Scientific Atheists

[AthianGuildmaster]

I've just started noticing after returning here that a lot of you don't seem to require a great deal of "meaning" in your life. That's fine, lol. I'm just trying to figure what gets you through the day. My theory is that a lot of you think very scientifically and therefore do not yearn for meaning as much, mostly for knowledge, whereas many other people like me yearn more for wisdom and insight.

So I'm wondering, how many of you are scientists or planning on becoming one? OR how many of you work in a very technical field that requires a good deal of scientific knowledge?

I look forward to the accumulation of responses.

[TaraJo]

I'm kinda in an in between place here.

I'm going to school for nursing and judging from all the science classes I have to take, yeah, my field is a scientific field, especially biology. That being said, my mom was a nurse for years and I went to work with her a lot. Nursing doesn't look like science that much.

So I dunno. Do with that as you will, I guess.

[pocaracas]

Yeah... something along the lines of nuclear fusion plasmas and tomography of those suckers.... leaning to programming in data acquisition systems.

[Dee Dee Ramone]

I've just started noticing after returning here that a lot of you don't seem to require a great deal of "meaning" in your life. That's fine, lol. I'm just trying to figure what gets you through the day. My theory is that a lot of you think very scientifically and therefore do not yearn for meaning as much, mostly for knowledge, whereas many other people like me yearn more for wisdom and insight.

Atheists might think with their brains, but they have a heart too. It's the combination that gets me through the day. Lol.

[TaraJo]

Atheists might think with their brains, but they have a heart too.

Some do, some don't. Keep in mind that the only thing we have that holds us together as a group is that we all disbelieve in a God. There are stupid atheists and there are asshole atheists out there. For example.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXSn2vvN3N0

[Dee Dee Ramone]

That's quite an asshole indeed.

[CapnAwesome]

Well my degree is in history, but I actually have never used it for anything. I don't really work all that much in a given year, I think people who are defined by their job are living rather shallow lives. We all can have whatever meaning we like in our life.

[Minimalist]

I'm just trying to figure what gets you through the day.

Living beats dying. Unlike the theists we have not concocted an eternal celestial party to attend after we drop dead.

Although, as party's go I think the Norse Valhalla has it all over the xtian heaven. Who wants to sit around kissing jesus' ass for eternity?

[Norfolk And Chance]

I'm not a scientist nor do I plan to become one. Though I do value evidence and logic as any skeptical person would do.

I see no real reason why there should be a meaning to life, no evidence to support an objective meaning to life, and the thought of "life", "it", "everything", having no actual meaning does not phase me one little bit. It simply "is" as far as I can tell, and here we all are living it.

[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.)