Bob W. wrote:
Why does the existence of God imply that there is a purpose and a point to
existence?
Why would it not?
As so often, postulating the existence of God just shifts the
question a little bit. It means we ask 'what is the purpose of God?'. 'Why
is there a God?'.
I will be the first to admit that there are some questions that to humans
are unanswerable. If someone did not create the universe and put it here,
then something did, or it was here all along. If it was here all along and
that's the answer, then the question of how or why is ignored (I'm not
implying you are). That may be convenient. We can ignore the question,
yet it remains in the minds of some. On the other hand, assuming there was
a BIG BANG and the universe as we know/understand it had a beginning,
whether it was an act of creation or a spontaneous event, one can ask what
came before it? Eternity is a difficult thing for humans to grasp, Going
forward seems easy. Going backwards it seems imponderable.
And if there is a God and there is a purpose to his existence, why is that
less bleak than having no purpose? What, after all, is the point of having
a
purpose? You see, the questions just become more absurd when you look at it
that way.
I agree the reasoning is absurd... I suspect that you do many things in life
purposefully and tend to ignore or not waste your time on things having
little purpose (unless for the shear enjoyment of doing so). Yet when
looking at a proposed bigger picture, you seem to deny that a purpose is
important.
On the other hand, why should an absence of external purpose be bleak? It's
liberating. It means we get to decide how we want to live and what we want
to do with our lives.
Strangely enough I believe this to be the heart and soul of evolutionary
reasoning. No creator imples no accountability to a higher power.
Strangely enough, we usually come to the same
conclusion as people who think there's a purpose, namely to care about
children and family, and to try to help other people and make the world a
better place.
Strangely enough... but if there's no bigger purpose who gives a damn about
the smaller ones?
But we've come to the conclusion because we've thought it
through, not because God has told us to and we'll go to hell if we don't do
as we're told.
I'm sure you don't truly mean to imply that those who believe in a God with
a purpose have *not* thought it through. I'm sure you must not mean to
imply that we just gulp down and swallow what we're told. I actually find
that to be the case with institutions of so-called 'higher learning' and
*their* students.
FWIW, I believe in God, but I definitely do not believe in a burning hell or
that the Bible even teaches it.
'Better in store' is a huge con used to keep the poor, simple and ignorant
poor, simple and ignorant.
Your own personal thoughts, or provable by the scientific method? Well, I'm
sure it has been used that way. I submit that much of (my perception here)
your ambivalence towards religion is well reasoned. Most thinking people
can see the hypocrisy and bloodshed done in it's name and that turns them
away from it. I'd even agree with you that most religion is a con of sorts.
As I alluded to in an earlier post, I personally believe there's a huge
gulf between religion at large and God.
Bob
