Christians believe that the only way to believe that life has meaning is to believe that God created us to love him, because he loves us, and that we are all here to fulfill his "divine plan" of making us love him by threatening to tell us all to go to hell if we don't.
Even though the universe may be simply the byproduct of a divine act of unprotected procreation, Christians insist that life has "meaning" only if we have a belief in a "God" who can create an entire universe from nothing, specifically for us, but is utterly powerless to keep guns out of public schools, and all because he is angry that people there don't talk about as much as they used to.
Without God, so Christians will tell you, life is completely meaningless. If you then ask the Christian, "How does believing in God give my life "meaning," and what "meaning" does it give, more precisely?", the Christian will either answer with a barrage of memorized bible verses, or a story of love, forgiveness, conspiracy, and murder, that is designed to make us feel simultaneously happy about God's forgiveness and sad about having to kill Christ to get it.
Of course, when the atheist points out that neither of these "answers" actually answers their questions, the Christian insists the atheist is just being a stubborn ass for refusing to shut up and drink the cool aid, like everyone else. And if the atheist goes even further, and points out how truly ridicules it is to believe that humanity could only be forgiven by a God by brutally murdering his son, the Christian explains that only with "the gift of faith" can a person fully understand such an absurdity (just ask Soren Kierkegaard). And anyone who is unable to "see" the "truth" of such a story is simply suffering from a form of spiritual cataracts. God, by the way, allows these people to be so "blinded," because they are "hard of hearts," which really means they are simply hard-headed for failing to see how obviously true this story really is. (Indeed, the surest proof of all can be seen in the growing number of televangelists who own their own private jets.)
Regardless of such absurdities, the "meaning of life" for the Christian boils down to a simple formula: save yourself, by saving others. And the only way to do this, of course, is by convincing others to "believe" the self-contradictory story just mentioned, as much as they do. Only then, according to people like Mike Huckabee, can life have "meaning."
Of course, this simply means that the Christian is "believing" in God because, as Pascal wagered, it is better to believe and be wrong, than not to believe and be wrong. Yet such reasoning only means that "believing" is a way of covering one's own ass. This is why Immanuel Kant pointed out that everything we do, no matter how altruistic it may appear, is still always done with the underlying hope of ingratiating oneself to God, and thus saving oneself from that oven where, like a Dachau for lost souls, "the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." After all, who among us would be willing to throw themselves into a lake of fire, and for all of eternity no less, for the sake of saving all of humanity? Indeed, even Christ is said to have only visited that horrible place for three days, before he decided to get the hell out of there.
Yet some Christians have no problem with the idea of throwing people into just such an oven, and for all of eternity no less, just so they can continue to "believe" that their belief in God is what ultimately gives their life meaning. Yet as history demonstrates only too well, it is always those who feel they are deserving of heaven, that are the most comfortable with the idea of casting others into hell. So much for, "love your enemies."
Even though the universe may be simply the byproduct of a divine act of unprotected procreation, Christians insist that life has "meaning" only if we have a belief in a "God" who can create an entire universe from nothing, specifically for us, but is utterly powerless to keep guns out of public schools, and all because he is angry that people there don't talk about as much as they used to.
Without God, so Christians will tell you, life is completely meaningless. If you then ask the Christian, "How does believing in God give my life "meaning," and what "meaning" does it give, more precisely?", the Christian will either answer with a barrage of memorized bible verses, or a story of love, forgiveness, conspiracy, and murder, that is designed to make us feel simultaneously happy about God's forgiveness and sad about having to kill Christ to get it.
Of course, when the atheist points out that neither of these "answers" actually answers their questions, the Christian insists the atheist is just being a stubborn ass for refusing to shut up and drink the cool aid, like everyone else. And if the atheist goes even further, and points out how truly ridicules it is to believe that humanity could only be forgiven by a God by brutally murdering his son, the Christian explains that only with "the gift of faith" can a person fully understand such an absurdity (just ask Soren Kierkegaard). And anyone who is unable to "see" the "truth" of such a story is simply suffering from a form of spiritual cataracts. God, by the way, allows these people to be so "blinded," because they are "hard of hearts," which really means they are simply hard-headed for failing to see how obviously true this story really is. (Indeed, the surest proof of all can be seen in the growing number of televangelists who own their own private jets.)
Regardless of such absurdities, the "meaning of life" for the Christian boils down to a simple formula: save yourself, by saving others. And the only way to do this, of course, is by convincing others to "believe" the self-contradictory story just mentioned, as much as they do. Only then, according to people like Mike Huckabee, can life have "meaning."
Of course, this simply means that the Christian is "believing" in God because, as Pascal wagered, it is better to believe and be wrong, than not to believe and be wrong. Yet such reasoning only means that "believing" is a way of covering one's own ass. This is why Immanuel Kant pointed out that everything we do, no matter how altruistic it may appear, is still always done with the underlying hope of ingratiating oneself to God, and thus saving oneself from that oven where, like a Dachau for lost souls, "the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." After all, who among us would be willing to throw themselves into a lake of fire, and for all of eternity no less, for the sake of saving all of humanity? Indeed, even Christ is said to have only visited that horrible place for three days, before he decided to get the hell out of there.
Yet some Christians have no problem with the idea of throwing people into just such an oven, and for all of eternity no less, just so they can continue to "believe" that their belief in God is what ultimately gives their life meaning. Yet as history demonstrates only too well, it is always those who feel they are deserving of heaven, that are the most comfortable with the idea of casting others into hell. So much for, "love your enemies."
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