I'll like to start off by saying this is just some personal thoughts I felt like putting down on paper, and is in no way geared towards starting any flame wars (which is why I probably won't post this to the boards). So I was perusing through Chesterton's writings as usual and I came about this interesting quote:

"An interesting essay might be written on the possession of an atheistic literary style. There is such a thing. The mark of it is that wherever anything is named or described, such words are chosen as suggest that the thing has not got a soul in it. Thus they will not talk of love or passion, which imply a purpose and a desire. They talk of the "relations" of the sexes, as if they were simply related to each other in a certain way, like a chair and a table. Thus they will not talk of the waging of war (which implies a will), but of the outbreak of war - as if it were a sort of boil. Thus they will not talk of masters paying more or less wages, which faintly suggests some moral responsibility in the masters: they will talk of the rise and fall of wages, as if the thing were automatic, like the tides of the sea. Thus they will not call progress an attempt to improve, but a tendency to improve. And thus, above all, they will not call the sympathy between oppressed nations sympathy; they will call it solidarity. For that suggests brick and coke, and clay and mud, and all the things they are fond of."

I was thinking today about purpose, especially purpose in life. And as I was reading this passage, something came to me. Why do atheists care about purpose? Especially purpose in life?

Atheism generally holds the view that life itself, including human life, came about as a result of some cosmic coincidence. Life on the earth just sponteaneously occured a few billions years ago and through many millions of years of random genetic changes within populations (ala natural selection, genetic drift, etc), the species homo sapiens emerged. Human beings therefore are just the result of random chance. If this is true, then why should anyone prescribe to the idea of life having a purpose?

Certainly it makes no logical sense that purpose can be derived from random chance. How can something random itself have purpose? Now it is feasible to conclude that nature itself may present instinctive purposes or "natural" purposes as they can be termed. This would generally be described as survival and continuation of the species (again evolution provides us with at least a very basic premise for meaning in life). Hence an atheist would attempt to use this theory to explain why humanity forms families, communities, socities, and nations: it's all for the purpose of survival and preserving the human race.

However it seems to me that by asserting this, many atheists are lying to themselves. If an atheist truely believes that the purpose of life is an instinctual purpose: just to survive, then how do they explain the innate desires of each human being to seek purpose or meaning in life: purpose that is beyond just mere survival instinct?

Some atheists would contend that such desires are merely human beings merely creating a sense of purpose for themselves (selfish and narcissistic beings that we are). However, this explanation fails to explain why humans would believe that purpose is necessary in the first place. In response to this, an atheist may contend that the reason is society-based. In other words, it's society that makes a person feel like they need a purpose in life. However, this seems to me merely a switching of hands -- as society itself is not a separate entity as it is merely a collection of people with something in common. So this also does not answer the question about why people or society feel that purpose is necessary.

The answer, I believe is one which all of us, whether we are religious or not, have ingrained into our very humanity: for each of us feels the drive to find purpose in life, a desire that is not determined by society or by others, but rather a desire that emerges from deep within ourselves, from deep within our soul. Our souls cry out for it.

Even secular scholars have debated extensively about the purpose of life. Some, like Nietzsche, have concluded that life is meaningless. Many atheists however, do not believe this. Many atheists believe that their purpose is what they make of it: without the need of some god to provide one to them. They point to the fact that people do indeed have the capacity to perceive beauty or love and that such ability does not indicate that some god has given them that ability.

However, I would ask these atheists (the ones who believe that life has a purpose) where they believe this ability to perceive purpose and where this desire to find purpose come from. If it does not come from God, then it certainly must come from some other source. Is it nature? Well that seems unlikely as natural can only provide one with instinctual purpose -- to reproduce, to preserve the species. If not from nature then where does it come from? Certainly any belief that humans have the ability to perceive and desire purpose is inconsistent with the belief that humans are merely mechanicals creatures evolved from some lower life form.

So why reject the idea of a "god" when indeed the very concept of purpose in life points us to something that is outside of our physical existence? In fact, when I lived life indifferent to God, my experiences still pointed me away from the narrowness of atheism and toward the freedom of theism. Perhaps atheists are afraid of falling into the trap of religion and feel that their disbelief somehow frees them intellectually. However, when I moved further away from atheism and closer to theism and closer to discovery of God, I found a strange and yet wonderful release. For me belief in God has not narrowed my view of the world but indeed has expanded it. I no longer believed that science was the only way to perceive the world. It seems to me that the closer one move toward atheism, the more one moves toward egoism and the more one moves inward into onself. In atheism, it is us that makes the rules: we are the ones who dictate our lifes. And it seems to me that the farther one moves toward theism and closer to the belief in God, the farther one moves from the self and more one realizes that it is not us who makes the rules, but rather we are the ones who choose to follow them or to reject them. We realize that we are not the masters of the universe and that there does exist truth that is beyond human subjectivity. 

We can find truth, and it is truth that will set us free.