I agree with that at least.
“Oh ****! Here come the Christians! And they brought sticks this time! RUN!!”
I’ll start at the beginning.
What is the purpose of life for an atheist?
Its been answered in this thread already. We are here to live. Just as we did before religion was created among men. Just as all of the other species of the world do now. We live. We die. Some of us create legends that last forever, but overall they are few and far between. I am not here to leave a lasting mark on humanity. I am here to be a good son, brother, friend, and husband. I am here to make sure my family is taken care of and my friends are, too. It may not seem like much but it keeps me alive.
I have often thought about suicide. Not actually thinking about killing myself, but more about my death and what it will mean. Cosmically speaking it won’t mean anything. The Earth won’t stop turning. The Amazon won’t run dry. Volcanos will not errupt to mark my passing. The flags at my local post office won’t even see a half-mast flying. My death wouldn’t mean anything to the world, but it would mean everything to my family and friends. To me they are my world and they are the reason I live. They are the purpose in my life.
When the end comes and I do pass away, if I am wrong and there is a god of some sort then I’ll deal with that when the time comes. But I already know what my hell would be. Sitting at a poker table and always being dealt A-A and losing every time.
As far as people going around “spreading the word of god” well thats fine by me. You can spread it all you want. I’ll even listen to you and question you on your own beliefs when you’re done. I’ve read the bible numerous times and I know it better than most of the Christians that I know. Its an amazing piece of literature filled with remarkable stories. Whenever I am short of something good to read I always tend to pick it up.
The thing that kills me is that in an age so full of corrupt men, people that subscribe to a particular faith are so quick to place their faith into a book that was written by men. The old testament was written by the Semites thousands of years ago.
The story of Cain and Able can either be interpreted as a quarrel between two brothers or as war propaganda between two neighboring cultures (with archaeological evidence to support it).
I once dated a girl who was the daughter of a Southern Baptist minister. For those of you that don’t know, Southern Baptist ministers are (no offense to anyone) pretty nuts. They are usually hardcore with the fire and brimstone and raining sheets of fire upon us, etc etc. Well anyway, this man decided that his goal in life was to convert me and save my soul. Definately infringing on my personal right of space, ideas, and respect, but I let him go through his ordeal and I listened to him. Questioned him about his own ideas and it ended up being an interesting talk but he failed to understand that I am un-convertable. Its not that his explanation wasn’t adequate enough, my ‘faith’ in atheism is just that concrete. I can’t be persuaded to another system of beliefs. I do however love to discuss religion with people, because it is what I intend to study (world religions and their implications within society along with their construction and destruction).
Well I suppose that is enough for me for now.
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