Forum:Countering pessimism!
http://humanistlife.org.uk/2013/12/08/countering-pessimism/
I think that science and humanism, aka making rational sense of the world around you and giving a meaning to it (loving life and cherishing human nature and happiness) should really make a step forward and say to everyone: wake up! If you give up gods, you don't become a nihilist or existentialist, there's still joy and meaning, and more freedom indeed! I think we need to take a stand for this view! Against the moaning about "absurdity" and "meaningless" in life which are in my opinion rather antiscience, antiphilosophical and antihumanistic. Sartre was in my opinion wrong, existentialism isn't a humanism. Humanism loves truth, rationality, freedom and happiness. And science is nothing withouth the belief that human reason can understand the beautiful structure that is out there, that even if it doesn't have a "plan", or a "why" it started, it certainly don't lack order and a broad , impersonal intellingence (look at the DNA). I think we can understand the world, live a happy life and try to make it better. We can both know and create meanings in our lives just in this way. So us atheists shouldn't look to these philosopies (which sound quite personal - kierkegaard and nietsche had pretty difficult and sad lives - and have too much of a historical legacy attached to them - the world wars!), but much more to humanism, rationalism and naturalism, some way of loving the world around and in us. What do you think about it?