have to have all the answers of how and why the world ticks as it does?
Our knowledge of how the world ticks is in a continue progress .What we don't know today we might know to morrow or may be some issue will remain not understandable for ever.
The hidden problem of your question though is that where you atheists do not know why the world ticks as it does ,we religious people do, because the world was created by God.
That's the confusion between scientific knowledge and the blind belief in a supranatural force.
Moerover whereas religion only apparently gives the right answer about the existence of the universe we atheists know,for real, why God exists ond who created him:not other than men.
Men were not created in God's image but exactly the other way around :God was created by man in his image.
Pretty heretical.What?
Again ,your question implies the assumption that only religion is capable of assuming the task of morality,which is really partly correct.
In the past religion had indeed an important role in spreading ,preserving and even enforcing principle of morality,but we live now in a new era of secular states where the civil society has mostly overtaken this role.
No doubt about it that religion continues to play an important role on what concerns morality but no more an absolute role as in the past.
We see in some of Islamic countries the moral laws of the society imposed by "shaaria".
The view of it is far from being acceptable by western principles whether secular or religious.
I have very bad news for you : there is no afterlife.
Not a single soul in thousands of years has succeeded to return from the "other world" in order to tell us something about it.
All we "know" about the other world is from religious scriptures written whithout any, even the slightest,doubt by human beeings,resulting from their fantasy.
The ethical way of life is imposed by our understanding that only in such a way we can live peacefully in a society and pursue happiness .This we can achieve without the help of religion.
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?
The tendency to convince other people about the rightness of atheism is of the same kind as the tendency of each individual to convince people close to him of his opinions of all kinds ,personal material,moral ,scientifical,you name it.
Here you have struck incidentally on a problem which divides atheism.
Quote:quote='scameter' pid='19750' dateline='1244445056']You got so many interesting answers,each in a most personal view,here are also my opinions:
Quote:1. Do you think it is possible to know why the universe exists?
We humans are a actually a link of the evolution of life on earth.Why would we have to have all the answers of how and why the world ticks as it does?
Our knowledge of how the world ticks is in a continue progress .What we don't know today we might know to morrow or may be some issue will remain not understandable for ever.
The hidden problem of your question though is that where you atheists do not know why the world ticks as it does ,we religious people do, because the world was created by God.
That's the confusion between scientific knowledge and the blind belief in a supranatural force.
Moerover whereas religion only apparently gives the right answer about the existence of the universe we atheists know,for real, why God exists ond who created him:not other than men.
Men were not created in God's image but exactly the other way around :God was created by man in his image.
Pretty heretical.What?
Quote:. How do you think morality can exist without objective authority or verification?
Again ,your question implies the assumption that only religion is capable of assuming the task of morality,which is really partly correct.
In the past religion had indeed an important role in spreading ,preserving and even enforcing principle of morality,but we live now in a new era of secular states where the civil society has mostly overtaken this role.
No doubt about it that religion continues to play an important role on what concerns morality but no more an absolute role as in the past.
We see in some of Islamic countries the moral laws of the society imposed by "shaaria".
The view of it is far from being acceptable by western principles whether secular or religious.
Quote: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?
I have very bad news for you : there is no afterlife.
Not a single soul in thousands of years has succeeded to return from the "other world" in order to tell us something about it.
All we "know" about the other world is from religious scriptures written whithout any, even the slightest,doubt by human beeings,resulting from their fantasy.
The ethical way of life is imposed by our understanding that only in such a way we can live peacefully in a society and pursue happiness .This we can achieve without the help of religion.
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?
The tendency to convince other people about the rightness of atheism is of the same kind as the tendency of each individual to convince people close to him of his opinions of all kinds ,personal material,moral ,scientifical,you name it.
Quote:5. Can you be absolutely certain, without a doubt, that God or something supernatural does not exist?
Here you have struck incidentally on a problem which divides atheism.
