From: "Mike"
Subject: a question
Just wondering: if you don't believe in God, what do you believe in? Lights out? Reincarnation? Just curious.
I believe lots of things, but I take it that Mike is looking specifically for what I think when it comes to death. Personally, I don't believe anything happens to us after we die because who "we" are as people is a function of our memories and our personalities - but both of them are dependent upon our physical brains. Once our brains die, our memories and personalities are gone. Once they are gone, there is no "us."
I don't believe this "as an atheist" because there is no "atheist position" on death. Some atheists believe as I do. Some atheists believe in reincarnation. Some atheists believe in ghosts, so one would have to conclude that they believe in some sort of life after death. My position isn't an atheist position - it's simply a position based on what I know regarding the science of the brain.
If who "we" are just vanishes in a poof, what do you have to live for? What's the point?
What's the point of living? Because life can be enjoyable and worth living here and now. Does one ask "what's the point" about watching a movie you know is going to end? About eating a meal that is going to end? The question seems to assume that nothing has a point unless it is eternal, but that premise not only isn't obviously true, but is in fact arguably false. It seems to me that things can only be meaningful if they are temporary and will pass along. If they are there forever, one can easily take them for granted, become bored with them, etc.
Comparison of the temporal nature and enjoyment of a good movie or a fine meal to our lives here and now is, I think, not an apt one, in terms of relative value. To me, they're not quite on the same plane.
A life is more important than a meal, but the point of the analogy remains: the mere fact that something is not eternal does not, therefore, mean that it cannot have purpose or meaning. Such an argument is simply a non sequitur. There is no logical connection between "temporal" or "fleeting" and "meaningless" or "pointless." If someone is to claim that a non-eternal life cannot have meaning and purpose, they have to introduce more into their argument.
Go on to read the Second Part of this conversation.
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