Would life be worth living if there was no God?

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Qoeleth said:
Are you sure?
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Lol, I’m as sure as sure can be 🙂

Of course I have ups and downs, good and bad days and family and work issues like everyone else, but underlying all this is a deep sense of joy at being alive, of loving my family and being loved by them, a deep sense of achievement and satisfaction at running a successful business and creating employment and security for others, and a deep sense of worth in both what I have achieved, helped my family achieve, what others have helped me achieve and what I give back.

I live life to the full, encourage my family to do the same, and when I’m gone, I already know I have left a reasonably decent positive contribution for the time I’ve been here.

I live on through my children.

I could ask for no more 🙂

Sarah x 🙂
 
atheistgirl said:
No the question was very simple: Would life be worth living if there was no God?

My answer is yes. Absolutely.

Sarah x 🙂
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Sure, but what makes life (objectively) worth living? Presumably that it has meaning, purpose, and value.
 
danserr said:
Sure, but what makes life (objectively) worth living? Presumably that it has meaning, purpose, and value.
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My life does indeed have meaning, purpose and value.

None of which comes from any belief in any gods.

Sarah x 🙂
 
itullian said:
wrong question, the right one is…

Would life be worth living if there is no afterlife?

the answer is no, it’s a blink of the eye and then nothing forever forever forever…
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Itullian:

Excellent point.

God bless,
jd
 
itullian said:
A God doesn’t necessarilly mean an afterlife.

no God doesn’t necessarilly mean there’s none.
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Itullian:

There must be God. Everything we do, every motion we make, finds impetus in His Mind. No God, no impetus. No God, no souls. Only an eternal and infinite Being can create and sustain, can continue reconfiguring the cosmic s-frame. And that means after our earthly demise as well, because He will not annihilate us.

Purgatory is a prelude to Hell, for those forgiven but excessively proud souls who have barely escaped it. I’ll take Purgatory over Hell any day, if he’ll allow me that privilege. I’ve come too far to ever be satisfied with Hell.

God bless,
jd
 
Qoeleth said:
It does not follow that “life is worth living” simply because people continue to live without God.
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If I go to the kitchen and grab a glass of water now, was it “worth it” to me to grab said glass of water? Yes. The proof that it was worth it is that I did it. I made the subjective judgement that doing so was worthwhile, then I executed it.
Sometimes, people just continue to live out of intertia- because there is no plausible alternative- or the alternative is to messy, painful and socially unacceptable (and, indeed, sinful).
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Indeed, these things do weigh in the balance. But how can we judge them against each other? By my own reckoning, I would suggest that it takes more effort to preserve one’s life than to end it, but I don’t know how you measure that.
I mean- think of battery chickens in tiny cages-** life isn’t worth living for them**- but they don’t commit mass suicide. Often, life just goes on when the love of life has long since fled.
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How do we know that? (The bolded part.)

Side question, are animals known to commit suicide?
The following is not in reply to the quoted poster: we know that there are people currently who: 1) do not believe in any particular God, or have never been exposed to any God concept, and yet, 2) find life worth living.

So perhaps an interesting question to ask at this point is: if God was non-existent, how would that change life for those people who find life worth living but do not believe in God presently and have not been exposed to any God concept?
 
VeritasLuxMea said:
If I go to the kitchen and grab a glass of water now, was it “worth it” to me to grab said glass of water? Yes. The proof that it was worth it is that I did it. I made the subjective judgement that doing so was worthwhile, then I executed it.

Indeed, these things do weigh in the balance. But how can we judge them against each other? By my own reckoning, I would suggest that it takes more effort to preserve one’s life than to end it, but I don’t know how you measure that.

How do we know that? (The bolded part.)

Side question, are animals known to commit suicide?
The following is not in reply to the quoted poster: we know that there are people currently who: 1) do not believe in any particular God, or have never been exposed to any God concept, and yet, 2) find life worth living.

So perhaps an interesting question to ask at this point is: if God was non-existent, how would that change life for those people who find life worth living but do not believe in God presently and have not been exposed to any God concept?
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Yes, you are right- that fact that we live shows that life is worth living. In fact, that life is worth living is even a tautology. What can you live if not life? And what can you do with life if not live it?

I was departing on a rhetorical tangent- the well established philosophical tradition of continually declare that “life is a passing vanity, a sore trial, a bitter exile”, and yet, in spite of this, to keep living it.
 
don’t fool yourself. you don’t live on thru your children. some of your genes do.

you can provide your own meaning while your here, but there is no true, objective meaning.

in a few short generations no one will even know you were here.
 
Speaking for myself, I have plenty reason to live and like living even if I imagined there was no God. I’ve every reason to be thankful for the things I do every day and the people in my life.
 
There would be No-Life without God.

Life is through God and contingent on God, we live life by the moment by Gods Mercy. Everyone has an expiration appointment, the only questions are when and how.

The ultimate goal is to remain in Communion with God. Thus to seek the Lord and chase when need be. As you realize this, so too see this in everyone.

There is only one purpose to life, how you view it is your state of mind in a given moment.

Prayers are with you!
 
atheistgirl said:
My life does indeed have meaning, purpose and value.

None of which comes from any belief in any gods.

Sarah x 🙂
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Again, though, the issue is not belief in God.

For example, suppose God exists, then a person’s life could have meaning, purpose, and value whether or not they believe in God.

Suppose God did not exist. Then a person’s life would not have any meaning, purpose, or value whether they believed God to exist or not.

A person might believe that their life was meaningful without God, but that does not mean that it actually is.

For example, you have suggested that part of the reason you find life worth living is that you will 1. live on through your children and 2. have left a contribution to posterity. Now, this shows a relative meaningfulness to life. Life is meaningful because of your effect on others. But why are their lives meaningful? Presumably for the same reason.

Now, someday human life and the universe will end, if this is true, then the last generation’s lives will not be meaningful because it will not have an impact on posterity or live on in their children. But, if not, then no lives were meaningful because the meaningfulness of any individual life was dependent on the lives after it.

For example. A is meaningful because it affects B. B because it affects C, C because it affects D… and Y’s life is meaningful because it affects Z. The the world ends. Z’s life did not live on into his children or positively affect posterity because there are no posterity. Therefore (by your two reasons), his life was not meaningful.

But it gets worse. Trace this backwards. Y was not valuable on his own, but only because of his positive effect on Z (which assumes that Z was meaningful. But if Z. was not meaningful, how could Y be? And if not Y, then not X… and so on, until even A was not meaningful.

Or put is slightly differently, without God and immortality (not belief in them, but their actual existence), then the life of everyone comes to the same no matter how they lived. The scientist who worked to better human life and the dictator who worked to destroy it all come to the same. In either case, human life ends and, as one writer put it, remains only a story, and actually not even a story forever and ever.

Some people say that without God we must create our own meaning, but this is precisely the problem. Without God, we might ascribe a meaning to our actions, but this would only show a subjective meaning, not any objective meaning. That means that a person who finds killing innocent people meaningful is no different from a person who finds loving his family meaningful. Neither action is more objectively meaningful than another; rather, both actions are meaningful (or “true”) for the people who do them. In both cases they create their own meaning, and there is nothing to make one more objectively meaningful than another.

On the other hand, if God exists, then what we do does have eternal significance because there will be eternal life beyond the end of the word, and some actions (love of family and neighbor) really could be more objectively meaningful than others (drinking oneself into a stupor night after night). Some fuller explanations thereof here.
 
I don’t think the concept of “worth” has meaning without God.
 
The Poll becomes of no consequence in light of the belief in the Father Son and Holy Spirit? IMHO anyway 🙂

Or as we see when another states I have no belief in Gods. Then ones moral ethical paradigm is subjected to other modes.

So I would have to ask what ones manifesto of Objective Truth is then.
 
My answer is no because I have already known God and life without him would hold no meaning for me. There has to be some purpose for our Joy and sufferings if there is no God then what is the point of these things. I can live with my trials in life when I unite them to Jesus’ suffering. Just my opinion.🙂
 
From where I stand the hypothetical question asked here seems to be the world in which we live now. I’ve not encountered any deities as far as I can tell and I find my life to be not only of value to me, but of value to others. (Similarly I also value their lives too).

That’s not to say that the answer would be the same for every one. There currently are people that even now don’t find value in their own lives.
 
danserr said:
A person might believe that their life was meaningful without God, but that does not mean that it actually is.
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I think you’re quite wrong. If I think my life has meaning, it has, regardless of ANYTHING else.

I don’t believe in the existence of any hight beings, powers, or gods, and they have no bearing what so ever on the worth or meaning of my life.
Y was not valuable on his own, but only because of his positive effect on Z (which assumes that Z was meaningful. But if Z. was not meaningful, how could Y be? And if not Y, then not X… and so on, until even A was not meaningful.
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My answer regarding my family is a current fact, in that I come from a large family and have a large family, and I will live on through them, genetically and in memory, writings and paintings Ive left behind, and the things I’ve changed, made, improved, contributed to and done while I’m here.
But if none of that were the case, I would still have the same worth and value as a person, because I am me.
I do not need the affirmation of anyone to make it so I have any worth. The very fact I exist is enough. How I use my existence and the effect this has on others is another issue.
then the life of everyone comes to the same no matter how they lived.
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Yes I believe it does.
The scientist who worked to better human life and the dictator who worked to destroy it all come to the same.
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I beleive that is correct.
Without God, we might ascribe a meaning to our actions, but this would only show a subjective meaning, not any objective meaning.
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I dont understand how refering to a higher being makes anything more objective. Everything is subjective and relative. Everything. It’s even relative to relate to gods because the one you believe in is not the same as the one a Hindu believes in, or a Muslim, or a Buddist. So their so called ‘objective’ reference to their god is only relative really, considering the number and kinds of different dieties people believe in all over the world.
rather, both actions are meaningful (or “true”) for the people who do them. In both cases they create their own meaning, and there is nothing to make one more objectively meaningful than another.
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To the individual no but to the society they live in, yes, as we don’t allow people to murder at will and get away with it. We recognise that strong stable communities ensure all our safety and survival.
On the other hand, if God exists, then what we do does have eternal significance
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I don’t believe anything we do has an eternal bearing whatever. Consequences can be and often are felt through the generations, but in the end, our life here is finite, and I believe, when it’s over, that’s it.

Sarah x 🙂
 
itullian said:
don’t fool yourself…in a few short generations no one will even know you were here.
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And I won’t be here. So I won’t care 😃

I just do best while I can, have passed on some good genes hopefully, and after that, it’s all out of my hands. 😃

Sarah x 🙂
 
danserr said:
Some fuller explanations thereof here.
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Thank you danserr for the link. It ties in quite well with what I’ve always thought, that is, for some people, the idea that this is what we’ve got and we better make the best of it, or waste the one chance we have at life, is too much.

So we (they) create a system which allows them to believe they can live on forever.

For Christians, this is believing in Jesus and a certain way of behaving.

For others, it’s whatever gods or dieties they’ve been brought up to believe in.

Sarah x 🙂
 
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