IMO, it just means the same as it usually does when someone posts one of these religious ‘Ha! Gotcha!’ arguments. They haven’t really thought it through, and they don’t really understand the viewpoints of their opponents.
A month of hedonism that I can’t remember?
Sounds like half of my 20’s; what’s the big whoop?
Well, it’s a creepy offer, frankly. We’ll get our month of unlimited pleasure thanks to his magic powers? I don’t want him or anyone else monitoring what I’d consider a “happy month”. I mean, what’s his angle? The voyeuristic thrill of watching my idea of decadence? And afterward, do I owe him a favour or a tip or something?
If he’d said we’d get magic powers for a month to do as we wished but we’d afterward not remember any of it, that would be less creepy and more palatable, though still completely pointless. I’m not even sure what the hypothetical is supposed to demonstrate.
More than likely, they have already given the speech to a group of people that were of like mind(or heard someone else give it), got the positive reception a hive mind usually gives in such situations, and expected the same response here. Such people are not receptive to questioning-in their mind, they are here to teach us, and we are here to learn, and if we don’t learn the lesson we have failed.
The meaning of life… is taking personal responsibility for your actions instead of blaming a magical sky pixie.
It’s not even that.
If there were a meaning to life it would be just…living. But there isn’t.
Simply unbelievable. You say to the atheists here that they are contradicting themselves. (Leaving the a out of contradicting looks like just a typo, but maybe you should be more careful about using you’re and your.) In the same post you quote Paul.
You would never see the inconsistency by yourself, so I’ll point it out to you.
Paul repeatedly contradicted the Gospels.
There are far too many examples to list here. Nor will I agree to defend my statement. I am not on trial. Your views are. In the twelve years I have been online I have never seen a successful defense of the Bible as “the word of God.” If you now have an attempt, I’d love to see it. But the burden of proof is on people who make dogmatic religious statements, not on people bombarded with them.
Nor have I even seen a defense of it as any kind of Good Book. It is a pro-slavery, pro-genocide, pro-rape document. Yuck!
And you think you can base morality on it? :rolleyes: Again, it’s simply unbelievable.
- The One True (& Blue) Og***
If you think it would be fun to be a serial killer, and the only reason you’re not one is that you fear eternal retribution, then you’re a monster.
Imagine two kids on a playground - they’re both sharing with the other kids and generally acting nice. One is nice because he’s figured out that he likes being nice and that it’s more fun if everyone behaves like that. The other tells you that he’s rather be punching the other kids in the face and would rather not share anything, but the only reason he acts nice is because his mother has threatened to beat him later.
Which is the better kid?
I’ll just scratch your name off my list of people I’d like to disabuse of their religious beliefs.
As others have said, it doesn’t go without saying.
I don’t consider this statement credible. Most atheists I know would question the premise of your query. Furthermore, this answer is meaningless. “For the memories” is not a “meaning.”
No, I wouldn’t.
Nonsense. What does “permissible” mean anyway in this context? Who’s granting the permission here?
No it doesn’t.
I don’t know any atheists who “try” to be moral. They act on their morals and if they do something they later decide they shouldn’t have, they do something to make up for it. Do or not do. There is no try.
I would never say something so nonsensical.
Plenty of others have said it here, but since you haven’t acknowledged them: Life has no meaning. In fact, it is impossible for life to have a “meaning” or a “purpose.”
“Do you believe in Heaven where you go if you’re good? Do you believe in Hell where you go if you’re evil?”
“I believe a man should be beholding to his neighbour, without the reward of Heaven or the fear of Hellfire.”
“Then they hung Hezekiah because he didn’t have no religion.”
Wait a second,
I thought your God said, “Judgment is mine. Judge not lest ye be judged.”
Have to disagree with the Psychopath label. There is intrinsic value in being good and doing good, I agree, but it is even more than that. What “God” instructs people to do, and how to act, changes from religion to religion. Not a very reliable source of morals. There is a law that governs the interaction of individuals: “You will reap whatsoever you sow.” If you treat people in a negative way you will be unhappy with yourself as well as the people you treat badly. But if you help others with no expectation of any reward you will, in fact, help yourself. The greater the good, the greater the reward.
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the burning of they dogs.
No, I didn’t make it up, if I had it would have been easier to accomplish.
Of course you did. You have no more basis for your personal view of the meaning of life than anyone else does.
Now I’m feeling all disoriented - lekatt has posted something which I agree entirely with.
I’m largely an athiest, but have developed the following world view which, whether or not its accurate, seems to work pretty well in its ability to give me a fullfilling life.
I imagine the whole universe like a fixed tapestry in space/time. The notions of past and future are largely irrelevant. The fact that my 13th birthday happened is fixed in the tapestry and is no less real now than it was then. My goal in life is to make the tapestry as pretty as possible over the 80 odd years I have that I can influence its shape. I do this by trying to maximize the happiness of those who I can influence, myself included. Based on this view I would probably take you up on your 6-month memory free holiday as my pleasure would also be recorded in space/time regardless of whether I remember it. I don’t fear death because my life will stand on its own as it is/was.
When I’m feeling particularly philosophical, I believe (again without proof, but just for the fun of it) that my consciousness is basically the attention of the universe to this particular point in the space/time framework, and that this attention is also displayed in all other people (maybe animals and possibly even rocks?), and so by assisting in their happiness I assisting my own as well.
This provides me with a pretty strong basis for morality, and gives my life meaning without resorting to a divine god,unless you view god as universal attention in which case its pretty impersonal. I may be totally off base but if it makes me feel good, do good, and hurts no one else then who can complain.
Life is performance art.
Just so long as I don’t have to cover myself in codfish to protest mans inhumanity to man.