What I Learned from Atheists

By Karl Moore
CEO of Self Help Street

Sometimes, I admit, I lose faith.

I lose faith in goodness. I lose faith in humanity. I lose faith in God.

Sometimes, maybe, you do too.

As many of you know, I love discussing the exploration of space. To gain a perspective of where you are in the universe right now, just try watching the "zoom out" introduction to Contact.



But once you get beyond our current galaxy, you tend to disappear.

You're lost in a silent world.

A world of planets.

Of mass objects obeying the laws of the universe.

No emotion. No human feeling. No love.

And, quite possibly, no God.

As you keep going deeper and deeper and deeper, further and further away - billions of light years from earth, where mega-clusters of sub-universes tangle together like DNA strings... where the tiniest pixel on an image would represent infinite numbers of galaxies and worlds and beings and planets...

Where size, as humans imagine it, really ceases to mean anything.

When you're out there... looking in... seeing the crazy things that humans do, on their tiny little planet.

When you're out there... in the silence, in the non-human world, devoid of contact, devoid of true life.

You might... you just might... lose faith.

Where is the God in this?

Are we really as "special" as we think?

Or could we... just could we... be a mere accident of the universe?

Of no real significant meaning to anyone?

American science popularist Carl Sagan, author of Contact, was a renowned atheist. He shared those exact views.

The views of an atheist.

This kind of thought leaves many deflated.

Their whole structure of life... shattered.

But does it really need to be that way?

Let's consider, just for a moment, that God does not exist.

That we, as humans, are just a rather splendid coincidence.

And that, when we die, we just end up as a small pile of dust. Soon to be forgotten, soon to be blown away.

Does that make a difference to your life?

For many people, the answer is yes.

But here's the crazy thing.

The more you consider that as an option, the more you realize the importance of living NOW.

Even if - "Heaven" forbid! - there's absolutely no God, and we're literally alone as coincidental beings in this universe...

Doesn't that make it even more important to truly live your life to the full?

To truly let go of your inhibitions, and begin living this life with a PASSION?

To stop PROCASTINATING, as you have been - and to instead start ENJOYING your time here on earth?

To begin living your life as your own God - through your own rules and standards?

You see, after all that thinking...

Maybe the only real meaning to life... is the meaning you bring to it.

And perhaps that is the true teaching of an atheist.

Karl Moore is the CEO of Self Help Street

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