Life - Grim or Wonderful?

On another blog that I contribute to a commenter said,

“Even an atheist would have to admit that if there is no God and no afterlife then life is pretty grim. Think about it. Our very existence is a cosmic accident. The universe is some mindless random process. We are born…we amuse ourselves with distractions and then we die. Life is just a waiting room for death…choose a magazine to pass the time until your name is called.

Why would I want to convince anyone who didn’t already believe it that this was true?

Maybe truth? Well, if there is no God and this pathetic little life is all we have then who the hell cares about truth? Hello?! You’re going to die man who cares what’s true? What good is the truth going to do you when you’re dead?

Every day you’re getting closer to death and you waste time worrying about what is true? You waste time convincing people that there is no God? For what?

To quote Homer, “If the dead are not raised, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

One of the most futile arguments a Christian can make is that an atheist cannot appreciate life. I run into Christians that seem to think that our time on earth is meaningless unless there is a promise of an afterlife to go along with it. I think this has an underlying connection to fear - in particular the fear of death. But to me, dealing with death by pretending that when you die you don’t really die cheapens the life we have in the here and now. What makes life so special to me is the fact that that it is so short, the fact that the end is undetermined, the fact that this is all we have.


Life is not grim to me. Life is full of wonder and excitement. Life is to be enjoyed and pondered. Life is what living is all about. I don’t need an afterlife to make this life meaningful. I don’t view the world as a fallen place full of evil that I want to escape. I view the world and my time on it as a fortuitous gift from the “cosmic accident.”


To me your view of life is the grim one. I can see how you would need to believe in something better when you are done here because, if like many Christians, my sister included, you view the world as evil, with satan at the helm. I feel sorry for Christians who have such a fatalistic view of life when it could be a wonderful experience. Wouldn’t you rather enjoy life right now rather than banking your hopes on some future heaven?


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