I agree with most of the posters here that if God does not exist then your life has no objective meaning. As the biologist Richard Dawkins infamously stated,
"In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
And as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus have suggested, in a godless universe, life is absurd, and if life is absurd then so are moral values.
I also do agree with the others here that, in a world without moral values, a world without right or wrong, you do have a certain sense of freedom. In this freedom, there is no real difference between a Josef Mengele or Florence Nightingale because, in the end, there is no one to judge their actions as truly right or wrong, good or evil. And In such a world, there is no good reason not to live totally for one's own self as Ayn Rand or a Satanist.
Most people see through all of that however. Most people deep down believe in objective right and wrongs and goods and evils, even if some say they don't. They truly do believe that there are things that we ought to do and ought not to do. Most people believe, for instance, that it is truly and objectively wrong to torture small children for fun. That it is evil to do so.
If atheism is true, then you have every right to despair. As Bertrand Russel states, it is on the "foundation of unyielding despair" of a meaningless existence that one must build the "soul's habitation."
But we know intuitively that there are objective morals and values, which is why we act like they do exist even if we say that they don't, and most of us also intuitively know that life has intrinsic value. If there are truly objective morals and values then there is good reason to suggest that there is a universal moral lawgiver who transcends humanity. If this transcendent being has given us moral oughts, then this suggests that there is some sort of purpose and value to our lives. That our lives are not only meaningful in the immediate now, but for all time.
You have purpose. You have value. You do have intrinsic worth. You do not have to build your life on a foundation of unyielding despair. Instead, you can build that life on a foundation of hope and joy knowing that your life has intentionality. You were not just a cosmic accident. You were meant to exist.
I agree with most of the posters here that if God does not exist then your life has no objective meaning. As the biologist Richard Dawkins infamously stated,
"In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
And as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus have suggested, in a godless universe, life is absurd, and if life is absurd then so are moral values.
I also do agree with the others here that, in a world without moral values, a world without right or wrong, you do have a certain sense of freedom. In this freedom, there is no real difference between a Josef Mengele or Florence Nightingale because, in the end, there is no one to judge their actions as truly right or wrong, good or evil. And In such a world, there is no good reason not to live totally for one's own self as Ayn Rand or a Satanist.
Most people see through all of that however. Most people deep down believe in objective right and wrongs and goods and evils, even if some say they don't. They truly do believe that there are things that we ought to do and ought not to do. Most people believe, for instance, that it is truly and objectively wrong to torture small children for fun. That it is evil to do so.
If atheism is true, then you have every right to despair. As Bertrand Russel states, it is on the "foundation of unyielding despair" of a meaningless existence that one must build the "soul's habitation."
But we know intuitively that there are objective morals and values, which is why we act like they do exist even if we say that they don't, and most of us also intuitively know that life has intrinsic value. If there are truly objective morals and values then there is good reason to suggest that there is a universal moral lawgiver who transcends humanity. If this transcendent being has given us moral oughts, then this suggests that there is some sort of purpose and value to our lives. That our lives are not only meaningful in the immediate now, but for all time.
You have purpose. You have value. You do have intrinsic worth. You do not have to build your life on a foundation of unyielding despair. Instead, you can build that life on a foundation of hope and joy knowing that your life has intentionality. You were not just a cosmic accident. You were meant to exist.