In my essay The Misanthropic Principle – How Atheism Robed Me I wrote that atheism essentially urges us to believe that, “Everything in the entire universe—as parts and the universe as a whole—was arbitrary” and yet, “We should never close our eyes to the wonders of the designed universe and its life just because some have erected a facade of scientific respectability around their chosen worldview philosophy.”
It was pointed out to me that I misspelled one word in the title to the essay: I wrote “Robed” but I meant to write “Robbed” (likely because English is my second language and I am dyslexic). Atheism robs us by demanding that we restrict our thinking and stop short of following evidence where it leads.
Musing upon my misspelling; I concluded that while atheism robs the universe of meaning, God robes it with meaning. Atheism robbed it but God robed it.
PZ Myers noted,
The universe is cold and uncaring. You may be grateful that you weren’t vaporized by a meteor falling out of the sky this year, but there’s no agent out there who will feel pleased that you noticed, and the fact of your general relief that your existence continues will not be a factor in the motion of space rocks in the next year.
He adds that perhaps someday a meteor will “vaporizes me into a cloud of inorganic molecules with minimal nutritional value.”
Was I right or was I right? And PZ Myers’ statement is not unique amongst his fellows.