What Farbood is articulating is a classic secular materialist worldview, and one that I previously shared.
Creating our own meaning assigns purpose to something, which inherently has none, based on our feelings. Subjective meaning is a fiction, while perhaps a helpful one.
Creating our own meaning assigns purpose to something, which inherently has none, based on our feelings. Subjective meaning is a fiction, while perhaps a helpful one.
If you find meaning in your relationships, it’s a feeling, not a reality.
And while you may have a preference towards having relationships, it’s merely that: a preference. The subject of my meaningful feelings will die and eventually all of humanity will cease to exist.
And while you may have a preference towards having relationships, it’s merely that: a preference. The subject of my meaningful feelings will die and eventually all of humanity will cease to exist.
That meaning, which may feel real to me, doesn’t make a difference. It’s not objectively true.
If we are random byproducts of the blind process of macroevolution, then we weren’t created for a purpose to be uncovered. There’s just no way around it.
If we are random byproducts of the blind process of macroevolution, then we weren’t created for a purpose to be uncovered. There’s just no way around it.
It would make zero difference if I were a man of principle who lived virtuously, or a scoundrel and a cheat.
We can tell each other fictions, or share fictions, or admire others’ fictions, but they are ultimately fictions -- preferences that lack intellectual consistency.
We can tell each other fictions, or share fictions, or admire others’ fictions, but they are ultimately fictions -- preferences that lack intellectual consistency.
Without a creator, human life is meaningless, at least objectively so.
When we are alive, we do some stuff for a short time, and then when we die, we rot. Our bodies just transform from one form of atoms to another.
When we are alive, we do some stuff for a short time, and then when we die, we rot. Our bodies just transform from one form of atoms to another.
And yet when I was an atheist, I refused to acknowledge this inconvenient fact.
When I helped someone in need, I felt it was genuinely meaningful. I tried to pursue purpose in politics and business and fight against injustice.
When I helped someone in need, I felt it was genuinely meaningful. I tried to pursue purpose in politics and business and fight against injustice.
Occasionally I would reflect and when the painful realization of my ultimate futility became too much to bear, I would distract myself from distraction with distraction.
I found that the subjective meaning I was attempting to impart on my life just wasn’t practical.
I found that the subjective meaning I was attempting to impart on my life just wasn’t practical.
If you believe your subjective feelings seem objective, let that point you to something more, something to build on that isn’t subjective.
There is real, objective meaning and purpose and beauty made so by a loving creator who desperately wants a relationship.
There is real, objective meaning and purpose and beauty made so by a loving creator who desperately wants a relationship.
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