{"id":240,"date":"2021-10-16T22:56:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T04:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/?p=240"},"modified":"2025-10-04T08:30:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T14:30:01","slug":"the-meaning-of-life-without-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/2021\/10\/16\/the-meaning-of-life-without-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Meaning of Life (without God)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A common question Christians are curious about is: \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of life then?\u00a0 What\u2019s the meaning of life without God?\u00a0 Why should we all be alive?\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s actually two parts to this question – \u201cWhat\u2019s the meaning of life without God?\u201d and \u201cAren\u2019t Atheists depressed?\u201d\u00a0 Atheism, religion, and mental health are a full response in their own right, so for this post I\u2019m just focusing on the meaning of, or in, life.

(I want to clarify before launching into this that these are my personal views.\u00a0 Now obviously, I think there\u2019s some factual truth to them, and others share them, but I can\u2019t promise you every<\/em> Atheist you meet on the street will second them, if you\u2019re trying to figure out what all Atheists are like.)

Okay, on to the point: what\u2019s the point of my little life on planet Earth in this big universe?\u00a0 If you mean on a cosmic scale… I don\u2019t think there is one.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe any deity put us here to worship them; we just evolved because we were the option the environment on Earth was suited for.\u00a0 By which I mean, I don\u2019t believe Earth was designed specifically for us, but rather that something was going to evolve and we happened to be it because that\u2019s what the physical parameters allowed.\u00a0 It\u2019s like winning the lottery – the chances of you<\/em> winning are small, but someone<\/em>\u2019s going to win.\u00a0 We just exist on our blue dot and don\u2019t have much importance in the grand scheme of the universe.

I know, I know, that does sound depressing.\u00a0 For someone used to having the objective, cosmic goal of glorifying God, it can feel like you\u2019re wandering around not knowing what to do or what the point is anymore.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been there in the past, I can relate.

But here\u2019s the thing: we people make<\/em> meaning.\u00a0 Just because the universe doesn\u2019t care doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t find things meaningful on our beautiful blue and green world.\u00a0 We\u2019re social creatures, and relationships are fulfilling.\u00a0 We work to survive, and we find purpose in solving problems we encounter.

That may sound weak or shallow.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve lived with your brain trained to seek a \u201chigher purpose,\u201d removing a layer of meaning from our existence can feel weak or shallow emotionally.\u00a0 I have two thoughts on that.\u00a0 One, emotions don\u2019t change fact, so if we don\u2019t have enough evidence elsewhere (I\u2019m assuming a previously-established atheistic view, but if you don\u2019t like that, think of it as a hypothetical situation), how we feel<\/em> about reality doesn\u2019t change it.\u00a0 And two, if you\u2019re questioning your beliefs and are landing in this camp, give it time.\u00a0 If you\u2019re like me, once you have time to acclimate to the idea and retrain your brain\u2019s schematics, you might feel better.\u00a0 Atheists as a group aren\u2019t going around desperately clutching at things to make our lives meaningful and to avoid depression; at least no more than anyone else for the most part.

In all honesty, it\u2019s freeing.\u00a0 The more something is available, the less we tend to value it, and that\u2019s true for life.\u00a0 If this life is our only one to use and enjoy and not just a precursor to an afterlife, then how we spend it becomes more<\/em> important and meaningful, not less.\u00a0 At least that\u2019s how I see it on an emotional level.\u00a0 (Granted, I am an optimist at heart.)\u00a0 For another perspective, I have a friend who likes it because being insignificant in the grand scheme of things means he\u2019s limited in his ability to screw things up.

TL;DR: As an Atheist, I don\u2019t think there is any ultimate purpose to our existence, but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t make our existence rich and fulfilling for ourselves.\u00a0 And that\u2019s perfectly fine, because being finite makes our lives more special.

Thoughts?<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A common question Christians are curious about is: \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of life then?\u00a0 What\u2019s the meaning of life without God?\u00a0 Why should we all be alive?\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s actually two parts to this question – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,4],"tags":[16,23,17,22,14],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-thinking","tag-atheism","tag-beliefs","tag-christianity","tag-questioning","tag-religion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}