RE: Why Why?
November 15, 2021 at 7:20 am
(This post was last modified: November 15, 2021 at 7:43 am by The Grand Nudger.)
I suppose we could expect broad agreement between atheists on the question of why why and it's relationship to myths about gods. Gods, though, are a tiny sliver of all answers to that question. There's something other than a person not believing in gods going on if no possible answer to the question is entertained as valid, though, I think.
Nothing to something is a bit vague and unrepresentative. There are all sorts of processes that can turn disorder into order, though. Life, broadly, is one of them. We're a strong agent to that effect, specifically. I would expect any living creature capable of wondering about why to incorporate some comment on their own mortality, but if escaping death were the entire answer to why I have a why..I'd feel as dissatisfied as you might, Ferry, with the notion that the whole of why was to praise someone else. I think that alot of people would. It certainly wouldn't explain ideations about purpose which surround us giving up our own lives to it's ends.
I'm not sure if we're maintaining a consistent sense of terms when we insist that there's no reason behind our existence, and specifically when we chase that with comments about process and something from nothing. Using that as a springboard to declare why why void. There are all sorts of reasons for our existence, and all sorts of attendant processes related to that. Is there some specific reason that these things are incapable of providing valid insight into human purpose? When people insist that science or the natural world can't provide such purpose..is that a true statement or something born out of the history of attempting to avoid conflict with answers to purpose which arise from the divine? Isn't it possible that those divine answers to why are, themselves, misapprehensions of some natural and at least conceptually scientific fact?
Let's argue counterfactually about a thing. It's not really the point of life to praise a god - but if it were..that would be a purpose. A purpose we're individually dissatisfied with. Is it not possible, similarly, for there to be a valid natural teleology that disappoints common human misapprehensions and demands of purpose? Wouldn't science be a tool for describing that natural teleology? Wouldn't that natural teleology reduce to natural facts about human beings and their relationships to everything around them? If it does, wouldn't that provide a more accurate account of the focus of religious ideation?
Why do you wake up every day and do what you do? Why do you put in the effort, why do you sacrifice? Why do you risk? Are there things more important in your life and to your life than your life? It's not gods, but it's something..and how does it escape the criticism offered of divine purpose, or, indeed, the insistence that there is no purpose at all? Does that apply to you, to whatever it is that compels you? Is that a non thing? Say a person told you, to your face..... that there is no why to any of what you do or are in mere reality. Is that something you'd accept as a true statement? Think of the thing(s) that you are the most invested in, that you feel the closest to. It could be big or small, it doesn't matter, just that you derive a sense of purpose and meaning that informs you on how to live your life (or give up your life) from it. Can you argue against your own statements with respect to that thing, or are you forced to concede that your thing is no more or less false than the belief that the why is to worship a god?
Nothing to something is a bit vague and unrepresentative. There are all sorts of processes that can turn disorder into order, though. Life, broadly, is one of them. We're a strong agent to that effect, specifically. I would expect any living creature capable of wondering about why to incorporate some comment on their own mortality, but if escaping death were the entire answer to why I have a why..I'd feel as dissatisfied as you might, Ferry, with the notion that the whole of why was to praise someone else. I think that alot of people would. It certainly wouldn't explain ideations about purpose which surround us giving up our own lives to it's ends.
I'm not sure if we're maintaining a consistent sense of terms when we insist that there's no reason behind our existence, and specifically when we chase that with comments about process and something from nothing. Using that as a springboard to declare why why void. There are all sorts of reasons for our existence, and all sorts of attendant processes related to that. Is there some specific reason that these things are incapable of providing valid insight into human purpose? When people insist that science or the natural world can't provide such purpose..is that a true statement or something born out of the history of attempting to avoid conflict with answers to purpose which arise from the divine? Isn't it possible that those divine answers to why are, themselves, misapprehensions of some natural and at least conceptually scientific fact?
Let's argue counterfactually about a thing. It's not really the point of life to praise a god - but if it were..that would be a purpose. A purpose we're individually dissatisfied with. Is it not possible, similarly, for there to be a valid natural teleology that disappoints common human misapprehensions and demands of purpose? Wouldn't science be a tool for describing that natural teleology? Wouldn't that natural teleology reduce to natural facts about human beings and their relationships to everything around them? If it does, wouldn't that provide a more accurate account of the focus of religious ideation?
Why do you wake up every day and do what you do? Why do you put in the effort, why do you sacrifice? Why do you risk? Are there things more important in your life and to your life than your life? It's not gods, but it's something..and how does it escape the criticism offered of divine purpose, or, indeed, the insistence that there is no purpose at all? Does that apply to you, to whatever it is that compels you? Is that a non thing? Say a person told you, to your face..... that there is no why to any of what you do or are in mere reality. Is that something you'd accept as a true statement? Think of the thing(s) that you are the most invested in, that you feel the closest to. It could be big or small, it doesn't matter, just that you derive a sense of purpose and meaning that informs you on how to live your life (or give up your life) from it. Can you argue against your own statements with respect to that thing, or are you forced to concede that your thing is no more or less false than the belief that the why is to worship a god?
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