But I don't consider my own life to be pointless, Alan. I have, amongst the trials and stresses that have accompanied my life, enjoyed countless moments of fulfillment and enjoyment, just like many others. To consider that my life will one day end in oblivion does not mean that my life has no meaning. Satisfaction comes from the meaning and focus that I am capable of imprinting on it. I know that you need some outside agency to create some sort of fulfilment in your life, but that doesn't mean that others have to be like you. I quite accept that for you, your faith is a bedrock which would make you feel desolate if it was taken away but why can't you accept that others may find their own sense of meaning in so many different ways.
All sorts of experiences give my life meaning. Obviously the friendship and love that is felt in the various relationships I have is one important factor. But there are many others, too.
Consider, for instance, my fascination with the natural world, and all that I have absorbed from it. My focus has been on birdwatching, and, because of this, I have been privileged to visit many countries and have probably seen about a third of the world's known species. I have seen at first hand, delighted in and learnt from so many experiences associated with this. I won't bore you with the details as my experiences are really only pertinent to me, and I quite accept that they may mean very little to another person.
Or consider my working life when I was a teacher, and, through my enthusiasm and knowledge, tried to convey some of that to my pupils, whilst encouraging their challenging and enquiring minds. The fact that I helped awaken an interest in Maths or English in some of those pupils, for instance, I found, as with many teachers, a rewarding and meaningful experience.
Or consider the present where my wife and I run two dance sessions a week(modern ballroom and modern sequence) for the older generation. The obvious enjoyment this gives to others as well as ourselves creates its own meaning, too.
And, for me, none of the meaning or satisfaction that I feel, has any association with any god at all. It comes from my own mind, and my best explanation of it comes from the idea of evolution through natural selection.
People like you,(and I have met a fair number), find it so difficult to understand and appreciate that other paths though life are available which are just as valid for each individual as the one that you follow.
I am not denying that life is pointless, I would say quite the opposite. I fully agree that there is lots to appreciate in our lives, but I can't imagine how such appreciation can come to exist in a survival machine produced by the natural selection process. The ability to perceive things of beauty is a wonderful gift which is unique to humans, and it can't be defined by science, and it did not come from evolution.
I am not denying that life is pointless
But I am. For me, and countless others, life is full of meaning, as I have aready explained,
I would say quite the opposite.
Then we would agree. So why suggest that you do not deny that life is pointless? You seem confused.
I fully agree that there is lots to appreciate in our lives, but I can't imagine how such appreciation can come to exist in a survival machine produced by the natural selection process.
But I can. I suggest there are plausible reasons to think that appreciating and finding meaning in all manner of things has aided our survival as a species.
The ability to perceive things of beauty is a wonderful gift which is unique to humans, and it can't be defined by science, and it did not come from evolution.
And I disagree, especially to the finality of your assertion that 'it did not come from evolution'.
It might be associated, for instance, with sexual attraction and selection. For example take the peahen which seems to respond favourably to the peacock with the most resplendent tail, almost certainly because it suggests that such a bird is one of the fittest of its species to mate with. Or take the adult male paradise whydah with its extremely long tail, making it difficult for it to fly. Yet the ones with the longest tails are often the ones which the females select because they have shown themselves capable of survival despite the length of their tails. And so the propensity for long tails in these species is reinforced. I suggest that the predilection in humans towards seeing things of beauty could well derive from a similar source.
Added to that, it could be that our sense of aesthetics derives from our capacity to contemplate things which delight and attract us, extending our frames of reference of motion, sight and sound thus increasing our knowledge and understanding of the world, and thus making us better able to survive.
