Posted by Theophilus on 12/30/06 14:08

"anthonyberet" <nospam@me.invalid> wrote in message
news:4vlql8F1cm9fuU1@mid.individual.net...
> Theophilus wrote:
> <snip>
>>> Sorry, your own #2 rules out atheism as a religion. The whole higher
>>> power
>>> thing. BTW, higher than what?
>>
>> Higher than the moral nothingness dictated by a material universe.
>> Atheists use morality as if it were real and absolute in some sense; they
>> have no empirical evidence that there is any basis to it.
>>
>> An honest atheist would admit such and regard his own life as being
>> "worth" as much as any lump of coal or granite. This is the delusion
>> that they live under, the idea that they have some absolute worth, when
>> their belief system dictates that they have none.
>>
>>
> I think you make a mistake in generalising about atheists.
> - We neither have agreed rules of morality or measures of 'worth'.
> My opinion on these matters could not be taken to represent all atheists.
>
> Might I ask what are your beliefs about the cosmos? - Is there an
> intelligent design to it? Is any designer petitionable in any way?

I should be more clear. As a self-aware being that wants to moralize and
feel purpose and meaning to my life, I have certain things that I would LIKE
to be true.

For example, I would like to think that 2+2=4 is true even in the absence of
consciousness, that it's hard-wired in to the universe. Empirical science
says it's not.

I would also like to think that it matters if people are murdered, raped or
whatever. Empirical science says it doesn't.

I would also like to think that people that act beyond self interest do so
because of a real higher purpose. Empirical science says that no, it's all
self interest.

The reality is, if there is no basis for our existence, our hopes and
desires, then there really is no point to living at all. Any attempt to
generate self-meaning is reduced to relativism. Your "meaning" is no more
meaningful than anything else.

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