Christian "purpose" and "meaning" in life.

[Brakeman]

I doubt my mocking of your stupidity makes your mental instability worse.. It probably can't get any worse.. Unless you are a sock of TC.

[Rampant.A.I.]

Why would praising an imaginary god be "admirable?"

Nonsensical questions require llogical answers and you are short of having sense yet alone common sense. Obviously the person at hand does not believe god is fictional.
You delude yourself into thinking god does not exist so I can easily tell you why do you believe in fairy tales?

If I praise Spongebob Squarepants wold you admire me for it or think I've lost my mind?

No but you are reinforcing the objectivity of the fact that you probably could not pass an SAT exam.

If my neighbor imagines a magical flying turtle and starts spending her every waking hour praising the beast-god, should I be envious of her nuttery?

No but at least she has a turtle while you are left with your inability to maintain a fully functional brain. Neuroscience may be able to help you in the future

You don't even believe in the Christian God, what's with all the butthurt?

[Neo-Scholastic]

Brakeman, I wouldn't make any determinations based on a cartoon.
Especially one that is wrong.

And while you're at it, why don't you tell me how this one is "wrong"

That's one of the finest examples of a straw man I have ever seen. Even a child could see right through it.

[Mudhammam]

How can purely physical things and processes have any meaning at all? Ontological naturalism excludes both final and formal causes. Those exclusions make any form of intentionality impossible.

Secondly a life has meaning in the same way symbolic representations do. Words and pictures point to things other than themselves. Thus a person's life has meaning to the extent that it serves as a sign and symbol of something they value. The difference between atheists and believers is that atheists can only refer to proximate values whereas believers identify with transcendent or eternal values.

I'm really confused by this. Ontological naturalism does not exclude intentionality from physical processes. In fact, it's those physical processes that perhaps for the first time brought intentionality into the Universe through the evolution of brains. Of course, it makes no sense to speak of each individual atom or particle as having intentionality, but it makes all the sense in the world to speak of persons possessing meaning and purposes... which are indeed physical processes at work. In fact, it makes no sense to apply meaning to anything besides physical processes, such as ghosts, gods, and other strictly non-physical fantasies.

I also don't know what you mean by a transcendent or eternal value. It sounds like you want to elevate an intuition or well-reasoned value to the status of sacred, which you define approximately, and then pretend that somehow it's categorically differentiated from the values that atheists develop via experiences in the real world. Talk about a major inflation of the ego, to imagine your values to be so placed on a pedestal without any attempt at justification.

Its not an argument from ignorance. You espouse a a materialist view that intentionally denies that physical systems seek desired ends. Then you engage in special pleading that a certain type of physical process, human brain function, can do so.

Special pleading?! What else is a human brain good for if not creating meaning?! Do rocks do this?

[LoveLogicalLife]

Thee sense of purpose i felt from god was similar to the sense of purpose i felt from my mother when I was a child. My mom was the controlling center of my world. It was good to obey moms rules because it made her happy, and when she was happy with me I was happy because she mattered more than anything. This was sort of how I felt about god later, he was the center of my world. However, my mom exists, the god thing was an illusion of purpose.

[Darkstar]

Obviously, the robot is not a Christian, because Christians would be gleeful just to pop pimples for their creator for eternity.

Speaking of robots...(this may or may not be relevant)

[Rabb Allah]

Nonsensical questions require llogical answers and you are short of having sense yet alone common sense. Obviously the person at hand does not believe god is fictional.
You delude yourself into thinking god does not exist so I can easily tell you why do you believe in fairy tales?
No but you are reinforcing the objectivity of the fact that you probably could not pass an SAT exam.


No but at least she has a turtle while you are left with your inability to maintain a fully functional brain. Neuroscience may be able to help you in the future

You don't even believe in the Christian God, what's with all the butthurt?

Are you dumb? What on earth does Yahweh have to do with anything?

[Rampant.A.I.]

You must have missed the thread title.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Ontological naturalism does not exclude intentionality from physical processes. In fact, it's those physical processes that perhaps for the first time brought intentionality into the Universe through the evolution of brains…What else is a human brain good for if not creating meaning?!

I am not arguing that intentionality is not a feature found in reality. I do say that theories based on ontological naturalism (or just naturalism) are inconsistent with the fact that intentionality is part of our reality.

Since the time of Francis Bacon, natural science has proceeded on the assumption that all physical processes can be fully described using only two the four Aristotelian causes: efficient and material cause. In biology, this culminates in Richard Dawkins‘s book, “The Blind Watchmaker”. Evolutionary processes do not seek desired ends any more than the planets do in their revolutions around the sun. To have a consistent worldview, the naturalist must apply the same rules to all evolved features regardless of whether it is the horn of the rhino or human prefrontal cortex.

As it relates to this this thread, meaning is a particular kind of intentionality. The atheistic claim is that life can have meaning without God. Leaving aside whether the ultimate source of meaning comes from a Supreme Being or not, the naturalist that a says his life has meaning cannot do so without making reference to the very intentionality that he denies.

I also don't know what you mean by a transcendent or eternal value.

Sure you do. Here I am talking about purpose, a second type of intentionality. Purpose is the final end someone seeks to achieve. If the final end endures without ceasing, I call that eternal. For example, the Great Commission charges Christians with the specific purpose of helping win souls for the Kingdom, which if true, produces permanent results with never-ending repercussions. If atheism is true, then humans accomplishments have no lasting value. Buildings decay. Monuments topple. Legacies wither. The sun explodes and everyone dies. Confronted with the vanity of earthly existence, the atheist cannot hope that the purpose for which they live has any value beyond the immediate future. In contrast to this, Christians can have such hope.

[Rampant.A.I.]

...That Santa will come down the chimney, and give them the present of eternal life, but only if they spend every day devoted to his Eight Holy Reindeer, and the Sacrement of The Rosy Cheeks and Bowl Full Of Jelly prayer.