Big Questions 02 - Meaning & Purpose

Note: What follows below is a transcript of the video.

The next set of questions that apologists like to throw out that religion supposedly answers is:

“What is the meaning of life?” and “What is our purpose?” which is sometimes phrased as “Why are we here?”

What we’re talking about here is Meaning and Purpose, and the issues are tightly connected logically, and because the apologists make the same move with both topics.

I want to be completely upfront and honest here.  These questions are more rhetorical than the previous “Big Question” I tackled, so I can’t pretend to offer a specific answer.  What I am going to do here is highlight the difference between atheists and Christians in how we attempt to answer these questions.  I leave it up to the viewer to decide which approach is better able to answer these questions.

I will argue that the answer to these questions is that we as individuals create our own meaning and purpose for ourselves.  This is in stark contrast to Christianity that argues meaning and purpose for humanity can only come from god.

Big Questions 01 - Something Rather than Nothing

Note: What follows below is a transcript of the video.

In the course of debate between atheists and theists of various stripes, it’s inevitable that the Quote-Un-Quote “Big Questions” are brought to the forefront.   

Apologists love to ask things like:

“Why is there something rather than nothing?”

“Why are we here?” or “What is our purpose?”

“What is the meaning of life?”

Apologist Dinesh D’Souza likes to point out that science can’t answer these questions, but supposedly religion can.

The problem here is that in each case, religion simply makes up an answer and then pretends that it is better than no answer at all, or by the answers we get from philosophy that is informed by science.