>>Change can only be meaningful if there is some objective goal that can be aimed for, but such a goal is clearly absent in a purposeless universe.<<

I'm not an atheist and I know what the meaning of life, the universe and everything is: 42.

So if the 'objective goal that can be aimed for' it raises the question 42 what? The Answer doesn't come with units so there's obviously something wrong with your question JP.

Cheers,

Tony

An interesting article and a proactive approach to promoting an open discourse and discussion on a very difficult subject. A good start Brian!

I tend to rely on pure mathematics to explain most things.

Unlike Runner who is certifiably deluded or pre-indoctrinated to a religious bent, pure maths will explain so much that your mind will be encapsulated in the law of physics and the true realisation our fortunate luck, vis existence, on this tiny iota of molten rock in a cosmos of confusion, remains contra to the on-going struggle religion and other ‘concocted mantras’; articulate our existence in a quasi-moral or semi-qualitative scientific manner.

A great article and a great primer for further discourse, well done good Sir.

If you have a real problem or quandary with explaining things, perhaps you should look to the Mandelbrot Set and its co-related Julia set.

No simple answers, but explaining this conundrum really would take more than OLO has the capacity to handle.

But who is to say any creed is right? The atheist assumes there is no god, the Christian says there is a God. The cosmologist leads an essentially existential life, the Christian leads a life with a purpose well beyond his or her own existence. Enlghtenment folk tend to talk a lot, but it's a bit hard to see what they are driving at as they claim there is no ultimate purpose higher than what we now see and do.
If there is a God, then He must be holy; He must be separate to what we see and do existentially as He would have had to create it (otherwise He couldn't be God). If He is holy then He wouldn't be able to countenance or commit what is wrong; therefore, there must be a category of right and wrong in the universe. What to do about what is wrong then? The Christian understanding is that God sent His Son, Jesus Christ into the world as a time-space, existential God-man to not only lead a perfect life, but to sacrifice His own life in order to atone for what is wrong in the world (categorised as sin). Christ alone was able to suffer at the hands of sinful men the death of the cross in order to expiate this sin of man - even the sin of killing Him on the cross. Unlike anyone else, Christ was sinless, he could not stay dead -death is the ultimate penalty for what is wrong (ie sin). Christ had to rise from the dead; that resurrection is the key to cosmology as described in this piece. There indeed is far more to life than what we experience day to day; real cosmology points to the Creator / saviour and speaks volumes as to the reality that there is a deeper meaning to life. Check it out for yourself in the Bible.