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Secular Symposium: Meaning Without God

Secular Symposium: Meaning Without God

Last updated on: February 4, 2016 at 3:38 pm by Martin Hughes

Secular Symposium: Meaning Without God 2016-02-04T15:38:35-06:00 Martin Hughes

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Paul W.

Imagine walking up to a complete stranger and asking them “what do you mean?” I can only imagine their confusion…. I think it is a question with no answer. I think it is a question that we use to distract ourselves from the real experiences of living.

I don’t think there is a meaning to my personal life philosophy.We eat, sleep, produce offspring, and die. We consume energy and we expend energy. We manipulate energy to transfer carbon. We just do it in a very complex way. We are, in a way, a delayed reaction — all life appears to behave this way.

We struggle with delaying the consequence of our existence as a mechanism of self-preservation.

Imagine walking up to a complete stranger and asking them “what do you mean?” I can only imagine their confusion. What does one mean? And if the question must be defined, how would we go about defining it? I think it is a question with no answer. I think it is a question that we use to distract ourselves from the real experiences of living.

I believe the driver for searching for this answer lies in the final consequence of living – which, if you haven’t guess by now, is death. I think this is where people initially diverged and some began believing in an afterlife. The preservation instinct drives us to desire to be secure and happy. Perhaps to feel happy about eventually dying, we desired to believe that there was something really great and worth it afterwards.

If I wanted to control people, I would think having all the drones busy trying to figure out the impossible while bringing me immense wealth, would be a great thing. I believe society has fallen for this time and time again. Consider the Egyptian Pharaohs, Bishop T. D Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, and the like. They control(ed) people due to the need to find this answer or appease the deity that “provides” this answer. A handful of screwed up individuals make millions off of the chase after this desire for post-death happiness and security.

I’m not sure why people seem to need a manual for life. Some people seem to find meaning by deriving it from a text. I do not find meaning in my life other than through natural acts of living (consuming energy, expending energy, or eating, sleeping, and reproducing). Everything along the way is feeding my internal meter of self-preservation (happiness and security).

How has this affected my life and/or relationships? Well, I’m not always the favorite. I find it hard to believe in a supreme being, a divine birth, and an afterlife with no actual proof of them. I liken religious texts to fiction when I speak of them. That probably offends people. I don’t intentionally harm people with my words, but I don’t necessarily side step when they’re wrong.

My views are also, at times, what some may consider extreme. I believe we as a society need to be doing everything we can to carry life (as much as possible) to other worlds to ensure life goes on. I believe that the day will come when we will need to make a decision to leave the believers behind, and I have no qualms with making this decision if given the chance.

I have lost friends and family members over my beliefs. It’s a bummer, but life goes on.

Image via Marco Belluci under CCL 2.0

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