How does an atheist avoid necessarily becoming a nihilist?

Hello K: Easy. I don't know what a nihilist is. excon PS> (edited) Ok, I looked it up. I DON'T look to religion for fulfillment.. In fact, being duped by religion would be the antithesis of fulfillment... Apparently, there ARE people who think they'd be raving homicidal maniacs if it WEREN'T for their religion... I can't imagine that.. I suppose those would be the people who'd accuse me of being a nihilist. But, I don't give those folks any credence.

Since they are two completely different things there isn't a problem. Atheism is a lack of belief in a deity, not the rejection of established laws or anarchy. One is a lack of belief the other is a belief.

Where is it written such a progression is a necessity?

I think there's more ways of finding purpose in life than following the supposed teachings of a mythical creature. That is what prevents me from becoming a nihilist. I believe what I do has meaning and purpose. Some other atheists might not see it that way,some might agree. That is their choice and belief. Some theists might agree on a lot of my ideas on purpose and meaning in life, others might not. The difference is that a theist bases his or her purpose fully or partially on religious teachings, an atheist does not. That does not neccessarily mean their is no purpose left..

To me it appears pretty much the other way around. How do Christians avoid becoming nihilists, when their whole life is dedicated to following somebody else's rules ? A mere 'color by the numbers' exercise. After which those that colored properly without crossing the lines get invited to happy-land and everyone else gets punished. I was a programmer before I retired and I can imagine nothing more meaningless than being a computer program, performing instructions one by one by one. It is way more fun WRITING programs, figuring out how to get the job done efficiently with the tools available. To me it is a lot more meaningful to live my own life (solving problems as they come). Than it would be to try and live somebody else's life (What Would Jesus Do). It is not that I consider Jesus a bad 'ideal'. A lot of his teachings make super sense. But I am the one who chose what makes sense enough to be worth copying into my life. From him and many others. regards JakobA PS: I know it is not that black and white. But since your question tend to assume that it is, only from the other side, I think this is a fitting answer :-))

this is what happens when you are fooled into buying something you already have . ie (morals ) . they(religion ) pretend they own morality , and sell you morals .. and try to sneek in a few of their own upon you . religion does not have the monopoly on morals . if anything i think it holds the record for the opposite . morals are a good sugar coated draw though . too bad its a false front . you will notice if you look closely .. most of their laws and codes are designed to boost recrutment and raise in numbers , nothing more . ie, ...sex before marraige .. .. when you get married you make a promise to raise any children you will have in the faith.. they get an automatic recruit . .. children born out of wedlock .. they have no claime to . "not covet thy neibour's wife" .. same as above . and actually also invoves another man's property in their eyes . "not kill " -- -- lol a sugar coat tossed in to look good .. the bible actually commands you kill in many instances . but i think you get the idea .. doubt you will accept it though . ;-)

This is the difference in philosophy between requiring something infinite to avoid nihilism, or requiring something finite. Many people seem to be taught there there is no purpose to life if they are not themselves infinite beings of some type, but I find the foundation to that argument lacking (even if I appreciate that it is intuitively appealing to many). I suspect that consciousness is not evolved to cope intuitively with it's own discontinuity (why would it be?) and hence the reason why an imagined extended life progressing just as we imagine we will be here tomorrow but for an infinite period seems intuitively appealing. I think this is at the root of why we feel this nihilism without the infinite, but it is in itself meaningless if we cannot justify why we can only have meaning if we are infinite. Take the example of God being real and we die and go to heaven, but are then told we will have ten trillion years and then disappear into nothingness - the true death. After ten trillion years I can still imagine most people lambasting existence and declaring that there was no point to it all. Equally what of a child that lives to only 15, do we declare that their life meant less because they did not make it to 75? Of course we don't, but at the moment many do it by simply saying that the child and the old person really have the same amount - an equal infinity. I see this as a poor way of really respecting what life is. I don't think we can, or should, only declare it worth something (and avoid nihilism) if we say we are infinite. So I have thought my way through it and created my own philosophy where it doesn't matter. Life is worth an infinite amount without surviving for infinity and we all get this amount, and can make the most out of it, without immortality.

I have nihilistic tendencies, in that I do not think that humans are any more worthwhile than any other animal, and in the realisation that the greater part of this planet, never mind the rest of the solar system, is inhospitable to us. Where it could be said that I am not a nihilist is the fact that I value life, I consciously choose to do so, just as theists do, the difference being I take all the credit instead of assigning it to a mythological being.

i have deep faith that the essential nature of the universe is not cruel. sometimes it's shaken. but, to answer your question, atheists avoid becoming nihilists by believing in something that is not god.