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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 Steph S. on July 18, 2012 at 11:38am

Richard to you have a link to the video about mind control - you mentioned it in your reply.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 18, 2012 at 12:19pm

I posted the link but I guess it didn't go through. Here it is. Very educational and indicative of the processes we've been discussing. In this case, humiliation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvN0B_0jz5w

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 18, 2012 at 5:29pm

Thanks for the video link - I'll check that out Richard.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Goscicki on July 20, 2012 at 5:25pm

Thanks everyone for giving me the idea on this dynamic discussion. I'm going to write a short story based on the "Moonie weekend" described herein. I plan to enter it in some short story contests or summit to a magazine or two. The idea is to insert the various brainwashing techniques used by cults and organized religion: isolation, dependency, humiliation, indoctrination/persuasion, sleep deprivation, chanting and singing, hypnosis, information control, threats, deception, exclusivity (us and them), and of course the deadly clincher for a lonely kid walking the streets of Times Square, love bombing.

I’ll place it on my blog in a few days. Perhaps I’ll think up a few droll anecdotes to add a little panache. Stuff that didn’t happen to me but frequently happened to others. Stuff like: the leader walks around the group, stopping at each recruit and presses his thumbs into closed eyelids until the believer sees “divine light.”

What more proof do you need there’s a God? The sine qua non of theological proof is described in Mirror Reversal. Doesn’t get more convincing than this:

Wayne is explaining the reasons to believe to his crony, Josh. Wayne is a tow truck owner, athlete, and debonair entrepreneur—a big man in town. He’s a composite of the guys I grew up with in NYC. The misspellings and malapropisms are intentional. One lady accused me of being disrespectful. Rubbish, it’s my character doing to talking, not me.

Wayne pulled his chair around to face Josh. “Gimme that ole time religion, right Josh” sang Wayne, with a forced smile. “He can keep all that evolution garbage. I mean … ” he paused to think of a good rubric to help explain things to his less educated employee. “Let’s say you’re walking in the middle of the Arizona desert. You’re just walking along daydreamin’, and all of a sudden you come across this elegant, diamond-studded wristwatch – one of those Carters or Malvos. So you pick it up and look at it. Inspect it, sort of… It’s pretty evident that it didn’t get there by itself, right? I mean, the sand and rocks couldn’t just conglomerate and form this beautiful object dart, all by itself—now could they? Somebody had to put it there. Somebody had to make the fuckin’ thing, right? It’s the same way with human beans. There has to be a Great Designer.”

He smiled again, this time pleased with the eloquence of his argumentation. He thought of another example, a better one to explain to Josh, because it dealt with the birds and the bees.

“Or take sex. Here’s another good example: Let’s say you meet this chick. And you really dig ‘er. And you fall in love with the bitch. So you decide to get married and have a family, like the Good Book says you should. So you stick your dick in, and it feels real good in there, right? And you wiggle it about in there. And the more you wiggle it, the better it feels. And then you wait nine months and a baby plops out! I mean… what more proof d’ya need there’s a God. That’s literally a fuckin’ miracle!”

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Permalink Reply by Steph S. on July 20, 2012 at 5:35pm

Richard - cool a book - nice. I have a writers group and I have writers post their stuff there if you would be interested. People have posted their short stories and poems and links to their books they sale on Amazon.

Here's the link to the group if you're interested.

http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/sci-fi-fan-fiction-writers-and-re...

The group is for any sort of writing - I edited the group description.