An atheists guide to reality

[Mystic]

I think without the spiritual realm, value of ourselves and our concept of ourselves would be based on something that doesn't verify either of those concepts. At the very least, to find meaning, you have to find value in yourself. I find that we do have intuitive sense of value but when thought from perspective that spiritual doesn't exist, it seems it has no basis and is just fabricated in our minds.

Why does believing in a 'higher power' possibly creating the universe and its inhabitants, cause you to see yourself as having value and purpose? The spiritual ''realm'' is not based on reality, that is what has been 'fabricated' in our minds, to be honest.

Believing or not believing a higher power doesn't cause me to see myself as having value or purpose. We intuitively believe in value. What I'm saying is when I think about no spiritual reality behind our own existence, it seems the properties we assign to our own existence are fabrications that act as if there is a spiritual reality behind are own existence.

To me, it doesn't seem that our concept of ourselves is very accurate when there is no reality behind it but within our minds. It seems if it's whatever we believe in our minds, we simply are whatever we believe we are instead of what we actually are, or rather there is no actual are, rather just believe are.

And the reason I believe it is that way is because we are spiritual entities and value and goodness of ourselves are properties of an actual existing reality, not just some idea. That we are ourselves exist as real entities and not just a concept created by our brains. I believe this is reality and we can sense this reality, and when we separate the spiritual from ourselves and value, we can see it doesn't hold up, because of the nature we can know it actually is and must be.

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To me, it seems it does. It seems it's a false concept if it were the case that it had no metaphysical reality to it. That at the very least, our very selves have to be metaphysical that the qualities we attribute to it have some sort of reality, not just an idea. It seems to me the case the idea of it includes that there is an essence behind it, that the value of it, goodness of it, honour of it etc, are properties of some sort of reality, not just in our minds.

When it was conceded that the sun doesn't revolve around the earth, that we were not the center of the universe, I'm sure some felt that made being human less than it had been when they believed humanity was at the center of the universe. Did it diminish us some from what we had thought? Perhaps. Perhaps our reasons for doing what we do no longer has cosmic significance. But does that mean it has no significance? Some adjustment of our thinking may be involved, but I think it is throwing the baby out with the bath water to suggest that it must be all or nothing. If our meaning doesn't have intrinsic, inherent existence, that doesn't mean it's completely false and worthless.

I'm not talking about how the requirement of having a purpose set by God to give us value. I'm talking about basically any value to ourselves and ourselves having a reality as opposed to being simply a concept within our minds. If it's a concept with no reality, to me, it seems to be a fabrication of the mind.