Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists

by Dan Barker

Most “Christian charity” is given to prove the superiority of Christianity or to win converts, not because human life is good, valuable

I need stats

Americans between the ages of 15 and 30 are currently the least believing demographic in the nation, with as many as 30 percent being nonreligious.

amaze

We atheists believe in life before death. Before we were born, there was a very long time, perhaps an eternity, when we did not exist, and it did not bother us one bit. The same will be true after we are dead. What matters is that we are alive now. These living, breathing, hurting, singing, laughing bodies are worth something, for their own sake. Since there is no life after death—how could there be when the body and the brain decay?—we have to make the most of it now, before it is too late.

“If there is no hope of eternal life, then what is the purpose of life?” is a question we atheists often hear. My response is that there is indeed no purpose of life. There is purpose in life. If there were a purpose of life, then that would cheapen life. It would make us tools or slaves of someone else’s purpose. Like a hammer that hangs on the garage wall waiting for someone to build something, if we humans were designed for a purpose then we would be subservient in the universe. Our value would not be in ourselves. It would exist in our submission to the will of the toolmaker.

yup