God, the meaning of life, and a new argument for atheism

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 79 (1):31-47 (2016)
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Abstract

We raise various puzzles about the relationship between God and the meaning of life. These difficulties suggest that, even if we assume that God exists, and even if God’s existence would entail that our lives have meaning, God is not and could not be the source of the meaning of life. We conclude by discussing implications of our arguments: these claims can be used in a novel argument for atheism; these claims undermine an extant argument for God’s existence; and they suggest that atheism is consistent with our lives having meaning

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Author Profiles

Dan Linford
Old Dominion University
Jason Megill
Bentley College

Citations of this work

Is the desire for life rational?Christophe de Ray - forthcoming - Religious Studies:1-19.
The Problems of Divine Hiddenness and Divine Inscrutability.Dan Linford - 2019 - In Graham Oppy & Joseph W. Koterski, Theism and Atheism: Opposing Viewpoints in Philosophy. Farmington Hills: MacMillan Reference.

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References found in this work

Philosophical explanations.Robert Nozick - 1981 - Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Practical Ethics.Peter Singer - 1979 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Susan J. Armstrong & Richard George Botzler.
Philosophical Explanations.Robert Nozick - 1981 - Mind 93 (371):450-455.
The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism.William L. Rowe - 1979 - American Philosophical Quarterly 16 (4):335 - 341.

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