You spoke in your
summation of finding a purpose and
meaning of life under the canopy of life.
What is the purpose and meaning under
your view of life?
Okay so the question is, you spoke of the purpose or
meaning, to find personal meaning in life and doing so without God,
what in his understanding is that
purpose or meaning?
[Cooke] Well it's very simple really; it's to be able to be loved, to be a good enough person to
justify somebody's love, and to be able
to reciprocate that love by being able
to give love to a few people. And among
a broader people, arranged people, to have
friends, to be respected and valued as a
friend. Among a broader range of people
again, in order to help and assist other
people in the here and now to live a
better life.
[Craig] I think this is a profound question that we all ask about the meaning and
purpose in life, and I would say on an
atheistic view there is no objective
purpose in life; there is no reason for
which we exist. Death marks the end of all
life we will ever know, and indeed
the entire universe is doomed to
destruction in the heat death of the
universe. There will be no light, there
will be no heat, there will be no life.
Just the endless carcasses of dead stars
and galaxies expanding into the infinite
blackness. So that on an atheistic view
there is no purpose, there is no
objective meaning, and there are no moral
values. Love is merely an electrochemical
reaction in the brain
and our nervous system. Richard Dawkins has said something like this, Dawkins says we are
possibly the only planet in the universe
in which complex chunks of matter run,
pursue others, prey upon others, and
some have even become so complex as to
think, feel, and fall in love with other
complex chunks of matter! That's all love
is on an atheistic view, just an
electrochemical reaction determined by
the brain that has no moral or ethical
significance at all.
