Life!

[Hannes]

What is life like? How do you see life? Etc. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.

[Roland St. Jude]

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a box of chocolates. Life is crap; it is perfection. Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans; it is intention. Life is playing the hand you're dealt; life is what you make it. Life is.

[Neko Toast]

Let's see. I got... two of the references in Roland's post. Hamlet (or Macbeth, can't remember which) and Forrest Gump.

I prefer Gump's philosophy of life myself.

[Krrth]

Truthfully? Life is what you make of it. I know that's corny and cliched, but it's true.

Focus on the good and the bad kind of fades away.

[Hannes]

Well, lately I've caught myself too many times thinking that it's an endless, useless toil... Nothing's fun, nothing's interesting... Nothing makes this feel like life, the stuff they all keep talking about.

Also, fantasy heroes have it easier than the ordinary Joe... Because the answer to their problems is killing everything. On one side or the other.

[Krrth]

Well, lately I've caught myself too many times thinking that it's an endless, useless toil... Nothing's fun, nothing's interesting... Nothing makes this feel like life, the stuff they all keep talking about.

Also, fantasy heroes have it easier than the ordinary Joe... Because the answer to their problems is killing everything. On one side or the other.

Ah, but you have to find a reason, a purpose in life.

That purpose can be religious, social, or personal...but it has to be your purpose.


edit: I know when I get like that (and I have gotten like that), I know that when I get home my wife can cheer me up just by being there.(or when she gets home. Depends on who gets out of work first).

[Rutskarn]

Life is a very sub-par brand of cereal, and a worse board game.

[Ravens_cry]

Life is the brief dance between twin eternities.
Dance slow, dance fast. Dance long, dance short. Dance hard, dance soft.
Dance with others, and dance alone.
But what is most important, what is most needful, is to simply dance.

[Hannes]

I'll be damned if I'd ever figure out my "purpose" in life...

[The Blackbird]

Life is


noun 1. the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally.


:smalltongue:

[Exeson]

Life is just what you do whilst wasting time till you man up and die.

[SDF]

Life is okay, even when the bad things happen.

[Kaelaroth]

Life? Stop thinking about it; and just live with it.

[Ravens_cry]

Life is a very sub-par brand of cereal, and a worse board game.
Hey, I like that cereal. Sure, it may not be a Suger Soated Cluster Choco-bomb with crack sprinkles, and it may not be Hay-Balers Colon Cleanser and Stall Lining, but it has a nice golden sweetness I like.:smallfurious: (:smallwink:)

[Khaeta]

Life is an ocean, with tides both good and bad, up and down, warm and cold. It can be salty, or it can be sweet, the water from the well in the desert. It is ever-present and unalterable, and shall be until the end of time.

[arguskos]

Hey, I like that cereal. Sure, it may not be a Suger Soated Cluster Choco-bomb with crack sprinkles, and it may not be Hay-Balers Colon Cleanser and Stall Lining, but it has a nice golden sweetness I like.:smallfurious: (:smallwink:)
Damn, I was hoping to set Rutskarn in his place about Life.

As for what life really is:
Surprise! I don't have any damn idea.
:smallamused:

[Icewalker]

I'm working on this one myself, quite a bit. Basically, my current focus is, what does one do with one's life, and for what purpose: There are many things one can consider for this, but I'm looking at all of them in the context of 'end goal'.

For a while, I had decided that it was the accumulation and expansion of the human body of knowledge. But then I got stuck on the end goal of that, as I'm pretty sure omniscience is physically impossible.

[Thajocoth]

Life is, at minimum, that which allows various masses of organic matter to grow and multiply.

[KnightDisciple]

Behold, LIFE:
http://www.carters.com/assets/CategoryImages/t4_baby_newborn_03.jpg

[Shades of Gray]

Behold, DEATH:
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa279/oliver426/DeathWeird.png
It's the opposite. Duh.

[Flickerdart]

Life is like a box of chocolates: all the nice ones melted in the heat, caramelized or got swiped by someone else. Between your box and someone else's, maybe you can splice together a few good chocolates.

[Krrth]

I'll be damned if I'd ever figure out my "purpose" in life...

I used to think that myself. Then one day it hit me. My purpose in life is....to live. Life is it's own reward.

Seriously. Find a hobby you enjoy. Hang around with people who enjoy the same hobby.

Eventually, you'll find someone of your preferred gender and your world will change.

Or you'll make very good friends, and you'll share their lives.

Or both.

[Devils_Advocate]

Well, lately I've caught myself too many times thinking that it's an endless, useless toil... Nothing's fun, nothing's interesting... Nothing makes this feel like life, the stuff they all keep talking about.
Dude, there are squirrels (http://xkcd.com/167/)!

Isn't there anything that you're capable of enjoying right now? If there's really nothing, I think that means that you're depressed. If this is a recent development, there's a good chance that it'll eventually go away.

If you do find that you're not going to enjoy yourself in the near future, then you may as well spend the time doing things you've been putting off. If you're not going to have fun, you may as well at least do something productive. And, who knows, maybe that'll give you an uplifting feeling of accomplishment.


Also, fantasy heroes have it easier than the ordinary Joe... Because the answer to their problems is killing everything. On one side or the other.
Killing everything is neither easy nor pleasant. A gray and white world is not worse than a black and white world just because it's harder to see what the right choices are. If the right choice at least definitely doesn't involve fighting a demon, that's a good thing.

[SilverSheriff]

Life is how the imperfections amplify the perfections of your loved one. Life is love.

[Ego Slayer]

...is something I never actually signed up for. And it might all be a little less painful if I didn't have to know everyone I love is going to die one day, as if fearing my own wasn't enough. Ephemeral is a bitch, y'know? I might feel better if I knew some bastard couldn't take it away from me with a single bullet. Or I could take it away from myself. Not like that's really a big deal, anyway. You'll die too and get over it eventually.

I hate repeating the lives of millions of other people. Shouldn't that devalue knowledge, success, love, etc? It doesn't, and that bothers me a little. There's nothing that can separate you from the other millions. Thousands of other people will share the same opinions, the same eye colour, the same car, have the same worries, the same job, or the same quirks. And there's only so many emotions, too. Different mixes of the same stuff and it keeps most of us close to each other, and we can understand. I'd be something no one has seen before, but I don't know how to do that yet. Millions of people might copy me, afterward.

[/depressing]

[Moff Chumley]

@^: So go out and find those people, and do something about them :smallamused:.

And now, Moff Chumley's decleration of purpose:
MAKE AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE.
I don't know why, but there's nothing on earth more important than making the best, loudest, and deepest noise you can, be it musical, social, or spiritual. The one feeling where you are not you, you are something huger and more important than yourself, be it a song, a political movement, or a diety of your choosing. Chase that state, as responsibly and truthfully to yourself as you know how, and life will sort itself out. The important thing is to figure out where you're going. What are you into? Get involved. Where is life leading you at the moment? Figure out where, why, and how, and what you can do about it. And never forget, NOISE=GOOD.

[xPANCAKEx]

my views on existence can be summed up by a very handy piece of latin:

omnia vanitas

[Ravens_cry]

my views on existence can be summed up by a very handy piece of latin:

omnia vanitas
I may not know Latin, but I do have a love of etymology, and I was able to guess, correctly I might add, what that means.
The same book said, "Their is a time to be born and a time to die."
And as a much later author said (http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/AntiMorris/pratchett.shtml),
"You've got to dance both, they say. Otherwise you can't dance either."

[Blackknight1239]

Clearly, life is just a bunch of cliches. :smallamused:

[Mx.Silver]

Life is the brief period of consciousness in between nonexistence and death. Everything beyond that is up to you.

[thubby]

life is all you have done, all you are doing, and everything you will go on to do.

[Faulty]

Life is apparently filled with bad, melodramatic poets.

[Narmoth]

Life is your existence.
You nature given purpose is to reproduce. If you want more out of your existence, you'll have to find a purpose, a goal, yourself.

[Yarram]

Life is good. Everybody dance.

[Mad Mask]

Life is an overrated chemical reaction.

That doesn't mean we should all be depressed, however. Happiness is more cost-efficient that sadness. And technology, science and knowledge can make the bunch of odd atoms that we are be more important in the grand scheme of things.

[zillion ninjas]

Life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life) is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970.

[Thajocoth]

I see a lot of "purpose of life" here. The purpose wasn't asked. Only the definition.

But if the purpose were asked... Life's purpose is to continue to live. To outlive all the hazards that may wipe it out entirely. Mankind is Earth-life's biggest form of protection. To understand my conclusion, one must see my logic which starts long long ago when the Earth had no crust, it's mantle bare on the surface. The Earth was struck by a meteor. The impact was incredible. Eventually most of the splashed off molten rock returned to the Earth. What remained in orbit joined together and formed the Moon. This impact:
* Tilted the Earth, giving us the seasons.
* Created the Moon, giving us the tides and protecting the planet from most meteors that would later be on a collision course to Earth.
* Due to the magnetic shift, there's now a bit of an electromagnetic shield around the Earth that helps deflect a few of the Sun's most harmful rays. (Not nearly as effective as Ozone eventually proves to be though)

So, this event gave the planet a protection mechanism against the same event as well as 3 things that improve the planet's habitability.

Later, the planet has formed a solid exterior and has been mostly covered by water. Some simple life forms around the hot vents in the deepest waters where heat is given off from the mantle. But... An ice age comes. It is theorized that if an ice age is big enough, the planet would be so white to reflect enough light that it could not warm up again. This effect is known as Snowball Earth. Turns out, that's exactly what the geology says happened. However, the waters froze slowly and instead of being opaque and white, they acted as a magnifying glass might, focusing the Sun's energy. It was during this time that the first multicellular life was formed. Since the water cycle died, the skies filled with greenhouse gasses from volcanic activity eventually melting the ice age back to normalcy. This freeze:
* Showed that the planet would be able to return to normal from even the worst weather patterns
* Started multicellular life
* Showed that life can not only survive, but thrive in extremes

Then we move on to the K-T event, now known as the Gulf of Mexico. (Well, the southernmost part of it.) This is the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs and many other creatures. If it weren't for that meteor, humans might not have been able to evolve. We're intelligent. We have a thirst to learn. We have the hands to build. We have a will to survive. We require the rest of the planet to live for us to do so. We're watching the skies for more meteors. We know that the Sun is slowly getting bigger and that we'll one day have to either move the planet or evac to Mars. We've even got a plan to terraform Mars already (using certain specific pieces from the Asteroid Belt.) And we know when the Sun will explode. We've got sufficient time to expand our technology to solve these problems that Earth life will face. We are the planet's latest line of defense.


And now you see my rationale.

[bloodlover]

I suppose you refer to our mortal earthly life? As far as I see things, this life is not the only one and our purpose here is to evolve more in a spiritual way and become closer with divinity. Don;t get me wrong, I am not some blind religious fool and I always think things out in a logical way, but I think there is something beyond our human perception.

[hamishspence]

"Life" is associated with "the universe and everything" :smallamused:

[Mad Mask]

I suppose you refer to our mortal earthly life? As far as I see things, this life is not the only one and our purpose here is to evolve more in a spiritual way and become closer with divinity. Don;t get me wrong, I am not some blind religious fool and I always think things out in a logical way, but I think there is something beyond our human perception.

How do you know that ? If you think things out in a logical way, how do you explain the way our conciousness travel from a body to an other ? Brain transplants aren't very practical at this moment of history.

[bloodlover]

Well there are people that came back from Clinical death for example and they all described the same thing. Do you find this normal , giving the fact that every individual is unique but still they had the same experience? Also there are some things that not even science can explain. Like statues of the virgin Mary bleeding with tears of blood, or people that can see into the future (don;t tell me they just guess things).

[Mx.Silver]

Well there are people that came back from Clinical death for example and they all described the same thing.
Firstly not every near death experience has been the same at all. There are a few of people who've been brought back from 'clinical death' who haven't claimed to have seen anything.
Secondly, Near Death Experiences can and have been triggered without people actually dying. A small percentage of those blacking out from G-force pressure for example will get these.

NDEs are well documented, and there is no evidence that they're anything more than an entirely mental phenomenon.


Like statues of the virgin Mary bleeding with tears of blood,
Which there is nothing aside from sketchy anecdotal accounts to suggest even happened at all.

or people that can see into the future (don;t tell me they just guess things).
Well yes, if you ignore the simple law of averages explanation (which is entirely consistent with the observed accuracy of preditions) then yes, science can't explain it. Of course, if you ignore germ theory than science can't explain a fair portion of diseases either.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: Please keep in mind that real world religion is an inappropriate topic here and should be avoided.

[Faulty]

Life is a mercurial ride that is overall pretty fun if you let it be.

[Devils_Advocate]

Well there are people that came back from Clinical death for example and they all described the same thing. Do you find this normal , giving the fact that every individual is unique but still they had the same experience? Also there are some things that not even science can explain. Like statues of the virgin Mary bleeding with tears of blood, or people that can see into the future (don;t tell me they just guess things).
I think that the relevant application of Occam's Razor is: In a non-magical universe, sometimes people will fake supernatural phenomena, or mistake events for supernatural phenomena. Broadly speaking, evidence of the supernatural doesn't strongly imply the actual existence of the supernatural. To get a good sense of the likelihood of the supernatural, you need to carefully investigate allegedly supernatural events in order to determine their most likely causes.

The default explanation of a statue weeping red liquid is that there's a tube or something in there set up to squirt it out. Because, really, that doesn't seem like it would be too hard to set up. This seems like a more likely explanation than magic, which seems to be at least pretty rare.

Of course, close examination of the statue will probably give you a better idea of what might or might not be at work. (Accounts of close examinations are something different, though. How do you know that the people giving them are telling the truth?)

Similarly, of all the predictions made about the future, some will turn out to be right. It would be more surprising if no detailed prediction was ever close to right. Heck, predicting the future is a perfectly mundane ability: I can safely predict that the sun will rise tomorrow, for example. Some people are better at predicting than others, but that doesn't necessarily imply magic.

[thorgrim29]

Life? Life is. It just is, I don't thing it need more definition.

[LurkerInPlayground]

I'm pretty sure the notion that life has to be happiness and sunshine is a relatively recent invention in our culture.

People intentionally sabotage their own happiness for concepts like Duty, Justice, Honor, Knowledge, Love, Status etc. and would gladly trade off any chance of ever being happy in the service of an obligation.

Asking what life really is about is pretty much a headbanging exercise in navel-gazing.

[bloodlover]

Well you guys should read this http://www.crystalinks.com/weepingstatues.html

Just because science from the 21st century can't explain it , does not make a fact fake. Keep in mind that along evolution man made up many things due to the fact that he can't explain them in a scientific way. Up until recently (recently for human evolution ofc) people still thought that the world is flat, or that the Earth is the center of the universe and the other planets were "spinning" around it. Because people at the time could not explain such things, did not mean that these theories were fake.

In conclusion, I am not telling you to blindly accept everything that you see, but don't make the mistake of falling in the other extreme part, where you will believe nothing if it is not proven by a scientist.

[Simius]

Life is pretty darn awesome.

[Mx.Silver]

Well you guys should read this http://www.crystalinks.com/weepingstatues.html


I advise you also read this http://www.crystalinks.com/bio.html

Note the part where she advertises herself as a 'psychic' and a 'healer'. She has no scientific credentials at all and is also extremely biased as she clearly already believes in a huge range of 'supernatural' phenomena.


Just because science from the 21st century can't explain it , does not make a fact fake.
True, for instance we still can't explain how gravity works. When the event in question can't even been shown to exist by scientific observation however things change. Lastly, most of these 'inexplicable' powers can actually be explained fairly simply, it's just that believers, due to confirmation bias, are seldom willing to accept things like the placebo effect, cold-reading, coincidence and halucinations as explanations.


Keep in mind that along evolution man made up many things due to the fact that he can't explain them in a scientific way. Up until recently (recently for human evolution ofc) people still thought that the world is flat,
This isn't true. The planet has been known to be round since the ancient greeks at least, possibly longer.


or that the Earth is the center of the universe and the other planets were "spinning" around it. Because people at the time could not explain such things, did not mean that these theories were fake.
No, but it meant they were wrong. Just because people sincerely believe their incorrect explanation does not effect the value of these explanations one jot.



In conclusion, I am not telling you to blindly accept everything that you see, but don't make the mistake of falling in the other extreme part, where you will believe nothing if it is not proven by a scientist.
You on the other have already demonstrated that you willl believe something regardless of whether or not there is any valid evidence for it, even ignoring perfectly valid explanations if they contradict your personal beliefs:

(don;t tell me they just guess things).

Secondly, yes that's exactly it. I don't accept an empirical claim without empirical evidence, as that is the only method you can use to objectively demonstrate whether an empirical claim is true. Science is knowledge of the physical universe. If you're making an empirical claim, i.e. that something exists within this universe, then you need empirical evidence for it(and yes, the claim that humans have the power to psychically predict the future is an empirical claim). Otherwise you have nothing to demonstrate that your claim is any more likely to be true than the halucinations of a schizophrenic.

[Devils_Advocate]

Just because science from the 21st century can't explain it , does not make a fact fake.
I don't think that anyone has suggested that. Many people would suggest, though, that just because modern science can't explain something, that doesn't make it supernatural. (Remember, presuming an unexplained phenomenon to be supernatural is NOT open-minded (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69TOuqaqXI)!)


Keep in mind that along evolution man made up many things due to the fact that he can't explain them in a scientific way.
Um, yes. And keep in mind too that made-up non-scientific explanations have a history of eventually being discredited...


In conclusion, I am not telling you to blindly accept everything that you see, but don't make the mistake of falling in the other extreme part, where you will believe nothing if it is not proven by a scientist.
Most people accept personal accounts of events unless they see a reason not to believe them. I'm not really unusual in that regard; tell me what you had for breakfast this morning and I'll think that you're probably telling the truth. Yeah, you could easily be lying, but until I see a reason to think that you are, I'll assume that you aren't, because people usually tell the truth unless they have reasons to lie.

If you find someone who won't believe any personal account, then you've got an overly skeptical person. But I've yet to meet anyone like that!

[LurkerInPlayground]

In conclusion, I am not telling you to blindly accept everything that you see, but don't make the mistake of falling in the other extreme part, where you will believe nothing if it is not proven by a scientist.
That's incredibly wishy-washy and misleading as a statement. It's almost as bad as simply saying that "science takes faith too."

The simple fact of the matter is that I'm given no real reason to believe anything like weeping statues etcetera. It's far more basic then whether or not a scientific consensus exists.

[Xyk]

Life is a fortunate side-effect of an expanding universe. Also real fun! I like to think about how death would feel like compared to life. Death effing sucks. Not feeling anything or thinking anything forever. Life is better than the alternative.

[Devils_Advocate]

I like to think about how death would feel like compared to life. Death effing sucks. Not feeling anything or thinking anything forever.
Nonexistence wouldn't feel like anything. You wouldn't be there to feel. It wouldn't be unpleasant. On the other hand, it wouldn't be pleasant, either. So how that stacks up against life depends on whether and how much you enjoy and/or... whatever the opposite of enjoy is... life.

[Da_Time_Waster]

To be honest, I've been thinking about this a lot recently. This is the answer I got"

Life has no meaning. If you crush an ant, you end a life. If you kill a human, you end a life. Life has no importance. If it had any, why are living beings continuosly dieing every second. If you think this thinking is flawed, think of this. You can an ant because it either bothers, atacks (bites), and/or you just can. Is that any diffrent than killing the town fool? It's allright to kill it because it doesn't think like a human. If someone has an I.Q. of 10 or something like that, are you saying he should die? Long story short, life is simply something that is destroyed, with having no significance on the world. Yes i know i contradicted myself there, but i can never keep my thinking going in one direction, and every point ios stll one to atleast think about.

Here's another way of looking at it. Human life is less than worthless. Every year, human's destroy trees, block rivers, polute the air, and kill for sport. If you try to say that's not me than your wrong. Everytime you use a peice of paper, it's the same as if you killed the tree. Everytime (in some regions) you turn on a computer, it's your fault teh river's blocked. Every time you hop in a car, it's your fault the air's being poisioned. Every time you admire a hunting trophy, even if it's simply a glance a t one, it's fault the animal was killed. Throughout your life you do so much harm to this planet that you it might have benn better if you haven't lived. The only reason i'm still alive now is because i haven't worked up the courage to ram a knife through my neck yet. Me, and humans in general are just a bunch of mass murdering, planet destroying scum who have no right to live.

Sorry if i have made you think.

[Devils_Advocate]

Human activity has had some positive results other creatures. And also for humans, which I think should count for something. But... yeah, there's appalling cruelty, too. It's pretty bad.


Life has no meaning.
The thing about nihilism is, you might as well assume that it's false. It's not like that's a wrong thing to do, if there's no such thing as wrong.


Yes i know i contradicted myself there
I'm not seeing the contradiction. Could you clarify?


Human life is less than worthless.
But if all life is worthless, how is human degradation of life negative or even possible? I think that this is the point where you start to contradict yourself.


Sorry if i have made you think.
Don't make us break out the fire and acid, pal.

[Da_Time_Waster]

When i mentioned contradicitong myself at first it's because first i started off with, life is meaningless than i talked about how killing is bad, pretty much saying, it's bad to take something of no value, like taking a free mint from a store.

And as for the aprt where you mentioned i was contradicting myself, that's because i have different ides happening in my head. I can think of one reason, then i'll spontaniously think of another. Pretty much the 2 paragrapghs are 2 different ideas i have on the same subject. Don't think of themas one continuos idea.

And for the sorry if i make you think thing, i always add that on just a bout everything i say that ahs any meaning, since most people prefer not to dwell on the nagative points of life.

[SDF]

Life has no meaning.

That is a hard sell from just about any angle. Life seems to have a subjective value to just about everyone. (psychopathy not withstanding) The ad baculum assertion that it's okay to crush an ant, and by extension the mentally retarded because you can doesn't take into account a multitude of societal constructs and biological imperatives we as humans posses.


Here's another way of looking at it. Human life is less than worthless. Every year, human's destroy trees, block rivers, polute the air, and kill for sport. If you try to say that's not me than your wrong. Everytime you use a peice of paper, it's the same as if you killed the tree. Everytime (in some regions) you turn on a computer, it's your fault teh river's blocked. Every time you hop in a car, it's your fault the air's being poisioned. Every time you admire a hunting trophy, even if it's simply a glance a t one, it's fault the animal was killed. Throughout your life you do so much harm to this planet that you it might have benn better if you haven't lived. Me, and humans in general are just a bunch of mass murdering, planet destroying scum who have no right to live.

That's an environmental blanket statement with a resulting fallacious conclusion. Trees are replanted when chopped down for pulp products by a ratio of 3:1 by most paper manufacturing companies. Many own their own land or want to be able to continue using the same land in the long run, as well as capitalistic and government enforced dictums to such ends. Hunting in countries that allow it is, at the top, almost exclusively regulated by ecologists managing local wildlife levels that helps the environment way more than it hurts it. I think it's dishonest to use conventional wisdom and misconceptions to paint such a misanthropic view of humanity.


The only reason i'm still alive now is because i haven't worked up the courage to ram a knife through my neck yet.

If you are in any way not joking I urge you to talk to someone about this.

[Xallace]

Life
Life will never be-e
Life will never be-e the same!
Cue europop. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAKtxEYRUvY)

So anyway, I'm a' gonna say that the meaning of life is(!):
A moot point, really.

The question was how do I see life? I guess that's in a "what's my mentality" way rather than a "with my eyes" way. Well, I don't care what the reason for life is. Maybe there's a grand purpose. Maybe there isn't. Maybe we're just an incredible coincidence!

There's always gonna be folks sittin' around, spouting philosophical things like "there is no meaning!" or "The meaning is to love!" or "biological imperative!" or whatever.

The thing is that I'm here, now. I'm in life, and I feel like doing something with it while I've got this wonderful opportunity. I have the chance now to give life meaning, or give it my own meaning if it already had one. Maybe I'll go try to make the world better for my potential offspring. Maybe I'll paint a lot. Heck, my body was a star once, maybe I'll go become one again.

[SDF]

I'm not going to lie, I made it about twenty seconds into that song before clicking on the "What is Love" link.

Speaking of cool songs about life. Worms Make Dirt! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A48yxob6KQ)

(The miracle of life is AWESOME!)

[Overlord Nicy]

It's just a meaningless, human-created concept, entirely.

[Devils_Advocate]

On the purpose of life: A thing's purpose is its intended use, correct? I think that the relevant question is what you intend to use your life for.

I'm still working on that one.


When i mentioned contradicitong myself at first it's because first i started off with, life is meaningless than i talked about how killing is bad, pretty much saying, it's bad to take something of no value, like taking a free mint from a store.
But you hadn't said that killing was bad at that point. You had said that because there's so much death, life must be worthless. (Which doesn't actually follow.)


And as for the aprt where you mentioned i was contradicting myself, that's because i have different ides happening in my head. I can think of one reason, then i'll spontaniously think of another. Pretty much the 2 paragrapghs are 2 different ideas i have on the same subject. Don't think of themas one continuos idea.
Toying with ideas can be fun, but do you ever give any thought to which of your ideas are accurate?


And for the sorry if i make you think thing, i always add that on just a bout everything i say that ahs any meaning, since most people prefer not to dwell on the nagative points of life.
So, you almost never say meaningful positive things, then? Not too surprising, I suppose, given what you've posted so far.


If you are in any way not joking I urge you to talk to someone about this.
Well, DTW mentioned it to us. Doesn't that count?

If I wanted to kill myself, I wouldn't use a knife. That sounds needlessly unpleasant. There must be a relatively painless way to do it with pills or something.

[thorgrim29]

I was wondering how long the thread had before nihilism made an appearance... there's something about these boards that brings it out for some reason, probably the quantity of teens (including me for a few more months) and social misfits.

The only thing I have to say is that life doesn't NEED to have an intrincinc meaning (well, other then the biological imperative to reproduce I mean). It's what you make of it. For me, life is being with people you love as often as possible and doing a job you enjoy. Life, or at least the sense of mine, is the feeling I get when I understand something new, when I consume my favourite foods/drinks, when I'm just hanging out with buddies, or sitting in the sun, reading a good book and listening to music, or seeing a good movie, or canooing, and (hopefully) it'll eventually be being with a girl I love (hey, a guy can hope right?).

My point is, you can beleive there is no greater purpose (I don't) and still find a meaning for your existance. And for the old "we shouldn't be alive because we destroy the planet" angle.... You just need to accept that humans rule this Earth, for better of worse, and we're getting better at it. Also, a lot of people forget that we are a part of nature, so why would it be ok for a beaver to cut a tree and dam a river and not for humans? For a wolf to kill a deer and not for a human hunter?