No afterlife apparently gives life meaning

I've just read the following article:

In praise of atheism: How believing in nothing gives my life meaning

He says:

I know there is nothing beyond – no saving grace, no great scorekeeper in the sky.

Interesting so many people know this, but are unable to convey how they know it. Perhaps they've had some mystical insight, a sudden epiphanic enlightenment into the nature of all things and realised that nothing means anything. Or . . . perhaps they've just passively absorbed the message our culture gives...

And is it really plausible that today will be less meaningful should you believe in an afterlife? Say you're watching a movie that you're really enjoying. But then you suddenly remember you believe there's an afterlife and an ultimate purpose to your life. Oh no! Your enjoyment plummets? I scarcely think so!

To be fair, I think the idea here is that we will accomplish less if we are immortal.  It's the fact that our lives are so very short that gives us the urgency to achieve things. If we live forever, there's always tomorrow, so why not just relax today?

I'm not sure what would be the ultimate point of acheiving things if life has no ultimate meaning.  But, apart from that, if one believes in an afterlife, one is not saying that we will live forever in this life.  We have a certain number of days left before we depart this world, and we can't be sure of what will happen to us after that.  But whatever happens in the afterlife, we won't be able to complete anything we do in this life.

It's kinda like a meme this idea that life is only worth living if this is the only life. Some famous philosopher says it, then all the unthinking masses repeat it. The fact that it is patently nonsense does nothing to stop people repeating it.

Are our lives for the purpose of soul-making?

People tend to either think that their lives are purposeless in the sense of absurd, or that our existence is a process of "soul-making" -- that we're here to learn lessons and for our souls to thereby develop to become better and more enlightened beings. I used to think the latter, but now I reject this dichotomy.

Much of what we do in our lives we do purely for the experience. That might be something as trivial as having a good night out and getting pissed (i.e affected by alcohol). Have any lessons been learnt? Has our soul developed during that one night? Probably not, so why should it be any different for a whole life?

However, that's not to say our lives are purposeless. It is perfectly possible for there to be some ultimate purpose to our existence, some ultimate reason, without thinking that life is like school where we are required to progress to some specific end. What this ultimate purpose might be I don't know though. I'll leave it to those who have had mystical experiences to answer that one.

Students at pub

Put this on facebook last night after I'd had about 5 or 6 pints.

Been to pub. Interesting talking to students in there. The two guys I was talking to gave the impression they were very much convinced that the world as revealed by science is the correct one. They were talking about the "enlightenment" etc, and seemed to be hostile towards any type of religion or God. And the strong impression I got was that they thought that their position was sensible, and indeed, obvious. That they were smart, intelligent and educated.

I think they've been sucked into thinking about the world in certain ways, arguably in a comparable manner to what religious people have been. Namely they've passively soaked up the prevailing "wisdom".

I didn't say that! I just suggested that perhaps there might be some creator of some description even if not corresponding to any organised religion.

Gave me a bit of a the cold shoulder after that. But then I was talking to them later about the pubs near here, and what Grimsby, Lincoln, and other places are like etc, and got on with them quite well. Moral of all this is don't start talking about intellectual stuff to strangers!

Our lives and the Universe are bizarre!

How often do most people sit back and reflect on how utterly bizarre their situation is?? The fact they find ourselves existing . . . . yet they do not know why they are here, what the world is, why anything exists at all, why the world is as it is, what it's all for, what will eventually happen to them when they die??

OK, I understand many people think their existence is just pure blind happenstance, that the Universe just came into being by pure blind happenstance, that we're just here for the ride. But how do they know?? And irrespective of whether this is true, this does nothing to lessen the bizarre situation we find ourselves in. Not having a clue whether or not there's a purpose to their lives, and if it is what that purpose is.

Jus' had a few bottles of becks.

There are 2 possibilities

There's 2 possibilities:

a) This is the only life there is. When we die we simply cease to exist. Our lives and the Universe are, in a sense, ultimately absurd. In that case nothing we do ultimately matters. How much money we accumulate and our social status are transitory and ultimately unfulfilling, and in the end are to no avail since we all end up in the same boat -- namely eternal non-existence. I suggest instead we just live our lives, have a laugh, have a few drinks, be kind to others, but most importantly of all not to take life too seriously.

b) Or there is a "life after death", and perhaps an ultimate purpose to our existence and to all things. But if we continue to exist after death, why do we think what we achieve in this life is so terribly important? If there is some ultimate purpose to life, we don't know what it is, but presumably it will have nothing to do with how much money we accumulate and our social status. I suggest instead we just live our lives, have a laugh, have a few drinks, be kind to others, but most importantly of all not to take life too seriously.

Woody Allen and the meaninglessness of Life

Woody Allen has said:

I firmly believe ... that life is meaningless. I’m not alone in thinking this — there have been many great minds far, far superior to mine, that have come to that conclusion. And unless somebody can come up with some proof or some example where it’s not, I think it is. I think it’s a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, and that’s just the way I feel about it.

If many great minds have come to that conclusion, then this implies there are reasons why they hold this belief. So what are those reasons? I highly doubt if these are reasons I haven't heard of before! And I'm afraid I don't hold such reasons in high regard as I explain in my blogs and elsewhere on the net.

Nor do I see why the hypothesis that life is meaningless should be the default position. However, I would point to altered states of consciousness such as mystical states and so on, which imply that life has an ultimate meaning. Indeed, we would have to conclude we are being deceived whilst in such states if we are to suppose life is meaningless. With what reason do we have to suppose we are being deceived?

Also see another relevant blog entry by me in my other blog.

That which is inimical to our yearning souls

I don't really like the idea of a job where you're working for someone else from 9 to 5 and you don't find the work interesting at all, but find it dull and repetitious. The type of work where you occasionally look at your watch and hope 5pm soon comes round. And the weekend! Wishing our lives away. Then feeling gloomy on a Sunday evening as it's soon going to be the start of another week.

The thing is we live finite lives. Maybe there's a "life after death", and I think there is. But maybe I'm wrong and there isn't. But while we're healthy is it really a good idea to spend most of our daylight hours hoping that the evening and weekend will soon roll round?

There's making friends and the general camaraderie with work colleagues. And there's the issue that we all need to have money! But the point I'd like to make is that there seems to be something fundamentally wrong and unsatisfactory about this whole arrangement. Something fundamentally wrong about the way modern society works. Unsatisfactory and unfulfilling and ultimately dispiriting to our yearning souls.

Most Norwegians are apparently atheists

Independent newspaper article:

Majority of Norwegians 'do not believe in God' for first time in country's history

It should have asked "do you believe in "God" construed as some kind of all-embracing awareness or intelligence lying behind all things as a whole".

In the poll by the Independent, 70% of readers vote that it's a positive change for fewer and fewer people to believe in a God. Are they being serious?? More than 2/3rds of people think that it's a positive change thinking that the Universe and all it contains is simply a brute fact and that the Universe and all our lives are purposeless and ultimately absurd? It's not as if we even have any good reasons to believe such a thing.

Journey on the train of life.

We're all on this train. We do not know where our fellow passengers come from, not even where we ourselves come from. Perhaps people just materialise out of nothingness, or perhaps people just don't remember. And we do not know where people will go when they finally get off the train. But we know we will finally get off at some point. To some strange destination, or to oblivion -- we do not know. Meanwhile the train and its inhabitants are our world -- the only world we know. Let's read, chat with our fellow passengers, play games. Something to do before we alight from the train to our new strange destination, or to oblivion.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and the meaning of Life

From here:

In response to a 6 year old asking the meaning of life, Neil deGrasse Tyson responded:

If I live a day and I don't know a little more that day than the day before, I think I wasted that day.

Which means that the meaning of life is constituted solely by the accumulation of knowledge. Not any other satisfactions that one might obtain. In our lives we form friendships and relationships with others, achieve various goals, experience many pleasures. Knowledge is not the only thing, and definitely not for a 6 year old.

Moreover, I'm guessing he's talking about scientific knowledge. Such knowledge is always provisional. Furthermore there are questions pertaining to whether our scientific knowledge depicts a literal state of affairs. And in addition science only describes reality rather than telling us what it really is in its essence.

That's how I would have responded if I were the 6 year old.