Originally posted by josephw As a theist, (which sounds like a label, and I don't like labels except on cans of soup) I believe God is the life giver, and unless I knew I was going to live forever life would have little meaning. Without eternal life I'm just as good as dead.
So are you saying that for us atheists who do not have eternal life - and in fact for the majority of theists who don't have it either for various reasons - life should have no meaning? If it turns out you are wrong, or if at the last moment you commit some unforgivable sin and God decides no eternal life for you, will everything you have done so far and all your seemingly meaningful life vanish in a puff of smoke?
And I still don't really understand how an infinite life creates meaning. To me, it seams just as meaningless or meaningful as a finite one.
Originally posted by scottishinnz I was just thinking as I was working in the lab about 2 common theistic arguments, which seem to contradict each other.
1) The universe is so wonderful there must be a creator.
2) Without a creator life has no purpose.
Hey, welcome to the wonderful world of philosophical paradox. Ain't it grand?
Originally posted by Bosse de Nage Wouldn't suicide be a beautiful consummation of your relationship with the here and now? It'd be difficult to conceive of a more intense experience.
My biological imperatives tell me it's greatly overrated.
Mind you, there are very few complaints from anyone who has successfully died, so it must be pretty good.
Sorry, but you also use the time-honoured expression of the universe being so complicated God must have made it. Maybe he didn't; we are just so tiny we cannot comprehend it.