I don't have a you-tube citation for this one but here goes anyway.

What do you do when you're bored? A recent AP News Service story mentioned the recreational choice of two teens. Having used the game Grant Theft Auto "a means of escaping the monotony of teen life," they decided to act it out by shooting at cars. They killed one person and injured others.

Some choices reveal a sad lack of meaning to a life. Many people wonder whether or not their lives have a purpose. Can you relate? If so, the book of Ecclesiastes was written for you.

The writer, Solomon, tells us he has tried all life has to offer, wine, women and song. Hi conclusion is "Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty" (12:13). In other words, God gives meaning to our lives. No God, no meaning.

Think of it this way: Without God you are just a bunch of molecules thrown together by chance. If there is no God, you came from--and are headed toward--impersonal nothingness.

Any attempt at finding purpose is doomed. You might as well be a lizard, a rock, or nothing at all if there is no God.

Sounds bleak. It IS bleak. If we subtact God from the equation. This belief that there is not God and therefore no meaning is what has driven many, including some of the greatest minds in history, to despair, alcoholism, and even suicide.

The good news is: There is something more. We don't have to run pointlessly after illusions like a slightly more sophisitcated version of a hamster on a teradmill. There is a God who created you, knows you by name, loves you, and wants you to know him initmately. He gives meaning to life as he calls us to follow him in his grand adventure.

If you're searching for meaning, follow the writer of Ecclesiastes to its source.

wow, i'm glad to know that since i don't believe in god i must be nothing........

I feel meaningful enough without an imaginary friend. And I'm rarely bored.
So faith out of boredom? Sure is better than most of the people that belives out of fear of the "afterlife" still pretty lame.

actually my life does have a meaning, and that meaning is to ceate music for other people to injury other people and not bow down to the thoughts of god......



hmmm, interesting, if god is what gives my life meaning boy did he screw this one up.......

Interesting thoughts, guys. Thanks.

Talking about purposes. I think that God allows all these non-believers to be non-believers to fulfill a purpose.
Simply to demonstrate free will.
If there weren't no free will they would not have another choice than to believe in God.
It's amazing how God works in misterious ways. Who would imagine that those who deny the undeniable are faithful servants of God?
Thank you guys for your good deeds.
Keep being atheists, so through you i would reinforce my faith.

I don’t see where this has anything to do with religion. These teens don’t need God. They needed some half-decent parental guidance and mentoring in their lives. Clearly whoever raised these kids had no clue how to raise a human being. Human guidance and mentoring could have cleared this up, no need to call upon a supreme being to intervene.

Lot’s of atheists have very well-behaved responsible productive children. Clearly a belief in a God has nothing at all to do with it. This is a case of poor mentoring on the part of the parents.

You can’t expect God to solve all man’s problems. Somewhere along the way man is going to have to take on some responsibility for himself.

i do not rely on "god" for meaning in my life. life should have meaning without having to look to an outside source to justify yourself and your life

The meaning of life is not in a book, the meaning of life is in life itself.

I like the message in your avatar.

It just goes to show that there exist paradoxes that even God himself cannot resolve.

A paradox must stand as an entity in it’s own right.

Even God would say to his most devoted servant, “Yes my child, it’s a paradox. Can you cope with that? Or should I send you back to earth for another go around?”.

How on earth did you translate "Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone's duty"

to mean: .. "In other words, God gives meaning to our lives. No God, no meaning." ????????????

In OTHER WORDS?

In OTHER WORDS indeed.

Way .... other words.

They don't mean the same thing at all!

A Slave master would say that to the slaves. Slaves, after all, in the eyes of their superior masters, are so pathetic that they have no purpose and no reason to even live, other than to "fear their master and obey him."

Please re-read these words:

Fear your master and obey him, for you are a pathetic slave and you are good for nothing else!! To serve your master is your only purpose in life. You have no other purpose whatsoever. It is your duty to fear your master and obey his commands. It will give meaning to your pathetic lives.

And you translate it to mean:

Your master gives meaning to your lives. No master, no meaning.

My advice is to free yourself from your slave masters.

JB

"God allows" all the believers to believe all the crazy lies, myths and legends too, because in the end none of these different belief systems make any difference at all. It is what it is.

JB

I think people do need some form of spirituality and sense of self ,otherwise you get people who raise teens like those sited in the ops example.

I don't see God as a master or me as a slave.
Therefore, I don't need to free my mind from anything.
Those are interpretations which lack of any validity or common sense.
God is my Father, and I'm his son. Every son's duty is obedience to his Father, not for fear, but for love.
Compare God to a Master trying to enslave human beings, is the same to say: "Look a pig is flying."
The single problem with humanity in the late years comes down to a single word: ARROGANCE.
Try to pretend that human beings are everything without any superior source is just like to say: "Air does not exist I (human being) am able to generate by myseld the oxygen which is required for me to survive."
Naivity and arrogance!!!
Yet who am i to judge? Forgive them because they are more lost than Santa Claus in July.

make no difference to you and some others
i can't pretend to pick up oranges from a lemon tree.

What have you got against lemons? They are a healing fruit. So I don't get what you mean.

What I meant is that God does not care what religion you worshiped in any of your many lives on earth. It does not matter. That is my firm belief.

JB

ok, agreed as far as God don't care what religion an individual practices.
Now as far as "my many lives" well u may have many lives, as far as I'm concern with one is enough for me.
I just need one shot to be who I need to be.
Maybe others need more lives to play "failure and trial" (here is when my lack of english expressions kills me. I hope u get the idea.)

Well you're a better man that I am gunga din, if you can learn all you need to know of life and gain the wisdom of a saint in one lifetime.

JB

I'm not better man than anybody else. I might be one of the worst. However, the ability to learn is inherent in each human being.
What logic makes to say that we need several lifes to learn if we don't have any recollection of prior lifes, so we can (let's say) start from where we previously stop.?
it's very interesting talking to u ma'am. however, I'm very tired.
I hope u have a great night.

one more thing i don't measure a saint by his/her wisdom. i measure a saint by his/her capacity to love. A saint does not need 10 lives to learn that. He/she just needs to let God's love flow through him/her.
Now good night and sweet dreams