Arnold Layne wrote:

carl wrote:

Animavore wrote:Everything I look forward to is meaningful to me. They may not be meaningful to you, but I don't think you're in a position to judge what is meaningful to me.

I'm not in the position to judge you. But maybe the rest of us still want to have an answer. If you don't want to open yourself up to the rest of us, shall we just talk about the weather instead?

Who are the rest of us?

His classmates in whatever course he's taking which has a "challenge teh ebil atheists!" requirement.

As for me - I live for the pleasure of enjoying each day, for the physical pleasures of food and drink and good company, for the joy of getting and playing with interesting toys, for the pleasure of learning new things, for the enjoyment of helping others, and for the satisfaction of providing for my descendants.

There being absolutely no evidence for any of the various claimed versions of an afterlife, I don't waste time wishing or hoping or planning on experiencing one, I live my one and only life to the fullest I can.

Oh, and I also enjoy getting into arguments with over-credulous theists on the Internet on occasion.

Without Hope for an Afterlife, What Are We Living For?

The question kind of answers itself:
Everything!

Answer this one:
What's the point of living if you will live in heaven forever in death?

I'm living for the same things you are.

I'm just not insecure enough to tag them with insubstantial fluffy meanings so I feel superior.

Why would I hope for an eternal afterlife? You might be able to amuse yourself for a couple of thousand years, but after a few quadrillion years it'd get a little repetitive and after a few billion googlplex years I'm pretty sure it'd be a living death of boredom. And that's the first 0%

carl wrote:
So we have a few coming clean and stating they "are living for nothing". This is brutally honest. Without an afterlife, there is NOTHING to live for.

what a sad deluded view point ....

If you can't find wonder EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY you are a blind toad.

start here


http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

then go here



http://www.boredpanda.com/happy-children-playing/

You perhaps should channel their joy instead of your gloom based on a delusion.

I'm packing in every part of the planet and as much understanding of our wonderful universe as I can....and generally enjoying every minute.

Coming up ....cross country with the kid on our motorcycles.

He's my "afterlife"....hw will see wonders I won't.



I've seen wonders around the world he hasn't..



https://picasaweb.google.com/113408714888195024530

.every day is an adventure. Wake up ....smell the coffee

Claiming 'the afterlife' is the source of purpose is essentially saying that future rewards are all that matter. While delayed gratification has its place, the pleasure to be enjoyed from living in the present is not to be dismissed as irrelevant.

Claiming 'the afterlife' is the source of purpose

......"there's one born every minute....

My dog has no thumbs and therefore can't open his pouches of dog food. i live from day to day to keep my dog fed.

Also other people seem to want me around.

carl wrote:So we have a few coming clean and stating they "are living for nothing". This is brutally honest. Without an afterlife, there is NOTHING to live for.

Nonsense. Utter rubbish.

If nothing else, there's this:




Or, alternatively, for others there are other things to live for - such as this:

purplerat wrote:What hope does a theist have for an afterlife? If you are really truly sure it's going to be great then why haven't you already gotten started with it? And if you haven't you must really just be incredibly terrified of what may or may not come after you die. That doesn't sound like much fun to me. Certainly not anything I would call hope.

Yes, I think if I believed the standard Christian version of an afterlife, I would probably spend most of this one worrying about hell. Not feeling there's a real chance of being tortured for all eternity if I put a foot wrong is great.

I assume most of us are motivated daily by more than the acquiring of food, fun, and shelter.
What is that extra something?

BTW, for those who say there is no future hope, what would you tell your kids if they asked you the same question?

Weaver wrote:
Nonsense. Utter rubbish.

If nothing else, there's this:

Bobcat Goldthwait?

Pebble wrote:Claiming 'the afterlife' is the source of purpose is essentially saying that future rewards are all that matter. While delayed gratification has its place, the pleasure to be enjoyed from living in the present is not to be dismissed as irrelevant.

I agree with what you said about the present but since most of us do indeed plan for the future, and very carefully and with plenty of gusto - such as obtaining degrees and training to start a future career, this shows that, although we may brag about living for the moment, we do a whole lot of planning and preparation for the future too.

Therefore, it seems most of us do indeed relish the prospect of living further into the future rather than just for today.

scott1328 wrote:My dog has no thumbs and therefore can't open his pouches of dog food. i live from day to day to keep my dog fed.

Also other people seem to want me around.

So in all seriousness, if someone asked you what your main priority or goal in life is, it is to feed that dog.

carl wrote:

scott1328 wrote:My dog has no thumbs and therefore can't open his pouches of dog food. i live from day to day to keep my dog fed.

Also other people seem to want me around.

So in all seriousness, if someone asked you what your main priority or goal in life is, it is to feed that dog.

What's wrong with that? Some people love their dogs, is that wrong?

Without Hope for an Afterlife, What Are We Living For?

Perhaps you should spend the rest of your (current) life trying to figure that out - it certainly sounds like you'll need that long!

carl wrote:

Pebble wrote:Claiming 'the afterlife' is the source of purpose is essentially saying that future rewards are all that matter. While delayed gratification has its place, the pleasure to be enjoyed from living in the present is not to be dismissed as irrelevant.

I agree with what you said about the present but since most of us do indeed plan for the future, and very carefully and with plenty of gusto - such as obtaining degrees and training to start a future career, this shows that, although we may brag about living for the moment, we do a whole lot of planning and preparation for the future too.

Therefore, it seems most of us do indeed relish the prospect of living further into the future rather than just for today.

Are you preparing for Valhalla? How about honey cakes, Paradise an 72 Virgins? Are you sure you have chosen the right afterlife to prepare for? Get it wrong and you you will burn...

... or worse, wasted your one and only life on preparing for an empty promise.

CdesignProponentsist wrote:Answer this one:
What's the point of living if you will live in heaven forever in death?

You have read the Bible I assume: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Therefore, we are definitely NOT living in death.

carl wrote:

CdesignProponentsist wrote:Answer this one:
What's the point of living if you will live in heaven forever in death?

You have read the Bible I assume: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Therefore, we are definitely NOT living in death.

Stop violating the FUA.

carl wrote:So we have a few coming clean and stating they "are living for nothing". This is brutally honest. Without an afterlife, there is NOTHING to live for.

What an odd idea. It seems not to make any sense at all.

Suppose I am looking forward to a really great meal. Then I enjoy the meal, and it's just as good as I had hoped it would be. How is that changed by the fact that I eventually finished the meal? If the meal never ended, if i kept eating, and eating, and eating, and never got full or lost my hunger, but just kept eating it without end, I fail to see how that would make the experience any better. In fact, it seems that that would actually be quite horrendous, even torturous.

If the afterlife actually existed, almost everyone there would be begging for release by death well before the first millenium was up.