Dawkins?! Then you must think of every atheist as a nihilist, and the term doesn't mean much then. I don't think that's what's meant by the word, at all. Anywa

Dawkins?! Then you must think of every atheist as a nihilist, and the term doesn't mean much then. I don't think that's what's meant by the word, at all. Anyway, meaning is not something things have in isolation–it is always meaning to someone. Like what's the meaning of a painting? (apart from in peoples' minds) A written word is a squiggle, but means something to someone that speaks the language. I think the nihilist/existentialist angst is from people in the generation or two after christianity, not having that cosy pre-defined meaning to their lives, of everything being god's plan. Like a child, used to the parents deciding what to do, what are the rules, punishments, structures, moving out of home and feeling...abandoned, empty. I (like almost everyone I know here in Australia) was brought up without being taught a religion, never had that loss of faith or feeling of lack or meaninglessness. Hmm well, not true, aged about 20 I had a mild 'existential crisis', wondering about the meaning of life, and learnt that it's silly (and dangerous) expecting there to be the meaning of life out there like a rock. Nihilists stop there, thinking that in "there's no meaning in X" they've captured the essential truth about things, and torture themselves with the abyss. A bit like the contemporary goth thing, thinking that seeing the meaningless, desolation, emptiness of things is wisdom. I started reading E.M. Cioran essays a year or two ago, but couldn't stand him; it was full of this vibe; going on about what a superior wisdom his ultra-bleak, desolate view of things has, as if he's better than any happy person because so miserable. Occasionally I hear some intelligent person talking as if an intelligent person must be unhappy, as if it's a given. Maybe it's from the existentialist message filtering down and being taken for wisdom. Maybe Sartre is to blame for that.