(March 7, 2014 at 1:09 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Firstly, the word carries with it the connotation of “lasting value”. Anyone can see that apart from an afterlife, mankind’s achievements are, to borrow a line from Kansas, “dust in the wind.” When confined to the brief span of their days, the meanings people assign to the things of their life vanish with them. In some sense, atheists can take comfort in this notion and the sense of liberty it can give them. As a former atheist, I say this from personal experience.
What is the lasting value of human achievement according to the Christian faith, which repeatedly downplays the relevance of human ambition and desire, the corrupt, flawed nature of this world, and the final battle of Revelation which will render all terrestrial affairs irrelevant? Really, the ultimate complain I have about the whole mess is "why doesn't this timeless god just skip all this bullshit theater and get right to the eventual point?"
Nothing sounds more nihilistic to me than the idea that I don't even have the right to enjoy my life for its own sake, because I exist only because I am an insignificant cog in the vast machinery of a vague and incomprehensible master plan concocted by a being who is infinitely distant and impossible to relate to.
Compared to that, the idea that I'm living out my short existence for the sake of the pleasures and experiences I can get in the blink of a cosmic eye sounds a lot less terrifying and pointless.
