Meaning in a meaningless universe
One of the biggest problems that theists and other supernaturalists seem to have with atheism is that if the universe wasn't created for a reason (i.e. with some sort of objective in mind), then nothing we do is worthwhile. I've been reading Victor Stenger's "God: The Failed Hypothesis" and he has a beautifully succinct section on this which I will butcher for you.
He tells (a supposedly true story) of a schoolteacher refereeing a basketball game, in which the kids are getting very competitive and quite rough. The teacher used to tell the kids "In ten years' time, who's going to care who won this game?". Good point, you'd think.
No! It's a rubbish point! The correct response (articulated by Stenger) is "Why on earth should we care right now about what we're going to care about in ten years' time?" Such a philosophy would make a mockery of almost every leisure activity in which we partake.
Of course, there needs to be a healthy balance between living in the here and now and preparing for the future, because one day we will be our future selves and wish we'd done some preparation! But future considerations do not make current considerations meaningless.
Similarly, our everyday objectives, and our long term objectives, are not made meaningless in the face of the long long long term future of the universe, where the impact of our actions is of as little interest to the workings of the cosmos as was the impact on us of a fly being caught in a spider's web on the other side of the world. (This is not to say that small events cannot have a huge long-term impact, it is merely to remind us that neither the universe nor anyone in it will care what that impact was.)
If an action you take only has meaning for you to the extent to which it is a step towards the overall goal of the universe (or its creator), then that is what makes everything you do trivial and banal to the point of insignificance. Real meaning is defined by the contribution of our actions towards our own objectives, objectives we are perfectly capable of coming up with independently.
Consider: what is the meaning of the actions of a cow in a field? Its purpose given to it by the farmer is to be milked and eventually slaughtered for the needs of mankind. Is that what informs its own actions? Of course not. A cow might take pleasure in chewing some grass here, or having a rest over there... Or a more meaningful analogy might be with a slave in Southern USA in the 18th century, who may find meaning in learning to read even though his given purpose necessarily rules that out!
It doesn't matter now that the inevitable heat death of the universe will annihilate everything I ever did. I can still take joy and pleasure in my achievements, however fleeting, and my enterprise in advancing the meaningfulness of the lives of others.
He tells (a supposedly true story) of a schoolteacher refereeing a basketball game, in which the kids are getting very competitive and quite rough. The teacher used to tell the kids "In ten years' time, who's going to care who won this game?". Good point, you'd think.
No! It's a rubbish point! The correct response (articulated by Stenger) is "Why on earth should we care right now about what we're going to care about in ten years' time?" Such a philosophy would make a mockery of almost every leisure activity in which we partake.
Of course, there needs to be a healthy balance between living in the here and now and preparing for the future, because one day we will be our future selves and wish we'd done some preparation! But future considerations do not make current considerations meaningless.
Similarly, our everyday objectives, and our long term objectives, are not made meaningless in the face of the long long long term future of the universe, where the impact of our actions is of as little interest to the workings of the cosmos as was the impact on us of a fly being caught in a spider's web on the other side of the world. (This is not to say that small events cannot have a huge long-term impact, it is merely to remind us that neither the universe nor anyone in it will care what that impact was.)
If an action you take only has meaning for you to the extent to which it is a step towards the overall goal of the universe (or its creator), then that is what makes everything you do trivial and banal to the point of insignificance. Real meaning is defined by the contribution of our actions towards our own objectives, objectives we are perfectly capable of coming up with independently.
Consider: what is the meaning of the actions of a cow in a field? Its purpose given to it by the farmer is to be milked and eventually slaughtered for the needs of mankind. Is that what informs its own actions? Of course not. A cow might take pleasure in chewing some grass here, or having a rest over there... Or a more meaningful analogy might be with a slave in Southern USA in the 18th century, who may find meaning in learning to read even though his given purpose necessarily rules that out!
It doesn't matter now that the inevitable heat death of the universe will annihilate everything I ever did. I can still take joy and pleasure in my achievements, however fleeting, and my enterprise in advancing the meaningfulness of the lives of others.
posted by extabgrad at 2:15 PM
1 Comments:
Just superb,Joss!
Alexander
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