Scientific Atheists

[Angrboda]

Well, I'm not an atheist, a scientist or a professional. Though I've always been very interested in science.


My main hobbies (besides atheism) are philosophy and study of the human mind. I think discussions about meaning in life can get hamstrung on definitions, as I think many people interpret the question of meaning to refer to objective meaning, or meaning that comes from outside one's self. Much like the question of objective versus subjective morality, there are differing views on where meaning can come from, and how. Some will suggest that either morals or meaning which isn't objective isn't "true meaning/morals" — that the idea of personal, chosen meaning is an oxymoron.

My personal belief is that human existence has meaning, but that it's neither objective in the usual sense, nor subjective in the usual sense (as being a product of one's subjectivity). My belief is that meaning, human meaning, is like a Kantian category: our thinking already presupposes it; we are embedded in a dimension of [life] meaning as a consequence of the way our minds work. Just like we can't imagine existing in two dimensions or four, only three, we can't think an existence in which there is no "meaning" dimension. And what is commonly referred to as meanginglessness is likely more a positively felt absence of meaning; if a person has no sense of meaning, what would the person feel the absence of? No, you can have fulfilling meaning, depressing meaning, dissatisfying absence of meaning, but in all these cases the dimension of meaning exists and has attributes. (There are reasons for this, imo, but I'm not going to go into my theories.)