Author Archive for Raithie

I’ll create my own meaning, thanks.

Published
by
Raithie
on August 29, 2010
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No, an atheists life is not devoid of meaning, purpose or happiness. Perhaps to some extent to an individual, but it's definitely not applicable to the collective. We're a diverse lot, unified only by our lack of belief in deities and don't deserve to be thrown together under one heading. Atheism isn't a world view, only a part of one and us godless heathens come in large variety of flavours. On I go...
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Firstly, the word "meaning" is useless unless you specify and define what you're referring to. It's a human construct and will probably differ with each individual. To get the ball rolling, I will assume the (vague) definition of it being ones subjective value and perception. 

That's pretty simple. We all perceive the world differently. We have different memories and experiences and prioritise these according to the emotional impact they had on us. If multiple people read the same book, each person will grasp certain details and correlations that pass over another, purely because those specifics happen to have meaning for that particular person. It's entirely subjective; derived from the context of their life and weaved from a complex matrix of interlocking factors.

Biologically speaking, us humans are compulsively drawn towards patterns. We instinctively search for disparities and form parallels between them in order to make it more appealing and understandable. To quote Richard Dawkins; the human mind is an "inveterate analogizer". We habitually find meaning in slight similarities between drastically different situations. We have a tendency to focus on particular details (subjectively prioritised) in order to extrapolate the full picture and then further connect the dots along the way with our neat, patterned and "meaning"-saturated lines.

And that's why "meaning" is merely a construct of the mind.  We're drawn to it likes flies to honey. Christians, or any theist for that matter, don't get to preside over a monopoly on meaning, despite their self-proclamations. We all get a slice, whether we want to or not.


What would god add to the equation?
How meaningless must ones life be, in order to need a "higher being" to give it meaning? If you depend upon a celestial skydaddy to enrichen your life, your life can't be all that meaningful. Meaning is what you extract from your life and surroundings. It's an entirely personal discovery. You acquire it from your memories, experiences and from the people who you love and consider close. What is meaningful and special to you, is what essentially offers your life meaning. Your the one with the chisel, not any ethereal, invisible being.

I, for definite, don't need any imposed meaning in my life. I'm perfectly content with the universe being without a predefined path or purpose. What could an absolute god-given meaning possibly add to the equation, anyway? Nothing! It makes no difference. Your life is still defined by the inter-connections of reality; your beliefs, perceptions, environment and those people that you meet and depend on. Your happiness and "meaning" is still the derivative of those things, along with many other factors. Throw god in and the only thing that changes is that there's an oddly powerful creator who may or may not require submission and pampering by worship. The balance remains the same: god adds zero. 

So, thanks for the offer of "divine purpose", theists - but no thank you.

Reality will suffice.


What is God?

Published
by
Raithie
on August 25, 2010
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 I received this in an email recently, and felt I needed to relay it. It's a great piece of writing and upholds a very valid point. Enjoy.
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"ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT GOD

When an atheist and a Christian debate about God, there is an implicit agreement between them as to what a God is. Maybe the atheist shouldn't accept this implicit definition so readily.

Imagine the following conversation:

John: A blark exists.
Steve: Prove it.
John: It has rained for the past three days. That is my proof.

I'm quite sure you can see the problem with that conversation. What on earth is a blark? Steve doesn't know, so he can't possibly determine if John's evidence is legitimate. He should have first asked, "What is it that you are claiming existence for?", or more simply, "What is a blark?" We'll give Steve another chance:

John: A blark exists.
Steve: What is a blark?
John: I don't know.

Neither John nor Steve know what a blark is, and so at this point, the conversation must stop. The undefined is undiscussable.

Now let's turn this into a conversation about a deity. How would your average Christian define God? Being a former Christian, lots of things come to mind for me. God is omnipotent. God is omniscient. God is Love. God is omnipresent. But what are these actually saying? They're not telling us, as the Christian would have you believe, what God is. They're telling us that God's knowledge, the space he occupies, or his power, are not limited. In short, they're telling us what God is not. Furthermore, even these are only adjectives, not nouns. I could say that a dog is brown, fast, and hungry, but that doesn't get me an ounce closer to explaining a dog to an alien who's never seen one. In fact, look in Christian religious encyclopedias and you're bound to find God described as "ineffable", meaning indescribable. Ineffability is necessary to preclude such questions as, "How does God think? What is he made of? By what means does he exert his will?"

Ask the question, "What is a dog?", and an answer is ready. A dog is a biological, carbon-based organism found on the planet Earth. It is a member of the canine family, and it is primarily carnivorous in nature. I could go on and on, but the important thing is that I can answer the question, "What is a dog?" objectively. Therefore, we can talk about dogs. Let's return to John and Steve:

John: God exists.
Steve: What is God?
John: I don't know.

Just as when discussing the blark, the conversation must stop. You cannot discuss the undefined. Thus, all religious claims are rendered total gibberish, along the same line as claiming that you have a snoogle fretup in your vixsrod.

Now, the theist response is very predictable, but easily refuted. "God is so magnificent/amazing/complex that we can't understand him as mere humans!" In short, the theist would claim that God is inherently unknowable. In that case, I have one question to ask the theist. How do you know that God is unknowable? To say that something is unknowable is to claim knowledge of the unknowable - an obvious and irresolvable contradiction. In fact, logic precludes one from claiming that anything is inherently unknowable. It is absolutely impossible to adduce evidence for such a claim."

From ShellsOnTheFloor (shellsonthefloor@gmail.com)
-Thank you for the wonderful contribution!


New look!

Published
by
Raithie
on August 23, 2010
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As you may or may not have noticed, Teenage Atheist has a new template! I figured it could do with an update & finally some colour. The comments on the old posts (before Intense Debate) have been lost, which sucks. But, I guess the new layout is worth it.

Like / dislike?