Since You Asked

Nice thing about abandoning any supernatural beliefs: you get to decide for yourself every morning what the meaning of life is. Mostly it's exactly the same as before, i. e. participation in H. Sapiens Sapiens' ongoing attempt to fight entropy uphill for a time. But sometimes it's special--sometimes the meaning of life is spending all day preparing a meal for the members of one's immediate tribe, sometimes it's letting your selfish muse lock you in a tiny room for 12 hours in search of the lost chord.  There are infinitely more ways for things to go wrong in the maintenance of life (human or otherwise) than for things to go right. The universe (substitute Mother Nature here if you wish) doesn't really care if you live or die, and definitely has the deck stacked against you.  What then binds all us language-enabled primates together? Well, if you have ever experienced any aspect of physical pain at all, you are likely part of the huge volunteer army tryi

American society is in fact the direct antithesis of Judeo/Christian values. We reject blind obedience to authority (no other gods before me).  We challenge arbitrary limits on free speech (take thy name in vain).  We do not recognize thought crime (thou shalt not covet).  The basic tension in the founding documents is that a set of unalienable human rights exists, but it is up to citizens, through government, to realize them. No matter what this bozo or this one says.