Is life more or less meaningful with religion...
...in your opinion.
Without religion this is all there is, with, you have a higher power that you attribute certain aspects of your existence to, and an afterlife of course.
Its not that cut and dried of course, but i dont want to write a dissertation for an OP.
You think so?
I'm on the fence, and i say that as a religious person.
The idea that some...thing i have no real way of understanding has control of my fate, and that the way i live my life may not jibe with some arbitrary rules i have no choice in being subject to.
No god is a little simpler, but not by much.
I suppose this heavily depends on how life is meaningful. Adding religious considérations only expands the material possibilities of decision making and morals, so stricto sensu it has more potential to give meaning.
Of course we have to assume there is such a thing like a material meaning, in the sense that is something that everyone can experience (otherwise the question would be rigged). This should place at least some inmaterial considérations of most religious into a secondary set of interests that can sometimes deflect attention from achieving material meaning, so in many cases religion can be harmful by distraction.
Depending on our definition of material meaning and it's compatibility with diverse religious mindsets some religions could be more harmful, while theoretically they should enrich material existence.
The real answer is it is neither more nor less meaningful. Life is what you make of it. Also stuff having meaning is highly overrated. Some need to believe every single thing has some significance. The fact is not everything does. This is in part why I think the church fought so hard against science at certain points in history.
Originally posted by Bardock42
I have observed the opposite, but it's hard to quantify of course.
I have also observed the opposite. All I know is I went to Catholic school and you could tell the students whose parents were super religious..they just tended to seem a bit more repressed in certain ways. Since the truth is not everyone was super religious that goes to those schools..in terms of the family. A lot of them are just people who go to church twice a year(Christmas, Easter).
Basically you can indeed use religion to give your life meaning. Though not everyone needs religion in order to do that.
The thing is I don't believe in God, but I do believe in the afterlife.
Originally posted by psmith81992
Oh there's no faking this happiness. I respect not quite understanding it.
You'd be surprised how good people can be at faking things.
Again, the premise of this thread is false. Because it presumes that external things can imbue life with meaning. Nothing has any intrinsic meaning until someone ascribes meaning to it. Religion doesn't give people meaning. People give religion meaning, and give their lives meaning through religion. But it's no more or less meaningful than any other source of meaning. In simpler terms, the person is the source of meaning.
So there isn't a yes or no answer to the OP that is true in a general sense beyond individual experiences. It isn't more or less meaningful without religion. It's exactly as meaningful as you make it.
And I say this twice now because it's one of the more bizarre falsehoods I see perpetuated about non-religion. That people can't fathom meaning outside of religion doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It only means their experience is limited. Maybe this isn't what Riv is saying, but it's very close to arguments I've heard several times, each as flawed as the next.