What's at Stake

"There is also something exceedingly curious about hoping that one turns out to be just a material system, a bit of dust in the wind. "I was so hoping to be proved to be nothing more than a clever land mammal slated for destruction, but, dammit all, there are reasons to think that we are more than animals and have a higher destiny.  That sucks!""

For the atheist, by some happenstance, a universe was born. Whether it has always been, or some far-off science theory not discovered yet, the universe was born for no good reason. The fact that it appears 'fine-tuned,' if it really is all that fine tuned, is just happenstance. Or maybe we're part of some incredible multiverse with universe upon universe, new one's being created all the time, with our universe just a tine speck in all that. No matter how it happened, it's just sheer dumb luck that one planet in a galaxy of billions happened to be life-permitting, much less create life itself. Life continued to evolve and flourish until we have what we see today. Humans are just an accidental side-effect of evolution, and if we ran the whole thing over again, we probably wouldn't even get human beings. We all get a small little time-frame of existence, a time frame where we simply have the illusion of free will, and any real purpose. One day, after we're dead, and our kids are dead, and their kids, nobody will remember our name. And if you are one of the lucky few that does something impacting, it'll all get forgotten in time. One day the human race will die out, the earth will be destroyed, and even our universe will fizzle out to nothingness. 


All the questions we had in our life will be unanswered. All the justice we desired will be completely unfulfilled. We're just a sack of chemicals, and it's all just been a grand illusion. Any intentionality we thought we had was just a joke. We're nothing special, and anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. All there is out in the universe is pitiless indifference. 


Or, as the theists sees it, we're in God's playground. The universe has been made, designed, hand-crafted by a God who wants us to exist. He has given us moral grounds to say what is 'right' and what is 'wrong.' He has given us a mind, something that gives us intentionality, something that allows us to have a purpose above the sack of mean we actually are. This life is just part of the adventure, and after this we get to see our true potential - when our mind is set free of this body. We will one day get to return to "The Source" or "The One," as it is called in many near-death experiences. 


What I can't understand is, why would anyone stick to the top paragraph in the face of evidence? If a theist is presented evidence from the problem of evil, he is allowed his belief in God due to array of theistic arguments for his existence (assuming they convince him). And if he concludes that there is evil in the world, he is left only to assume that they are compatible. Not being able to come up with how this scenario works is not reason to abandon his beliefs, simply to give it more thought. 


But for a naturalist who is presented with the problem of intentionality vs naturalism, even if he is to conclude that there is actually hope one day these two will be reconciled (which I doubt), I find it hard to imagine why this would be a view he would want to stick with. I understand atheists not wanting to believe something that isn't true, we all do. But why deny evidence that goes against a worldview that is so depressing in the first place? Why belligerently defend something that is both depressing and potentially (and in my opinion) wrong? I just don't know - the only conclusion I have is that ideology plays a big part. We want to be right, we don't want to change the way we live. Pride takes hold and it clouds our judgement.