Its not that people aren't saying what I want them to say, but rather that they are not honest. If you don't believe in God, albeit any god, but rather that you are the product of mindless chance, namely evolution, what purpose can you possibly have? Will you marry and raise children? Why? Will you work and leave behind a legacy for people to remember? Why? Will you do great things and cherish the time you have? Why? What good will any of that produce in the nothingness of your life and all other lives? Oh you say, "I choose to make meaning of my life!" Yet, that does not answer the question -"why?" It is the height of youthful arrogance to assume your life will matter if you are but the product of chance, and an insult to the intellect to assume such a thought. People teach evolution, yet very few indeed live consistent to what they teach. Why? This is the reason I asked the question, namely to show that most who teach this really do not believe it, else they would live it. Will a man who's origin is in chance and future in oblivion, find anyone but self to please? To assume an emphatic yes, is to ignore history's proof of the lostness of man.
I believe I was being honest in what I said in post #55 about working just as hard regardless of whether God existed. I believe I was truthful when I said that there would be no difference in my moral choices regardless of my belief/unbelief in God.
I think the reason is because there is
something else driving us: Death. The impending event of
death is the single most horrible thing to have to face or anticipate in one's lifetime. In the meantime we are given a chance to enjoy life or miss out on the fun that everybody else is having.
It is not fear of judgment or punishment that ultimately drives our choices (moral or otherwise), but fear of death. The fact that there is a
time limit forces us to start making choices now. It forces us to think about making the
right choices because there is probably
no second chance at life. Nobody knows what will happen in the next life, so people work hard at getting things right in this life so they don't have to feel guilty about not having lived fulfilled lives or missing out on something good.
So now there is another thing driving us: guilt. As human beings we all have the personal need for
dignity. We don't want to die without dignity. After all, we have been given a chance to live. That opportunity began the moment we entered this world. So the reason why we try to do the right thing is because we don't want to think we wasted this life. Bad behaviour can have bad consequences. It gives you a bad reputation and may ruin your chances of getting married, staying married, having or not having a job. Moreover, I do not want people to start looking up my journals, diaries or financial records to see what I've been up to after I've died. That would be embarrassing.
We
don't know how or
why we got here. But hey -- we're here. So what do we do with ourselves?
Remember that we're not immortal. We don't live forever. Extravagant and wasteful lives are the privilege of immortal people, but that luxury doesn't exist for people whose days are numbered.
While one may argue that we are a result of an evolutionary process and/or because it says in Ecclesiastes that life is pointless, we get used to the fact that we exist and have been given a chance to enjoy life. The irony is that even if life was pointless, people would still want to live life to the full. That's because there's nothing better to do.
We all live, to a certain extent, in a sea of apathy. We may talk about Evolution and God, but in a sense, we really don't care about Evolution or God's existence. We may engage in debates about Evolution and God's existence, but the arguments are really of no consequence.
Consider what it says in Ecclesiastes. If life really is pointless and we are
chasing the wind, the intellectual and philosophical arguments about Evolution or God's existence mean nothing. The debate is "pointless" because we are mortals. We are not invincible. We aren't master of our own destiny. Man is too small and too powerless to decide and prove once and for all whether or not Evolution theory or God's existence are true or false. The debates about Evolution and Creationism are generally used to impress people with propaganda and sensationalism. We are celebrating our own hopelessness. We are so hopeless at deciding either way!!!! We are so agnostic!!!!
Saying "I believe in Evolution Theory" or "I believe in the existence of God" means nothing because either way, Man is too small and powerless to guarantee that it is true. We
all know that. It can be just as phony and political as boasting about what football team you support. A person may proclaim their beliefs, but they know deep inside that they have no way of knowing that it's true. That's why there's often no difference in moral choices made by atheists and theists. The belief or disbelief in God is actually the
least important aspect of their lives. Believing or disbelieving was not enough to change their overall attitude to life or their behaviour.
So life goes on without the question being answered. Meanwhile, we try our hardest to live life to the full, to achieve our full potential, as if in our efforts the question will be answered.