re: Do you believe that the United States was founded as a Christian Nation?

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In the end, the very fact that I'm here and able to think about this is so wild and amazing to me that it overrides the impending insignificance of it all.

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Completely understand, we are insignificant in the grand justice of it all.

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I mean, is there any objective reason to believe that there is anything to life apart from the worth we subjectively derive from it? I certainly haven't come across it yet if so.

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Only faith, that there is a some other existence just than this life on earth, that you just happened to born on.

I happen to think this is just an existence on another plane, a chance to redeem yourself, build your character, prepare yourself for something else.

Even if I am completely, wrong. Which is as much a possibility as any. I still try to continue to live my life as a good person, and I fail, all the time, but I do it for myself. I see injustice, I see hurt, I see unspeakable things that I think "How could He let such things happen?"

I can't change anything, all I can be is the best person I can be, and not hurt, but help others, I think that goes a long ways with some, but is dangerous with others.

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Eternal consciousness, even in paradise, seems like torture to me.

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I don't see it like that. If you are already miserable, (not saying you are) then I could see why you might think that way.

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I've come to grips with the reality that life may very well ultimately be meaningless and the conscious awareness of our plight is just an accident of evolution.

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That doesn't sound evolutionarily advantageous. At all. Can you explain that? Why are we here?

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One day billions of years from now the Earth will be swallowed by an expanding Sun and not one single thing we ever enjoyed, fought for or argued about will matter.

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Probably, but quite irrelevant to the meaning of our lives when you consider the timeline.

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I mean, is there any objective reason to believe that there is anything to life apart from the worth we subjectively derive from it? I certainly haven't come across it yet if so.

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What else could there possibly be? Even if God directly spoke from the heavens, we would only know our subjective perception and worth of it.

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We assume that animals live and die everyday largely without lasting significance, why should we be any different just because we are aware of our existence?

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We are different in other ways. In fact, dolphins and dogs may also have self-awareness. It is not our only unique trait, and it may not even be unique. Humans can improve their conditions at exponentially faster rates than any organism. Humans can speak. Humans can think critically. There's no reason to think these are results of self-awareness. They are independent mechanisms, largely unexplained.

And, to the further point, human consciousness is totally unexplained. We don't know the mechanism the manipulate thought, memory, love. At best, we know certain mechanisms associated with it. Science is a human invention, it has not been with us most of our history. I would argue the same is true for logic, and not just in the Athenian tradition. And by simple observance, humans are innately illogical and unscientific creatures. Look at how people act. If you're honest with yourself, look at how you act. Why would you apply our synthetic inventions to solve our natural meaning? You're using the wrong tool. It's a question of why, not how.



There's also a question of the order of the universe. And this question only grows larger as we delve further in physical problems, into particle physics and string theory. Why does the universe maintain order? Why does gravity NEVER fail, black holes don't randomly pop out, everything everywhere perpetually abides by the rules.




Just some things to think about from an "agnostic"