WLC Reacts! to No Afterlife Makes Life MaGiCaL!

Dr. Craig's quick take on a social media atheist argument.

VIDEO CONVERSATION: If you're an atheist . . .

I am.

. . . and you don't believe in an afterlife . . .

I don't.

If you don't believe in heaven and hell and all that, why don't you just go around raping and murdering as much as you want?

I do.

What?

I do go around raping and murdering as much as I want, which is not at all, because I've got a conscience.

If death is just the end, what's the point?

What's the point in what?

Living. Might as well just kill yourself.

So if you're watching a movie and you're really enjoying it, something with Kevin Hart in it, and someone points out that this will end eventually, do you just go, oh forget it then, what's the point, and just turn it off?

No, because I can watch it again.

Well, I think life is precious because you can't watch it again. I mean, you can believe in an afterlife if that makes you feel better; doesn't mean it's true. But once you realize you're not going to be around forever, I think that's what makes life so magical.

DR. CRAIG: Now, this is really interesting because you have one person pretending to be another with an artificially dubbed voice, and that's exactly what the atheist can do. He can pretend that his life has meaning and is significant even though on an atheistic view it does not. Many atheists from Nietzsche to Russell to Sartre have recognized that in the absence of God to serve as a transcendent anchor for meaning and value in life everything becomes relative and subjective. So by pretending that your life has meaning, certainly you can do what the video suggests and enjoy life, but that doesn't actually impart genuine meaning and value to your life. It's all a pretense; it's make-believe. And if we're more interested in truth than just make believe, maybe we'd better ask ourselves what is the objective basis for the values and the meaning that I affirm.