Wednesday, January 16, 2013

The purpose of life

Theists always claim that atheists have no greater purpose in life, that atheism cannot offer such a purpose, and therefore life without God is meaningless. Only God can give purpose to one's life.

Curiously, not many people, on either camp, stop to think about what exactly is this grandiose purpose that God allegedly gives us.

If you ask a theist why God created us, one of the most common answers is "to worship Him."

Is it just me, or does that sound like a really, really petty reason for an omnipotent, all-knowing god to create sentient beings? Just so that they can worship him? In any other context this kind of situation would be considered the complete opposite of a good and desirable thing. A person acting in such a manner (ie. making others worship him) would be considered a smug self-serving lunatic with a superiority complex and delusions of grandeur.

Imagine a father who tells their children that their main purpose in life is to serve him. Would you consider that person sane? Would you call him a good person and father?

Yet God is somehow different. When God allegedly does this, it's somehow a good and desirable thing, something that gives "true purpose" to life. Apparently subservience (for no other reason that he just says so) is the greatest goal and purpose that one can attain, and God created us for that precise purpose.

Is it just me, or does this sound like a god that, even if it existed, I would consider a sick joke that would deserve no respect whatsoever? Is it just me, or does this sound like a purpose in life that I would really hate?

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