Atheists, Does life have a purpose?

Question

If the answer is "no", then scientifically and definitively Atheism is illogical.

pur·pose (pûrps)
n.
1. The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; an aim or a goal: "And ever those, who would enjoyment gain/Must find it in the purpose they pursue" (Sarah Josepha Hale).
2. A result or effect that is intended or desired; an intention. See Synonyms at intention.
3. Determination; resolution: He was a man of purpose.
4. The matter at hand; the point at issue.
tr.v. pur·posed, pur·pos·ing, pur·pos·es
To intend or resolve to perform or accomplish.
Idioms:
on purpose
Intentionally; deliberately.
~~~~
il·log·i·cal (-lj-kl)
adj.
1. Contradicting or disregarding the principles of logic.
2. Without logic; senseless.
~~~
sense·less (snsls)
adj.
1. Lacking sense or meaning; meaningless.
2. Deficient in sense; foolish or stupid.
3. Insensate; unconscious.
~~~
.meaningless [ˈmiːnɪŋlɪs]
adj
futile or empty of meaning
meaninglessly adv
meaninglessness n

NOW:
If life has a purpose then reason is required

rea·son (rzn)
n.
1. The basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction. See Usage Notes at because, why.
2. A declaration made to explain or justify action, decision, or conviction: inquired about her reason for leaving.
3. An underlying fact or cause that provides logical sense for a premise or occurrence: There is reason to believe that the accused did not commit this crime.
4. The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence.
5. Good judgment; sound sense.
6. A normal mental state; sanity: He has lost his reason.
7. Logic A premise, usually the minor premise, of an argument.
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In conclusion, if life has NO purpose then the argument for Atheism is illogical and can not be rationalized.

If life has a purpose then you must conclude that purpose has reason and that reason comes from intelligence.

So which is it?

Answer 1

On a base level we could say that everything in the universe has a purpose. A rabbit has a purpose to make more rabbits and be food for coyotes. My elbow has a purpose to allow my arm to pivot. My nose has the purpose of smell. If we take every material part of the universe and break it down to smaller levels we see that it all has some purpose or function. Our cells have purpose to enable us to live. When we look at bigger pictures we see entire species that interact and can provide a purpose for other organisms to survive like plants and animals. There seems to be a natural purpose for everything in nature.



So if everything has purpose and purpose requires reason and reason intelligence then wouldn't the universe then require a purposeful designer? Who could say that reason is possible in a universe made without purpose, reason or intelligence? Thus, it may be unreasonable to say that reason is possible in a world without purpose.



If everything in the universe has purpose then would it not be logical that the universe itself would also have a purpose. It would be logical in that it would be consistent with what we see in the universe, even if we didnt know what that purpose was. Without a purposeful, logical and ordered universe reason may not be possible. Science certainly would not be.

Answer 2

Does Life Have A Purpose

Answer 3

There is at least one thing about your question which is worth noticing: You setup a false dilemma.



Whether or not life (or existence) has any inherent purpose, this has absolutely no bearing at all whatsoever on whether or not atheism is a rational position. This can be easily demonstrated by considering the following:



There can be conceivable gods which created life with inherent purpose (e.g., Yahweh), and there can be conceivable gods which created life without inherent purpose (e.g., they created it by accident, they're unaware of our existence, they're no longer interested in our existence, etc.). Or as most atheists already responded to your question, it's possible that there may be no gods at all and that existence is void of inherent purpose.



In other words, the rationality of atheism does not hinge on whether or not life / existence is inherently purposeful.



Think about what it would mean if the rationality of atheism DID hinge on whether or not life / existence is inherently purposeless... You would have to believe the following statement: If life is purposeless, then some god(s) must exist, *by necessity.*



If you disagree with that statement, as you should disagree, then you are outright admitting that a purposeless life doesn't disprove the rationality of atheism.



------



You also commit a logical fallacy of equivocation.



You said, "if life has NO purpose then the argument for Atheism is illogical and can not be rationalized." Even if we freely grant whichever of those listed definitions that you'd like to use, this isn't true. You're falling victim to a trick of language. This is because you're arguing that **to live in a purposeless world** is irrational, but you frame it in such a way that it sounds like living in a purposeless world and holding the intellectual position of atheism are equivalent, though they are not. You can be an atheist for rational reasons, and you can be an atheist who lives in a purposeless world for irrational reasons. These are two separate phenomena. You're NOT arguing that the claim that "the existence of gods is either unknowable or fraudulent" (the claim of atheism) is fallacious. In order to demonstrate that atheism is irrational, you MUST demonstrate that the claim of atheism is fallacious, which you did not do.

Answer 4

But life DOES have a purpose. For humans, it is anything you wish. You get about 80 good years in a Western Culture. (Far less in Third world countries). You can decide what you wish to do with those years. Make too many errors..... like marrying a jerk, having 6 kids you cannot support, and I promise you, dope looks like a good idea. Get a college degree with a salable skill? You can travel the planet, learn all that you wish, and have a great time. Life is to be enjoyed with great friends, great food, and lotsa fun. But, see, atheists were usually once believers.... strapped with religion on their back, promised hell and damnation if they did not believe in a nut job god who murders. Unshackle the bonds of religion? And your life is yours. Why is that a bad thing in your eyes? You have no evidence that gods, heaven, hell, talking snakes etc. even exist. Were you one of those kids hammered by religion from zealot parents? Sad for you.

Answer 5

"If life has a purpose then you must conclude that purpose has reason and that reason comes from intelligence."

Crap - your 'logic' sucks.



The ONLY purpose for life is to procreate - keep the species alive.

ALL life - vegetable or animal - has the same 'purpose'.



I have figured it out... for me... we exist for the simple reason that we exist.



There is NO purpose; there is NO ‘Grand Plan” or 'meaning' to our existence; there is NO invisible space chappie; we are just a very simple accident in Time and Space.



We are, at best, an accidental collection of loosely combined waves and particles responding to our environment ... no matter how sophisticated that environment may be or we imagine it to be.



At the end of 'life' we 'disperse'; we dissipate into the waves and particles of stardust.

We may as well have some fun while we're here without all that paranoia stuff - thinking there are invisible sky chappies watching and waiting for us to screw up.



We are ALL, ALWAYS reacting to the circumstance-environment in which we find ourselves and EVERYTHING we EVER do is so that we can enjoy some 'happy' as a result.



Life is just one long multiple choice test …

~

Answer 6

This Site Might Help You.



RE:

Atheists, Does life have a purpose?

If the answer is "no", then scientifically and definitively Atheism is illogical.



pur·pose (pûrps)

n.

1. The object toward which one strives or for which something exists; an aim or a goal: "And ever those, who would enjoyment gain/Must find it in the purpose they pursue"...

Answer 7

So many dictionary definitions, do you really think you can attack atheism through semantics? How sad.



There is no overall meaning in life. That does not mean life is futile or is empty, it just means there is no outside force or intrinsic meaning in life. Maybe you can say life is senseless in the specific meaning of senseless = meaningless. But that does not mean life is illogical, or atheism is illogical.



Clearly your definition of senseless is lacking, because by your assertion senseless also means illogical. Thus:



Senseless:

4. illogical.



You cannot take one meaning of a word and insert it into another meaning of a word and hope to make a valid argument. That's the logical fallacy of equivocation.



You've committed that here. Even if life having no purpose makes life meaningless, and thus senseless, it does not make it illogical. The word illogical does not encompass all definitions of the word senseless, only one - the one where senseless means illogical.



Your argument fails.

Answer 8

The purpose of life is to grow and diversify. There is no end point to be reached, it just carries on indefinitely - so 1 to 4 in your definition are just too small. The brain is the latest wonderful production, allowing us to form a conscious purpose if we wish.



The purpose of life in this body is to grow as clear as I can and communicate that.



The only purpose I see in your question is to try and humiliate people, so you can feel superior to them.

Answer 9

The purpose of life is to live the best way you can with what life has given you, while trying to be a good person.

Answer 10

Life does not have intrinsic purpose (although we all assign our subjective meaning and purpose), and atheism is the lack of belief in gods. Sorry if that's to hard for you to understand.

Answer 11

You omitted about 100 steps to show us how this applies to atheism. Are you implying that only those who believe in a "god" have a purpose in life? That is pretty pathetic if that is the point. I HOPE I missed the point, otherwise, see the sentence before this one.

Answer 12

I can't understand this but I'll tell you that I have a purpose in life.It's to live.You waste your life by being afraid of some giant god with a magic book.LIVE and be HAPPY.

Answer 13

No, my life is completely empty, so I need your god



You know, the god that first has people make sacrifices of animals to him (which conveniently feeds the priests who contribute nothing of value to their society except to continually assure the public this god exists)....then, the god has a crisis of a split personality and decides that the only way to stop people from sacrificing animals is to come down to earth and stick himself on a cross by using the Roman system of laws concerning peple who throw temper tantrums in temples (which is convenient because the ancient world he showed up in is transitioning to a cash instead of barter system), and when the god rises up from the dead 3 days later he tells people to stop sacrificing animals (and giving the proceeds to the priests) but instead pay the ministers (because they are the ones who are going to not only assure you that this god exists but that you should feel guilt tripped into buying this weird tale of human sacrifice because it was for your benefit)...but the god ends up not being able to stick around, so he flies back to Heaven...but he forgot that he was going to have to tell more than just the little crowd of folks in some Roman Empire backwater so he appears as a ghost to a guy that has a change of heart after he sees the ghost and lots more people get told to pay their ministers...then 300 years later people decide to cobble together a collection of writings concerning the whole of the tale and they call the book "holy" in an attempt to make people think the book is above reproach (and if you don't agree, you're a bad person, aren't you?) 700 years after this, when the world for some reason doesn't become a utopia on the 1000 year itinerary bespoke of in the "holy" book, people are getting restless and fighting within the religion so the religious leaders decide they will not only assure you that the god does indeed exist and he set himself up for sacrifice for your benefit , but they've found some other people a couple of nations away that they can go kill because god just doesn't like them. After lots of killing and adventuring is to be had on both sides for a few centuries, a different guy thinks that the priests who are all in charge of all this stuff aren't being sycophantic enough towards the book itself (hey, it's "holy" after all), and he figures out a way to tell them that his group is the one who will be assuring them that god exists and the human sacrifice was for your benefit and you can kill for others for this god but now you don't have to travel so far to do it because the heretic is living right next door now.



I could go on, but I doubt you'll even read this far...just remember that if you're talking about what is "logically sound" to believe, the above paragraph outlines the basic thought of mainstream Christianity and that paragraph doesn't begin to entertain ANYTHING like logic



It's religion...they're all like this...quit pretending it's anything else

Answer 14

How is atheism in this equation?



I don't understand Christian logic, it seems to be...I daresay,



il·log·i·cal (-lj-kl)

adj.

1. Contradicting or disregarding the principles of logic.

2. Without logic; senseless.

~~~

sense·less (snsls)

adj.

1. Lacking sense or meaning; meaningless.

2. Deficient in sense; foolish or stupid.

3. Insensate; unconscious.

Answer 15

Oh sure check this logic my friend...

Atheist logic we go for science blindly, we make factories, and we forget about conscience cause it is imaginary... and we make science grow blindly, pollution grows so hard and cities and buildings are growing there is not more place for a calm life...

Population growth we can solve it... we encourage gay marriage and we become all gays... there is no more human production :)

Answer 16

No matter how long it takes, people will continue to seek out happiness. People carry on wishing for happiness - it is human nature. Why does it have to be more than that?

Answer 17

That's a lot to write. You must have assumed the answer is no.



The answer is yes.



The purpose of life is to better oneself and others by seeking enlightenment and the passage of suffering. Or simply put, live long and prosper.



And it doesn't require any god either...

Answer 18

As an atheist, I believe that no deity exists. I pursue my belief in the life I live.



So in my opinion, I would say "Yes", life has purpose.

Answer 19

So an immortal man in the sky who controls all life and knows when you touch yourself is logical and rational?

Answer 20

If you truly wish to communicate; cull your posted questions to less than half a paragraph.

Answer 21

To multiply and continue species

Answer 22

yes, i'll explain in my favorite song : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2e47wBWTV8

Answer 23

Only if you want it to.

Answer 24

yes. worship sun -god



batman-god



spiderman -god



harry potter-god





god of the oceans