My life is pointless!

makemeshiver has the right "spirit." I also make the assertion that to really live life to the fullest is to experience all the pain and pleasure life has to offer - and survive them all.

Nimn, your answer to Agrote's "My life is pointless" (Mine too, but thats the least of my problems), Is one of the funniest lines I've read...ever.

Francis is right, of course. Life comes to us pointless, and we must give it meaning. Meaning is man-made rather than inherent in nature. When a lion captures and eats a small zebra, it is a meaningless event. We give it is abhorant meaning. As the existentialists put it, Existence (pure, meaningless suchness) precedes essence (meaning).

Who among you said that my life is meaningless?
JL Nobody

And my Ph.D. in penmanship has not helped me a wit.

I agree that once we are dead, all of our personal memories are gone forever. We will exist only in the traces we left behind such as diaries, pictures, movies, things we created, ideas we shared, and the memories of those who knew us - at least until they also die. Eventually the entire human race will die out or be destroyed, so what was the point of ever existing? I doubt if the universe cares any more about ephemeral minds on one small planet than we care about the well-being of algae on a pond.

But you don't have to believe in God, souls, or objective morality to realize that what you do DOES make a difference to the people who interact with you every day. Your actions can make them happier or harm them, and the quality of each life is important to the one experiencing it. The point is that we can all enjoy life, for as long as it lasts. What more do you need?

A few of us are luckier than others by being born in a developed country with opportunities to enrich our lives with education and ability to earn a living wage in an environment where good food, shelter and medical care is accessable/available.

The majority on this planet live in unhealthy environments with little opportunity to improve themselves or their families lives, with little hope to improve.

I'm glad I'm one of the lucky ones.

I agree, Chaplin. Very lucky.

Terry, you are a mature individual.

There are humans, I suppose, like Chaplin, who can say, and perhaps they are right, that their lives are pointless, but there is not a horse alive that can make that same claim.

Here are the points of a horse...



I hope we have all learned a valuable lesson here and I feel fairly comfortable in the knowledge that there are a few A2K members who, until today, were not familiar with the stifle or gaskin on a horse and now walk away more educated in the way of the horse.

Thanks, Gus. My equestrian enlightenment feels so wonderful.

I'm there for you, JL.

Never forget that.

Where are the feathers?

I knew a lot of that about a horse's points, but not the stifle or gaskin. You have been valuable to me, Gus.

Hah! I bet, he never heard that before (being valuable).

Why not? Why would it be worse to die now than to live a long and happy life and die after that? Either way I'll die, and when I die I won't care what's happened.



What's the point in being happy?


I'm sort of playing devil's advocate here. I probably agree with you all, really - life is what you make it, and all that. And I guess happiness is worth acheiving, purely for its own sake.

But it's still a shame about there being no God or anything like that, isn't it? If 'the meaning of life' were real, life would be like sex! But as it is, we are all just masturbating.

gustavratzenhofer, you're hilarious.
You made me spit toast everywhere.

Interesting topic and something with which I've found myself grappling with quite a bit recently. How much does God and a 'meaning of life' solve though? I mean, if God created us and proclaimed his reasons for doing so and our purpose and point in life was thus x, y and z, what would that change? Is God not then left with questions of purpose and point? Would that be ok, better or worse? Would we have a simpler answer for this topic or a more complex question?

It also really seems like purpose or meaning are only questioned with our 'thinking caps' on our when we wholly change our perspective, in other words, pointless? Not sure. Worthless or meaningless? Never. As someone mentioned earlier. For instance, even the smallest or seemingly insignificant post on this or many other forums in the past has been capable of making me take a step back and think.

In the distant future is the world going to chat in wonder about how on the rarest of rare occasions I was actually able to place a few coherent thoughts together, no :wink:. Gaining a fresh perspective on something or taking a step back and re-evaluating because of someone's thoughts/opinions means something to me though!

Step back and think on this, Ashers:

God's non-existence=our freedom. Rejoice!

AND, by the way, his non-existence is his excuse for all the suffering and injustice of our existence.

JLN,

I, too, rejoice and accept the freedom graciously.

But for others who are less secure, the thought of freedom is scary. It implies responsibility and independence, instead of being told what to do. They wouldn't have dreamed it up if it wasn't comforting.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Re: My life is pointless!


There doesn't have to be a point - that's the point. We're here now, in this environment, at this time - to do what? Who cares? There's no regulation that we have to achieve XYZ while we are here. Successes and goals are things of our makings. There may be no future after death (reincarnation?) and there may be no memories of us after all our companions die (are we so egotistical that we NEED remembrance long after we cease to exist?) but the fact that we exist now doesn't have to have a major cosmic meaning. We're blips, that's all. But we're big blips on our own personal screens and in our self centeredness we look at everything around us in relation to how I feel, what I want, what makes me happy, etc. We are fashioned with a brain that has the ability to question, imagine, reason, and overthink absolutely every issue - and sadly some people do just that, and miss out on the occasional silliness of happy things interspersed here and there.

Yes for some people there has to be achievement, religion (or a belief in something), and a satisfaction of looking back on a life and being content that a certain measurement was taken and found sound.

I don't measure that way. I find God, Souls and being remembered (in life, and in death) unimportant. If I've found a days joy in all the years I've been alive, then I'm smugly self-satisfied. There's been a lot of shite, but in that shite I've dug around and ... occasionally found a pony!

You know, it's this kind of concern that gave rise to Buddhism and the reasons people today practice it. Christians, I think, want to avoid the oblivion of death (and the Church gave them the "solution" that there is no oblivion, only an eternal afterllife in Heaven or Hell). Buddhism teaches that that there is no-one to suffer eternal oblivion. Indeed, it SHOWS us (when we are prepared to see it( that there is no-one to live this life now. There is only the life itself. There is no ego (to be determined or free); there is only the freedom (?) of life itself.
Amen

"Why not? Why would it be worse to die now than to live a long and happy life and die after that? Either way I'll die, and when I die I won't care what's happened."

Your basic hedonist that I am, I think life is to be lived for the sheer experience, the grit, the anxiety, the pleasure of touch, the joy of exhilaration, the smashing deliciousness of understanding complex things, the treasure of love.. and, too, the experience of pain, comprehension of loss. The vibrancy of life is the reason to hang around for it, with its dark corners and bright lights, and the colors in my mind.

To some, to experience this is to be part of whole and not a lone particle of it. To me, it is to be me, now, experiencing these things. Perhaps it is how I get to understand one piece of the whole, but my emphasis, my interest, is that I'm still busy experiencing me and what is around me.

Yeah JL, I rejoice at that too, I hope. Freedom can be so daunting though, I mean it does imply great choice and there in lies the problem. How do we make choices, by thinking, believing or wanting, the point being that it involves ?'you', but I think our concept of ?'you' is so messed up, so tangled with pressures and greed that deep down we're torn and truly looking inside ?'oneself' becomes too hard or too much effort, too scary even, to know what that means.

Dependencies, I guess that's what it comes down to, our very existence has dependency running right through it, and I suppose you need to be weary of what you choose to become dependent on. I'd like to think that with the true realisation of freedom and a true appreciation of what that implies we'd see an alleviation of suffering and a rise in justice but it is funny how "god" is just one of many substitutes we take on board to limit ourselves or to protect something.

EDIT Just thought of Buddhism right now JL, see you've just mentioned it. I kind of bordered around something there^ but I was reluctant to really talk about the ego etc because I don't really "know" what I'm talking about, pretty much just thinking aloud so I try to create as little racket as possible. Enjoying the topic though...

Ashers, you sound like a buddhist to me.

Osso, that was wonderful. Amor fati (Nietzsche): Say Yes to it all, as difficult as it may be sometime. This "Yes" transcends all dualisms (not a yes vs. no). It seems to me that Yes to everything is akin to Heaven while a No to everything (profound depression) is Hell. And both are of our own making*.

*Of course, some depression is physiological. I'm speaking of spiritual depression.