In my last post I linked to an article in which several atheists discuss how they deal with the lack of meaning in the universe. In response Seversky asks:
What is meant by “meaning” in this context? To me, it sounds like a purpose conceived in the mind of an intelligent being, in this case God.
So what you are saying is that unless another intelligent being has a purpose in mind for you, your existence is worthless and meaningless?
So, a question, why should you only have value or worth or meaning if it exists in the mind of another intelligence. What is wrong with finding a meaning or purpose for yourself? After all, if God has a purpose, why can’t you?
Seversky, let us assume for the moment that atheistic materialism is correct. If that is the case, then certain facts follow as a matter of logic, including the following:
- The sun is an average star and only one of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, which is one of the billions of galaxies in the observable universe.
- There is nothing – absolutely nothing – in that vast immensity but space, time, particles and energy.
- At first only the light elements existed. But eventually clouds of hydrogen and helium collapsed into stars, and the heavier elements were formed in the nuclear furnaces inside those stars. All of the heavier elements we observe are remnants of burned out stars.
- Some of the remnants of those burned out stars eventually coalesced into a planet we call Earth, and eventually a tiny subset of those particles spontaneously turned themselves into simple self-replicators.
- Through the process of evolution those simple self-replicators became more and more complex until at last the most complex self-replicators of all, human beings, arose.
- Fundamentally, however, humans are nothing but insignificant amalgamations of burned out star stuff on an insignificant rock orbiting an insignificant star in an insignificant galaxy in an incomprehensibly vast universe.
- A rock does not owe moral duties to another rock. The very notion is absurd. A rock is nothing but an amalgamation of burned out star stuff, and it is literally meaningless to say that one amalgamation of burned out star stuff owes a moral duty to another amalgamation of burned out star stuff.
- Nothing about that analysis changes if the amalgamation of burned out star stuff is called a human. Thus, the idea that humans owe moral duties to one another is ultimately meaningless. In a universe in which nothing exists but particles in motion, there is no good. There is no evil.
- It follows that everything we do is ultimately pointless. The amalgamation of burned out star stuff we call “Hitler” did certain things. The amalgamation of burned out star stuff we call “Mother Teresa” did certain other things. And what Hitler did and what Mother Teresa did are equal in the sense that they are equally pointless.
That, Seversky, is the universe you, as an atheist materialist, imagine you live in. So let us answer your questions:
What is meant by “meaning” in this context?
By “meaning” we mean “significance within a broader context.” There is no meaning in your universe, because nothing we do has any significance within a broader context as my Hitler/Mother Teresa example demonstrates.
So what you are saying is that unless another intelligent being has a purpose in mind for you, your existence is worthless and meaningless?
I am simply asking you to have the courage to acknowledge the logical consequences of your metaphysical assumptions. I understand that you are terrified of those consequences and want to avert your gaze from them at all costs, including very often the cost of descending into logical absurdity. But there they are nevertheless.
So, a question, why should you only have value or worth or meaning if it exists in the mind of another intelligence.
For there to be meaning good and evil must exist in an objective sense. It must really be the case that what Hitler did was “evil” and that what Mother Teresa did was “good” where the words “evil” and “good” mean something beyond “that which I do not prefer” and “that which I do prefer.”
What is wrong with finding a meaning or purpose for yourself?
Because a transcendent moral code cannot be grounded in the being of an amalgamation of burned out star stuff. Such a code can be grounded only in God’s being. Go back and look at all of the atheist blitherings in that article I linked in my last post. Every single one of them amounts to one of two things: (1) I try not to think about it; or (2) I distract myself with things that amuse me. That is not finding meaning or purpose and only a fool believes it is.
After all, if God has a purpose, why can’t you?
Because only God can impose meaning – through the objective transcendent moral code grounded in his being – on an otherwise meaningless universe.