Contemplating God-free zones

Khaled Diab
guardian.co.uk, Friday July 11, 2008

A typical assumption the religious make is that the absence of God deprives life of essence and meaning – that the cold eye of reason is arrogant and robs life of its soul and mystique. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has colourfully described this as “spiritual homelessness”. He opined that: “Many people have a sense of being in a sort of exile from faith-guided experience.”

This sense of alienation cuts across theological lines. “It’s difficult to have a spiritual life in a modern society,” believes Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss-born reformist Islamic scholar.

As a non-believer, I do not feel like a spiritual refugee slumming it out in some frontier camp for exiled souls. You do not need God or religion to experience the sublime and poetic.

The modern world has its own peculiar mystique and, as far as our knowledge of human civilisation goes, we are truly living in the age of miracles. Jesus could restore sight to the blind, so can our doctors. That said, feeding the 5,000 would be useful with the current food crisis and turning water into wine would make a great party trick.
<MORE> . . . .

“Meaning” in the general sense seems over-rated to me. Why should “life” in the abstract have “meaning”? Does a rock have “meaning”? Does the sky have “meaning”? The idea that there is some invariant universal “meaning” is a problem that only the theists see. From an atheistic standpoint, it seems to me, there is no meaning that stands above, beyond, or apart from life as it is lived. This is what Sartre discussed. The theological position is that there is “essence” before there is “existence.” But this essence or meaning is really a human construction placed upon the world of experience. In reality, as Sartre says, existence comes first. We are left to make our own meanings of our individual lives as examples to the human race itself. That is the only meaning that there is. This responsibility enriches one’s life with the awareness that one shot is all one gets to make a truly meaningful life. Instead of leading empty lives, atheists have full lives, receptive to new experience without any need to impose a pre-made “meaning” upon anything.

I search for meaning in my collection of pornography. I do this each day, religiously.

Skicarver you lonely, lonely man. Everyone knows Video Games give meaning to the most people

There is no intrinsic meaning to anything.  It is a concept that requires a sentient being to assign it.  For example, I believe the meaning of our lives is what we build into them.  However, I also believe that the closer to inanimate we become, the less meaning we can build into ourselves.  As such, I would say that Skicarver has defined a meaning for himself (whether or not some may or may not approve), but from my observations, video games are quite effective in converting formerly sentient beings into inanimate objects, and therefore, without meaning. 

Occam

edited to correct a typo

Like gold. One day, some guy was looking at gold and though to himself “oooh! Shiny.” and so gold became a “precious” metal xD

Doc_Prospect - 21 July 2008 08:13 PM

Like gold. One day, some guy was looking at gold and though to himself “oooh! Shiny.” and so gold became a “precious” metal xD

No, gold does have intrinsic value due to its luster, malleability, rarity and lack of corrosion. OTOH, diamonds are as common as dirt and thus rather valueless - it’s only De Beers’ cartel and their advertising which make them seem more valuable than a free market would set them at.

In my experience, the best method for turning animate minds into inert matter is the American education system (using “system” broadly). Read a few freshman college essays some time and feel your brain cells die.

D.W., my mind was boggled before I retired by reading reports and letters that were to be sent to the company’s customers, written by recent chem major graduates, some with advanced degrees.

Occam

A Voice of Sanity - 22 July 2008 12:05 AM

Doc_Prospect - 21 July 2008 08:13 PM

Like gold. One day, some guy was looking at gold and though to himself “oooh! Shiny.” and so gold became a “precious” metal xD

No, gold does have intrinsic value due to its luster, malleability, rarity and lack of corrosion. OTOH, diamonds are as common as dirt and thus rather valueless - it’s only De Beers’ cartel and their advertising which make them seem more valuable than a free market would set them at.

If there is no intrinsic meaning in anything, there is no intrinsic value in anything (is “usefulness” valuable?  Why?), and therefore, gold has no intrinsic value.

Quite true.  If there were no sentient beings, gold would have no value, intrinsic or otherwise.  It’s value is what we, as humans, assign it.  Certainly, because of it’s utility in serving some of our purposes, we assign it a high value.  (Interesting that I started to say, “. . . a much higher value than. . .” then couldn’t find something to put in the lower value category, since we seem to find use for essentially every element.)

Occam