GOD IS DEAD

"God is dead" is a famous exclamation by Friedrich Nietzsche, from more than a century ago, describing how the idea and role of god is lost with the advances of science. He saw the emerging crisis and void that'd be left by the departing god on our moral considerations and later on his personage declared "We have killed Him". The death of god is a way of saying that we do not recognise order in the universe any more, that life no longer has any meaning and purpose. Nietzsche believed that the majority of people did not recognize (or refused to acknowledge) this death of God out of the deepest-seated fear. Therefore, when the death did begin to become widely acknowledged, people would despair and nihilism would become rampant. I can see us becoming more and more nihilistic, in a meaningless life, but how do we deal with our descendants? There are an awful lot of people out there that rely on their faith in God to keep on living. If we kill their faith, would they still have the desire to live and bear the hardships of life when they start opening their eyes and realise that we are completely alone in this meaningless, bleak, cold and irrelevant nonsense? Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

I am not looking for my personal meaning in life. I am looking for something that unites all of us, that is beyond the simple mind of the ordinary citizen. Is there something that unites ALL of us and gives meaning to life(beyond replication)? Is there a higher purpose(like going to heaven in the afterlife in religions). I am not interested in how someone is interested in tennis, in collecting stamps or reading books. Nietzsche said there is no higher purpose of life and the lack of god and afterlife will bring more apathy in life(nihilism).NIHILISM - "a philosophical position which argues that existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following:In the absence of objective morality, existence has no intrinsic higher meaning or goal.There is no reasonable proof or argument for the existence of a higher ruler or creator.Even if a higher ruler or creator exists, humanity has no moral obligation to worship them."Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

If i have to look extensively for a purpose in life... that's too bad. What's the point of living for the purpose of looking for a purpose? Shouldn't something as great as life(or the whole universe) have its own purpose? And if there is none, why wouldn't our lives have to be affected?To us life is EVERYTHING - if there is no meaning to life, there is no meaning to everything.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

So reality is the higher purpose of life? If the reality is the game we are playing, what's the purpose of the game? We are playing just for the sake of it? Is that what you are saying? Because if it is, I can understand - you are saying there is no higher purpose in life, but we are living because we are hedonists and we like life(although there no higher purpose or meaning). BTW, we are either hedonists or nihilists, but that doesn't change the fact that there is no higher purpose of life.Higher purpose in religions would be living a sinless and virtuous life in the anticipation of being admitted in Heaven. That gives you a Higher purpose to live in a certain way, knowing that everything in this world has a HIGHER meaning.How is Nietzsche wrong? Could reality be a higher purpose? Reality is a trivial purpose because reality gives you small goals like - winning at soccer, getting a new car, buying a boat, having a good vaccation, etc. None of this is a higher purpose that could unite all of us so we can boldly say "We, the people of planet Earth, live because...".BTW, natural selection has selected 6.6 billion people on this planet who were willing to live(as opposed to comitting suicide). This doesn't say life has a higher meaning or that life is good. It just says that only those people whose genes weren't causing individuals to commit suicide survived. Nothing more and nothing less.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

If there is no God, and we are just another species of animal on Earth, why should we have a higher purpose than say - the rhino? The rhino is notorious for having a pretty much meaningless life(as with all other animals and plants), so what makes our lives more meaningful than that of the rhino? Having such powerful minds as ours, it's not hard to see that our presence here is not more important or special than that of the foxes(ie, practically unimportant). We are born of dust and we turn to dust, without meaning or purpose, which reminds me of the song "Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind".
This is what i had in mind when i said in the OP that reality is a meaningless, bleak, cold irrelevance.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

Without God, your purpose or mission here on Earth is not greater than that of my garden turtle or my pekingese(even though you imagine you have a special role). That holds for everyone else as well.

If there is no God, their presence in the great scheme of things is insignificant and unimportant. Their role here is not more important than the role of the stones beside my house. To themselves, they may have a great purpose in life, but beyond the personal level, there is none. They are made of the same star dust that was left out by the Big Bang that later on made the sun, the earth, the stones, my pekingese, me, you and everyone else.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

This is where the universe and life start to not make sense and that's ok. Otherwise, if everything made sense to our puny human minds, that would probably mean that there is a God that had made everything with meaning and logic. This however doesn't change the fact that we are a meaningless by-product of the star-dust that came of the Big Bang.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

I am thinking beyond the personal level(the Universe) and you seem so hung on the notion that you have a very special purpose. I am not interseted, whatever it may be. I am not interseted in that very special purpose that you think my turtle has in the Universe and that you claim that i don't know. Clearly, if there is no God, and we are made by chance off the stardust that came from the Big Bang, then that clearly means that we are here by chance, WITHOUT ANY MISSION OR PURPOSE.I will not further respond to your posts, as they become redundant.

Love comes and goes. It brings happiness and misery. If that gives you a reason and meaning to life, that's OK. As long as you don't claim that Love is the ultimate, fundamental reason why the universe and we humans exist.Peace - this gives humanity a reason to live, or a meaning to the existence of the universe?Balance - this gives humanity a reason to live, or a meaning to the existence of the universe?Enlightment - this gives humanity a reason to live, or a meaning to the existence of the universe?Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

I cannot propose any reason why the universe exists after the Big Bang or why Life exists except - by chance, with no meaning and no purpose. That's why I said in the OP that reality is a meaningless, bleak, cold and irrelevant nonsense. On the level of the Universe, our exisistence is such as well. On the personal level, there are many things that could give meaning and charm to life. But with view to how life originates and how life ends(of dust) - we are still faced with this meaningless, bleak, cold and irrelevant nonsense that we call existence. There is no fundamental purpose or meaning of life in the universe. We are not needed and we are not necessary for anything out there - what a waste! Something so great and magnificient as life is also something so insignificant and meaningless in a chain of random events after the Big Bang.Next if you ask:what are we - we are the result of a random event.Why are we - because the random event chose it to be so.The sad part is that we are the only species on Earth that has an inquisite mind. Ironically, our inquision so far leads us to this dismal discovery.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

Your story is a true representation of Hedonism. You don't have to prove that Hedonism exists, nobody will argue. It's not even the topic here - the topic is that we are a random event in random universe and we(our lives) have no purpose and no meaning to this same universe. This is especially true in light of Nietzsche's saying "God is dead". While I can live with that, it doesn't give me much pleasure that we are here for no reason and everything - the whole universe(including us) exist for no reason discernible by a human mind. Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

Avoid the real work of life? Did you find out the reason why you are here? Ohhh you figured out life? - whaaat a bold and blanket statement. Why don't you enighten us why we are here? Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

How is that not a distress that our meaningful and glorious existence is the creation of randomness plus a cloud of dust? Do we atheists have to be that cold as to avoid all emotions at all costs? Is that the way to deal with the crisis of the missing human discernable purpose of the universe? (EDIT: Probably yes)Edited by Agobot, : No reason given.

There is no old dude in the sky, so teach us how to figure life out(since you claim it's better to figure life out on our own).