From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig)
Subject: Life with meaning but without God
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 92 00:09:03 GMT
Organization: Starfleet Headquarters: San Francisco

sbuckley@fraser.sfu.ca (Stephen Buckley) wrote (in article <sbuckley.715468099@sfu.ca>):
>...  i actually found that without an ultimate, absolute
>authority in life [god] there is no justification for me to do anything
>good.  not just that i'll be punished for doing evil, but to know god
>means to do his will and live a righteous life.  without god, i found
>no compelling reason to do anything good and my life dwindled into
>cynicism and despair and lack of concern for anyone until i found morality
>rooted in the absolute of god, rather than in the whims of people ...

Let me come at this from another angle: When I was a Christian, I
found that it was useless for me to strive to be as good as I could,
because even if I was the best human being there ever was, I was still
stained with "Original Sin", and besides, no matter what became of me,
I was but an insignificant speck in the whole grand consciousness of
God.  Maybe I would just be damned, but if I was, then obviously
that's what God wanted for me (because after all he's omnipotent), and
in doing so I'd be fulfilling my purpose for existence, whatever that
purpose was.

If this sounds like I didn't have the right idea of it at all, you're
correct.  I've come to understand Christianity a lot better since
then.  But this is as bad a picture of Christianity as the above quote
is a bad picture of atheism.

Without an ultimate, absolute authority in life, the only
justification for doing good is that *I want* to, and that's a good
enough answer for me.  I have certain moral values that are just as
much a part of me as my personality is, and I feel good when I do
things I know to be right.

Without God, at first, I found no compelling reason to do *anything*!
So I had to make my own reasons.  I had to decide why I was standing
here on this earth, and if I really wanted to be here -- and once I
decided that I'd rather keep on living than end my life, I had to
think long and hard to decide what I liked about being here, and what
I didn't like, and how I could enjoy more of the former, and change or
accept the latter.

It's an exhilarating feeling to be "master of my destiny", to know
that good and bad things happen to me because of things that I've
done, and that I deserve the praise and blame -- *me*, not a god who
takes all the credit and leaves all the blame on my humanity.

I live my life according to one commandment:

	Thou shalt enjoy life, and in so doing, feel free to act
	as thou would and do as thou like, as long as thou dost
	accept the consequences of thy every action.

(Olde English added to make it look fancier. ;)

The meaning of this is that I'm directly answerable for everything I
do, and my choice to do or to not do something is based on looking at
the good and bad things that might happen as a result.  If I want to
donate $1000 to an orphanage, then I weigh the impact of that on my
budget against how good it'll make me feel.  If I want to sleep in
late and blow off work today, I won't make excuses and tell tall tales
if the boss calls me at home.  If I decide to kill somebody (someone
dying in great pain, a fetus, a criminal attacking me, or even a total
stranger), then I have to weigh the strength of my desire to kill this
person against my death or lifetime imprisonment that would happen as
a result.

They're difficult choices sometimes, and I've seen some "Sunday
believer" (non-devout) Christians weasel their way out of a parking
ticket then say the rosary a dozen times as 'penance', then forget all
about the incident.  I just can't bring myself to do that -- somehow,
knowing that I have to accept full responsibility for my actions just
makes life all that much more exciting to live. :)

Another method by which I live my life:

  If something bothers you,
    then find out exactly what's wrong.
  If you can't change it,
    don't let it bother you.
  If you can change it,
    decide whether or not you want to.
  If you don't want to change it,
    you have no right to complain.
  If you can change it,
    do.

Before I abandoned Christianity, I frequently bemoaned my very
existence.  Life was getting me down.

Then it hit me.  If life was getting me down, why not end my life?

And I decided not to, and proceeded to make it worth living.


     << Brian >>

-- 
_/_/_/       Brian Kendig  Macintosh Jedi           Live never to be ashamed
 _/_/   Starfleet Captain  Oracle Employee         if anything you do or say
  _/  Intrepid Adventurer  Saturn SL2 Owner    is published around the world
      bskendig@netcom.com  Wizard of Frobozz    -- even if what is published
    Princeton '92! BSE/CS  Writer/Actor/Singer                   is not true.
Xref: sparky talk.religion.misc:14964 alt.atheism:15973