(January 5, 2012 at 12:11 pm)amkerman Wrote: Can life have meaning w/o God? I mean I understand how we could perceive it to be have meaninb w/o God, but that perception is just illusory isn't it? Without God aren't life and death ultimately meaningless?
Before putting forward a question like this you should understand the philosophical underpinnings of the concepts involved.
You are talking about meaning, i.e. the purpose, intention or significance of life here. You are not talking about a cause. For life to have a purpose, someone must have ascribed that purpose. For life to have significance, it must be significant to someone. For life to have meaning, it must be meaningful to someone. The only thing necessary about that "someone" is that he should have the necessary sentience. That is he should be able to think and to conceptualize.
That someone need not be god. That someone need not even be the cause of that life. People assign purpose and significance to things all the time. Why should life require god?
(January 5, 2012 at 12:11 pm)amkerman Wrote: As far as I can understand EITHER life has real meaning and there must be something real which we call "God" or "meaning" OR any "meaning" in life is illusory and people choose to believe in the illusion of God to give their life meaning.
There should be something real, but that thing need not be god. That simply needs to be sentience or consciousness.
(January 5, 2012 at 12:11 pm)amkerman Wrote: Believing that meaning is real but that "God" is illusory doesn't make any sense. It's exactly the same belief. It would just be another unverifiable belief for which the word "God" has been replaced with the word "meaning".
Nonsense.
My life has meaning to me. I determine the purpose and significance of my life. Even if god were real, which he is not, I would not let him dictate the purpose and significance of MY life.
The meaning of my life is not a belief. It is not an absolute fact that you simply have to accept. It is something that you have to determine. Being alive does not automatically give your life meaning. YOU need to assign a meaning to it. If you choose to escape the responsibility and let it be assigned by anyone claiming to speak for god, then life would be less meaningful.
(January 5, 2012 at 12:11 pm)amkerman Wrote: Furthermore, since all of our understanding of reality is based upon our perceptions, isn't the belief in the validity of human "perception" exactly the same as a belief in "God"? They are both ultimately beliefs in the unverifiable.
Actually, it is diametrically opposite. Belief in god requires suspension in belief in human perception. Belief in god requires acceptance as valid something that cannot be perceived. Validity of reality is an axiomatic truth which has to be accepted for any knowledge to be possible and every belief you hold, even your belief in god, assumes it as true. But then the idea of god goes on to try and disprove its own axiom.
