Life has no meaning. At least, that’s what atheists want you to believe.
From their worldview meaninglessness is inevitable.
They pretend it isn’t. “We’re not nihilists!”
Every time I bring up how without God there’s no meaning or purpose, they screech and gnash their teeth.
Now and then, though, that one stray atheist doesn’t get the memo and let’s the cat outta the bag.
One yesterday posts this quote from professor Brian Cox:
“There’s no evidence that the universe has purpose or intent, and it doesn’t care about us at all.
The laws of physics will continue to operate whether we exist or not.
I don’t find that depressing - I find it liberating, because it means meaning isn’t imposed from outside.
It’s something we create for ourselves, and with that comes complete responsibility for what we do.”
Uh-oh. Not supposed to say that Coxypoo. Don’t 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, we’re 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.
Allegiant Faith Network is a reader-supported community. Become a paid subscriber to help us keep up the good fight for Christ for ages to come and get:
Courageous Chris’s “30-Day Evangelist: How to Share, Defend, and Live Your Christian Faith in a Secular World”
A digital copy of Courageous Chris’s The Atheist Conversion Manual: 17 Cases that Destroy Secular Religion, Prove God, and Show You the Way to Eternal Life.
A bi-weekly “Defenders of the Faith” book club.
Copies of all future published works.
Access to our full archive of articles.
An exclusive subscriber chat.
2 articles every week.
Your support means the world to us and helps us continue to grow online.
Click below and upgrade!
First, a Detour
Before we go on, it’s important to define “nihilism.” What is it?
In my book, The Atheist Conversion Manual, I define it like this:
(1) “The outright rejection of purpose, moral value, truth, and/or knowledge”
(2) “The belief that nothing matters and when we die that’s it. Poof. Gone.”
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 there’s no such thing as correct. (Are you starting to see the problem?)
That’s not the only absurdity proposed by his naturalism. As we go through each of his statements, you’ll find so many.
“Theres’s no evidence that the universe has purpose or intent, and it doesn’t care about us at all”
The universe is inanimate matter incapable of feeling, so of course it can’t care. If it’s all there is, we’re outta luck.
Can’t argue with you there, Cox Meister.
But what evidence is there that the universe is all that exists? What’s 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 Cox’s first claim is he’s accepting both the existence of the universe and the “fact” that there’s no evidence for the universe “caring,” 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 Cox’s 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.
“The laws of physics will continue to operate whether we exist or not”
If I had Cox face to face, I would immediately ask him, “How do you know that?”
He’d probably come back with, “Because many humans have already died and the universe keeps going.”
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 didn’t exist.
Prior to the Planck era of the Big Bang, there was no space, time, or matter, and therefore, no “laws.” If only a material cosmos exists, then there was once nothing that somehow became something, so where did the “laws” come from? And how can they go on forever if they haven’t existed forever to begin with?
Furthermore, there’s the problem of calling them “laws.”
Atheists refuse to bend on that term. All scientists of all walks of life continue to consider the principles of physics “laws” 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 can’t 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 can’t be escaped.
And since an Intelligence must have established these intelligible laws, there must also be ultimate meaning and purpose to existence.
Why then doesn’t Cox want meaning or purpose? Fortunately, he doesn’t hide his true motives…
“I don’t find that depressing - I find it liberating, because it means meaning isn’t impose from the outside. It’s something we create for ourselves, and with that comes complete responsibility for what we do”
Charming sentiment. I’ll give him that. After all, who doesn’t want to be in control?
However, “making meaning,” which is impossible from the start because in a material cosmos there’s no such thing as meaning (what does he mean by “it means meaning” if meaning is just made up?), has and always will lead to utter annihilation.
As I warn in The Atheist Conversion Manual, “Nihilism has eroded and destroyed more lives than any other belief on Earth because it is amoral. If nihilism is true, then anything goes. It’s an every-man-for-himself world.”
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?
Let’s see what humans being “responsible to ourselves” 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 “human right,” but in a naturalistic world, neither can be justifiably condemned since people are just making and living out their own meaning. “Rights” 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 they’re 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?
It’s neither true nor good. It can’t even explain what “true” and “good” mean. THERE IS NO MEANING if atheism is true, and that’s terrifying, not comforting.
Truth, morality, purpose, and meaning require a cosmos made by a Master Maker, otherwise you’re a mere hopeless accident doomed to nothingness, shackled to whims and fancies with no reason to consider others. You’re duping yourself, most to be pitied.
God is necessary.
Without God, there’s no obligation, no responsibility, no higher standard…and no way out of hell.
We love writing for you and for our Lord Jesus Christ. All to Him we owe. And you can help keep us in the good fight.
For just $0.26 a day, you can get additional bonuses:
Courageous Chris’s e-guide, “30-Day Evangelist: How to Share, Defend, and Live Your Christian Faith in a Secular World,” soon to be a full course with video lessons and outlines ($50 value).
A digital copy of Chris’s The Atheist Conversion Manual: 17 Cases that Destroy Secular Religion, Prove God, and Show You the Way to Eternal Life ($20 value).
Access to all future publications.
Access to our full vault of resources that will help you defend the Truth of Jesus Christ.
A bi-weekly “Defenders of the Faith” book club where we read and study apologetics books of your choosing together (comes with outlines and study notes).
Exclusive lessons every Wednesday explaining why you can believe in God with conviction and/or how to live for him with courage, OR deeper dives into Scripture, theology, or apologetics.
An exclusive subscriber chat to get real-time fellowship with Courageous Chris and other like-minded Christians and discuss doubts, evidence for God, and much more.
The humble feeling of knowing you are supporting a growing marketplace ministry with a mission to spread the good news of Christ to a dying generation.
Click and upgrade!
Great takedown of Nihilism. The biggest issue is the self-defeating nature.
Notice how the subjective “we make are own meaning” camp always advocates for people to objectively accept their meaning of reality?
A lot of people say life has no objective purpose, but they don’t actually live like nothing matters. That’s where it gets interesting.