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“If God isn’t real, what's the point of living at all when one day you’re just going to die?”

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Because of the wording, I assume you are referring to the Abrahamic version of a god and the flavor is most likely Christian, although it could be stretched to include the Islamic flavor.

As an atheist/evidentilist/rationalist, I put no credence in supernatural things of any stripe. I am as aware of my mortality as anyone and I am creeping up on that final day now. Hopefully it will be later than sooner, but we never know, do we?

You asked, “…what’s the point of living…”, and I am somewhat surprised that you don’t seem to know what the point of living is. There is only one point to living and that is to reproduce to perpetuate the species, everything else is survival.

The difference between us and many of the 'lower' animals is that we can contemplate the future, reminisce the past, and count our days, knowing that the clock is ticking down. There are several other animals on this planet that I suspect are able to do the same in varying degrees, so we may not be all that unique.

Sometime in our ancient past, one of our more clever members figured out a way to explain everything by applying agency to things like wind, rain, fire, lightning, thunder, birth, sickness, and death. The first gods were born. We’ve been living with these notions so long that they have become ingrained into our psyche. It is indeed a sad thing that those clever folks back then didn’t realize what damage they would do to our species.

It wasn’t much of a leap from the first gods to inventing souls, heavens, hells, and holy reward systems in an … afterlife. Fear of the end was not eliminated, but it was alleviated to some extent. All one had to do was believe in this or that, obey a usually convoluted set of rules, use certain jargon/handshake/moves, pay their dues, and WHAM!, they were off to collect their rewards and live forever and ever in a land of no pain, strife, need, and whatever else our clever members could create to entice new members to pay their dues. It is interesting that most of this has a decidedly masculine content. One must wonder why that is.

At any rate, most of the various reasons/meanings for life that are expounded by members of our species are human inventions because we have creative minds and far too much time on our hands. Morals and ethics are not the property of the myriad religions we have infesting our world. They have come to us through experience over deep time and have become a part of us. Good and evil are not an invention of any god or gods, but the result of hundreds of thousands of years and the fact that we are a social animal which makes things like that important to the survival of the species. Remember: You are born. You mature. You propagate. You assure your offspring get to maturity. You die. In order to accomplish all of that — except the last — you must survive. All the mental constructs we have conjured do not change the order or the meaning of life one iota. This is the only way your question can be answered realistically. The constructs we use to give meaning to our lives are as numerous as there are people on this planet. Each answer is personally tailored for the person who gives it. It is part of the beauty of being alive — deciding what to do with it and how to value it. How to make the best of it and do no harm in the process.

Oh, and 42.

evidentialist 8 Apr 30
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27 comments (26 - 27)

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0

Who are you talking to?

The question was presented in Quora. Below the question was my answer to the OP.

@evidentialist I understand, thank you.

0

One of the dumbest quotes I have ever heard. Who is it?

Rodolfo Chacin on Quora: [quora.com]

@maturin1919 -- Quora is a question and answer forum. Someone actually asked this question, so we have evidence that these people still exist.

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