I was watching a video (well more or less; I watched part of it) the other day of a debate. The debate was entitled something like, “Can science disprove god?”, and I already was worried and disappointed. The host introduced the debate and each side: Two well-known Christian apologists and two well-known science-based Atheists. During the host’s introduction he made a joke that implied that agnostics are undecided in terms of a belief in god/s… This made me angry, but watching debates like these makes me REALLY ANGRY (not really; I don’t get angry often, but still, I was perturbed).

The joke bothered me because one word can’t mean two things so closely related. Agnostic means you don’t know. It does not mean you are undecided in regards to a belief- it doesn’t matter what the dictionary says- logically it can’t mean both. Drop this idea of being undecided in regards to your own beliefs entirely, because it really mushes things up, and is intellectual dishonesty (a lie). We all know exactly what we believe and what we at least claim to know. Not only can Atheists and Theists be Agnostic, but they are, despite that they both may tell you different. None of us know enough to make all these labels and time spent debating, writing books, going to church, praying, holding on to symbols, old books, or trying to prove or disprove things we logically cannot understand or influence matter. SO STOP! ALL OF YOU!

‘There is a point to this post by the way, and it’s not about god, or how silly I think worrying about god/s one way or the other is.’ The point is that there is something we know that matters most. There is something we know better than anything else, yet we ignore it, because it’s scary to deal with. That ‘thing’ is us. We live on some relatively little planet that is our only resource for sustaining life, within a dark seemingly infinite and deadly cosmos, yet we are worried about god? We have created our own complex social worlds for thousands of years, are above and beyond the top of the food chain, yet still haven’t united and found peace as humans, despite that we are a real threat to ourselves and can destroy the world several times over, and WE WORRY ABOUT GOD/S AND GHOSTS AND A SOUL AND SPIRITS AND ALIENS AND OTHER THINGS WE CAN’T BE SURE ABOUT AND HAVE ZERO CONTROL OVER??!!!

FUCK THAT SHIT!!!! WE’RE NUTS!! ALL OF US!!

Think about what matters. We matter… yes mainly to ourselves… but also to other life that can sense and feel. No one, not the most vocal bible thumper, determined Quran kisser, or book less atheist ‘in their right mind’ will deny what matters when it comes down to brass tax. They look both ways when they cross the street. They put on seat belts. They get under tables in Earthquakes. They run from fires. They live past five years old, because they sense and deal with reality, and value their own lives.

We are the meaning of life- life is the meaning of life because life is what allows for value at all. There is no value without something that can sense, some thing that can feel, emote, or even think and choose in our case. Where or what that life came from isn’t an issue in the real world. If some supreme being is making me write this, and caused me to make the right determinations to stay alive so far, ‘great’ but it has nothing to do with my practical reality. If it was abiogenesis or aliens, same thing, who cares? It is beyond me so means nothing. I deal with what I can know, what I can see, what I can think, and what I can do. I am the meaning of my life more than anything else. I am the one determining worth, desiring certain things, and affecting the world and other people. You are the same thing for you.

Real shit is happening in the world, and to think that so many of us are spending any time worrying about what we can’t control instead of what we can is sad and shameful. We need to do a better job. We need to do a better job at improving our selves to see what we need to in order to change what’s real right now. Because real people suffer and die needlessly, real animals suffer and die needlessly, a real planet that is our only host gets affected by our actions. And we are the real supreme beings of Earth that can change it.

That is practical reality. It isn’t hocus-pocus or hear-say. Reality is out there, and reality is inside of each of us, it’s just a matter of getting strong enough to deal with it.