I'm going to try to make this quick. That probably won't happen.
Being atheist does not mean you have a bleak outlook on life.
It doesn't mean you don't believe in anything.
It does not mean you think you have a license to loot and rape and murder because there are no consequences.
It certainly doesn't mean you are apathetic and unemotional.
Here's what atheism means for me (not to me, because that would suggest that atheism was some sort of belief system; it actually defines what you don't believe in, which gets misinterpreted to mean that you don't believe in anything).
It means I believe in a world without a moderator. No guiding force, no eye in the sky who's hand you can shake, nobody to please. It doesn't mean I think there's no goal in the universe, no creator, no ultimate destination. Those could all be.
Many of my personal beliefs have nothing to do with God. No, I don't think there's a goal, or life after death, or a beginning, or an end. But all of those could be true whether God exists or not. I actually am perfectly happy having a god in the world. I just think it's more likely that there isn't. Evidence just seems to point that way. Granted I have no good explanation for "the beginning" except that there probably isn't one. Ironically, it seems like a physical universe with a cause for each effect can't have a beginning or end.
Anyway, the point is to vent my frustration with the assertion that I must be a bleak, unhappy and uninspired (not to mention immoral) person if I don't think there's anything after I die.
Quite the contrary. You see, I feel like I have gained a heightened appreciation for life now that I think that's all there is. After all, what better reason to enjoy things and do your best than the notion that you've only got one shot at it.
But that's not really why I think life is so great, even without God. The way I figure it, experience is not only a great privilage, it's also a responsibility. We can sit and gaze at the stars and think about them and be awed at our own powerlessness and think about what incredible forces are at work. But none of those forces can look back. No sun will ever marvel at the life on our tiny rock or be proud of what an incredible wonder it's own being is. We're the only ones who can be happy and frustrated and remember. I almost want to say "nothing is beautiful unless someone can see it." We should be respectful of the amazing accident our lives are by making the best use of them. Make art and be happy.
I can't think of a more tragic waste of consciousness than destroying it or causing others to lament it.
Thinking about life without God makes me giddy with excitement. I'm not embarrassed to be a monkey's descendant. I'm proud to live in a world where you start with a twig for digging out termites and end with Black Dice. Or for that matter, Boston!
I think the good is worth the bad, because the good is so glorious that the alternative of just...nothing...isn't worth sacrificing it to prevent the bad. For that matter, the bad is always at least partly good, and the good is never all bad.
So Rise up, rise up!
Dance and scream and love!
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3 comments:
I'm tempted to get on my post-modernist high horse, but I won't do it. ;)
I think this is a great argument, but you know, we can have this debate endlessly into the night and probably will for decades to come.
And some atheists get it wrong, so I'm glad you've got it right. Some say that atheism is not having a belief system, but atheism itself is a belief system. There are general tenets and rules that define atheism. You don't believe on God. That's at least the minimum belief you must have to qualify as an atheist.
So yeah. It'd be fun to keep this idea floating around in our pontifications.
hey man, i found your blog thru lucas's page. great stuff, highly entertaining. i especially enjoyed your thoughts on growing up in a digital culture. those littluns don't know what we went thru! we walked uphill to school in blinding weather, and without cellphones besides! crazy!
i have to go. my boss just caught me (i think).
-mike
". We can sit and gaze at the stars and think about them and be awed at our own powerlessness and think about what incredible forces are at work. But none of those forces can look back. No sun will ever marvel at the life on our tiny rock or be proud of what an incredible wonder it's own being is. We're the only ones who can be happy and frustrated and remember. I almost want to say "nothing is beautiful unless someone can see it"
Wow, you contradicted yourself here, and spoke out of complete ignorance. Are you under the impression that were the only ones in the universe? And that we're the only beings that have the "right" to enjoy what time we got? First: how do you know the stars don't gaze back.. Can you talk to our sun? Can you talk to your dog for that matter? For real though, that's a ,"I'm a pompous asshole who only cares if I understand the point I made up without thinking" comment.
Just because you don't know the language of the universe doesn't mean it constrains to your "belief/non" bugs talk to bugs, dogs still talk to dogs, trees to trees and maybe even planets to planets. We're "all" here to enjoy, even the very electrons that make you up. Your just out of the loop and that's why we say your dull and boring, cuz you can't see past yourself/selfish thoughts.
Rich white kings used to think Black people had no souls and couldn't enjoy or wonder about their own life because they were like dogs...
Your pulling a few different beliefs into a pile in the corner of your room and calling it "deep" and "profetic" when it's a mess just so you could get some recognition.
Do you want the sun to talk back to you? Do you want it to reach out and touch you so you will change your belief? I don't think so.
Just because you aren't the guy With the answers doesn't mean you gotta run around telling everyone your half assed story of self masterbation.
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