Hello. I am new to the forum and this is my first post so if my question seems ridiculous or redundant please forgive me (also English isn't my first language). I will try to give it some context below and describe it in detail.
I am an atheist at this time of my life and I think I will remain an atheist, if not for the occurrence of an epiphany later on, which does not seem very probable to me (I am 25). To me it isn't so much a choice being an atheist but it is rather what life has shaped me to be so far so I am not interested in debating atheism or the existence of supernatural beings. I am interested in answers from other atheists who asked themselves this question because they had the same dilemma.
My question is not what is the meaning of life, because I don't feel you can give meaning to life and I think life just is. If you choose to give it some personal meaning, to me it seems somewhat irrelevant or to no purpose in the grand scheme of things (what I mean by this is how insignificant we are in relation to the universe we inhabit). So this leaves to me a scenario where we live a life without meaning to experience different things and ideally to draw pleasure from them. But to what extent can we really do that? Let's assume we have reached a certain age when we have already experienced a wide array of sensations and feelings and we have saw and done a lot of things. It just seems to me that all that will follow are variations of these things in a somewhat repetitive pattern. Sure, some may seem fun or exciting or beautiful at first, but the longer you repeat something it starts to lose it's initial appeal. If we combine this with the struggles of living and surviving in the world and with the pain and suffering that comes with it (that seems to increase with age at least for me), then I am left to ask myself why is life worth living?
I am an atheist at this time of my life and I think I will remain an atheist, if not for the occurrence of an epiphany later on, which does not seem very probable to me (I am 25). To me it isn't so much a choice being an atheist but it is rather what life has shaped me to be so far so I am not interested in debating atheism or the existence of supernatural beings. I am interested in answers from other atheists who asked themselves this question because they had the same dilemma.
My question is not what is the meaning of life, because I don't feel you can give meaning to life and I think life just is. If you choose to give it some personal meaning, to me it seems somewhat irrelevant or to no purpose in the grand scheme of things (what I mean by this is how insignificant we are in relation to the universe we inhabit). So this leaves to me a scenario where we live a life without meaning to experience different things and ideally to draw pleasure from them. But to what extent can we really do that? Let's assume we have reached a certain age when we have already experienced a wide array of sensations and feelings and we have saw and done a lot of things. It just seems to me that all that will follow are variations of these things in a somewhat repetitive pattern. Sure, some may seem fun or exciting or beautiful at first, but the longer you repeat something it starts to lose it's initial appeal. If we combine this with the struggles of living and surviving in the world and with the pain and suffering that comes with it (that seems to increase with age at least for me), then I am left to ask myself why is life worth living?
