We have already discussed the
implications presented by Atheism on the value of life. And I suspect
many of you have the same response to my assertion. That life is
given value by the experiences you have. That life is meaningful
because of what you do in it. Which works perfectly fine if you can
afford to have meaningful experiences. But what about those who
barely scrape by day to day?
Consider a poor man living in the
slums of a city. He has a low paying, long lasting, labor intensive
job. He can barely keep his family from starving. His house is small
and run down. He does not own a car nor a computer. His neighbors
bear no sympathy because they suffer as well. He suffers from
sickness and can do nothing about it. He watches his children cry
from want and cannot help them. His wife looks upon their desolation
and weeps, he has no way to console her. To him, he is a failure.
Where then does the value of his life come from? This is not a heart
warming success story. He is not going to claw his way up the ladder
to happiness. He is going to die in poverty like the majority of his
family and neighbors. To this man who lives in such conditions,
Atheism is a horribly depressing concept. No one cares about his
suffering. No one is going to help him in any useful sense. He is
going to die and turn to dust and be forgotten. And then where will
he be? Who will remember or care for his plight? The answer of
course, is no one. So how then does his life have value? Where are the
experiences to make it meaningful? His life is nothing but an endless
cycle of failure and suffering. The rich man builds and travels and
says “look what I have done! Look how I have made a meaningful
contribution to be remembered! See how my life was not wasted!” The
poor man barely exists from day to day. He sits in his drafty house
and asks himself. “What have I done in my life? See how pointless
and terrible it is! And in the end no one will remember it, or
care.”
It is perfectly easy to say there is
no God. It is perfectly easy to say life is what you make of it. It
is perfectly easy to do all these things when you are comfortable and
have money. But take away your prosperity. Take away what your
fathers gave you and what you have that is your own. Sit in the
desolation and despair of poverty with no hope of escape or sympathy.
Exist in this way and then say that you have no need of God. Proclaim
the value of your life as you have made it and the experiences of it
have shown for you. The poor man turns to God because he understands
that there his comfort lies. That there he is not forsaken and a
failure. For it is only with the aid of God that he does not turn to
bitterness and anger at the injustice of the world. Do not merely say
that you would certainly feel the same regardless. Do not merely say
that you would find something of value to be glad for. For you speak
still from your comfort and prosperity. Only when you leave it behind
and have no hope of its return can you say these things with
authority. Then and only then can you reject the comfort of God. Only
then can you denounce the one person in existence who remembers and
cares for your suffering. And who gives you meaning when you can
perceive none.
-BlackFox
(632)
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