“Not believing in God makes life more precious”
“I would go to a carol service or a friend’s wedding, and there would be so much about it that I really liked – the togetherness, the rituals – but I just couldn’t get past the God bit.” Atheism has been caricatured as a cold, empty position, he says, “but for me, my not believing in God if anything makes my life more precious, knowing that we are here for such a tiny amount of time.”
The Sunday Assembly may be godless, but a churchgoer who stumbled through the wrong door would find much they recognised.
The service opens with a song, led by Evans and an enthusiastic band at the front; instead of a hymn, however, it is “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen (“We’ve chosen something that allows hamming it up to the max”). The service features a reading, a moment of reflective silence, even a collection to pay for the rental of the church, during which people are invited to turn in the pews and greet those sitting beside and behind them. The plan in future is to engage members in community-based good works.
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You… and the roaches.
Shy Guy on February 4, 2013 at 11:02 AM
There’s an awful lot of evidence to the contrary you know.
forest on February 4, 2013 at 11:03 AM
O_o
Sure. Sure it does.
Gatsu on February 4, 2013 at 11:03 AM
Ed, you wanna take this one?
Amadeus on February 4, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Good stuff. I’m all for this. Anything is better than the religions that are currently practiced.
There is just no way that the god that could be was the god of the bible, or koran, or any other religious text that is still revered and worshiped by.
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Kudos to them. All I know is that every time Erick Erickson writes a diary about how excited he is for the fiery end of the world and apocalyptic Christian destruction of the Earth, my head hurts I’ve rolled my eyes so hard.
What matters is the human experience; enjoying family and community, helping others escape suffering and hardship and ensuring that everyone in your family, community and world lives life to the happiest and fullest.
ZachV on February 4, 2013 at 11:11 AM
That, and murdering the unborn, and anyone (the elderly, the infirm, the disabled) whose live are inconvenient or lacking in utility.
Ward Cleaver on February 4, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Only one’s own…..
tommyboy on February 4, 2013 at 11:16 AM
If you do not believe in God, drink well and be merry now. Because this is the best it will ever be for you.
portlandon on February 4, 2013 at 11:16 AM
LOL. You keep saying that. Anyone who thinks that something meaningless can be more precious than something with meaning is an idiot who is just trying to convince himself of something he knows is untrue. In fact, meaningless things cannot be precious, at all. They can’t be anything, since they are meaningless and totally inconsequential. The finite, no matter how large, is always an infinitesimal in comparison to the infinite – even to the lowly, tiny countable infinity.
The absolutely finite and meaningless character of his being that he describes doesn’t make anything precious. It is only a matter of time before he is forced to confront that obvious truth (that he doth protest too much against) and his nihilistic self will be fully freed to exact revenge on the universe for bringing his utterly meaningless existence into being. This is what the leftist psyche is all about.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 4, 2013 at 11:19 AM
Maybe they should just call it a social organization instead of a church? Just sayin’
apostic on February 4, 2013 at 11:23 AM
Celebrating denial and finding joy in a meaningless existence. What are the odds that the author is an Obama worshiper?
HotAirian on February 4, 2013 at 11:23 AM
Before you criticize, I’m pro-life and anti-euthanasia.
On a side note: Have you ever read the Old Testament, Numbers 5:20-29, where the Lord instructs priests on how to perform an abortion using cursed water?
ZachV on February 4, 2013 at 11:25 AM
I don’t understand why people think that living a life without a revelatory god in it somehow means your life is meaningless?
Can you explain how that is?
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:25 AM
interesting! I don’t recall reading those verses but sure enough I think you’re right!… Wonder how Christian’s square this circle?
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:29 AM
Life has no meaning without God. Those who reject this turn to science to fill the part of them that craves an explanation, yet science will tell them that they are just a product of their environment and nothing more. Another organism in a long line of evolution to ultimately be displaced, replaced and eventually weeded out of nature. This conclusion is inevitable when one rejects God yet tries to justify meaning in life.
nobar on February 4, 2013 at 11:30 AM
You put to much stock in humanity.
portlandon on February 4, 2013 at 11:34 AM
That had to do with a wife who willfully cheated on her husband and was defiled, not an elective abortion, you blithering idiot. One of the primary instructions to the children of Israel is to multiply, as would be true of any culture that wanted to continue to exist.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 4, 2013 at 11:34 AM
False.
Good Lt on February 4, 2013 at 11:34 AM
Why?
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:35 AM
Aw. Isn’t that just…precious. Here’s a clue — people finding their own lives precious has never been humanity’s central problem.
CJ on February 4, 2013 at 11:37 AM
Prove it.
portlandon on February 4, 2013 at 11:37 AM
Are you really as dumb as you try to portray yourself, here?
A finite system cannot hold meaning in itself. It can only be meaningful within an infinite meta-system that provides it with purpose. For finite objects within a finite system, this is even a more obvious and stark reality.
You’re not too swift, are you?
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 4, 2013 at 11:38 AM
nobar on February 4, 2013 at 11:38 AM
I’m curious how the atheists square the circle that to have meaning in their ode that they have to elevate their beliefs in non-belief into a religion.
Skywise on February 4, 2013 at 11:38 AM
You blithering idiot… The point isn’t that she cheated or was defiled… The point is that your god put rules in place to perform abortions. Whether the woman cheated or was defiled is immaterial to the equation. Your god condones abortions…
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:39 AM
You’re not answering why…
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:40 AM
The same way our resident anarchist-isolationist Dumbte comes up with the idea that he has rights simply because he exists.
MelonCollie on February 4, 2013 at 11:40 AM
Read the book of Ecclesiastes for your answer, it chronicles King Solomon’s attempt to find meaning and purpose apart from God using only reason and human intelligence. He failed miserably and ended up wanting to kill himself.
tommyboy on February 4, 2013 at 11:41 AM
tripe
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:41 AM
Disprove it.
Good Lt on February 4, 2013 at 11:42 AM
^your every comment.
MelonCollie on February 4, 2013 at 11:43 AM
You stated it was false first – burden is on you.
Oh wait, you can’t do anything but argue like a toddler.
MelonCollie on February 4, 2013 at 11:43 AM
LOL. Moron.
But, luckily, you are only a finite speck of meaningless idiocy that will soon disappear from this universe and be gone forever. After all, in your world of the finite, nothing matters and nothing has any purpose, so your stupidity isn’t that big of a deal.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on February 4, 2013 at 11:45 AM
Even the atheist Sartre acknowledged that a finite being must have an infinite reference point for there to be any real meaning. I give the atheistic existentialists credit for acknowledging that apart from God nihilism is the only logically consistent worldview.
tommyboy on February 4, 2013 at 11:45 AM
Do you believe it would be any different than how Christians deal with ‘squaring the circle’ regarding stoning gays and adulterers? If you say, “Yes,” I ask you, “Why do you say that?”
Why do you really care so much, anyway? You remind me of bluegill as she talks about Sarah Palin, to be honest – people like you are obsessed with finding flaws in religions, which I admit humors me.
Do you believe Jesus should have instead advocated for the implementation of OT punishments? Do you consider yourself to be a better, more ethical person than Jesus?
Anti-Control on February 4, 2013 at 11:45 AM
You are clearly blind. I gave you my answer (hint: it was there in the OP). What you are doing is dodging what I repeated. So let me elaborate it further.
When you accept any of the primary premises of evolution, it comes with a (tacit) acceptance that your life isn’t special. Life is a happy accident (or coincidence). But when that logic is followed through, it becomes very easy to make the case (as I pointed out earlier) that, indeed, you are just an accident.
nobar on February 4, 2013 at 11:45 AM
You understand the difference between cursing a woman to be barren and an active abortion?
Skywise on February 4, 2013 at 11:46 AM
Your life is as special as you want it to be whether you have a god in your life or not. This fact is evident by millions of people living purposeful, meaningful lives without the god of the bible in their lives, without the god of the koran in their lives, etc…
But keep the ad hominems coming, they’re entertaining.
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:49 AM
Your life is as special as you want it to be whether you have a god in your life or not. This fact is evident by millions of people living purposeful, meaningful lives without the god of the bible in their lives, without the god of the koran in their lives, etc…
But keep the ad hominems coming, they’re entertaining.
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:49 AM
Nothing like realizing you’re a worthless, purposeless, accidental mass of atoms to put a skip in your step.
itsnotaboutme on February 4, 2013 at 11:51 AM
But for an atheist that believes in nothing more than the corporeal world that’s living a hypocritical delusion.
Skywise on February 4, 2013 at 11:53 AM
yes I do.
SauerKraut537 on February 4, 2013 at 11:53 AM
Cool a God thread! Wish I wasn’t going to bed.
DarkCurrent on February 4, 2013 at 11:53 AM
Why such threads are always futile.
Schadenfreude on February 4, 2013 at 11:55 AM
If self satisfaction is regarded as “meaning” then all you’ve got is hedonism and 100 years after you’re dead it won’t matter at all that you ever existed.
tommyboy on February 4, 2013 at 11:55 AM
MelonCollie on February 4, 2013 at 11:56 AM
Then why are evangelistic atheists so bitter and angry?
ZachV seems like the most recent example.
gwelf on February 4, 2013 at 11:56 AM
Dude, you’re probably not even a Bodhisattva. Come on.
DarkCurrent on February 4, 2013 at 11:57 AM
When you die, the only mark that will last is your character. When you have purpose without character (morality does not exist outside of religion) your mark on this world fades into the background.
nobar on February 4, 2013 at 12:00 PM
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