The Absurdity of Life Without God

It's interesting to think what the practical implications are of a world without God. If God does not exist than what is the logical conclusion? Atheists and Christians alike have pondered this very question over history, and the answer that keeps coming back is not a happy one. According to Big Bang cosmology, the universe sprang into existence uncaused out of nothing. At the beginning there was an almost infinite amount of energy that exploded into our universe. As the universe expanded, the heavier matter collected and formed planets, and lighter matter was thrust further into space. Science tells us that the universe is still expanding, but according to the second law of thermodynamics, this energy will one day run out. The universe will burn out leaving it cold and empty. At this point our universe will return to where it started. Nothing.

So what does this mean for the Atheist? In the Christian world view both Christians and non Christians will end up living an eternity in Heaven or Hell, however, such a thing as immortality can never exist in the Atheist world view. This means that life is utterly without significance, value or meaning without God providing immortality.

Without God providing immortality there cannot be significance to this life. As the universe expands and dies out, and we will end passing into non-being. We will start from nothing and end in nothing. People might counter that this doesn't mean that life is insignificant as by doing good and helping others we can make a difference in their lives. This is true on a relative level, but we are talking about an ultimate significance to our being. These relative changes only matter for a short time, but in the end those we help will suffer the same fate anyways. It will be as if they never existed. The same is true of a person that affects for the better every subsequent generation until the end of time. Even such a person is without ultimate significance because in the end, when the universe dies out we are still thrust into oblivion. Essentially, no actions we take here on earth will ever change the inevitable heat death of our universe and our race.

This also means that there is not real value to life as our destiny is completely segregated from our behavior. It the grand scheme of life, it makes no difference if a person lived like Hitler or Mother Teresa, as there are no objective moral values that exist in such a universe. Morals are only the product of socio-biological evolution, which means that no one set of morals can be considered as better than another as there is no objective standard. There could not be right or wrong, but just preferences due to evolution, conditioning or herd instinct. As such, there is no accountability for the way people live their lives. There is no ultimate judge in right or wrong, and the evil will die the same as the good. Logically one should conclude from this that life should be lived in 100% self interest. To do otherwise is completely illogical as it provides no benefit to your existence. This kind of life has no measure of value because we all end in non-being.

Based on the first two points one must ask: "What is the purpose of life?" For if we have no objective morals and life should be lived out of pure self interest, and in the end we will all become nothing, life is purposeless. Doing good or perpetuating DNA over time does no more then prolong the inevitable end in nothing. We live our lives trying to do good, make money, have kids, retire early and extend our legacy. All of which is in vain as it will all be destroyed in the end.

It should also be noted that immortality alone does not grant significance, value or purpose. We would still live without objective moral truths without God, and as such people are accountable to no one. This does not give much value to our existence as the evil and the good are on equal footing. There is not real purpose in this eternal life except for the propagation of DNA. Even if by doing good and making life easier on others, we still don't have a real purpose. Duration of life doesn't add any real meaning to that life. We wouldn't consider someone who lives to be 100 years versus some who lived to 50 has having more meaning or value. What should we think an infinite amount of time would be any different? We still would not possess any meaning as we are still a random by product of matter plus time plus chance.

When looking at the logical implications of life without God, we paint a very bleak picture. But the even more interesting thing is that people in general do not live happily or consistently with this world view. If people in fact lived completely out of self interest, we would find people who cannot live happily. It's truly a depressing lifestyle to consistently live with the life style described above. However, what we see of most people are attempts to identify meaning in a meaningless life. This is in the form of service, hobbies, fighting for a cause...etc. These forms of identity directly contradict a world view without God.


For more information on this topic take a look at William Lane Craig's book Reasonable Faith.