I formally left the LDS Church last year. As part of the process I had to be interviewed by the local Bishop. During the interview, after I revealed that I was an atheist the Bishop asked me, “without God why do you even bother getting up in the morning?” I was stunned then and I’m stunned now when people ask this of atheists. As if “God” is why anyone gets up in the morning… Why am I mentioning this at all? Well, the other day George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney had this to say about the ‘faithless’:
A minority of people, usually people without religion, are frightened by the future, it’s almost as though they’ve … nothing but fear to distract themselves from the fact that without God the universe has no objective purpose or meaning. Nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss.
It’s clear from his statements that Mr. Pell has never sat down and talked with an atheist or a faithless person. It would only take a short thirty minute discussion with one to dis-prove his statements or to talk with a Catholic racked with worry about experiencing an eternal, fiery torment. How is that for fear of the future?
I honestly don’t understand the importance on ‘objective purpose’ that Mr. Pell, and others seem intent on attaching to their lives. I suspect Mr. Pell doesn’t either. The Universe doesn’t need meaning to exist and our lives don’t need to come with a purpose. No one gets up in the morning and continues living because they believe there is a God, they get up because they’re compelled to keep living by billions of years of evolution. They get up because life is, in general, pretty fucking amazing. They get up because they have a work they love doing, they have family and friends that care about them and that they care about. Living is its own reward and experiencing it is the only purpose life needs.
I keep wanting to believe that people with imaginary friends aren’t all degenerate morons but, people like George Pell make it really hard sometimes.
Bonus: Mr. Pell still wants to blame Hitler, the Second World War, and the Holocaust on atheism. Despite Adolf Hitler’s Christian beliefs.
Not that I’m surprised at the response you got, but it must take a great deal of courage to endure that kind of manipulation simply because of your beliefs. You’d think that all members of a church with such a history of persecution would be really open to others believing “how, where, or what they may”. Perhaps some haven’t internalized the lessons they learned in Sunday School.