I stumbled across this video via Dark of All Trades, and it annoyed me. This tradcath weirdo calling himself “PreConciliar Radio” has a question for atheists that he thinks will rock us back on our heels and make us doubt our beliefs, which is rich coming from a baby-faced guy who is concerned with what version of the Catholic Mass he has to listen to on Sunday morning.
That earthshaking question is What is the meaning of life?
Oh no. Are you questioning your beliefs about god now? I know I’m not.
My answer to that question is simple: there is no meaning to life. We just are. We exist, and then we try to rationalize our existence, and everyone comes up with a different explanation because our brains will happily spin their wheels in the absence of anything of substance to grapple with.
Maybe you disagree, and maybe you have the one true meaning of life. That’s fine, go ahead and tell me what it is, but if you could, please also tell me what objective evidence you have to support your proposed purpose. Also tell me what makes this purpose a property of life — is it shared with spiders and clams and sugar gliders and ants? After all, they live, too.
I’m pretty sure the Tridentine Mass isn’t the meaning of life.
42
There’s no meaning of life but people can find various meanings in life, which are individually subjective or collectively intersubjective. As with morality, I think meaning lacks an objectivity.
Right now my meanings somewhat revolve around trying to get fitter (no not in any Darwinian sense) and undo years of sedentary desk and couch sitting.
Every time someone posts here there’s an implicit pursuit of meaning in their own ephemeral life pond, but the universe as a whole has no shits to give. Your meanings will evaporate when you eventually croak. Good talk.
Aw, look, Baby Theist hasn’t read and/or understood any even reasonably modern philosophy and assumes no one else has either.
Of course, given he’s a tradcath and my mom was a parish liturgy director for decades, I probably know more about HIS religion than he does, too.
chrislawson @1
minus the meaning of the Universe and Everything. Could even be negative.
P.S. I know that presupposes additivity of meaning, and I know that 42 is the unswer to the Ultimate Question which may or may not be What is the meaning.
I think meaning is inherently subjective. When I hear someone ask, “what does it mean?” my response is: to whom?
I ran across this article the other day:
‘Mission: Impossible’ Has Always Been Important
Again I respond: to whom?
The comments on that video do a pretty good job pointing out his vacuity.
He wants to cause us “to doubt”. Doubt what? Does he really think that question has never occurred to an atheist before? I’ve been thinking about the Meaning of Life since before this guy was born. Conservative Catholicism was never one of the options I considered. Tried the Protestant equivalent for a while, found it unsatisfactory, so what’s this clown going to say now? The meaning of life is what you make of it — there is no cosmic source of Meaning, no Platonic Ideal to be striven after.
@1 and 4, please provide appropraite references. Loonquawl and Phouchg, (7.5M BCE), Annals of Deepthought.
I agree that in and of its self life has no meaning. However you can give your life meaning, purpose etc., and if you don’t that’s your problem.
I do really think though that most people give their lives some meaning, even if it’s absurd, rational etc.