If nothing happens after we die, what's the point of it all?
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
Friedrich Nietzsche had a lot to say about this.
Suffering is part of what gives life meaning. If you don't know how hard it can get, you don't know how good it can get as well. And there's good suffering out there. Physical exercise, challenging yourself, testing your potential to see what you can actualize are all sufficient things to do in this life. You don't know what you can do until you try to do it.
Then you have to consider things like morality and knowledge.
We humans (and specifically old, white humans) tend to subject others to a certain kind of suffering through the patriarchy. That's not right. Every human should have a chance to live a good life in contrast to suffering. And the ethical pursuit of morality doesn't have to stop with our specific species of life. Humans also subject hundreds of other biological species to a life of slavery, torture, and death. It is a noble cause to bring freedom to those species, just as it is to bring freedom to Palestinians or Ukrainians or Hong Kongers. Their potential is limited by human made constructs which can just as easily be deconstructed.
Also, the universe is infinite (as far as we can tell). There are many machinations ongoing that cause certain events to happen. Why? Why was my local village destroyed by a rock flying in from space? Why is my town in Texas experiencing freezing temperatures when that's never occurred before? How long do I have to get to higher ground until the tsunami that earthquake caused reaches the coast? It's in our interest to learn about the natural world due to the hazards it brings to our lives, and which it could end prematurely. Humans are also curious. Why is our universe the way it is? Why can't we live in a 4D reality? Can we even grasp reality? How do I know something caused something else? How confident can we be in those judgements?
The human condition since The Enlightenment has meant we've shifted our epistemological focus away from us towards the greater world around us. If we no longer have an Almighty God which has all the answers and tells us what's good and ill, who does that now? We do!
God is dead. But morality, knowledge, and the good life of flourishing are not.
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Friedrich Nietzsche had a lot to say about this.
Suffering is part of what gives life meaning. If you don't know how hard it can get, you don't know how good it can get as well. And there's good suffering out there. Physical exercise, challenging yourself, testing your potential to see what you can actualize are all sufficient things to do in this life. You don't know what you can do until you try to do it.
Then you have to consider things like morality and knowledge.
We humans (and specifically old, white humans) tend to subject others to a certain kind of suffering through the patriarchy. That's not right. Every human should have a chance to live a good life in contrast to suffering. And the ethical pursuit of morality doesn't have to stop with our specific species of life. Humans also subject hundreds of other biological species to a life of slavery, torture, and death. It is a noble cause to bring freedom to those species, just as it is to bring freedom to Palestinians or Ukrainians or Hong Kongers. Their potential is limited by human made constructs which can just as easily be deconstructed.
Also, the universe is infinite (as far as we can tell). There are many machinations ongoing that cause certain events to happen. Why? Why was my local village destroyed by a rock flying in from space? Why is my town in Texas experiencing freezing temperatures when that's never occurred before? How long do I have to get to higher ground until the tsunami that earthquake caused reaches the coast? It's in our interest to learn about the natural world due to the hazards it brings to our lives, and which it could end prematurely. Humans are also curious. Why is our universe the way it is? Why can't we live in a 4D reality? Can we even grasp reality? How do I know something caused something else? How confident can we be in those judgements?
The human condition since The Enlightenment has meant we've shifted our epistemological focus away from us towards the greater world around us. If we no longer have an Almighty God which has all the answers and tells us what's good and ill, who does that now? We do!
God is dead. But morality, knowledge, and the good life of flourishing are not.
The purpose of discipline is to live MORE fully. Not less. There's nothing noble about suffering.
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But you are here now, so live a good life and enjoy it while you can. Maybe try to help others do the same. This is all we get, so use it to the fullest.
This. "It is a cheap generosity that promises the future as compensation for the present."
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"There's no point living, so you may as well die" is so last decade. "There's no point dying, so you may as well live" is where it's at
There's no point in living, but make sure you take a couple of the bastards with you when you go down.
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So, you are just an ignorant idiot who forms opinions on things without studying it?
Good for you.Hey now, isn't your religion all peace and niceties?
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
there is no point. simply try to enjoy it
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Hey now, isn't your religion all peace and niceties?
No; it's not all peace.
It's about truth and justice. -
Hey now, isn't your religion all peace and niceties?
Shows your ignorance.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
Plenty happens after you die. You're just not there for it.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
To make evil men and women powerful.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
Does there need to be a point? We eat because we're hungry, sleep because we're tired, live because we're instinctively apposed to death.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
The point is there is no point. No higher order. We're an accident of physics.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
There are two types of thinking about it:
- There is no point in living. We are doomed to get into the grave, and eventually be forgotten forever.
- There is no point in living. No higher order, no higher purpose, no higher authority. We are free to live our lives, to explore, to insert any meaning whatsoever into it. We are forging our own destiny.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
There’s nothing after this, so make the most of what you get. Try leave your corner of the world a slightly better place then when you were born.
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There are two types of thinking about it:
- There is no point in living. We are doomed to get into the grave, and eventually be forgotten forever.
- There is no point in living. No higher order, no higher purpose, no higher authority. We are free to live our lives, to explore, to insert any meaning whatsoever into it. We are forging our own destiny.
And, protip, you're not going to be around for option 1 anyway.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
Why not? Happiness comes from what happens while we're still alive. It's ""just"" a question of finding those things.
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Friedrich Nietzsche had a lot to say about this.
Suffering is part of what gives life meaning. If you don't know how hard it can get, you don't know how good it can get as well. And there's good suffering out there. Physical exercise, challenging yourself, testing your potential to see what you can actualize are all sufficient things to do in this life. You don't know what you can do until you try to do it.
Then you have to consider things like morality and knowledge.
We humans (and specifically old, white humans) tend to subject others to a certain kind of suffering through the patriarchy. That's not right. Every human should have a chance to live a good life in contrast to suffering. And the ethical pursuit of morality doesn't have to stop with our specific species of life. Humans also subject hundreds of other biological species to a life of slavery, torture, and death. It is a noble cause to bring freedom to those species, just as it is to bring freedom to Palestinians or Ukrainians or Hong Kongers. Their potential is limited by human made constructs which can just as easily be deconstructed.
Also, the universe is infinite (as far as we can tell). There are many machinations ongoing that cause certain events to happen. Why? Why was my local village destroyed by a rock flying in from space? Why is my town in Texas experiencing freezing temperatures when that's never occurred before? How long do I have to get to higher ground until the tsunami that earthquake caused reaches the coast? It's in our interest to learn about the natural world due to the hazards it brings to our lives, and which it could end prematurely. Humans are also curious. Why is our universe the way it is? Why can't we live in a 4D reality? Can we even grasp reality? How do I know something caused something else? How confident can we be in those judgements?
The human condition since The Enlightenment has meant we've shifted our epistemological focus away from us towards the greater world around us. If we no longer have an Almighty God which has all the answers and tells us what's good and ill, who does that now? We do!
God is dead. But morality, knowledge, and the good life of flourishing are not.
Nietzsche was low-key a little too excited about the meaninglessness of the universe, from what I've seen.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
Why aren't you creating meaning?
Without a god, there's only one option left for anyone with agency - us.
The fuck are you doing whining about it? Time's wasting and you don't have much. Get out there and build something that matters.
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
You've got to outlive your enemies
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We spend our days bound by endless obligations. Yet, even with loneliness, failed relationships, and soul-draining work, people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?
Why does there have to be a point? I have no legacy, I'll never pass anything to the next generation, I have and will not ever make anything that changes the course of humankind, the world will probably not be a better place after I am gone. But I still feel happiness when I see a beautiful sunset, I laugh when my dog does something goofy and I smile when I see others expressing real joy. I don't have to have a direction to still enjoy life while I am here to enjoy it.
