No Larger Meaning – The Emptiness of Atheism

No Larger Meaning – The Emptiness of Atheism

This video is called “No Larger Meaning”, and is part of the “Emptiness of Atheism” series of videos.

The “Emptiness of Atheism” video series is a group of videos I am doing about consequences of being an atheist. There are consequences to being an atheist which aren’t covered much by atheists, partly because I don’t think they think about them very much.

The one I will cover in this video I am calling – “no larger meaning” or “no ultimate meaning”.

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First I want to explain what I mean by atheism leading to there being “no larger meaning” to my life…

Atheism means a lack of belief in a personal god or gods… and in any supernatural powers.

If you follow this out and think about the implications of this, you will see that this also means that there is no LARGER or ULTIMATE “purpose” or “meaning” to life.

For me, it seems that atheism… and I might say MY own agnostic atheism… necessarily leads to a strict materialism. That is, that there is nothing that we now know of that is not a result of the material world.

There is energy, and atoms, and even consciousness… but all of it is a result of the material world.

This strict materialism MUST follow as a result of the lack of a belief in any supernatural powers… because the DEFINITION of “supernatural” is:

1. of, relating to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplained by natural law or phenomena; abnormal.
2. of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or attributed to God or a deity.

I might add parenthetically that I consider myself an “agnostic atheist”, because I personally do not believe that as humans we know everything there is to know about the universe.

But I AM an “atheist” because I do not believe in any deities or gods or a personal god.

Again, atheism is a lack of belief in a god or gods, or in any deity or supreme being.

It seems to me that if we live in a mechanistic and material world… with no gods, deities or supernatural powers…then there can be no ultimate meaning… no larger meaning to life.

Even though there are energies and consciousness, and life force and so on, there is still no evidence of any kind, that anything ever goes beyond a material cause – none of it is “supernatural”.

So it seems that atheism equates with materialism, and this fundamentally rules out any larger ultimate meaning to things beyond the natural order of existence.

Now Let me deal with 2 of the main objections I hear from atheists about my “no larger meaning” claim:

“My life has plenty of meaning” and
“To ask for a meaning to life is misguided… it is an inappropriate question, or demand”

First, the “my life has lots of meaning” argument…

I understand that sentiment – and I can appreciate that. If I didn’t feel that there was meaning in my life, I wouldn’t bother doing these videos… they are meaningful to me.

My work, my thinking, my experiences and my loves and so on all have a “meaning” of sorts – but NOT in the sense of a larger, comprehensive overall meaning. The meaning is in a personal sense, which is limited.

When I am dead and gone, there will be no meaning for me personally… and in terms of a larger meaning, even if I have an influence in this life now, eventually that meaning fades and disappears.

Without a god or gods, without supernatural forces larger than life that give us a cause to live beyond survival… there can be no larger meaning to life, no ultimate meaning.

With the materialism that atheism implies, there is no larger context for meaning other than survival. You an dress it up as much as you like, but it is still basically survival.

And I think this is precisely what scares religious believers, and motivates them to their beliefs. This lack of a larger meaning implicit in atheism, is one of the elements of what I am calling the “emptiness of atheism”.

The second objection is “looking for the meaning of life is a misguided question”…

There are some who think there is no point to asking… that it is a foolish or somehow inappropriate question.

There is some truth to this proposition, because I think we SEEK meaning, even though there isn’t any. It seems to me fundamental to human nature to seek meaning to things, and to want and seek a larger meaning to their life beyond simple survival.

So my reply to the proposition that it is a misguided or inappropriate question is that it doesn’t matter…it doesn’t matter if it is an inappropriate question… I still ask it.

Human beings still will be driven to seek and want, or to believe, in a larger meaning to their existence.

It could be a quirky byproduct of self-consciousness, but it is fundamental to our makeup, in my opinion.

So to conclude… There seems to me to be no place in atheism for a larger, ultimate meaning to life, and this is a consequence of what I am calling the “emptiness of atheism”.

Thanks for listening, and feel free to leave your comments or opinions on this topic.

Please share this video and pass it on, and come back and watch my other videos sometime.

Till next time, this is Alex Aldrin, the Thinker.