The inspiration for this thread came from here:
Message 117
Where it was basically claimed that all atheists share the same meaning of life and that it is "to reproduce".
I think this is clearly incorrect for the following reasons:
- The only thing "all atheists" share is that they have no belief in God or any gods.
- Purpose for any living being is subjective and discovered by the intellent agent making the decisions.
- I am an atheist and my purpose for life is to get better, not to reproduce. In fact, I'm currently in a stage of my life where I do not want to reproduce, ever.
It's quite possible that the inspiration for this thread simply meant that reproduction (the continuance of life) is the only agreed upon goal (purpose?) of evolution. I would agree with that statement.
However, I was unable to find a thread that is focused on the meaning of life for an atheist anyway, so I thought this would be a good topic regardless of the original intentions of the inspiration.
My main points:
1. Taking into account all current knowledge, the "meaning of life" is an individual, subjective concept. We must all find our own purpose for our lives and there is no objective standard to guide our search.
2. Many people may claim that there is an objective, absolute, external meaning of life. But they will be unable to show that this is actually a part of reality. They will be unable to show the difference between this "objective, absolute, external" claim and other subjective claims that come from our own imagination. Which then results in their claim being no more then their own subjective imagination at work.
Forum Suggested: Faith and Belief or maybe Social Issues or even Miscellaneous.
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