How do atheists find meaning without a God to look up to or an eternal purpose to think about?

Tom Chivers of BuzzFeed (UK) asked several atheists and got some exceptional responses:

“Accepting that not only will I die, but so will everyone I know and everyone I don’t know — and humanity, and the universe itself — brought me a very deep and profound peace. I don’t have to run away from the fear of oblivion. I am not afraid. I celebrate reality. I don’t have to pretend that there will be some magic deus ex machina in the third act of my life which will make it all OK and give me a happy ending. It is enough that I exist, that I am here now, albeit briefly, with all of you. And it’s an amazing, astonishing, remarkable, totally mind-blowing fucking miracle.” … “Life is a personal struggle. Grieving is never an easy road to travel. It’s painful and lonely at times but I use what I know to try to help when I can. I try to be loving and caring with my family and friends, and have fun. I will cry with friends in distress and hear other people’s stories and be kind because it does me good as well. I listen and I learn. It helps me to be better. Life without God is not a life without meaning. Everything, each and every interaction, is full of meaning. Everything matters.”

There so much inspiration here — and they didn’t even need any GIFs.

Check out the full piece.

(Image via Shutterstock)



