That said, I'm an atheist and I'm walking my dog tonight and trying to think what could possibly be the meaning of life and knowing, ultimately, there is none.

So I thought well, what's the point in living" and thought maybe the purpose of living a good life is to honor and respect the sacrifices all those humans and pre-human ancestors of mine made scratching their way through their miserably short existences, contributing to the knowledge that collective humanity had so that later humans could live better lives than they had.

And naturally I immediately thought "there is no way I'm the first person to come up with this idea." I wonder what this philosophy is and who actually did come up with it? Anybody out there know?

I have to wonder about the notion of "a better life." Better from a medical standpoint, sure. In terms of individual freedoms and rights, certainly. In other respects, I'm not so sure. Humans are remarkably adaptable. My grandmother (who escaped across a border in her mid-teens, who emigrated to this country and worked as a maid, who had a large family and endless housework, felt that my mom, a typical suburban soccer-mom, had the harder life. Grandma never had to keep her eye on the clock nor chauffeur kids around all day. I hate to think what grandma would make of my career-driven life!

My 12X great-grandfather kept a journal, and I gave a copy of it to my brother as a gift. I haven't read it myself as yet, but I'm wondering how much of a connection is there. Can we feel a sympathy with our distant ancestors, operating in a remote past under different societal rules? Is there a connection there? I would be interested to know.

You did. Take credit. If you pursue the idea further, please no uniforms, hats, books, medallions or meetings.

I like it.

Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the french I took....

sorry, I was sure that's where you were going....

Off the top of my head, I would call that humanism.

Philosophy is what you just did, plain and simple. You thought about the world around you and came up with your own idea. Now keep thinking about it, go further down the spider hole, then call it something.

Maybe there is a point to living without belief in gods.

Penn can be a bit of a jerk, but I think he did rather well talking about this,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015557


There Is No God
by Penn Jillette
November 21, 2005


So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy.

I believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy — you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.

Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.