I'm a little philosophical at the moment...

[ChrizZ]

I just realized how pointless life is.

Everyone goes through the same stages in life:

You are born, go to kindergarten, go to school, go to work, get married, make children, you die.

You could be Ghandi or Jeffrey Dahmer, it doesn't matter. We are all going to die some day. Nothing you ever experience or do matters in the end. You live for a blink of an eye and then you cease to exist. Like a fly that is being swatted.

Tomorrow you could die, your friends and family would probably be sad, but other than that 6 billion people wouldn't give a sh!t and wouldn't even notice.

Even if you are a legend and contributed a lot to society.... one day the human race will be wiped out, so it doesn't matter.

There simply is absolutely no point to life.

Now knowing this can be a very liberating thing. It basically means you can do whatever the **** you want and there are no consequences except for legal ones if you break the law. The only thing that is holding you back is social conditioning and your ego.

Thoughts?

 

[Migeman]

Reverse that.
We are living now, sure we could die tomorrow, but guess what we're alive now and we will be likely to be alive tomorrow.

What you say I find depressing, I mean, I could write a book even if 1 person read it and enjoyed I contributed something. It wasn't the greatest but someone reading it would be enough.

I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine who does Philosophy he I mentioned It was my birthday and I was one year closer to dying and he said you've been living for another year. It really has changed my outlook on life that has.

 

[KontrollerX]

You are right.

Nothing matters though it is useful to pretend things matter and strive for one's own personal goals so as to maintain mental health since human beings tend to need to strive towards some goal or higher purpose in order to remain mentally healthy. :yes:

 

[speakeasy]

Your philosophy of life is called "existential nihilism".

 

[EA Gold]

First step out of depression..

Start smiling alll day

 

[speakeasy]

To ask yourself what is the meaning or purpose of life is to imply that life is SUPPOSED to have a meaning or purpose. Who is to say that it is?? Maybe life has no purpose, but what makes us think it is supposed to have one in the first place? It's like asking what's the purpose of the sky being blue? There is no purpose in such, that's just the way it is. And the sky doesn't sit there asking itself why am I blue. It simply exist and there's no meaning or purpose implied nor should there be.

That's just one way of looking at things. Some get their meaning and purpose from religion and believe in an afterlife. I'm an agnostic, but I do tend to believe that there's more to existence than what we see. Just keep in mind, the universe and life is full of mysteries and sh*t we can't even begin to wrap our heads around and we still know very little. We don't even have any idea what causes gravity or what caused the big bang. We are still pretty much in our infancy in understanding so who knows, life may have more of a purpose and meaning than we can even imagine.

 

[macallik]

I agree with speakeasy mostly.

As for my personal beliefs (read: Nietzsche's) You cannot simply destroy meaning with no intention of replacin it with something meaningful in order to live a life that has purpose. Life has no innate purpose other than what you create and if you just destroy and do not create you can only go so long before it catches up to you.

Check out some Nietzsche and Jean Paul Sare

 

[f283000]

There is no 1 meaning of life. However, there is 1 goal in life which we should all aspire to and that is to find true happiness.

How one finds true happiness is different for us all.

 

[speakeasy]

In the background I have on the national geographic channel and they are talking about the caste system in India. They are talking to this family that catches rats and eats them. They are paid a dollar a day to go to people's farms and remove the rats which eat crops and are pests. The guy was talking about how miserable his life is and how they cannot break out of their jobs and place in life because of the caste system. Whether you think your life has meaning or not, just be grateful if you are not suffering your whole life. If this life is all we have and it's of no significance beyond that, consider yourself extremely fortunate that you weren't born in rural India where you make a dollar a day to catch and eat rats. If you think YOU have existential angst about the meaning of your life, talk to some of these people.

 

[Desert Fox]

seriously.

honestly I thought like this in hours at a time for the past few years of my life, but snapping out of it by thinking about where I came from, how far I've come in my life, my friends that didn't make it as far as I did along the way due to the poor circumstances we grew up in...it gives life meaning.

Bottomline, I don't have time to feel sorry for myself and sit on my ass. I say "**** you" to my circumstances and I will work my ass off to make something of my name by any means necessary. I will make my parents proud, I will make my future generations proud. I will make a difference and never think about this nihilist bullsh1t ever again.

 

[Da Realist]

I think you're wrong on the fact that there is no meaning to life. Every person serves a purpose in some fashion no matter how mundane. The problem is that a lot of people get stuck in a moment and feel that is all there is. I've had times where I've questioned if all there is to existance is what stands in front of me at that moment: the answer is no and yes. No because every moment is fleeting and whatever happened is in the past and whatever new event that will happen is approaching. Yes because whatever I do at that time will affect something somewhere. If I die the next minute, at the least someone may think to live their life instead of feeling like just a passive observer of history. My take on the whole meaning thing is that someone has just determined they are a know-it-all and refuse to believe they can aspire to do any better for whatever reason. Prime example is Forrest Griffin. He used to think of himself as just good enough to put on a good show till he got to Chuck Liddel and almost won. That's when he seemed like he started to believe he could do a lot better, changed up his philosophy on fighting, and became champion. But whether I am wrong or right about there being a purpose in life, I always one thought in mind. "Life may not ever be perfect. Yesterday's gone, so I can't go back. I have no idea what tomarrow is going to be like, so no use in getting work up. All I got is right now: so what am I going to do about it?"

 

[cola]

Depends on your beliefs..
I don't believe in conventional religion ..
But there is some type of higher power..
Has to be..
At 1 point space was nothing but nothingness
And now there are things here..
Mind boggling.. sane men have gone crazy pondering less..

So be happy and pray this supreme being has something better instore for you upon passing..

 

[Desert Fox]

Depends on your beliefs..
I don't believe in conventional religion ..
But there is some type of higher power..
Has to be..
At 1 point space was nothing but nothingness
And now there are things here..
Mind boggling.. sane men have gone crazy pondering less..

So be happy and pray this supreme being has something better instore for you upon passing..

wrong! There is no higher power...you can't just be like "there has to be..."

Let me ask you. And what was before that higher power? I win.

 

[Buddhist Warrior]

The purpose of your life is to find meaning within your existance.

It depends entirely on the person. It could be religion, it could be giving to charity for self fulfillment, fighting for a cause. But one thing for sure, In my opinion the great purposes out there definitely surpasses the stereotypical things out there that teaches a person to be happy.

We very much in a consumer society where it preaches you have to have this or that to be content. All we accomplished was more prescription pills and more cultural chaos as a result.

I think we should focus more on simplicity. Take time out to enjoy nature once in a while, go fishing, spend times with family and friends, Travel and observe the different countries out there and what there standards of happiness is. You'll be surprised, yet humbled and enlightened.

 

[speakeasy]

wrong! There is no higher power...you can't just be like "there has to be..."

And in like fashion, you just can't just claim "there is no higher power".

Let me ask you. And what was before that higher power? I win.

What is this, some 6th grade gotcha question?? Even if there was a higher power, that doesn't mean we have the know-how to be able to say what was before that. We can't say what was before the big bang, or why nothing can travel faster than light, or why matter attracts matter, or what the hell dark energy/matter is, or why the universe is expanding at an excellereted rate. There's a lot of sh*t we don't understand, but just because he can't tell you what was here before the "higher power" doesn't deny the existence of such. Just as time ceases to exist at the speed of light, maybe there are some things that have ALWAYS existed and the finite universe is all we understand at this current time.

 

[speakeasy]

The purpose of your life is to find meaning within your existance.

It depends entirely on the person. It could be religion, it could be giving to charity for self fulfillment, fighting for a cause. But one thing for sure, In my opinion the great purposes out there definitely surpasses the stereotypical things out there that teaches a person to be happy.

We very much in a consumer society where it preaches you have to have this or that to be content. All we accomplished was more prescription pills and more cultural chaos as a result.

I think we should focus more on simplicity. Take time out to enjoy nature once in a while, go fishing, spend times with family and friends, Travel and observe the different countries out there and what there standards of happiness is. You'll be surprised, yet humbled and enlightened.

I agree with you completely. That's good wisdom, especially from someone that is 21.

 

[Desert Fox]

And in like fashion, you just can't just claim "there is no higher power".

What? Look buddy, if you CLAIM SOMETHING the BURDEN is on YOU to prove it.

For example, if I say leprechauns are floating around the Earth right now, I cannot prove it and the burden is on ME to prove it. Not on YOU to disprove it.

Understand? It's simple logic really.

So since he said "there HAS to be" something, I said, "no there does not HAVE TO BE" and if there HAS TO BE one PROVE IT.

Nuff said

What is this, some 6th grade gotcha question?? Even if there was a higher power, that doesn't mean we have the know-how to be able to say what was before that. We can't say what was before the big bang, or why nothing can travel faster than light, or why matter attracts matter, or what the hell dark energy/matter is, or why the universe is expanding at an excellereted rate. There's a lot of sh*t we don't understand, but just because he can't tell you what was here before the "higher power" doesn't deny the existence of such. Just as time ceases to exist at the speed of light, maybe there are some things that have ALWAYS existed and the finite universe is all we understand at this current time.

blah blah blah we can't this we can't that. we can't say what was before the big bang...and guess what sherlock...WE DON'T.

 

[speakeasy]

What? Look buddy, if you CLAIM SOMETHING the BURDEN is on YOU to prove it.

For example, if I say leprechauns are floating around the Earth right now, I cannot prove it and the burden is on ME to prove it. Not on YOU to disprove it.

Obviously if there is a creator of the universe, that creator WOULD HAVE to lie outside the fabric of spacetime. And current science cannot detect anything outside spacetime. Now if you look at all the intricate fine-tuning of the universe even down to the sub-atomic level, I don't think it's irrational for anyone to come to a conclusion that there at least COULD design behind it. Now I'm an agnostic, so I realize that there could always be the chance that it's pure coincidence and chance. But to compare that to a fvcking Leprechanun floating in the sky is just stupid. If I find a watch on the ground in the middle of the desert, I assume someone designed it due to it's intricacy and complexity of parts that would be very unlikely to assemble themselves by random chance. The universe is vastly more complex in structure on both the macro and micro realm than that watch, so I don't consider the idea of an intelligent originator or some form to be absurd like the idea of an invisible leprachaun flying around. That's all I'm saying.

 

[Desert Fox]

Obviously if there is a creator of the universe, that creator WOULD HAVE to lie outside the fabric of spacetime. And current science cannot detect anything outside spacetime. Now if you look at all the intricate fine-tuning of the universe even down to the sub-atomic level, I don't think it's irrational for anyone to come to a conclusion that there at least COULD design behind it. Now I'm an agnostic, so I realize that there could always be the chance that it's pure coincidence and chance. But to compare that to a fvcking Leprechanun floating in the sky is just stupid. If I find a watch on the ground in the middle of the desert, I assume someone designed it due to it's intricacy and complexity of parts that would be very unlikely to assemble themselves by random chance. The universe is vastly more complex in structure on both the macro and micro realm than that watch, so I don't consider the idea of an intelligent originator or some form to be absurd like the idea of an invisible leprachaun flying around. That's all I'm saying.

You sound like a creationist with your watch argument. Everything in biology arose through evolution.

Everything in the universe arose from some initial event. PRobably the big bang. We do not know for SURE but at least we don't go make up bull**** about it and write a book about holy bullsh1t.

But I'm curious. Why is an invisible leprechaun floating around the universe setting things in motion less ridiculous than God?

 

[speakeasy]

You sound like a creationist with your watch argument. Everything in biology arose through evolution.

I don't deny evolution of biology. I'm talking about fine-tuning vis-a-vis the fine tuning of the universe on the sub-atomic level. Whether one wants to believe in a god or not, it can't be denied that on many levels, if some of the fundamental laws of physics were off just even a little bit, the universe could not even be possible and matter could not form. Forget about fish turning evolving into land animals, I'm just talking about the atomic structure of the universe long before any lifeforms took place. The opposing argument may say that maybe there have been eons and eons of big bangs that resulted in nothing and by sheer chance this time the universe got it right. Who knows, that could be the case. Or maybe there was a creator. To me god is more of a theory, not the personal god that the religious pray too. I'm open to differing explanations as to how we got here. The difference between you and I is that I don't throw the god theory out as ridiculous. I can either believe this is one universe and someone intended to get it right, or I can believe the 1 in a gazillion random chance that the universe got it right on it's own.

Everything in the universe arose from some initial event.

Of course. But what we can't see is what happened before that. Our science can only explain what happens in the observable universe. Prior to that is anybody's guess.

PRobably the big bang. We do not know for SURE but at least we don't go make up bull**** about it and write a book about holy bullsh1t.

It's obvious you have a sour antipathy toward religion, maybe you were raised in an oppressively relgious household and you are venting, I don't know. But I'm not too interested in subjective judgements about religions.

But I'm curious. Why is an invisible leprechaun floating around the universe setting things in motion less ridiculous than God?

What is a Leprechaun and what is god? Leprechaun is a figure from Irish folklore, I guess we picture him with a 4 leave clover wearing a green suit. Nobody has ever claimed that Leprechauns were anything more than legend and nobody ascribed any omnipotence to them. For that matter you might as well say a flying, invisible cookie is running the universe. God, at least as I understand the term has no image, no sex, wears no clothing or takes any human form. If I had to envision what god is if such exist, it would be something that resides outside the space-time continuum of the physical universe and existed before the big bang happened and in fact created the laws of physics that made matter condense from the pure energy that only existed at the instance of the big bang.

I'm not here to convince anyone to believe in god or anything, that's for people to make their own minds about. I