Testing the strength of your Atheism

[Alex K]

AFTT47,

Yep. Think about it - none of your actions can ever be purely based on rationality, because logic is simply a system to arrive at conclusions from given premises or axioms. The first motivation for any action must be a non-rational one, be it instinct or emotion. Suppressing all that would mean loss of all inner drive.

I'm not sure what you mean by "inner drive." The will to live, perhaps?

Yes, in the widest sense, including protection of close relatives esp. offspring.

That's the only reason I can fathom for evolution selecting for emotion. Without that, I might not figure it's worth the trouble to continue on.

For example hunger and thirst are not rational reasons to take action, right? They are states of mind that urge you to do something. Then kicks in rationality and tells you how to obtain them.

Then again, very simple organisms do well enough. An ant takes action to avoid attacks on it and it seems too simple a creature for something as complex as emotion.