Excellent posts on Meaning from WWGHA

Our god beliefs are likely a reaction over millenia to our fear of death, our desire for justice, our yearning to understand. Tribal leaders will eventually do things one doesn't agree with, so the imagery of a "perfect" model for truth, justice [and the American way] is useful to satisfy these developed desires. We needed archetypal examples from which to draw strength, and clearly projecting our needs onto our parents doesn't always work because our parents are flawed themselves, and really don't want the responsibility. How many pregnancies are actually planned? Very few. This is important.

Even if a couple decides to have the baby once they find out and they come to love it very much, there are subconscious limits to how far they are willing to go for an intruder. I know it's a tough thing to say, but there is a marked difference in how parents who plan their pregnancies treat their kids, as opposed to those who do not- god really comes in handy here. It's the same reason we stick our kids in front of the TV rather than watch them, it's just easier.

God has become less and less useful for explaining the natural world as science tackles the big questions, but he has grown in magnitude as a substitute father. Why bother to teach your kids things and talk to them about life? God will take care of them, praying is always easier than doing something. I have zero respect for the god concept, it's just infantilism for adults. What it's become is an excuse not to learn sh!t in school, and still believe that you are "wise" and "special to god" even though the truth is that you are too lazy to read books and enter into challenging debates, too lazy to make yourself aware of how much we do know about how the world operates, and then in your ignorance lie and proclaim that you are aware of the evidence but you reject it! Hahahahaha, Little Liars for Jesus- how quickly they prove how UNaware of the evidence they actually are. - Krypt


Epi and I have been discussing this behind the scenes, so it's on my mind right now. We understand so much more about the functioning of the brain than we did even twenty years ago, we understand that mirroring cells set up images for us through which we perceive the world. These allow for empathy (feeling what someone else feels), sensory comparison (when we see someone else eating a piece of chicken, we can imagine what it tastes like), and a whole range of experiences with which we must cope in order to navigate our way through the world.

This is a common problem theists have with understanding reality: the assumption that there has to be a purpose and meaning to everything. What is the meaning of a drop of rain hitting the ground? What is the purpose of two asteroids colliding in space 2 million light years away from Earth? There is none, because it's just something happening without any intentionality behind it. In this same way, human life is the end result of an unimaginably long sequence of unguided natural events and biological evolution. We don't matter to the universe. The Earth and all its inhabitants could be sucked into a black hole tomorrow never to be seen again and the universe would keep doing what it was doing, unaffected by our absence. This surely sounds discomforting, but that does not make it incorrect. Reality is under no obligation to provide us comfort.

Once you get past the initial discomfort at this knowledge, you will get a grander understanding of your place in reality than any religion can give you. The realization of how amazing the natural universe really is and the unimaginable series of events that took place over billions of years resulting in your conscious ability to contemplate such things is truly awesome. In practical terms, not much changes for your day to day life after this realization. Life doesn't end when you stop believing in god. All the joys and hardships are still there the same as before. The only thing that changes is our perspective on it. We may not have meaning to the universe, but we can create meaning for ourselves and for other humans. You may have lost your invisible friend and your hope for a happy afterlife, but what did they do for you anyway? If you give it some honest thought you'll realize that god never did anything for you really, all those good feelings came from yourself and you just attributed them to god. Believe in yourself and you can have real hope. Heaven was just a fantasy borne from wishful thinking, it was never there to begin with.

You're experiencing the same reality as before, only now you see it for what it is without false hope in an imaginary god and an illusory heaven. You can finally see reality as it really is. -Maddam Zora