[cbfair]

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If you don’t believe in religion, all you have is this life. Why would you choose something that you gives you less of a sense of meaning and hope?

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The key to this false dichotomy is the assumtion that meaning and hope are given to us from some outside force. Consider that perhaps life itself is devoid of meaning and we create meaning for ourselves as we experience things in life. If we begin with the assumption that the only meaning of life is that which we create, then we can create life as a meaningful endeavor; this leaves us free to fill our days with hope, joy, love or whatever most empowers us individually. Where we tend to get bogged down is when we forget that we made up that life is meaningful in and of itself, it is not!

FWIW, this approach is consistent with a belief in god or a belief in no god. If you believe that there is a god and it is our role to serve his will, you can say that life itself is without meaning and you derive meaning from serving the god you serve. Or you can say there is no god and life itself is without meaning and you derive whatever meaning most empowers you.

The question, "Why would you choose something that gives you less of a sense of meaning and hope?" assumes that its meaningful (and hopeless and bad) that life is meaningless. What I'm suggesting is that perhaps life itself is meaningless and it's meaningless that it's meaningless. So don't wallow, Choose To Live!