Question for atheists

this isnt a dig at your reply in the other thread. But same answer

"Common sense"

I'm not atheist but i dont follow the ideals of a book. Its called thinking for yourself and using common sense

 

I don't think the difference between good and bad is common sense. First of all there are cultural differences about what is right and what is wrong. So what is common sense in let's say the US is not necessarily common sense in Papua-Neuguinea. Then, even within the same culture, people have a moral compass that greatly vary. For some people it's not wrong to be polyamorous. For some other people it is (regardless of religion). It's just an example. Does a kleptomaniac knows it's bad to steal? I'm not sure.

 

Sadly common sense isn’t so common these days. I do wonder why you think people who believe in the morality outlined in a book or scripture are not thinking for themselves. Did they not make the choice to believe and accept what their book/scripture tells them? Have you never received any learning or guidance from reading other texts? I would imagine even your “own” path is not wholly your own.

 

Do you know its bad to watch porn?

 

I have another question for atheists: what is the meaning of life?
If you say "none", let me ask you this: if there is no meaning to life, and if there are no consequences for anything we do in our life, then why do you even stay alive? What keeps you alive knowing that all of this is meaningless?

 

Good one muhagg. Thanks for your input, as always.

 

I get the feeling that you feel that everyone who is not religious is lost in life.

 

I'm not an Atheist, but let's see if I can't answer this for you.

While belief in a religion and/or deity may help some to live ethically, providing a model by which to conduct oneself or by instilling fear for the consequences of one's sins, we each have our own moral compass that swings independently of our theistic beliefs. No one could doubt that there are worshippers who are rather unsavory individuals nor could you doubt that there are non-believers who are benevolent and compassionate. To accept that belief in God is necessary to ensure ethical behavior is to accept the belief that people are inherently unethical and are only held in check by the fear of some form of God. So to remove God from the equation, I would say that most Atheists (or something similar) could view it in the following criteria:

In order for something to be universally immoral, there has to be a clear victim and an established lack of consent. In fact, I would think that most might view it like this, regardless of your theistic beliefs.

EDIT: Some extra specifics added and I changed it to be "universally immoral". Not just "immoral".

 

Did you mean "spiritual"? I think that's what he meant as opposite to "atheist".

 

So if we are not religious, then our lives have no meaning??

 

To properly answer what the meaning of life is, we'd have to gain the ability to look at life from the outside looking in and analyze it from there. Because this is impossible, all we get are foxed answers to questions that currently don't have any.

EDIT: Also, even if an Atheist believed that there was no meaning in life at all, it doesn't mean they teter on the precipice of suicide. We (as in people) still have a innate interest to be alive, regardless of how you view the world. Anyone that would actually wish to die due to thinking that life had no meaning and no reason to exist would be considered a person with a disorder.

 

Who said there is no meaning in life?

 

How do you define what is good and wrong ? Which standard do you apply to measure morality? - Do what you want as long as you don't hurt others.

- That's so very true. We run into different knowledge in our life and we keep what we thought is "right" for us.

Meaning of life is to reproduce as species, which doesn't mean we cannot enjoy other aspects - art (music, poetry), doing good deeds for others, becoming better versions of ourselves in activities we like.

 

I'm asking because I had this conversation with a die hard atheist/self-proclaimed non-spiritual friend who maintained that there was no meaning to our being alive. I tried to push his logic to the extreme and he said that yea we could as well commit suicide it wouldn't change a thing.

So I'm just curious what other people think.

 

I think he sounds depressed.

 

I didn't say that.

 

Eh... I think this is a rather narrow way of looking at it. In fact, I'm not sure you could even call that any kind of meaning at all. I don't see how reproduction defines a term so broad as life because life includes and is related to the following:

• Conciousness.
• Experiences.
• Emotions (In a human sense)
• Individuality.
• Spirituality.
• Etc.

I would argue that to reproduce is a goal (for many, not all), a way to genetically contribute to your society, but I don't think it defines what it means, by its very nature, intrinsically... to exist.

 

Not directly.