Butterfly Christie
Agnostic Atheist
Hi! While I've explained non-religious morality just based on reason in my last thread. *Link* I think purpose in people's lives go hand in hand with it. I'd like to see what people think purpose in life is, and if you think you have the ability to know, what is yours. I'll say what I think it is. I'm coming from an Atheist's / Secular Humanist's perspective.
While purpose can be seen as a relative concept that is what makes it beautiful, it's in our hands. It's relativity doesn't stop us from having it. Human life has purpose because we have the ability to conceive of the notion of purpose. When a being can experience this, they by definition have it. The human mind can experience love, happiness, and importance. This means we can live by what makes us feel all these things that brings us well being. Once we have found something that makes us feel that we have found a purpose.
Do you know what the odds are of us experiencing and being aware as humans, compared to every other form of matter and substance out there? The odds go through the roof, not only that, they go through the galaxy. Everyone alive today is incredibly lucky to be here today so they should enjoy it while it lasts. For all we know this could be our only shot at experiencing. Since we don't know what happens after we die and this may be it, that makes this life infinitely more important.
I actually love existing, because I get to laugh in the face of the sheer probability I wouldn't exist. It's a breathless sort of exhilaration knowing how long a shot it was, and how tiny my blip of time is. I'm making the most of it by maximizing human happiness in as many other people as possible.
Since there is no sign of any supreme beings it actually hands power to you and challenges you to make yourself matter to someone. The best and most universally beneficial way to do this is by helping other people.
I've been a Christian for 20 years and I know how it wonderful it feels to think that there is some higher being out there watching over us, its a nice blissful feeling, but truth stays the truth no matter what we want to believe, like if we want to believe in something that makes us feel more comfortable.
I get the same inspiring and wonderful feeling knowing that I am here today because of billions of years of living beings giving their all to pass on their genes the next generation. Thats makes us all incredibly special. Now a species is at a point where they can experience a love greater than altruism, and thats us.
What it means when we find out there is no God is, that same amazing feeling of specialness and the feeling of spiritual contentment never came from a God, but from within ourselves. We never needed a God to tell us we are special to feel it because everything we ever felt from that was already in us to begin with. God only acted as a placebo effect. The mind is capable of the most amazing experiences. What this means is we have the ability to direct that kind of experience towards things that are true; things that have real meaning.
I don't know what's really going to happen to me after I die. I haven't seen good evidence either way to truly tell. I don't know if we can tell. However something to think about is whether it's an afterlife, whether I'm here but in another form, or I simply stop thinking, I know hundreds of trillions of other humans have gone the same route I'm going to go, and countless other life forms have gone the same route. Our species evolved dieing the entire way here. So whatever happens to me I can know it will be as much a natural part of me as me existing in this world right now.
It's things like this inspire that me:
"Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us."
~ Quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astro Physicist PhD
[youtube]VOzkEwaMnaE[/youtube]
YouTube - Neil deGrasse Tyson - The Universe
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
~ Carl Sagan, PHD Astrophysicist
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
~ Douglas Adams
"Life is love, enjoy it; Life is a dream, realize it; Life is a challenge meet it; Life is a game, play it" - books by Joy Thomas
When I stopped being a Christian and actually started to study science to see the world around us its even more amazing than I could have imagined being a Christian and probably more than the human mind is capable of imagining because there are so many "I-don't-know's" out there and its very possible there are a lot out there simply because the human mind wasn't evolved to comprehend it. That makes it all the more exciting to me.
The universe is truly humbling, wonderous, and beautiful from a humans perspective and can make us feel insignificant. Also it can make us realize how incredibly lucky we are to be here as sentient beings, so we should enjoy it.
However what brings amazing significance to me, more than the sheer vastness of the universe makes me feel insignificant, is what we are today, and what we are capable of being in the future if science is allowed to advance.
While purpose can be seen as a relative concept that is what makes it beautiful, it's in our hands. It's relativity doesn't stop us from having it. Human life has purpose because we have the ability to conceive of the notion of purpose. When a being can experience this, they by definition have it. The human mind can experience love, happiness, and importance. This means we can live by what makes us feel all these things that brings us well being. Once we have found something that makes us feel that we have found a purpose.
Do you know what the odds are of us experiencing and being aware as humans, compared to every other form of matter and substance out there? The odds go through the roof, not only that, they go through the galaxy. Everyone alive today is incredibly lucky to be here today so they should enjoy it while it lasts. For all we know this could be our only shot at experiencing. Since we don't know what happens after we die and this may be it, that makes this life infinitely more important.
I actually love existing, because I get to laugh in the face of the sheer probability I wouldn't exist. It's a breathless sort of exhilaration knowing how long a shot it was, and how tiny my blip of time is. I'm making the most of it by maximizing human happiness in as many other people as possible.
Since there is no sign of any supreme beings it actually hands power to you and challenges you to make yourself matter to someone. The best and most universally beneficial way to do this is by helping other people.
I've been a Christian for 20 years and I know how it wonderful it feels to think that there is some higher being out there watching over us, its a nice blissful feeling, but truth stays the truth no matter what we want to believe, like if we want to believe in something that makes us feel more comfortable.
I get the same inspiring and wonderful feeling knowing that I am here today because of billions of years of living beings giving their all to pass on their genes the next generation. Thats makes us all incredibly special. Now a species is at a point where they can experience a love greater than altruism, and thats us.
What it means when we find out there is no God is, that same amazing feeling of specialness and the feeling of spiritual contentment never came from a God, but from within ourselves. We never needed a God to tell us we are special to feel it because everything we ever felt from that was already in us to begin with. God only acted as a placebo effect. The mind is capable of the most amazing experiences. What this means is we have the ability to direct that kind of experience towards things that are true; things that have real meaning.
I don't know what's really going to happen to me after I die. I haven't seen good evidence either way to truly tell. I don't know if we can tell. However something to think about is whether it's an afterlife, whether I'm here but in another form, or I simply stop thinking, I know hundreds of trillions of other humans have gone the same route I'm going to go, and countless other life forms have gone the same route. Our species evolved dieing the entire way here. So whatever happens to me I can know it will be as much a natural part of me as me existing in this world right now.
It's things like this inspire that me:
"Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us."
~ Quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astro Physicist PhD
[youtube]VOzkEwaMnaE[/youtube]
YouTube - Neil deGrasse Tyson - The Universe
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.”
~ Carl Sagan, PHD Astrophysicist
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
~ Douglas Adams
"Life is love, enjoy it; Life is a dream, realize it; Life is a challenge meet it; Life is a game, play it" - books by Joy Thomas
When I stopped being a Christian and actually started to study science to see the world around us its even more amazing than I could have imagined being a Christian and probably more than the human mind is capable of imagining because there are so many "I-don't-know's" out there and its very possible there are a lot out there simply because the human mind wasn't evolved to comprehend it. That makes it all the more exciting to me.
The universe is truly humbling, wonderous, and beautiful from a humans perspective and can make us feel insignificant. Also it can make us realize how incredibly lucky we are to be here as sentient beings, so we should enjoy it.
However what brings amazing significance to me, more than the sheer vastness of the universe makes me feel insignificant, is what we are today, and what we are capable of being in the future if science is allowed to advance.
