[lit-ideas] Re: Shadows, Fog, and Money

  • From: "Peter D. Junger" <junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 09:33:57 -0400

Paul Stone writes:

: 
: I never thought you gave me any credit at all. Any way, I was not EQUATING 
: atheism to nihilism. I just don't "understand" what would drive someone who 
: truly, actually believes that there is NOTHING after you die to live any 
: sort of righteous life -- or indeed life at all. I can see people [who say 
: they are atheists] doing it everyday, but I don't understand it. What's the 
: REASON behind it? Like my 'belief in god' questions, this is a serious 
: question and one I fear [know] I won't get an answer to.

Why do animals live any sort of life when they don't have any beliefs
about God?

It is, to use Tertullian's term, absurd to think that we or anyone
else, including butterflies, live for a reason.

As a follower of the Buddhist Dharma and an atheist I would point
out that there will be just as much after I die as there is now: 
there will be no "I" after I die, but then there is no "I" now,
so that is hardly a loss.

Of course, I fail all the time, but when I see things clearly I try
to live so that I and all beings will be happy.

--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
 EMAIL: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    URL:  http://samsara.law.cwru.edu   
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. lit-ideas
  3. Archive
  4. 06-2005