What is the meaning of life for the atheist
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From: bacle on 29 Jul 2010 15:26 Would you please take your off-topic discussion to some other site, say some philosophy or religion website.?
From: Sapient Fridge on 29 Jul 2010 19:33 <snip> >The third is Pascal's Wager. Essentially, believe and observe, because >on your steps to Heaven the Devil may be behind you with a blowtorch >and and an invoice for your sins. Do you believe in all gods, just it case Quetzalcoatl is out to get you? Or are you just waffling off-topic rubbish as usual? -- sapient_usenet02(a)spamsights.org ICQ #17887309 * Save the net * Grok: http://spam.abuse.net http://www.cauce.org * nuke a spammer * Find: http://www.samspade.org http://www.netdemon.net * today * Kill: http://mail-abuse.com http://au.sorbs.net http://spamhaus.org
From: John Murphy on 29 Jul 2010 20:19 On 30 July, 00:26, bacle <h...(a)here.com> wrote: > Would you please take your off-topic discussion > to some other site, say some philosophy or > religion website.? I understand of course, bacle! But to Blaise Pascal, we owe one notion of infinity, and a lot of probability theory. I do apologise for the repetition, though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager -- Kind rgds, John
From: John Murphy on 29 Jul 2010 20:31 On 30 July, 00:33, Sapient Fridge <use_reply_addr...(a)spamsights.org> wrote: > <snip> > > >The third is Pascal's Wager. Essentially, believe and observe, because > >on your steps to Heaven the Devil may be behind you with a blowtorch > >and and an invoice for your sins. > > Do you believe in all gods, just it case Quetzalcoatl is out to get you? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager Wake up, Fridge! To Blaise Pascal, we owe one notion of infinity, and a lot of probability theory. I do apologise for the repetition, though. Having mistaken it for a doughnut, I dunked my PC in my teacup. Ain't small beautiful! -- Harbinger. > Or are you just waffling off-topic rubbish as usual? > -- > sapient_usene...(a)spamsights.org ICQ #17887309 * Save the net * > Grok:http://spam.abuse.net http://www.cauce.org* nuke a spammer * > Find:http://www.samspade.orghttp://www.netdemon.net * today * > Kill:http://mail-abuse.com http://au.sorbs.net http://spamhaus.org
From: nuny on 30 Jul 2010 07:55
On Jul 29, 3:51 pm, John Murphy <london.accommodation.homest...(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > On Jul 28, 5:27 pm, "Cl.Massé" <cont...(a)nospam.com> brightly wrote: > > > "Jimbo" <ckdbig...(a)gmail.com> a écrit dans le message denews:1544cc5e-cffe-4e40-97fe-df7dc5d2b822(a)x21g2000yqa.googlegroups.com... > > > > This is something that I don't really understand. Theists talk about > > > death as a bitter and nasty thing, as you say, althought they are, > > > supposedly, going to a paradise. By-in-large, atheists simply make their > > > own meaning for their lives, and seem happier, overall. I draw meaning > > > from my children, and grandchildren, and I hope within the next few years, > > > great grandchildren. I draw meaning from making and seeing my family and > > > friends comfortable and happy. I draw meaning from my work, and after I > > > retired, my hobbies and activities. I draw meaning from my students at > > > the community education center. I draw meaning from the veterans that I > > > have helped with legal work to secure their VA benefits. I draw meaning > > > from freshly mown grass, the sound of kids playing at the ball park across > > > the street, oh you get the picture, there is just so many things that I > > > draw meaning from. Why would anyone need a magical sky-daddy to provide > > > them meaning for their lives? > > > At last a positive answer. You draw meaning, but what is that meaning? > > Isn't it rather satisfaction? Satisfaction need a goal to be defined.. Sure > > there is no need of a sky-daddy, but isn't there a need for something > > irrational? Atheism isn't the negation of irrationaliity. Part of the satisfaction in grandchildren is knowing you've propagated your genes. On the one hand, from a statistical standpoint each individual of a species is merely a vector for the species' DNA. On the other hand, irrationality is stuff that doesn't mesh well with our sensorium and/or interpretive wetware. Doesn't mean it isn't real, or necessarily bad. I mean, pi. > > ~~~~ clmasse on free F-country > > Liberty, Equality, Profitability. > > Cl.Massé, thanks! > > Midges fly at about 3m above the ground, rest in trees, so are more > likely to bite the tall than the shorter fellow. Short, fat persons, > however, get bitten almost as much, because they offer larger feeding- > grounds. > > Biologically speaking, the definition of an accountant or, indeed, the > biologist him- or herself, comes to much the same sort of mechanistic > dumbfoundery. > > Self-reduction to midges or microbes is bad enough. That's what you take home from Evolutionary theory? Wow. > Self-reduction to midges or microbes is bad enough. As we have seen in > the Soviet Empire, Marxian economics reduced man to a biped moving in > the direction of potato supplies. Millions never even got there! (Yabbut, the *servants* of The People always managed to get themselves fed.) > The miracle that got us here has led to a proliferation of abortion > clinics across it. On the other other hand. I'm an Apatheist. I don't *care* whether or not deities exist; I don't interact with them. I interact with *people*, and I don't have to believe in them. They're always there... I am anti-abortion. For me it's not about spirituality. Abortion is not only murder (causing the death of an innocent) by human law, it is a crime against the species. See, species are made up of individuals. No individuals, no species. Individuals are *important*. Individuals can be useful, even essential to the species as a whole, not just to the individual's particular genome. You can't predict which combinations of genes will produce a drooling feeb-for-life, or a Ghandi, a Penrose, a Beatle, you get the idea. Yeah, you get the odd Genghis, or whoever. We're getting better at ignoring them though. > Three views may be taken of the matter. > > The first is religion as social control: those who fear God are less > likely to transgress his laws. If humans use that method of "social control" we call them "terrorists". > The second is that life is deeply mysterious, and that we should > cherish it, whatever our hardships - and we may do this alone, or > preferably in churches of communicants. [ I fall into both cats.] It isn't the fall that kills you. Also, falling into cats? Think of the kittens! > The third is Pascal's Wager. Essentially, believe and observe, because > on your steps to Heaven the Devil may be behind you with a blowtorch > and and an invoice for your sins. Is it all right with you if I behave nicely not because I fear your deity/antideity*, but because I choose to practice Enlightened Self- Interest (not Doc Smith's version)? > 'A is to B as C is to D' is all very well but tells us nothing about > our relations to others and our profoundly mysterious world. Do you have issues with those who investigate profound mysteries? > The Universe is not only a queerer place than we imagine; it is a > queerer place than we can imagine. - Haldane. IFYQFY. Also, quantum mechanics. * Can we make them annihilate like matter and antimatter? Dr. Hot"not related to ELIZA"Salt |