Nice article, congratulations

Ah yes, the nonsense about “meaning.” (Or, it you prefer means-ends, “purpose.”) Don’t let theists beg the question — what are you zanies talking about?

Once Western religious myths, like xianity, are rejected — moralized pairs of opposites, like purpose/accident, meaningful/meaningless, being/nothingness — no longer apply to the cosmos.

Those of us lucky enough to have become godless see a bit better what is unclear. Removing “God” from legitimate explanations of natural phenomena can cause intense mental distress.

(There’s cognitive dissonance as well, but “meaning” is not a wholly cognitive concept. Distress, depression, even malaise penetrate the affects.)

To what extent a post-modern culture can create incomprehensible shock can be gauged by the fierce resistance by xian fundamentalists to every secular threat real or imagined. The U.S. suffers greatly from being among the last Western nations to make a difficult transition to a truly secular state.

Starting 150 years ago, only the intelligentsia were disturbed. Most people in the U.S. are stuck somewhere between 1850 and 1925 in their cultural backwardness. Where are you along the timeline:

Darwin knew exactly how he would be treated by Society — he was after all a bona fide “gentleman” quite aware of the perks of his class and his freedom from laboring for any man save himself. T. H. Huxley, who had no fortune to inherit, felt himself socially inferior, certainly he was socially ill-treated by Owen. It’s no surprise that Huxley coined the word ‘agnostic.’ He must have hated the ignoramuses of both class and cloth. His coinage slyly renders both unto Caesar and God.

Someone like Matthew Arnold who seems to have been sincerely attracted to God’s good moralized natural universe, gives us ‘Dover Beach’ as testimony to a completely irrational, but widely felt depression. Science though true, negates meaning.

Reactionary believers, however, would have none of this. If science negates meaning, then it is either mistaken, false, or lying.

Today’s troglodytes, people like the late (unlamented) Falwell, have continued to abandon rationality while exalting increasingly shrill versions of God’s purpose and the meaning of your life, as defined by these tax-dodging political demagogues.

We “godless ones” as Nietzsche calls us realize that “the moral world order” does not exist. It never existed. There is not and never was any “meaning” in this cosmic sense.

Just stop trying to get “more” out of the universe than is actually there. You give yourself your own meaning, purpose.

bipolar2
copyright asserted 2007

I would like to extend an invitation to all…Please visit the Contact page of my website — http://www.noexpertsneeded.com –and share your answer to: what is the meaning of life?

…my pen is never filled with judgement…

take care,
Louise
Author, “No Experts Needed: The Meaning of Llife According to You!”
http://www.noexpertsneeded.com

I feel that Thinking Ape has understood this fact the entire way through his discourse, which is why he has avoided your definition of pleasure.

Ultimately Writerdd, you cant maintain your definition of pleasure and be a subjectivist, so i will let you choose which you prefer.

It has been argued by essentialist religious theorists that the creation of sexual taboos encroaches on universality, and the majority of anthropologists recognize that this feature of religion almost always begins with limiting the sexuality of the female.

Just curious. Of which anthropologists would that majority consist?

Christians who only refer to this world and/or treat it as merely an empty shell dont know their scripture or their God very well then. we are to be stewards of God’s creation. everything i’ve read about gnosticism (and i’m by no means an expert here) says that they view the material world as inferior, and furthermore, that it is inferior due to a flawed creator, rather than what sinful man has done to it. any professing Christian that holds to THAT viewpoint (a flawed creator), better step back and reevaluate the foundations of their beliefs.

as for Christians not finding purpose in this life, that would pretty much negate what Jesus said about being salt and light in the world. i’m having a hard time with the distinction you’re trying to draw between not valuing the things of this world, and not finding purpose in it.

basically, it seems to me that you believe, by your comparison of Christianity to gnosticism, that Christians ignore some basic tenets of the faith… a perfect creator God, and affecting change in the world by our actions and our deeds. it’s hard for me to fathom that someone could call themselves Christian and deny these things.