How can religion give meaning to life?

I am quoting a part from one of my previous responses here. If humans are not centre of anything but just one more species insignificant both in space and time, how can a human creation like religion give meaning to anything?

If we could prove the above stated facts! beyond any question, will all the religious people abandon their religions? Or to put it otherway, what kind of evidence is required to prove that all religions are wrong?

Don’t forget, meaning too is a concept created by humans. Thus we give it as freely as we please.

Ok, how about substituting meaning with Truth? Truth that exists independent of human existence.

Not exactly. Objective truth yes. Subjective, no. Besides, what truth can we know that is totally independent of human exsistance? If it was, wouldn’t we then not know it, unable to define it? Everything you and I know about objective truth is filtered through our senses and colored by our observations.

“The universe exists for at least few billion years” Is this subjective or objective truth? Does this depend on human existence?

Robo, the only exsistence we can possibly know is our own. So as we define exsistance, yes, in a way it does.

Why does religion have to do this?

I agree with TheQuestion (strange phrase that); religion is talking about subjective truth. Science aims to talk about objective truth, but it generally recognizes that it can only try to bring our perspective as close as it can to ojectivity, not escape our perspective. That isn’t to say that religion is false (or true), but that religion is ultimately about us, not the universe.

Well, we can’t know truths independent of our existence, since clearly there would be no “we” to know them. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t use our subjective rational faculties to access objective truth. Or at least, I certainly think I’m accessing objective truths “I am typing at a computer” etc.

Sorry to intrude but I have a quick question about what you are discussing. Is it necessarily true to have “true” by perception? If no one was ever born, would 2+2 still be true? Would a circle still be 360 degrees?

Thanks,

Connect

This ladies and gentlemen is a classic straw man. An impossible hypothetical to answer.

but answer it I will.

Would 2 + 2 still equal four? let’s see, one + one + one + one = four, three + one = four, one times four = four. so, since we have FOUR items, from adding two and two together, the mathematical fundamentals would still be the same.

Do you know why a circle is divided into 360 portions and not 180?

Hello scythekain,

Presumably because given what the unit of measurement “degree” means in this context, a circle necessarily has has 360 of those portions that we term degrees.

But whether or not I exist, or anyone else exists, given what “degree” means there would still be 360 degrees in a circle.

I’m not sure how Connections’ post was a straw-man, either.

metaphysical joke.

the answer is 12. by the way.

Hey phawkins1988,

Agreed. That was my intended point.

Just because we never travelled to or born in a distant star/planet, would that mean that there won’t be any gravitational force or any physical forces in that star? In my opinion, irrespective of whether we are born or not, many things would still be true. Because, those things are consequences of different events that predate our existence (gravitation, for example).

Not saying that we can’t access objective truth, Hawkins, just pointing out the multiple ways of looking at this.

Your time scale in millions of years is interesting. Yet religion has only been around for about 5000-10000 yrs. What is the time scale on the 24 hr period for that??

You mean religion or the notion of God?

Wait a minute… how long have humans been around again?

may be the very last few nano or pico seconds

“Religion” is any belief requiring large amounts of “faith”, and within it there is usually a world view about moral propriety and explanations of/for the supernatural.

If I wrote a bible I’d tell people about the layered realities, their partial relativity being the linking point, and the omnipresent 0.D. ressonant information, and the universal mind, and the universal memory, and incarnations through dimensional rifts… Things like that…

Nothing can truly “die”. If meaning is lost in this reality or realm, it may be found again within another reality or realm.

Even if a spirit-body was completely destroyed, it could call out to the dreams of another being, with fury and passion, calling out from the universal memory and the shadows of passed time fragments, eventually manifesting itself once again.

Hello scythekain and TheQuestion,

Could you please explain why my position is a “metaphysical joke”? I haven’t studied much philosophy, but it seems clear that “a circle has 360 degrees” is necessarily true, given the meaning of “degree” and “circle”. If I’m missing something simple, I’d like to know what it is. :slight_smile:

That’s cool man.