The Meaning of (after)Life
Ian | 22 July, 2008 | 15:20There is no ultimate meaning to life. Even for theists.
Ultimately, the “meaning” in theistic life comes from devotion to God so one can gain access to heaven instead of hell. This doesn’t solve the problem though, it merely moves it.
What is heaven in religion? Never-ending peace and happiness, being one with God, or the best never-ending party featuring 72 virgins. But how long could you really enjoy heaven? I’m not even talking about the television era short attention span that means its surprising if you’re still reading (similarily I’m writing this from the middle of a lecture that I’m half paying attention to). I mean that if heaven is a place where you still exist (as some form of consciousness), then you will get bored.
Eventually, in heaven, you will begin to ask the same existential questions we ask now: “Why am I here?” “What is the point?” “If I blog will people care?” “Why should I do something now when, considering I have an infinite amount of time, I could just do it later?”
And considering there will be an infinite expanse of time, there can be no meaningful answers to those questions.
So here’s what I see it coming down to: There is no ultimate point to life. The existence of God/god(s) is meaningless on this point, and merely moves the question to “What is the point of God?” or “What is the point in god creating us?”
So what are we left with? A world to explore, learn, discover, and enjoy, all before we die. And if there is something after death (for which there is no good evidence or argument for), then we will just have to find our own point to those existences as well.
It’s your life to do with what you will. Don’t waste it, it may be your last!
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I got into an argument once with an old friend when she found out i was an atheist(which only so far has seemed to happen with women, I wonder if thats statistically significant), she was a devout christian (if united church can be really called devout) and kept rehashing the fact that atheism doesn’t apply a meaning to life. I heared “According to Atheism(TM) I could off myself now and it wouldn’t matter” about a million different ways. A few years later I came up with the soundbite response “just because life is meaningless does not mean that it is worthless”. I wish I had thought of it during the argument.
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there is no one answer to that. but i can tell you that the god that people have defined does not exist the the thing you call “God” didnt make the universe humans or any life on earth he never wanted to be worshiped he just took an interest in us from time to time so did other things like him but it seems like he has been keeping them from messing with the earth as of late.
the meaning of life in general is to grow in any way. you see biological life is a very good way for “spirits” that are very low in power to gain power without much risk of losing power but if you cant “survive” death because you didnt have enough power to maintain your consciousness then you just simply fade/disperse back into the energy of the universe and your gone forever heaven and hell are just terms to control people so that people can make others do what they think is right.