Just to clarify an atheist is someone who in some form or another has no belief in a god. A nihilist is someone who rejects what someone might call subjective truths.
One might also be a nihilist about somethings and not about others. For example I am a moral nihilist but not an existential nihilist. I still reject subjective truths about my existence but instead of assigning no meaning I am what is called an existentialist, that means that I am responsible for the meaning that my life has.
Atheistic nihilism makes no sense.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2013 10:21PM by jacob.
I suppose it might be a term attempting to portray the mindset of an atheist who concluded that his/her life had no meaning or useful purpose.
A theistic nihilist might conversely be a theist who preached that earthly existence was a negative thing -- perhaps a fellow waiting for the Rapture, who found life on this planet to be useless/meaningless.
All in all, it sounds like a mental disorder to me. If life was indeed purposeless, then our ancestors would not have bothered to keep humanity going.
It was mentioned on the Atheist Experience the other day. It means nothing. Their is no purpose to life and other things. Here's a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism.
A lot of theists assume that atheists have to be nihilists by definition. In fact, I saw someone posit that very idea on this board just a little while ago. That without a belief in God, life is without meaning. So maybe that is what your friend is referring to? Nihilism that they believe stems from atheism?
Of course, the assumption that all atheists are ipso facto nihilists is baseless. Atheists are not required to be nihilists; they're only required to not be theists. And nihilism doesn't necessarily follow from a lack of theism. But maybe your friend doesn't know that.
It's a pitiful attempt on the part of some irresponsible theists to paint atheists as living meaningless lives of no consequence.
The problem with this is obvious:
1. Does life have meaning in and of itself? or 2. Does life have meaning because a god said so?
Externally imposed meaning/purpose (even if from a god) is just that: externally imposed. If a theist gets their purpose from a god then they are also admitting that life has no intrinsic meaning in and of itself.
Many atheists, like myself, create our own meaning and purpose. We don't rent our purpose from a religion.
As I said on another thread:
- I don't ask other people what my favorite flavor of ice cream should be
- I don't ask other people what my favorite color should be
- I don't ask other people who I should be in a relationship with
_ I certainly don't ask other people what my purpose in life should be
The point is, if life has purpose it's not because a god said so; it's because we say so.
When I left God behind, religious constraint behind, all of the millions of years of evolution in my genes rushed to the surface and gave more meaning to my life in a single second than I had ever felt previously in all my years in Mormonism.
The miracle of life is in each of us and has gotten better everyday since that first fish crawled out of the sea on tiny legs.
Our need for connection, for accomplishment, for love, and even to see those around us happy are components we only need to allow to blossom--not be bestowed upon us by some imaginary being.
And all the goodness within us as atheists is genuine because we seek no reward other than the smile on someone else's face.
Kolobian puts the discussion into a very accurate description of atheism and the reason why it is not always necessary to be nihilist. It is more common to meet atheist that feel that their life has meaning.
I think that my life has a more personal meaning now to me because I have made the choice to be atheist due to the searching that I have had to do in finding what it is that I like to do and not just doing what a group or a organization tells me to do and believe.
It used to be popular years ago to accuse atheists of being "nihilists." It's just someone lashing out against atheists. Nihilism is something completely different.