The Question of "The Meaning of Life"

The fact that religious people think that the question “what is the meaning of life without god?” is an impossible question for atheists, is a ridiculous notion. This question is nothing more than bullshit emotional rhetoric, designed to overwhelm someone (and I’ll tell you why in a minute). First off, asking: what is the meaning of life, is begging the question, and a good hint that it is a fallacious question to begin with. Who says that there is a meaning? Or if there is a meaning, that it is a universally uniform meaning. They are also implying that the meaning must be dictated to us externally by a superior being, without providing any
evidence of this assertion. The meaning of your life can be completely different from the meaning of my life. And since we decide the meanings for ourselves, it most likely will be a little different. Therefore they are trying to overwhelm their opponent by giving them the nearly impossible task of creating a universally accepted meaning of life. It is a “loaded” and subjective question, and that makes it a deceptive and dishonest tactic.


Then there is their typical answer: “to serve gods will, and go to heaven for eternity.” First of all, what kind of life is spent in servitude? We abolished slavery for a reason, maybe god should do the same. If you have an eternity in heaven after this life, than this life doesn’t really matter; except for the fact that it is required to get you into heaven. What do 70 years matter when compared to eternity? But then that is the point isn’t it? It is what keeps people content and suppressed in this life. It teaches them not to care about this world because a “better one” is coming. The thought of an eternal afterlife doesn’t provide the meaning of this life or world, it actually diminishes it by making it insignificant by comparison.

Besides, what exactly is serving god, or doing gods will anyway. Every time I hear this I am told that serving god means praying, preaching the word of god, and giving to others. What kind of service is this? Why does god want billions of questions, complaints, and demands forced upon him every day? Even more confusing, if there is any form of omnipotent being, why does he need anyone to spread his words, or better yet, why did he give different words to different groups of people around the world(some of them directly conflicting one another). The only one that makes any sense is giving to others but only because you can take it out of context and assume it means any time you help anyone which includes any form of service. But why not just say that then? Plus, any time a religious individual makes any decision whether it be asking for a donation or starting the crusades they always pull the "I am only serving god's will" card. Since when was all of these additional tasks added to god's will? How did you find out that you were assigned this task? Did you get a different pamphlet?