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Why Does Life bother?

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loony
 
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 07:19 am
What i'm trying to get at is not so much whats the meaning of life but, why does life go through all this hassle, why not just give up?
Why even bother in the first place?

Whats behind the motivation to evolve?

hypothetical question btw.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 1,654 • Replies: 24
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spendius
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 07:39 am
It's absurd really when you think about it a bit.

240 lbs of phyico-chemico mush watching a game show on a floral patterned sofa munching chocies. Or 400 of them in a metal tube at 38,000 ft going at 450 mph watching Airline with their egos twittering.
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loony
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 07:59 am
kind of strange isn't it? I did search around and i'm sure one of the more respected philiosophers has already pondered.

after possibly billions of years of trying surely there is a more efficient way of getting where whatever it wants to be.

wow that's made my head hurt.

I did something similar once to myself it was possibly the most scarey experience of my life so far.

I was in a military psychiatric hospital being diagnosed with schizophrenia. i was watching a TV that had nothing but white noise for some unknown reason and i suddenly thought to myself, do i really exist?

I got a horrible feeling of overwhelming dread like fear, like i had unlocked some door to thinking i really shouldn't have. I rushed down to the nurse and asked for some diazepam damn quick, luckily for me she could see what a state i was in and administered some for me. If i had left it much longer my brain would have probably imploded.

sorry about that....
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loony
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 08:06 am
I must apologise, i was so busy reading other posts i didnt see the philosophers discussion threads...however it would be good to get some more scientific opinions.
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tinygiraffe
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 08:22 am
scientists don't have satisfying answers to the "why bother?" questions.

of course, they don't have to. i mean it. it's not their forte or interest. when they answer "why" it's on another scale. you have to go to philosophers and *gasp* religious thought to answer "why bother?" although you'll hate most of those answers too, because the answers you will usually hear, suck. and none of them are too logical.
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OGIONIK
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 08:47 am
maybe life not giving up is proof of the struggle between good and evil?

lol just kidding but when you think about it everything is a positive or negative charged "particle" is it not?

its like science and religion sometimes say the same thing, but religion works backwards from the conclusion and science works forward from the problem. and religion is insanely corrupted and ignorant... well most of them.
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loony
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 08:48 am
ok but what do you think? personally? i'm interested in the self beliefs as well as the pre-educated stock by the book answers...if you have time of course.

I guess everyone has their own gut feeling whether it is accepted or logical is a different matter. but if you do have an understnding of how scientific things generally work you could have 2 possible answers to the question.
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loony
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 08:52 am
i Agree OGIONIK, I don't want to turn this into a belief bashing thread but i tend to go with factual evidence rather than stories, although believing science and scientists can be a sort of faith in itself.
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OGIONIK
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 08:57 am
oh yeah and pondering your existence is really dangerous for your health, i got really far into it before i got bored and realised it was depressing thinking about how big the universe is and how we see almost nothing of it AND HOW DEATH COULD POSSIBLY BE JUST BEING DEAD, WOOP DE DOO HUH?

i used to look at stars and solar sytems and smile at how they look like atoms with a sun for a nucleus and planets as electrons etc. its like looking into a forever-mirror setup. like our entire universe would be some random molecules in some other universe. and on atoms etc there could be being living on them how we live but to us it would seem like small scale.

but thats just random thoughts, nothing too in depth just having fun with an open mind.
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loony
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 09:28 am
I can see how people could latch on to a theory that there is a reason to all this life stuff. i haven't gone to far into the "i think therefore i am" type questions because i would probably end up on the front page of The Sun.

What i have picked up on though is that there doesn't seem too much in it for us at the end of the day. Sure we get sex, pleasures, beauty and stuff but these are easily outweighed by the crap things that happen to people.
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Vengoropatubus
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 12:23 pm
As the positivist once said the philosopher, "Reason? There is no reason. Would you like to see my stamp collection?"
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real life
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 02:49 pm
Re: Why Does Life bother?
loony wrote:
why does life go through all this hassle, why not just give up?


TCR was asking me this just the other day over in S&R. I really don't know why you or he are wondering about it. :wink:
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loony
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 03:01 pm
well have a think and let me know.
0 Replies
 
rosborne979
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 04:23 pm
Re: Why Does Life bother?
loony wrote:
Why Does Life bother?

It doesn't have a choice in the matter.

Humans have choices, everything else is running on auto-pilot.
0 Replies
 
tinygiraffe
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 05:29 pm
Quote:
i Agree OGIONIK, I don't want to turn this into a belief bashing thread but i tend to go with factual evidence rather than stories,


this is a reasonable preference. the only reason that i thought/think you'd/you'll need to ask religions this, is i doubt scientists even ask "why do we bother?" let alone come up with a theory. if they do/have come up with a theory, i wouldn't discourage you from going with it. science comes up with great theories, but only regarding questions interesting to science. your question is typically more interesting to philosophers.
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spendius
 
  1  
Reply Mon 24 Sep, 2007 05:43 pm
I must admit that there doesn't seem a lot of point in goofing off for a few years TUT (Trans Universal Time) what with toothache, traffic wardens and full ashtrays.

To be or not to be. That is the question.

We have all decided to be. Congratulations. That's the spirit.
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loony
 
  1  
Reply Tue 25 Sep, 2007 03:34 pm
tinygiraffe wrote:
Quote:
i Agree OGIONIK, I don't want to turn this into a belief bashing thread but i tend to go with factual evidence rather than stories,


this is a reasonable preference. the only reason that i thought/think you'd/you'll need to ask religions this, is i doubt scientists even ask "why do we bother?" let alone come up with a theory. if they do/have come up with a theory, i wouldn't discourage you from going with it. science comes up with great theories, but only regarding questions interesting to science. your question is typically more interesting to philosophers.


'the only reason that i thought/think you'd/you'll need to ask religions this'

nah, I wouldn't ask them the time of day cause that would probably be unbelievable. I would get better discussion from my magic 8 Ball.

But thanks tiny, I remember watching a doc on the big bang theory with steven hawking and it all ended up with the statement by him: something like ' why did the universe begin?' his answer was 'it just did' or simliar which isn't too scientific, but who knows....since that, the question of why life bothers has been rumbling round my brain but i had no one to ask.
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spendius
 
  1  
Reply Tue 25 Sep, 2007 05:13 pm
My life began as a consequence of a revolving door accident in a posh hotel in Blackpool when my Dad, as he then wasn't, pushed the wrong way and my Mum, as she then wasn't, was constrained to lecture him, an ineradicable characteristic of her personality, on the proper way to enter a revolving door.

And he had only gone to Blackpool in the first place because the Tory Party Grandees has voted 8 to 7 to hold their Annual Conference there because the whores in Brighton had got complacent.

Once that happened I had to bother.
0 Replies
 
spidergal
 
  1  
Reply Wed 26 Sep, 2007 09:11 am
Re: Why Does Life bother?
loony wrote:
What i'm trying to get at is not so much whats the meaning of life but, why does life go through all this hassle, why not just give up?
Why even bother in the first place?

Whats behind the motivation to evolve?

hypothetical question btw.


Short answer: Propagation of species

You can give up after reproduction. No probs there. At least, fulfill your biological responsibility on earth.

(Not directed to you personally, btw.)
0 Replies
 
jake123
 
  1  
Reply Wed 26 Sep, 2007 09:42 am
Quote:
What i'm trying to get at is not so much whats the meaning of life but, why does life go through all this hassle, why not just give up?
Why even bother in the first place?

Whats behind the motivation to evolve?

hypothetical question btw.



"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. "
---Douglas Adams

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. "
--Douglas Adams


"Many were increasingly of the opinion that they'd all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans."
---Douglas Adams

Sorry, your question immediately made me want to look up Douglas Adams quotes.
0 Replies
 
 

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