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How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?[W: 192]

Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

I don't need to be judged by a god in order for my life to have meaning, there are plenty of judgmental pricks right here on earth for that.

I also do not understand the logic of the claim that we need an afterlife in order for this one to have meaning... You need to exist forever or there's no meaning to it? I see it the opposite, if I were an immortal soul what happens in my brief life wouldn't matter, nor would a single day. But the fact that life ends makes every day precious, valuable and finite. The fact that we exist in a relative blink of an eye compared to the astronomical time scale, rather than for every one of the billions of years, makes us (and all life) rare and that much more precious.

Other people aren't worthy enough to judge you, God is.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Other people aren't worthy enough to judge you, God is.

Source for that claim?

The fact remains there is no reason to believe in your god or any other. We the living do have a justice system, we have to deal with matters of justice so we have to deem people qualified to judge our very earthly actions, they aren't that complicated anyways that only a god can say "yeah... you shouldn't have drowned your infant." We humans are capable of such judgments with ease.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Source for that claim?

The fact remains there is no reason to believe in your god or any other. We the living do have a justice system, we have to deal with matters of justice so we have to deem people qualified to judge our very earthly actions, they aren't that complicated anyways that only a god can say "yeah... you shouldn't have drowned your infant." We humans are capable of such judgments with ease.

The only source that would have the authority to make it.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

The only source that would have the authority to make it.

That's a no then right? You have no good reason for what you believe, so I why should I credulously buy into your assertions? I miss the days when you faith peddlers actually had game.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

That's a no then right? You have no good reason for what you believe, so I why should I credulously buy into your assertions? I miss the days when you faith peddlers actually had game.

A no to what, Lachlan?

And what kind of game are you referring to, the rack? Burning at the stake? Boiled alive? Yes, those were the days.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Other people aren't worthy enough to judge you, God is.

Prove God exists, otherwise your statement is foolish.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

A no to what, Lachlan?

And what kind of game are you referring to, the rack? Burning at the stake? Boiled alive? Yes, those were the days.

A no to you giving me evidence for your god's existence, or any good reason why I should believe you assertion?

Also, its Lachean.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Someone used the fallacy of begging the question in another thread in first assuming that if God doesn't exist, life has no meaning.

What about God(s) gives life meaning?

God created us. Without him, there would be no life. If there is no life, then there can be no meaning to life.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

A no to you giving me evidence for your god's existence, or any good reason why I should believe you assertion?

Also, its Lachean.

Yeah, iPad autocorrects your name to Lachlan, idk why.

God isn't mine, I am His. Have you read the bible?
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Well we have one believer who is basically saying "I believe because I want to and when I do I feel like it gives me meaning".

Next?
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Yeah, iPad autocorrects your name to Lachlan, idk why.

God isn't mine, I am His. Have you read the bible?

Cover to cover, several different versions and in two languages. I was born a Catholic and stopped short of confirmation. Reading the Bible is what started my path towards atheism. Namely Matthew 16:28, Jesus lied and his people all died waiting for him... as has every Christian since... Most believers when polled still expect him in their lifetime.

When I say your god I do not mean as a possession, for I do not even accept that it as an entity exists. I'm saying your claim that he even exists to distinguish your god from the many gods other gods people claim to believe in; They each have just as much evidence and reason to believe as you do... which is none.

If you think the Bible constitutes what I'm asking for, evidence, then you are not familiar with the logical fallacy you are committing. Its called circular logic (tautology), your source for your claim cannot also be its own evidence. The fact that the bible says its the word of god is no more compelling than if I wrote "word of god - god" on a napkin, that's like trusting Pepsi to judge a soda competition.
 
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Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Then monkeys might fly out of my butt

So you are a Wiccan? Who knew?

I don't have any problem with that. But, personally I don't want to practice a religion where things must go into or out of one's butt.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

But, personally I don't want to practice a religion where things must go into or out of one's butt.

So you aren't Catholic? :lol:
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Other people aren't worthy enough to judge you, God is.

I peronally suspect that we judge ourselves far more harshly than "God" would. If God is love, and we are God's children, I would expect that God itself is much more forgiving than we are. Did you read "The Shack" by any chance? It's a pretty interesting take on God and on people, and will expand your horizons of thought, if you dare to let go of preconceived notions and let your mind wander a little. Perhaps we are the ones who are mistaken, and God really isn't as judgemental as we want to believe.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Someone used the fallacy of begging the question in another thread in first assuming that if God doesn't exist, life has no meaning.

What about God(s) gives life meaning?

If there is a God, then there is something eternal, with which you can join. There are things you can do which won't be undone. The things you do matter beyond your personal existence, or the existence of humanity, for that matter. There is an ultimate referee, and there is an ultimate right and wrong.

If there is nothing eternal, everything done will be undone. Every species goes extinct, and humanity will be no exception, whatever we do now or at any time. The Earth gets swallowed by the sun no matter what happens between then and now. The universe follows entropy into lukewarm mush no matter what. So everything's pointless. Utterly. Everything whatsoever. There is no point to doing anything, and deriving "meaning" from anything, anything at all, is delusion, because there isn't any.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

If there is a God, then there is something eternal, with which you can join. There are things you can do which won't be undone. The things you do matter beyond your personal existence, or the existence of humanity, for that matter. There is an ultimate referee, and there is an ultimate right and wrong.

If there is nothing eternal, everything done will be undone. Every species goes extinct, and humanity will be no exception, whatever we do now or at any time. The Earth gets swallowed by the sun no matter what happens between then and now. The universe follows entropy into lukewarm mush no matter what. So everything's pointless. Utterly. Everything whatsoever. There is no point to doing anything, and deriving "meaning" from anything, anything at all, is delusion, because there isn't any.

Or nothing changes but form. Love is eternal, it is everything. We are not parts of it. There is no part of everything. Everything is all.

 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

Or nothing changes but form. Love is eternal, it is everything. We are not parts of it. There is no part of everything. Everything is all.



Love is a chemical change to perception which exists only in the brain.
 
Re: How does God(s)'s existence give life meaning?

I'm surprised that no one has picked up on the canonical argument for this.

Let's focus on the meaning of "meaning." We won't manage to explicate all aspects of meaning in this thread, but one thing we can recognize is that meaning entails a two-place relation. As Wittgenstein observed, the notion of a private language doesn't make any sense. Language is the paradigm case of a carrier of meaning, and it is instructive in this sense.

But we need not restrict ourselves to consideration of language. Art is another prime carrier of meaning. When we look at a piece of art, meaning is conveyed, but that is only possible if there is both and artist and a viewer of art.

The problem should be obvious: if a thing is meaningful, there must be an other to appreciate it. But human lives are mortal. My life may be meaningful to my family and friends, but they will all die as well. And there is a valid question of the overall meaning of the lives of my family and friends. There can be a similarly valid question of the meaning of all human lives that will ever be lived.

Now, we need not restrict ourselves to sentience; rocks and rivers can have meaning (though it does seem that the receiving party in the meaning relation has to be sentient). And given this, we can stop the analysis here, because it should be obvious we'll end in just a couple of possible situations. First, we might have an infinite regress of two-place relations, with each 2nd-place in one relation becoming the first place in another. But to the extent we can name the infinite regress (as it seems we can), we can include it in its own relation. And what will form the second place in that relation?

Alternately, we might find something that genuinely terminates the set of relations. But what sort of thing would that be? It'd have to be something special with regard to meaning, capable of standing in both places of the meaning relation at the same time. I have no room to explain the ins and outs of what philosophers call "intension" (that's not a misspelling), but if you think about it as "about-ness" that's fairly close. Consider carefully (i.e. spend a few years thinking as clearly as you can) what this would take. A piece of art that is self-appreciating. A language that accomplishes genuine communication from speaker to hearer, but they are both the self-same thing. Etc.

Someone who wanted to deny the upshot might have recourse to say that perhaps life is just genuinely meaningless. Well, maybe so. But, someone who took that line would be left with the problem of explaining how meaning is created out of meaningless interactions. Again, I've no hope of getting into the many ins-and-outs of various attempts to do this. Let me just say that, as things stand right now, there's not so much optimism that it will be possible to do this. It's also not really possible to deny that there is such a thing as meaning. Language does have meaning. Art has meaning. We draw meaning from events.

It's a real problem. This doesn't mean it might not have an entirely naturalistic solution, but it's not clear that it does.

In a nutshell, that's the problem of meaning and how it relates to God.

One final note: this argument does not in any way establish, even if it succeeds, a traditional God, such as that of Christianity or Islam. However, it might be taken to lend support to the general notion that there is some kind of God.
 
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