As An Atheist Can Your Life Have Purpose and Meaning?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on July 6, 2012 at 5:27am

Their arrogance, their programming, their indoctrination..., call these three their API

For a moment, imagine it possible to take a chink from their API. Which emotion would we see?

Fear, methinks, resulting from uncertainty.

What say others?

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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on July 6, 2012 at 5:45am

It's what's happening NOW, Tom.  The believers are losing power that they assumed was theirs to wield, because it's power and influence they earned fraudulently.  At some level, they KNOW that ... and my personal suspicion is that THEY ARE FREAKED.

There is a lot that can come out of such a mindset, and damned little of it is good.  This is why we as atheists have to be prepared, at minimum in terms or arguments.

At maximum?  I talked about that here ... and I REALLY hope it doesn't come to that.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Perlman on July 7, 2012 at 2:31pm

Tom...I think indoctrination and programming are the same, so I would propose an alternate "I" -- Isolation (from those who believe otherwise and even, in the case of many cults, from the outside world entirely).  It is in the vital interests of every religion to shield its members from anything that might engender doubt.  

Even liberal Jews and Christians fear isolation above all else.  Why else would they pay lip service on Sabbath and major holidays and ignore religion the rest of the time?  Gotta get their ticket punched, that's why.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 8, 2012 at 11:38am

Indeed, Isolation is a big part of it.  Brings me back to social psych days in the '60s.  Religion and cults have a lot of common attributes as part of the indoctrination process.

Humiliation is another good one.  Consider what the marines do to recruits during boot camp.  They’re isolated all right but they’re also called “maggots” and “ladies.”  Even their personal identity is taken away:  their hair is shaved off and they’re assigned numbers.  They have to refer to themselves as “Recruit No. so and so.”

How about the “Us and Them” meme.  Enemies or outside threats are created to add cohesion to the group.  If none conveniently exist then a scapegoat is created to serve the purpose.  That’s why I get so mad at homophobia.  To the Nazis, it was the Jews. 

It’s all part of the process called brain washing. 

 

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on July 8, 2012 at 11:39pm

Marines I know admit to having been trained to kill. It's their meaning and purpose.

This ex-sailor likes to tease them with "The best use of marines is to throw them overboard." Sometimes I add "...preferably near an enemy-held island."

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Permalink Reply by Alan Perlman on July 7, 2012 at 2:32pm

See my reply below - I mis-clicked ;)

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 5, 2012 at 11:13pm

You are so correct Alan. Once there are no more fantasies then there is no issue about purpose and meaning. Once you drop the baggage of religion you are free to make your own choices and decisions - your own purpose and meaning become clear.

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 6, 2012 at 7:43am

Tom I would say that uncertainty and fear - those are the underlying emotions Xtians are showing. I like the API remark - that's a very good observation.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 6, 2012 at 10:40am

Steph, The subject of teleology (the study of the purpose of life) is a major theme of Mirror Reversal.  The following scene takes place at the end when Prof. Cynthia Whipple faces final retribution at the hands of Mr. Morality.  I think it’s beautiful, but I wrote it. 

 

Mr. Morality’s heart began to patter in sweet anticipation as the van traversed the dreary dirt road twisting and winding its way up the hill to the farmhouse.  “Leave the gag off, I want to hear what she has to say when I recite the word of God.”

Cynthia gazed through the window at the darkness and vastness of the infinite heavens. She began to think of the end of life.  It wasn’t death that scared her, just death’s portal.  To her mind, she was going to the same place she had been before she was born.  Not sleep, but non-existence—the non-caring, dispassionate inertia of rock.  Nothing bothered her that went on during the billions of years she had waited to be born.  She doubted that anything in the future would inconvenience her in the least.  And missing eternal bliss won’t be a problem either.  Who the heck wants eternal bliss? Judging by all the squares she met in her life that believed in it, and even blew themselves up for it, they can have it.  Beatific vision, keep it.  Just give me my tropical lagoon with the inquisitive red uakari monkey and the orange-cheeked parrots of this life—even if for a moment, so I know what a real heaven is.

“Hey, Cynthia,” called her mother, Elizabeth, from the depths of subconscious memory, “would you care to be born?  Your father and I will love you and give you a good home.  In the vast universe you’ll be alone and insignificant, but in our loving home you’ll be important and rare. And we have enough money to lavish you with all the education your mind desires.  Through books, you’ll be able to converse with humanity’s greatest geniuses.  You’ll find that the more you learn about how you got here, the more you’ll appreciate how lucky you are to be alive.  Would you like to come to us?  We promise to love you.”

“Nah, not unless you bestow on me eternal bliss. Talk about missing the boat!  What an ungrateful position to hold.  Just the fleeting glimpse of the cosmos is enough to make life worthwhile.  Just to know it’s there, even if for the lifetime of a mayfly.  And in addition to nature’s greatest spectacle of the stars in the sky, I get sea otters teasing a polar bear and sliding down the icy mound.  My eyes get to behold a giant cloud of flamingo feathers flickering multi-hued rays of buffered light in the sunset.  And my hummingbirds!  Capricious pixies doing nature’s work of providing balance, making love to orchids, and performing aerial acrobatics for my enjoyment as they grant my primate eyes a feast of dazzling color.

“Plus I get Disney, the opera, Mozart and Beethoven, Rembrandt and Van Gogh, a career, adventure, travel, cooking, cinema, and the Internet. Plus through sex I physically touch the mammalian force that makes all the mundane chores and toil of life worthwhile more than anything else:  the moment we touch the force of all life that ever lived. 

The van reached the farmhouse and the gnomes jumped out to fetch another wheelchair. 

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 6, 2012 at 8:11pm

It is very beautiful indeed Richard and I thank you so much for sharing your writing with me.

It's very much appreciated!!

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 6, 2012 at 10:32pm

Thanks, Steph, your encouragement means a lot to me.  There’s not too many artists in the world that have fallen in love with their own creation as I have.  Cynthia even comes to me sometimes in my dreams.

Here’s the ending: 

Cynthia finished her champagne without sitting down.  “You know, the semester will be finished soon and I’ll have some free time.  This summer I think I’ll write a novel.  I mean … when I was looking in the mirror upstairs, I got a great idea.  I said to myself, ‘You know, Cynthia, you’re not bad looking.’  If I dyed my hair red, bought a sexy wardrobe, I bet I could go to the city and knock ‘em dead.  I’m going to write a novel about how I decide to quit this boring town and run away to New York City to become an exotic dancer.  I wonder what life would be like.” 

She placed her right hand on her hip and waggled her skinny ass like a flirtatious goose.  Everyone chuckled that someone as innocent and scholarly as the professor could come up with such an idiotic, harebrained idea. But they knew Cynthia and they loved her.    

 

THE END

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 7, 2012 at 10:24pm

Thank you Richard for adding the ending to your story here! Very good!

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