If Life is Meaningless Anyway, then What's Wrong with Religion?

[The Grand Nudger]

Uh wrong, I'd say bees (ironicaly) are the single most important organism. Without them we pretty much die.

Nah, you hear that alot, they're important..but mostly for fruiting crops.  Corn, wheat, rice (your staple wind blown cereals)...a world without bees wouldn't affect them.

We're the -reason- that european honeybees are everywhere (native bees and bumble/carpener bees pollinate athe same crops and about as effectively as flies do). They didn't fly across those oceans themselves. Yet another way we're instrumental to the ecosystem.

I;m having trouble seeing what sense, if any, we can be seperated or said to not have a role or place in the ecosystem. As another poster already mentioned, it's pretty much impossible by definition for that to be true. I'm guessing that you mean something specific, by "ecosystem"..such that all of the things that we do are decided to be "not the ecosystem"?

[Huggy Bear]

You familiar with scurvy?

[Seraphina]

One of my ex-girlfriends (a devout Mormon) told me essentially that she wasn't sure if Mormonism's religious claims were true, but that the Church made her happy.  I've thought many times that this stance, which seems fairly common among religious people, was inauthentic.  But given the existential crisis I'm facing right now about the meaninglessness of life, her position on the issue is sounding less and less crazy. 

Sure, I can bash religious people for maintaining beliefs that are easily disprovable.  I can call them inauthentic and willfully blind.  But they don't get up in the morning and wonder what the point of life is.  They know what the point of life is - or at least they think they know.  But why does it really matter whether they're right or wrong about the meaning of life?

This morning I got up and went to the gym as usual.  But when I got to the weight room, lifting weights just seemed so meaningless that I couldn't do it.  What's the point?  Maybe I get big muscles and lose some fat, and maybe women like that, and maybe my athletic performance improves.   But what's the meaning of all that?  I never had that problem when I was religious.  I never walked away from something I wanted to do because it felt meaningless.  

So congratulations fellow atheists, we've correctly solved the puzzle.  We've seen through the bullcrap and have correctly surmised that life is meaningless.  So what do we do, now that we know the true nature of life, which is that life is meaningless?  Well, it really doesn't matter what we do, because life is meaningless!  We can team up and spread the good word that life has no meaning.  We can paint our bodies orange and climb to the top of a mountain and play a harmonica.  We can join a religion.  We can pray to the flying spaghetti monster.  We can make scientific discoveries to help the world, but it doesn't matter, because all the people we help are going to die anyway, and they will die in meaninglessness.  

So maybe religious people aren't that crazy.  They have meaning.  Even if their sense of meaning is rooted in fictional beliefs, at least they have a sense of meaning.  And if life is meaningless anyway, then why does it matter whether a person's sense of meaning is based on fact or fiction?

I haven't read through the entire thread yet as it may have taken a left turn somewhere but I just wanted to respond to your OP.

Frankly, you sound a little down, maybe even depressed. So which came first, feeling down or wondering about religion?

I'm not a believer and my life is just a tiny dot in the grand scheme of things but so what? I still like my life and I personally have other people - like family and friends - to live for. In a century we'll all be gone and none of it will matter anymore but  maybe that's all the more reason to take advantage of the time I have.

[Seraphina]

You familiar with scurvy?

Yes, I see this thread did take a left turn somewhere. 

[LadyForCamus]

Uh wrong, I'd say bees (ironicaly) are the single most important organism. Without them we pretty much die.

Omg, Huggy.  Please don't start on about the BEES!  

[ApeNotKillApe]

[Gemini]

What are you talking about?  If you're claiming that humans are a vital part of an ecosystem then please explain.

If you're claiming that all species other than humans are vital to the ecosystem, please explain.

[robvalue]

The "ecosystem" is whatever is going on at the time. Nothing is vital to it, it's just a matter of how much it would change. The loss of some things would change it more than others. Short of wiping out all of life in one go, the ecosystem isn't dependent on anything. I highly doubt any particular species has this kind of importance.

If it does, it's probably some fundamental bacteria or some shit like that.

[purplepurpose]

InquiringMind, religion doesn't make people happy, it only promises some kind of divine happiness, if you sacrifice your life by doing good things.

The catch with religion is to accept and endure hardwork and postpone the reward your whole life, which is unbearable. 

Does this particular christian in video above is happy?

[Whateverist]

The "ecosystem" is whatever is going on at the time. Nothing is vital to it, it's just a matter of how much it would change. The loss of some things would change it more than others. Short of wiping out all of life in one go, the ecosystem isn't dependent on anything. I highly doubt any particular species has this kind of importance.

If it does, it's probably some fundamental bacteria or some shit like that.

I agree that any one species would probably not topple the web of life.  But collectively the interaction of many may well be needed.  To pick just one important one I think Huggy makes a good point.  We as a species are very dependent on bees at this time.  They pollinate almost all of our crops and it is hard to see how other beneficial insects would pick up the slack if they died out quickly because of a mite or whatever.  Oh, and in case it needs saying, no pollination --> no fruits or veggies.

Our own species is also hugely impactful but mostly in a negative way for the web of life as a whole.  Of course we have provided greater opportunities to some particular species such as rats, cockroaches and pigeons.  But our sense of entitlement to every square inch of the earth's surface as if every creature that doesn't serve or feed us can just go to extinction hell is a big threat for the entire web.