Why is life worth living for an atheist? - General

Life is pointless until you make your own reason to make life worth living, even if it's something as simple as enjoying every day.

I have always wondered the reverse for religious people. I never understood how they could say that the ultimate point of life was to test you to see if you're good enough for an afterlife; meaning that life itself is essentially pointless. For somebody who doesn't put much faith in the notion of an afterlife, someone who believes that life is [i]life[/i], the one and only, then their primary motivation isn't to one day die so they can go to the next place, but to make the absolute most of the life they already have. As far as I can tell, a theist believes that death is the ultimate goal, while an atheist believes that life is.

Pretty much everything said in this thread. I want to climb mountains, see cities, teach children, get into politics, change the world, build spaceships, on and on forever. Should death stop me from doing that? No! Besides, who's to say that we won't be able to become cyborgs or something and live for another century? Or a millennium? Or forever? [editline]12th October 2010[/editline] Even if I wind up pushing pencils, it's worth it.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;25366083]Why is it worth living for a theist? You have immortality after you die so just kill yourself do it now[/QUOTE] Zeke, a god amongst men.

I don't understand why people are so keen about an infinite afterlife anyway. What the fuck would you even do?

[QUOTE=stone555;25368392]I don't understand why people are so keen about an infinite afterlife anyway. What the fuck would you even do?[/QUOTE] you'd think after about 700,000,000,000,000,000 years in hell it would stop hurting or get boring

[QUOTE=stone555;25368392]I don't understand why people are so keen about an infinite afterlife anyway. What the fuck would you even do?[/QUOTE] When you get to heaven, you'll wish you went to hell.

Sleeping in on sundays. /thread

[img_thumb] http://desuchan.net/kashira/src/1284085191994.jpg[/img_thumb] If you're gonna suicide don't give us your suicide notes, we get enough of them from angsty teens like yourself. By the way, shit reply from the weeaboo.

Fuck, I'd rather live in hell. Heaven sounds boring as fuck. I'd rather be raped by dogs with dicks made out of barbed wire for an eternity than sit on clouds and play a fucking harp for eternity.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;25366083]Why is it worth living for a theist? You have immortality after you die so just kill yourself do it now[/QUOTE] Suicide doesn't mean you get into to "heaven" in all religions. Sometimes its the opposite. I've heard it preached often that in Christianity, suicide leads to hell. So, doesn't work in that sense. Now in Islam and some other religions, you have me beat.

[QUOTE=alienmartian23;25368443]you'd think after about 700,000,000,000,000,000 years in hell it would stop hurting or get boring[/QUOTE] "...You will be facing a finality beyond your comprehension, and you will not be counting days, or months, or years, but millenniums in a place with no doors."

[QUOTE=alienmartian23;25368443]you'd think after about 700,000,000,000,000,000 years in hell it would stop hurting or get boring[/QUOTE] I'd probably stop noticing after the first 3 months.

[QUOTE=spyinfiltrator;25368504]Suicide doesn't mean you get into to "heaven" in all religions. Sometimes its the opposite. I've heard it preached often that in Christianity, suicide leads to hell. So, doesn't work in that sense. [/QUOTE] Don't listen to him OP he is a lying heathen

[QUOTE=spyinfiltrator;25368504]Suicide doesn't mean you get into to "heaven" in all religions. Sometimes its the opposite. I've heard it preached often that in Christianity, suicide leads to hell. So, doesn't work in that sense. Now in Islam and some other religions, you have me beat.[/QUOTE] Every religion except for the odd crazy cult condemns suicide. Also, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have the same core belief. Christianity branched off of Judaism and Islam branched off of Christianity. Muslims even follow the teachings of Christ, but they don't think he's the messiah.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;25368505]"...You will be facing a finality beyond your comprehension, and you will not be counting days, or months, or years, but millenniums in a place with no doors."[/QUOTE] you'd think after about 700,000,000,000,000,000 millenniums in hell it would stop hurting or get boring

[QUOTE=Dronaroid;25368325]Zeke, a god amongst men.[/QUOTE] I love the irony in calling him that.

[QUOTE=Namo;25368470]Fuck, I'd rather live in hell. Heaven sounds boring as fuck. I'd rather be raped by dogs with dicks made out of barbed wire for an eternity than sit on clouds and play a fucking harp for eternity.[/QUOTE] Really? I'd rather not get raped by dogs with dicks made out of barbed wire for eternity. At least i'd learn some cool tunes on the harp.

[QUOTE=ASmellyOgreV2;25368591]Every religion except for the odd crazy cult condemns suicide. Also, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have the same core belief. Christianity branched off of Judaism and Islam branched off of Christianity. Muslims even follow the teachings of Christ, but they don't think he's the messiah.[/QUOTE] I was about to pull up the whole 'dying for Allah and ending up with 72 virgins' thing, but I was browsing a bit and found statements where Islamic leaders stated it as a terrorist act. Just the radicals that believe that I suppose.

The meaning of life is to reproduce. Or number 42 if you're that kind of person

[QUOTE=spyinfiltrator;25368703]I was about to pull up the whole 'dying for Allah and ending up with 72 virgins' thing, but I was browsing a bit and found statements where Islamic leaders stated it as a terrorist act. Just the radicals that believe that I suppose.[/QUOTE] Suicide bombing is as muslim as bombing abortion clinics is christian.

-snip-

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;25368797]Suicide bombing is as muslim as bombing abortion clinics is christian.[/QUOTE] You have to remember the people doing this are pretty radical. Don't say it as if every Muslim or Christian believes in doing such action

[QUOTE=Surreal;25366036]I've come to the conclusion that life is just as valuable as not living because you will eventually die and the impact you've left along with the world will die too, the universe will eventually die, and there's no chance of a legacy ultimately surviving, so why does anything matter? What ever you do will just be forgotten anyway[/QUOTE] The amount of how false you are is just so astronomically unimaginable that it really baffles me at how you managed to reach this conclusion without some kind of realization that what you do in life and how people will remember you has absolutely nothing to do with the legacy you leave behind. For God's sake, Carl Sagan was agnostic. He's admitted it on dozens of occasions and look at the impact he left on society. A common misconception with people who look at an atheist is that they have no beliefs at all. That they're just going to be cast away when they die---like the forgotten useless corpse you seem to think they should be. That's so unbelievably wrong. I'm an atheist, but I put faith in dozens of other things. And these things make me happy. I always smile when I see someone do something good, it reminds me that everything in life doesn't actually suck. It reminds me that, even though we're tied down by these shackles of primitive instinct and survival there are some people out there who show the ability to overcome it with rationality and reasoning. I put faith in love, I put faith in people, I put faith in happiness of others. All of my faith is invested in the people around me because the way I feel is ultimately determined by the moods of my friends and acquaintances. I don't think my legacy will die. I don't care how small of an impact it is. You want to know why a legacy will never die? You leave it behind with children or with knowledge, or even with money. A legacy never dies. Look at Isaac Newton. That guy came up the the three universal laws that we all must abide by while walking on this pale rock, and he's been revered for centuries. "If you want people to think fondly of you, die."