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The Forum > Article Comments > The meaning of life? > Comments

The meaning of life? : Comments

By Peter Sellick, published 10/4/2013

What would happen if prayer was said before lectures in business and commerce?

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Hell's bells, Sells! You want to argue with us!

On what basis would you argue? Presenting some theological mumbo-jumbo from some ancient manuscripts proves nothing.

I mean, we could argue the validity of the existence of Ra, the Sun God or any of a number of gods that man has dreamed up.

"Ra was the God of the Sun. He sailed across the heavens in a boat called the 'Barque of Millions of Years'. At the end of each day Ra was thought to die and sailed on his night voyage through the Underworld, leaving the Moon to light the world above. The boat would sail through the twelve doors, representing the twelve hours of night-time. The next dawn, he was born again."

People in Egypt believed this nonsense just like billions of people still get sucked in by religious fraudsters, ones like you.

Sells, why don't you just believe in whatever turns you on and stop trying to convince intelligent, educated people that what you believe is fair dinkum and rigdy-didge!

You're wasting your time and ours.
Posted by David G, Thursday, 11 April 2013 3:19:26 PM
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.

Dear Peter Sells,

.

I am surprised by your question "The meaning of life?" as I understand from your brief biography that you have "a background in the biological sciences". The following explanation from Wikipedia should therefore be familiar to you:

"Life is considered a characteristic of organisms that exhibit all or most of the following:

1. Homeostasis: Regulation of the internal environment to maintain a constant state; for example, electrolyte concentration or sweating to reduce temperature.

2. Organization: Being structurally composed of one or more cells — the basic units of life.

3. Metabolism: Transformation of energy by converting chemicals and energy into cellular components (anabolism) and decomposing organic matter (catabolism). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.

4. Growth: Maintenance of a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter.

5. Adaptation: The ability to change over time in response to the environment. This ability is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the organism's heredity, diet, and external factors.

6. Response to stimuli: A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism to external chemicals, to complex reactions involving all the senses of multicellular organisms. A response is often expressed by motion; for example, the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun (phototropism), and chemotaxis.

7. Reproduction: The ability to produce new individual organisms, either asexually from a single parent organism, or sexually from two parent organisms.

These complex processes, called physiological functions, have underlying physical and chemical bases, as well as signaling and control mechanisms that are essential to maintaining life."

I am also surprised you should say: " as I have often insisted, we must avoid the god the atheists love to hate".

An atheist is a person who does not believe in a god or gods. How could he or she hate something which does not exist?

Only someone who believes in a god or gods could "hate" him/her/it.

.
Posted by Banjo Paterson, Thursday, 11 April 2013 11:54:12 PM
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Dear Banjo,

<<Only someone who believes in a god or gods could "hate" him/her/it.>>

You were making an incorrect assumption as if people are totally rational.

"Hate" describes a state of mind, an intransitive verb pertaining only to the person who hates and describing nothing about the presumed object of hate which may as well be imaginary and/or one which the hater does not even believe in.

Many children hate the tooth-fairy, including older children who no longer believe in her (but have bad memories about her from earlier childhood). Surely you could also find book/movie-characters whom you hate with vengeance despite knowing rationally that they don't really exist. Similarly, many atheists hate God.

Hating something because (among other factors) it exists, is as irrational as hating something because (among other factors) it doesn't. The only reason these two may seem different to you is due to your irrational love of existence.

The fact that God does not exist doesn't bother me in the least: I love Him and aspire to love Him even more, with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my means, forever and ever.
Posted by Yuyutsu, Friday, 12 April 2013 2:16:39 AM
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Kipp,
how about pointing out to us revenue making schemes brought on & managed by academics which provide employment rather than rely on public funding?
Posted by individual, Friday, 12 April 2013 6:41:22 AM
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.

Dear Yuyutsu,

.

I think you are referring to "the idea of god", whereas Peter Sells is specifically referring to "the god the atheists ...", i.e., not just "the idea of god", but "god himself/herself/itself".

Obviously, it is possible for anybody to hate, love or be indifferent to "the idea of god".

However, it is not possible for anybody to hate, love or be indifferent to "god himself/herself/itself" unless there is such an entity.

Peter Sells may believe he loves god but if there is no such entity he is mistaken. It is the idea of god that he loves - in this case, the illusion.

Your position is very similar as you indicate: " The fact that God does not exist doesn't bother me in the least: I love Him ... ". What you really mean is: "I love the idea of Him" - again, the illusion.

It is possible that some atheists may hate the idea of god, but for Peter Sells to affirm, as he does, that "... we must avoid the god the atheists love to hate ... ", is simply an oxymoron, void of sense.

Nobody in their right mind would hate an entity they believe does not exist.

.
Posted by Banjo Paterson, Friday, 12 April 2013 6:53:45 AM
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Dear Banjo,

<<I think you are referring to "the idea of god">>

'Hate' needs no reference, it's an objectless, intransitive verb and can also be used as an abstract noun, thus 'God' would be used as an adverb or an adjective, qualifying 'hate'. Think of it as saying "Adolf God-hates" or "Adolf has of-God hate in his heart".

Otherwise, it is meaningless to say that one hates (or loves) an actual object. If one kisses or punches an object, that would be transitive, or even if one only 'sends thoughts of love (or hateful vibrations)' to another, but merely hating (or loving) only speaks about the person doing so, not requiring even an idea as an object.

<<What you really mean is: "I love the idea of Him" - again, the illusion.>>

That besides - I may love the idea of God as well... or I may not, or more likely, I could love some ideas of God but not others.
Also, if one had a glimpse of God, then one may love that memory as well (though God is not a memory either).

Most people, especially those who had no glimpse of God themselves, find it difficult to come to love God without loving some idea of God first, so most religions teach to love either a physical or a mental representation of God (the former we call 'idol', the later we call an 'idea'). Unfortunately, some religious institutions tend to forget that their ideas were only representations, only an exercise, which must eventually be transcended.

<<Nobody in their right mind would hate an entity they believe does not exist.>>

Then the norm is to never be in one's right mind, because who doesn't have one or more non-existing book/film villains to hate?

That is not surprising because most, if not all, things we do are irrational. Why for example would one want to survive and procreate (both bodily and mentally) while we rationally know very well that everything that exists will come to an end anyway and all knowledge eventually forgotten?
Posted by Yuyutsu, Friday, 12 April 2013 1:09:19 PM
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