How Not to Become a Nihilist
Tearing apart the illusion of happy atheistic indifference
Life has no meaning. At least, thatโs what atheists want you to believe.
From their worldview meaninglessness is inevitable.
They pretend it isnโt. โWeโre not nihilists!โ
Every time I bring up how without God thereโs no meaning or purpose, they screech and gnash their teeth.
Now and then, though, that one stray atheist doesnโt get the memo and letโs the cat outta the bag.
One yesterday posts this quote from professor Brian Cox:
โThereโs no evidence that the universe has purpose or intent, and it doesnโt care about us at all.
The laws of physics will continue to operate whether we exist or not.
I donโt find that depressing - I find it liberating, because it means meaning isnโt imposed from outside.
Itโs something we create for ourselves, and with that comes complete responsibility for what we do.โ
Uh-oh. Not supposed to say that Coxypoo. Donโt you know atheists have a reputation to uphold? Did you miss Skeptic Con this year?
Surely you can see why his Cox-splaining is utmost ridiculous. No?
Well, fortunately for you, weโre going to go through each of his statements together and expose why they fail, so you can see why nihilism is evil, wrong, repugnant, deadly, and only avoidable for the child of God.
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First, a Detour
Before we go on, itโs important to define โnihilism.โ What is it?
In my book, The Atheist Conversion Manual, I define it like this:
(1) โThe outright rejection of purpose, moral value, truth, and/or knowledgeโ
(2) โThe belief that nothing matters and when we die thatโs it. Poof. Gone.โ
Nihilism inevitably arises from the belief that the material universe is all that exists because in such a worldview higher truth and morality cannot exist. In fact, as I argue later in the book, abstractions like love, perfection, good, bad, right, wrong, purpose, meaning, are all fictions in the naturalist/materialist world.
On this point, Cox is 100% correct, which makes him incorrect because thereโs no such thing as correct. (Are you starting to see the problem?)
Thatโs not the only absurdity proposed by his naturalism. As we go through each of his statements, youโll find so many.
โTheresโs no evidence that the universe has purpose or intent, and it doesnโt care about us at allโ
The universe is inanimate matter incapable of feeling, so of course it canโt care. If itโs all there is, weโre outta luck.
Canโt argue with you there, Cox Meister.
But what evidence is there that the universe is all that exists? Whatโs the evidence your statement is even true? Can you prove that abstract thought in your mind is even real?
You see, the conundrum which immediately surfaces in Coxโs first claim is heโs accepting both the existence of the universe and the โfactโ that thereโs no evidence for the universe โcaring,โ as if those are intelligible avenues of exploration.
And he provides no justification for that assumption whatsoever.
We also run into the problem C. S. Lewis so artfully articulated. If the material universe is all that exists, then Coxโs own thoughts are just atoms and neurons bumping around or randomly coalescing without any rhyme or reason. Therefore, anything he says is automatically unreasonable.
Right out the gate, Cox fails miserably, and the pickle only gets bigger from there.
โThe laws of physics will continue to operate whether we exist or notโ
If I had Cox face to face, I would immediately ask him, โHow do you know that?โ
Heโd probably come back with, โBecause many humans have already died and the universe keeps going.โ
But that describes a trend, not an absolute rule. We know for a fact based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics that the universe will eventually run out of energy and burn out, so whether one accepts a materialist universe or Godly universe, the evidence suggests the laws of physics will not continue operating forever.
In fact, the cited law from thermodynamics also indicates the universe had a beginning at which point the laws of physics didnโt exist.
Prior to the Planck era of the Big Bang, there was no space, time, or matter, and therefore, no โlaws.โ If only a material cosmos exists, then there was once nothing that somehow became something, so where did the โlawsโ come from? And how can they go on forever if they havenโt existed forever to begin with?
Furthermore, thereโs the problem of calling them โlaws.โ
Atheists refuse to bend on that term. All scientists of all walks of life continue to consider the principles of physics โlawsโ because they work consistently with only rare deviation (like laws), and without them in place, the whole universe would collapse. But (1) they too are abstractions, which canโt exist in purely material universe (as already established), and (2) laws only come from lawgivers.
So who put the laws of physics out there? Certainly not humans. We only discovered them functioning within our cosmos. Therefore, there must be another Intelligence who put them in place.
That logical step canโt be escaped.
And since an Intelligence must have established these intelligible laws, there must also be ultimate meaning and purpose to existence.
Why then doesnโt Cox want meaning or purpose? Fortunately, he doesnโt hide his true motivesโฆ
โI donโt find that depressing - I find it liberating, because it means meaning isnโt impose from the outside. Itโs something we create for ourselves, and with that comes complete responsibility for what we doโ
Charming sentiment. Iโll give him that. After all, who doesnโt want to be in control?
However, โmaking meaning,โ which is impossible from the start because in a material cosmos thereโs no such thing as meaning (what does he mean by โit means meaningโ if meaning is just made up?), has and always will lead to utter annihilation.
As I warn in The Atheist Conversion Manual, โNihilism has eroded and destroyed more lives than any other belief on Earth because it is amoral. If nihilism is true, then anything goes. Itโs an every-man-for-himself world.โ
No truth
No purpose
No meaning
No moral value
Only hopeless, pitiful indifference (Dawkins). And indifference justifies nothing, while permitting everything.
The responsibility Cox mentions is mere illusion, if anything at all. Responsible to whom? Ourselves?
Letโs see what humans being โresponsible to ourselvesโ got us:
In the name of indifference, communists killed 10,000,000+ people in the 20th century, and abortionists slaughtered 300,000,000,000+ human babies since the 1970s. Systematic extermination. The former received outrage, the latter remains celebrated as a โhuman right,โ but in a naturalistic world, neither can be justifiably condemned since people are just making and living out their own meaning. โRightsโ are fiction.
Cox wants there to be a meaningless world because then he gets to play God. Do whatever he wants. What is right in his own eyes. For everyone to do what is right in their own eyes until the cosmos is one gigantic never-ending hellscape like in the Book of Judges.
Any atheists who cite his nihilism want exactly the same. They would prefer you see them as the good guys, the liberators, even though theyโre just going to enslave you to your passions and make you see anyone and anything else as expendable in the pursuit of said passions.
What are you to do?
What is one to do?
Reject atheism. Reject nihilism. Toss them onto the trash heap and never look back.
Plain and simple.
You know full well the atheist position is untenable, so why even bother with it anymore?
Itโs neither true nor good. It canโt even explain what โtrueโ and โgoodโ mean. THERE IS NO MEANING if atheism is true, and thatโs terrifying, not comforting.
Truth, morality, purpose, and meaning require a cosmos made by a Master Maker, otherwise youโre a mere hopeless accident doomed to nothingness, shackled to whims and fancies with no reason to consider others. Youโre duping yourself, most to be pitied.
God is necessary.
Without God, thereโs no obligation, no responsibility, no higher standardโฆand no way out of hell.
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