What do you think is the purpose of life/ what keeps you going?

What keeps me going? Prefering life to the alternative.




D&D. Impeach the Living Embodiment of the Peter Principal.

 

I've been around for a while. It's not a chore to live, nor has fatigue kicked in, other than the fact that it is 4 in the morning, and I'm going to bed. Hedonism? Preferring life to death is hedonism? How could you write that long tract and then come up with a response like this to my post? If I was hedonistic, I would have said I preferred pleasure to the alternative of death. That is not what I said. I prefer life to death. What is hedonistic about that?




D&D. Impeach the Living Embodiment of the Peter Principal.

 

I think if God exists then he's probably a non-interfering architect. Maybe all our close shaves are a matter of luck. On the other hand, I don't think it's lazy thinking or ignorance to believe that God had a role in the things you've achieved. If that's the case, then God has shown Himself.

I have a hard time believing some Christians claim that we are God's property through Jesus's sacrifice and we have to adhere to the terms of the Bible since our lives aren't our own. If God was infinite love, then I'd think we have to live our lives to the fullest in order to appreciate the gift of life rather than repress arbitrarily determined things.

This might sound too blunt, but I don't see strict morality as God's word. It's just some tool used by old men to dominate groups of people.

Therefore in the context of this discussion, I think it's a hard and futile task to live solely in the name of God, though using God to help guide you through life is a noble endeavor, if the God you worship is a loving one that teaches compassion and cooperation. Fundamentalist or religiously justified violence is feeding upon the base desires that most religions were set up to help people cope against. It becomes an ironic exercise in futility.

Most of the memorable things in your life come from the unexpected. They are things you can't control. When people put their lives into God, it's an acknowledgment that there are things bigger than them that can't be overcome alone but could be achievable with a common understanding with others. Maybe faith is like a gut feeling, an irrational reaction or thought.

But I see faith as a very powerful quality in living a good life.

It's because faith can sound stupid in the face of reality, but true faith comes with the knowledge that you can get screwed for acting upon it.

Trusting your friends and loved ones one part of acting in faith. Anyone could argue selfish intentions, and there are those who exploit the faith of others. Those with true faith will definitely recover.

It's self-fulfilling and self-reinforcing. Kind of like people who suceed because they never gave up after failure, faith in others builds bridges that people ultimately crave.

The God of the Gaps argument is a good rebuttal. No one can comprehend the immense scales and microscales of the universe. I think religion is attacked (though not victimless) because it's offering an answer that can't be answered with certainty.

An outside observer could get annoyed at the credulity of giving such an answer. He could also think of it as spreading lies. But isn't that a form of a personal morality in itself?

Personally, I sidestep the issue by respecting other people's beliefs as long as they came to their conclusion themselves and they're not actively interfering with my beliefs through aggressive tactics.

God or no God, we need rules in the physical realm to allow civilized society. Christians believe sins can be forgiven and that we suffer from the most original sin of having free thinking and willing minds. There's already a topic in D&D about morality. So I leave it at that.

I don't think the universe is checking and balancing itself with zero sum values. First thing to know about life is that none of this will make any sense. Even with numbers, there are values that you just have to accept for what they are.

Now for your proposal, what if the government took you to some lab and subjected you to testing for my survival? Is that pursuit of knowledge still worthy under your personal ethics?

Does a country with no water, power, infrastructure or agricultural base need an elaborate university system for it's 20 year goal? Priorities are subjective. Who you are and the circumstances you grew up in have shaped your personal ethics and values.

Something to think about for morality and ethics.

I maintain the belief that science and religion are not mutually exclusive in the pursuit of knowledge and improving the quality of life.

If you equate knowledge with gained experiences, some experiences you don't need to know in order to improve yourself, like spending a month in jail or coping with an STD.

Your other point that God will send you to hell through sin, I also have thought a lot about. Can a loving God banish a soul for eternity for actions committed in a very short life? I don't think there's justice in that either. Perhaps a God will just let atheists die the way they want, the end of existing with their corpses rotting in the earth. One interpretation of Hell is the absence of God. To what degree of Hell is that...who knows? Perhaps the afterlife runs in a clockwork similar to this universe with it's own rules, like the way Asian cultures describe it. I don't know. And I've never picked the brain of someone who has come back to life.

If the fear of Hell and the injustice of it discourages you from Christianity, you have the free will to pursue a path of your own. As long as you're alive, religion or the lack of it is always an option.

From a Christian perspective, you have been given the free will to choose good or bad.

Atheists argue through God's omniscience that free will doesn't exist since if God knows everything, then everything is determined. And if everything is determined, why bother?

Again, life is a gift. You get no do overs, so make some damn good choices and the choices you want. There's not much more to say than that.

If you think we have no choice, then you could say that we're slaves. Slaves to what...God in my example, or science in yours? Both are abstract concepts in our puny minds.

Dogs have been bred to love their owners. They don't care that they're slaves to our whims. There's a certain amount of pride in ourselves that pop up when it's not necessary to our well being. In this case, it's arrogance in assuming that everything in our destiny can be planned and be accounted for.

That's not an argument for ignorance, but rather there are several possibilities to handle a situation and that logic should serve as a tool and not a crutch...especially when anticipating how other human beings think.

I don't think there is a universal truth, but there is personal truth. You could narrow down that pursuit of all knowledge and focus upon finding that. I mean learning and discovering things is also a way for a fulfilling life to many, but dictating that as the truth is as productive as telling people they will go to hell if they don't submit.

 

to know God/God

 

I won't say I love you, babe
I won't say I need you, babe
But I'm gonna' get you, babe
And I will not do you wrong
Living's mostly wasting time
And I waste my share of mine
But it never feels too good
So let's don't take too long
Well, you're soft as glass and I'm a gentle man
We got the sky to talk about
And the world to lie upon

Days up and down they come
Like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some
But don't turn none away
Everything is not enough,
And nothing is too much to bear
Where you've been is good and gone
All you keep is the getting there
Well, to live's to fly, both low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes

It's goodbye to all my friends
It's time to leave again
Here's to all the poetry
And the pickin' down the line
I'll miss the system here
The bottom's low and the treble's clear
But it don't pay to think too much
On things you leave behind
Well, I may be gone, but it won't be long
I'll be bringing back the melody
And the rhythm that I find

We all got holes to fill.
Those holes are all that's real
Some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own
The choice is yours to make
The time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone
Well, to live's to fly, both low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eye
Shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eye

 

To bang as many hot chicks as possible.

 

I like how you said this thread's main point was really about the purpose of life, and then wrote an essay on whether God exists.

I believe in God. He's my purpose. I won't try to convince you of Him with fancy lawyer talk or the words of philosophers I admire. I would encourage you to never stop wrestling with this question. You're absolutely right that you shouldn't take His existence at face value without wrestling with it. Go to churches where people really, truly believe and live their lives in service of others.

I love Jesus...I'm not cool with religion, either.

By the way...Socrates believed in God.

 

I don't think there is any meaning at all. What keeps me going is that since death is a certain thing, so I don't have the urge to kill myself. Then why don't I just keep watching my movie of life till the end?

But if you think from the perspective of human race, the meaning of human race existence is to keep existing. If you subscribe to that, then bang more chicks to make more kids can be your life mission.

 

he who knows does not know, he who doesn't know - knows.

 

so it's a conspiracy theory, cool

 

I believe God would agree with you on this point.

 

"Well, all I'm saying is that I want to look back and say that I did I the best I could while I was stuck in this place; had as much fun as I could while I was stuck in this place; played as hard as I could while I was stuck in this place; ****** as many girls as I could while I was stuck in this place."

But seriously: to improve the world around me as much as possible, and by example inspire others to do the same.

And enjoy life.

 

The Meaning of Life


"Are There Any Questions?"

At the last session on the last morning of a two-week seminar on Greek culture, led by intellectuals and experts in their fields who were recruited by Papaderos from across Greece, Papaderos rose from his chair at the back of the room and walked to the front, where he stood in the bright Greek sunlight of an open window and looked out. We followed his gaze across the bay to the iron cross marking the German cemetery.

He turned. And made the ritual gesture: "Are there any questions?"

Quiet quilted the room. These two weeks had generated enough questions for a lifetime, but for now there was only silence.

"No questions?" Papaderos swept the room with his eyes.

So. I asked.

"Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?"

The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.

Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was.

"I will answer your question."

Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.

And what he said went like this:

"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.

"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine -- in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.

"I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light -- truth, understanding, knowledge -- is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.

"I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world -- into the black places in the hearts of men -- and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."

And then he took his small mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.

Much of what I experienced in the way of information about Greek culture and history that summer is gone from memory. But in the wallet of my mind I carry a small round mirror still.

Are there any questions?

-------------------------------------------------------------

(from the book, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, by Robert Fulghum, the same guy who wrote All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)

 

p***y

 

i knew it would be v-span!!!

 

I don't know if you are being glib, but almost all male-specific behaviors can be reduced to this. This is actually a pretty good answer, IMO, even if people don't realize it overtly. And I guess quite often these male competitive behaviors get sublimated into something else, but they all start off as attempts to impress p***y.

 

wow, too long to read.

1/4 life crisus? 1/2 life crisus? 3/4 life crisus?

from a mathematical stand point (i believe pascal made this arguement but i may be wrong...)

there is a god = 0.5
or
there is no god = 0.5

now lets say:

i believe in god = 0.5
or
i dont believe in god = 0.5

if there is a god and you believe in him (0.5 x 0.5) = 0.25 when you die there will be a good outcome

if there is no god and you believe in him (0.5 x 0.5) = 0.25 when you die there is not effect

if there is no god and you dont believe in him (0.5 x 0.5) = 0.25 when you die there is not effect

if there is a god and you dont believe in him (0.5 x 0.5) = 0.25 when you die there will be a bad outcome

0.25 good outcome
0.25 + 0.25 = 0.5 no effect
0.25 bad outcome

the best bet is to believe in god