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As An Atheist Can Your Life Have Purpose and Meaning?

I was wondering what other people thought about this.

I realize we weren't born with a purpose. No creator or "higher calling".

But as a non believer can your life have meaning and purpose without god?

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Permalink Reply by Alan Perlman on July 13, 2012 at 11:00am

I second the comments by Write4u and Rich.

Billions of dollars and untold human suffering to stop consensual "crimes" like pot use. I do agree that the abstemious Abrahamic religions want you to get all your truth from them, with no chemicals causing you to question the message. What if one of the many drug-centered religions had taken over the world stage? Religious shops would sell prime bud instead of rosaries.

The government-approved drugs - alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco - are perfect for promoting aggression, all-consuming work, and obedience to authority.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 16, 2012 at 8:44am

Alan, There’s a very enlightening podcaston mj that I arranged some years ago. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard is the man who got me into writing. I asked him if he’d do an internet radio interview with a friend of mine, Lynn Thompson of Vancouver.

The show was heard by thousands of people since then. What’s important, to my view, is that Lester, as dean of Harvard medical school, asserts categorically that grass does not cause any physical body damage.

Think of it: booze causes cirrhosis of the liver, kidney damage, pancreatic cancer.

Cigs cause lung cancer, emphysema, throat cancer, heart damage with claudication (shortness of breath).

Mj causes absolutely no damage, because one only needs a hit or two to achieve the desired effect. With a bad habit, tobacco addicts will administer their habit 400 times a day. (Each pack has twenty cigs. Each cig is inhaled ten times. Multiplying, a two-pack-a-day habit results in 400 inhalations.)

Plus mj is non-addictive for psychologically healthy people. Figure it out: booze and tobacco are illegal causing tens of thousands to rot in jail. Grass is illegal because it deconditions people and it’s bad for business.

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Permalink Reply by PandoraBoxe on July 16, 2012 at 9:19am

I have known this about MJ for years. It's nice to have my beliefs reinforced. Thanx ;-}

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 16, 2012 at 10:12am

Pandora, here’s another pertinent consideration: You can’t OD on grass. If you imbibe too much THC you simply pass out and when you wake up in the morning, you don’t even have a hangover! Compare that too booze.

Or take gambling which is legal. If you overindulge in horses, poker or casino games, you wind up broke. There’s no limit to the damage people can do to themselves and family. They wind up indigent and self-alienated. The desert surrounding Las Vegas is filled with shallow graves of people who lost.

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Permalink Reply by PandoraBoxe on July 16, 2012 at 7:58pm

Yes, Richard. I agree. I no longer enjoy the after-effects of drinking alcohol. Quit cigarettes in 1991. But still enjoy a toke now and again ;-}

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on July 16, 2012 at 5:08pm

"Grass is illegal because it deconditions people and it’s bad for business. "

Grass is bad for profit-taking from the work of people in a lower economic class, and profit-takers own America.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 16, 2012 at 7:46pm

Tom, expound on this, OK? Are you connecting the dots the way I am?

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on July 17, 2012 at 1:10am

Richard, a friend of mine tells me he connects dots.

I ask him if he connects all of the dots, or only some of them.

People go into business and either succeed or fail.

Profit taking makes the difference between success and failure. I connected more dots than you did.

I also said more about America and its reason for prohibiting MJ.

While I'm picking nits, here's another.

Consider your "...tens of thousands to rot in jail."

They rot only in metaphor.

In reality they and their guards do more, all at taxpayers' expense.

Talk to taxpayers about money and you will win allies to your cause.

You do want to win allies, don't you?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Fulton on July 12, 2012 at 2:56am

We are born without purpose, and we are free to make our own. My purpose is to make sure my nieces have someone who's there for them. Their love of me gives me meaning.

Similar with my friends and other members of my family. The respect I've earned, the worth I hold to them, gives me meaning.

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Permalink Reply by PandoraBoxe on July 12, 2012 at 9:44pm

Why can't Life be the meaning ... to live our lives?

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on July 13, 2012 at 1:38am

Pandora, on occasional visits to a hospital over many months, I saw a man lying on a gurney with his eyes closed and his mouth sagging open.

Surely you define life as more than that. Give it a try. What does a life require?

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Boyer on July 13, 2012 at 12:25pm

Good point, Pandora ... To "live" lives free from religious tyranny allows for their fullest expression and (potentially) garners greatest meaning. So my response is yes, life can be the meaning, and living our lives, truly living them, contributes to them enormously. Tho I speak from my own experience, I'm fairly sure many others experience similar.