Purpose without god

"I didn't ask to be born" The catch-cry of the angsty teenager. An exclamation from a mouth that belongs to a body that's surviving off more hormones than oxygen. 

They're right too. They didn't ask to be born. No one does. It happens before we're even aware of who or what we are. We are alive, and that's our starting point. 

Not asking to be born is one thing we atheists agree about with our theistic friends. However, our theistic friends seem to be of the opinion that without God our lives have no purpose. I have been asked why we, the non-believers, don't just kill ourselves? They openly wonder what we have to live for. 

I have said before that being an atheist doesn't mean I've got nothing to live for, it means I've got nothing to die for. 

Now please don't confuse this with me saying that I *wouldn't* die to save my children, for example. Because I would, of course. What I mean is that for me, in death, there is nothing. 

But a theist believes that when they die they'll be forever in a world of bliss, and paradise, and, if the right flavour of belief is correct, 72 virgins. (Of course if virgins is your thing, 72 for eternity feels like being short changed. Assuming you want a virgin for the obvious reason...they're only a virgin once. Maybe it's one 72 year old virgin.)

For me though, life is everything. Everything I'll ever experience will be experienced in *this* life. That's what I mean about nothing to die for and everything to live for. I mean it literally. 

Some theists though seem obsessed with having an ultimate purpose. 

I don't understand why, even if Earth is consumed by the sun in 5 billion years, I still can't enjoy the here and now. I will die one day and that will be that. Is that enough reason to not enjoy today? I can't see how. Why is my enjoyment today dependent upon being in heaven when I die? As I said, being alive is my starting point. Why not enjoy it? 

Theists talk about having the ultimate purpose (which seems to be just getting into heaven...what then?) but they never say why it should matter. They never say why the ultimate purpose is necessary. 

Matt Dillahunty has used the book example. You start reading a book, knowing it's finite, knowing it will end. But you read it anyway. I doubt anyone avoids reading the first page of a book simply because there's a last page. 

I know the counter to this is that you remember the book. I might finish a book today, but I can remember it tomorrow. They book stays with me once it's finished, but my life doesn't. 

But I do have tomorrow. I even have this afternoon, or later tonight. And even if I didn't why do I need heaven later in order to enjoy NOW? Maybe I throw a blanket down on a remote beach and lie there with a friend looking up at the stars. Must I need to know I'll one day be in heaven to enjoy that moment? Must I need belief in a deity to be glad I was doing that? Of course not. 

Yes, maybe a theist has an 'ultimate' purpose in life and as an atheist, I don't, but they fail to explain what it matters. They fail to convince me I need one. 

I'm happy to define my life's own purpose. I'm happy to decide for myself what I would like to achieve, where I would like to go as a human being. 

A friend of my daughter would have been 14 or 15 at the time when she said 'I would die without God in my life'. I don't see any honour in this. I don't see anything of which to be proud. This is a sad way for a child to be thinking. How dare someone convince this person that her life is worth something only if a god is real. How dare they convince her that her worth is tied to a fairytale? 

God is unseen and unheard. Yet religion knows exactly what he wants, exactly how he feels. And it tells you how to behave and tells you that without *its* particular god, you are worthless. It's a scam, and cruel and ridiculous scam and millions of good and otherwise intelligent people fall for it. 

Why does religion try to convince people without its god, they are worthless? Because if they didn't people might realise they can live free and happy lives without it. If that happened, where would the money come from?