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It’s Not In the Obvious Lifestyle Differences

Theists and atheists don’t live lives that different from each others. This is a source of angst for both sides and actually a point for evolutionary atheism. We are deeply conditioned by our drive to survive and prosper our friends and family at the expense of others, the environment and our enemies.

What we quarrel over is the source and location of meaning, value and existence that ideally should eventually appear in our lifestyle choices.

Atheistic Materialism

It’s always dangerous describing the other side but I’ll try to be fair.

My understanding of the assertion of atheistic materialism is that our current universe, including humanity in all of its social complexity is a product of physics and chance. The universe upon which life as we know it is dependent is a glorious accident come into being for no meaning or reason at all because meaning and reason are functions of a mind. Since the universe has no mind, it is just physics, nothing more.

Once, again through some happy accident (for us, because you need a brain to host a mind to experience what we call “happiness”) once life emerged life continued to develop on the basis of a biological bias for self-preservation. Through a series of calamities, catastrophes, dumb and blind chances, somehow ever more complex and capable creatures survived and out competed their environment and competitors and we within our tiny bubble of knowledge amidst a sea of stars and galaxies have arrived to be ourselves. The norm, if one can exist at all apart from a brain and a mind to host it, is survival at the expense of one’s environment and competitors. Homo Sapien as a species has managed to out compete his environment and competitors so far and all that we note in human society, art, culture and history are attributable to this process.

Defining Good and Evil beneath the Rule of Survival Continue reading →