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Myth: Atheists Find No Meaning In Life, The Universe, Or Anything

I've seen where a lot of religious believers reject atheism (and atheists) because a secular viewpoint doesn't offer them any sort of higher meaning or sense of purpose to their lives. This sort of complaint is actually one of the reasons why many atheists see religion as a sort of crutch or a comforting delusion. To me and a lot of other atheists, these believers seem to be saying that life is meaningless without God and that the idea really bothers them. They even seem to be saying that they crave a sense of meaning or importance so strongly that they don't care if their views are wrong. In other words - from many an atheist's viewpoint at least - they are saying that they need to see the world this way and that's what they are going to do no matter what! I wonder what they would think if they knew how ironic this sort of thinking really is or how atheists are sometimes just as saddened by their worldview as they are by our own.

So what is "a sense of meaning" really? It's a sense of connectedness. It's a sense of something above and beyond the bland facts. Ultimately, I think meaning is a feeling within ourselves. It's a connection we make in our brains that sort of resonates for us emotionally if seen in the right context.

Consider the last thing a parent said or gave to their only child before those parents died. Or that wedding band on a spouse's finger with all those memories attached to it. Are these just things or events to the people involved? Or do they represent something that gives a sense of connection to something else? That connection feels real to us. It seems important somehow. It can even weigh on us if the connection is a painful one. Note that the details of that connection are real. That wedding ring I mentioned earlier is real. The marriage it represents is real. But the emotion is purely internal because it exists inside the people who feel that connection. There is nothing metaphysical about it.

I'm not saying that the emotion or the sense of importance the objects bring are delusional. The emotion is just as real as the ring, but only to the ones feeling it. To someone else, that wedding ring could be a meaningless circle of metal. So as big and important as that connection seems to the one experiencing it, there is nothing outside of them that is responsible for that meaning they have imposed. It is a personal experience, one that they have created within themselves because the ring means something to them personally.

What if the ring on your spouse's finger was the last thing your parents gave you before they died? Suddenly, the ring means even more. The meaning has changed and grown more complex. Has the ring itself changed? Nope. It's still a circle of shiny metal in and of itself. The emotion springs from the people who are feeling it. The cause is within us, not the ring.

You may have felt some of that emotion as you were reading the previous paragraph despite the fact that I'm not talking about you or your own wedding ring. If so, then you are imagining yourself in the situation I described. You are empathising. But even so, is that emotional response an external, outside experience, or did the change happen inside of you? Before you answer, consider the fact that the events I'm relating are made up. Unless you really did give your spouse a wedding ring that was the last thing your parents gave you before they died, the situation is purely hypothetical. Yet many humans are still capable of feeling something when they hear a story like that. Again, we see that these feelings come from the person feeling them. It may seem like there is something larger or more metaphysical going on here, but there isn't. It's all happening in your mind.

I hope you can see where I'm going with this. That sense of meaning we were talking about can be sparked by external events and even hypothetical ones, but the actual sense of meaning or connectedness - the emotion itself - is inside of us. So we are the ones imposing that "sense of meaning" on the world instead of the other way around. It may feel bigger than that somehow, but only from our subjective point of view.

I hope you're with me so far. Because if you agree that we're the ones who are adding that sense of meaning I was talking about, then the rest should be obvious.

You don't need God or fate or some other supernatural force to find meaning in the world or your own life. You're the one who's creating any sense of meaning you might be feeling with these ideas at this very moment! God might be the thing you feel connected with, but there are plenty of other things that people can use to find meaning. Even people who don't believe in any gods can do this.

Irony Of Meaninglessness Without God

This is probably easier for an atheist to see than a believer because we don't believe in any gods. But if we're right - and if you're open minded at all, then I think should at least admit the possibility - then there is no God for anyone to feel connected with. And that sense of meaning in your life that you've drawn from the concept of God is just like the wedding ring I mentioned earlier. It may feel real and larger than life somehow. But you're the one who's creating that feeling for yourself. God is just the idea that sparked the emotion. Or rather, it was the idea of God rather than the deity itself that gave you that sense of meaning. God himself - whether real or imagined - wasn't necessary for you to experience that feeling.

Again, the facts could be real - the fact of God's existence if he exists - but the feeling of meaning would still be an emotion you created within yourself. Why would God need to bother imposing that sense upon us in any sort of supernatural or metphysical way if we can already empathise with other situations that aren't real? Remember that nonChristian believers find their own sense of meaning in life through their gods just as many Christians do. But if their deities don't exist as many Christians would probably claim, then they are also creating that emotion inside inside themselves. They are simply using the idea of their gods to spark it. Why can't you be doing the same thing with the deity you believe in? Why couldn't you do it with something else altogether for that matter? Well, that's what atheists across the world are doing. Is that really so hard to understand or believe?

So What Meaning Can An Atheist Find In Life, The Universe, And Everything?

Lots, actually. For some it could all be about family, or their accomplishments, or making the world a better place, or expanding the horizons of their thinking and knowledge. It's about what sort of thing resonates with us emotionally and gives us a sense of purpose and meaning.

In other words, I think it works the same way as it does for you. You may use God to bring you that sense of meaning, but atheists have plenty of other things to choose from. The world is often what you make of it. You're the only one who experiences it and reasons on it in the exact way that you do. That's how it is for everybody.

It's the ideas and the meanings we impose on them in our own heads that count. In the end, the world - as we see it - is really all we know.

What does the Atheist Geek really look like?

Yep. That's me all right. Would I lie?

Behold! The Atheist Geek brings you... Pornogrophy!!

The one force great enough to keep me from going totally insane. (Sorry God.)

Today, the internet's most unbiased encyclopedia brings you ... wait for it ... Evolutionism!

The CreationWiki actually has an entry on the decline of atheism for some reason. I don't know if the CreationWiki will be a regular feature at AGN or not, but this might be worth a look.

So Who Am I Proposing To Now?

Bionic Woman may not be your favorite show, but I have three words for you: Big. British. Boobies. 'nuff said.

And now, the Atheist Geek brings you...

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