The Meaning of Life When god Exists
How to Answer the Believer's Challenge
It never ceases to amaze me how predictable Believers are. It usually happens that when you present to them a strong series of devastating argument they will resort to one thing. Cowering in a corner they will invoke the 'Meaning of Life Principle.' They say: "but life has no meaning if God does not exist!"
Unbelievers feel that this statement is ludicrous. Usually we bring it to their attention that there are other belief systems through which we can make life meaningful; humanism is one of these belief systems, for example. Nonetheless, I present a different argument. I contend more than just life has meaning without God, I argue that life has meaning ONLY IF there is no God. I contend that IF GOD EXISTS, THEN LIFE IS MEANINGLESS.
There is a difference in my view between life having a POINT and a MEANING. For life to have a point means that you have to prove something; there is a goal to be achieved. For life to have meaning means that life is worthwhile. This difference is subtle, but exists.
However, just because something has a point does not mean it has meaning. For example, the point ofpicking up a rock may very well be to 'look at it,' but it is not a worthwile endeavor and hence has no meaning. Nonetheless, if something has meaning it does follow that it has a point. If the meaning of picking up a rock is that it is part of a sacred ritual then the point of picking up a rock is simply to fulfill that meaning.
Now let me introduce two notion which I believe are widely accepted. The first premise is IF GOD EXISTS, THEN LIFE HAS MEANING. I think believers will agree with this, and for all of you unbelievers humor me for a while. The second premise is IF LIFE HAS MEANING THEN LIFE HAS A POINT. I think we can combine these two through a hypothetical syllogism to arrive to this:
IF GOD EXISTS, THEN LIFE HAS A POINT.
Unbelievers do not get ahead of me, you will now where I will take this. Assume the prvious statement to be absolutely true. It can be used to show that God does not exist. This because life is pointless if we assume God to exist.
Life is never so pointless as when it has a point. When there is a goal to be achieved you can always stop and ask: why the hell are we doing this?
Suppose that the point of life is to eat as many hot dogs as you can. We can trouble this point easily. We can ask: why hot dogs? And what are we achieving? Consider the Olympics for example. The point of those, to but it simply, is to win Gold metals. However, is there any point beyond that? So what if we win Gold Medals, what is the point of having them? For prestige? What is the point of that?
What is obvious is that where a point exist we can always ask what ITS point is, and if there is an underlying point we can ask the same to that, and so on ad infinitum. Since there is no first point, there is no last. So paradoxically if life has a point it has no point. If a point to life exists, you can always trouble the point, find things wrong with it, and hence life becomes pointless.
Chrsitians contend that life has a point. To Christians the ultimate goal is eternal life, and a few othjer things. Their point to life defeats their whole purpose. This because if God exists then life as a point, but there is no point, therefore God does not exist.
This is the first half of the argument. What needs to be proven now is that life has meaning if life has no point. This part is easy.
Most believers will say that life is pointless if God does not exist. I accept this. Life has no point if God does not exist. However, from this it follows that life has meaning. the paradox is that LIFE HAS A POINT ONLY WHEN IT IS 'POINTLESS.'
If there is no assigned point to life then we cannot trouble it. we cannot find things wrong with the point because quite simply there is no point! Life then becomes meaningful because there is nothing to prove. The only thing left is to live, and that is the oreal point. Can we trouble this point? Yes, but then once we trouble it we find that life becomes pointless again and then we arrive back to where we first started. Only when life is pointless does it have meaning, only when we have not assigned a point to life does it have a point, and only if God exist is there no pressigned point to life.
Conclusion
Christians are blind to the paradoxes that there beliefs cultivate. To them, more than to unbelievers, life is a sham. Their consentration is on the afterlife, and thus their present life is pointless AND meaningless. I once asked a believer: if God came down to you and told you that there is no chance, zero chance, that you will get into heaven what would you do? The believer replied: I would say 'to hell with all of this then.' It is obvious from this that their point to life makes life meaningless. What is also evident in this is the insidious GREED which runs Christianity.
