Question:

What values shoud we live by? And why? Do we make up our own values, or are there values that apply to all people, that have an absolute or transcendent reality?

Background:

If the atheistic, materialist view of the world is correct, then the values we use to guide our lives have no absolute reality, they are purely subjective or contained within the chemical collections known as our brains.

But people are social creatures. Even atheists find meaning and identity through their relationships with other people. And those relationships have all sorts of expectations and hopes attached to them, how they are conducted conveys messages and meanings. We give them terms like integrity, honesty, kindness, love, generosity, affection, care, and healing.

Are those terms important in your life? And if so, do they have real meaning, or are they just useful phrases that can be changed according to who we are relating to?

If they really mean something, does that mean you are making a personal decision that the atheist materialist view is not correct?

Those terms are associated with what people think of as traditional values. But do you notice the method used by people who try to impose a world view that tears down our traditional values? They impose that view by calling on values like guilt and shame for people who do not agree with their agenda! If we accept their end goal and reject those values as having any transcendent reality, then we can only see their call on guilt and shame as being a power play. But if we see those values as having an absolute reality, then they are fighting against their own agenda, appealing to a world view they want to destroy!

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