honestly...

[Black Water Park]

assuming we are just animated chemicals that somehow have gained self awareness ( if you don't believe this, why not?), what is the point of life. i mean we all will certainly die, and eventually sometime, all life on this planet will cease, so what to you think the point of it all is? tell me, in your opinion, why is it even worth being alive? this is not really ment to be as pessimistic as it probably sounds, i just want to know what you all think.

anyways, thanks to all who reply!!

[Black Water Park]

and if you are christian, i think i know your answer, which is great if you believe that, but i am really interested in answers from peope who have no particular "faith"

[delusionsofNORMALity]

why can't the sheer joy of existence be enough of a reason to get up every day? countless religions and philosophies have made up this purpose and that to do what any sane creature would do anyway, LIVE.

just because we have created our particular form of "reason" doesn't mean that the rest of the cosmos has to fit neatly into our plans. we are probably as insignificant as roaches, so why should there be some grand design centered around us.

we live,
we die.
we find our purpose anew each day.
all else is hubris

undoubtedly someone said that somewhere, sometime.

[Black Water Park]

well put! i just wish i did not have this damn voice in my head that says " i don't want to die, it really, really, really, sucks that i have to die"... things would be much easier if i could 100% accept the fact that i will die, and that will be the end of my existance, and be ok with that.

[delusionsofNORMALity]

well put! i just wish i did not have this damn voice in my head that says " i don't want to die, it really, really, really, sucks that i have to die"... things would be much easier if i could 100% accept the fact that i will die, and that will be the end of my existance, and be ok with that.

get used to it, 'cause there ain't no guaranties. chose your belief and go with it.

i remember those same voices and the fear they instilled. then i watched death do its thing, time and time again. now the voices say "just don't let me die messily" as well as trying to get me to commit a variety of unnatural acts, i try to ignore the former while occasionally giving in to a number of the latter.

[ericwt]

We are here to learn and to have fun. There I just explained everthing.

The point of life is to experience it.

[Lucifuge]

assuming we are just animated chemicals that somehow have gained self awareness ( if you don't believe this, why not?), what is the point of life.

Try asking these "animated chemicals that somehow have gained self awareness." ;)


i mean we all will certainly die, and eventually sometime, all life on this planet will cease, so what to you think the point of it all is?

The obvious answer... only to reproduce. Lions have no other purpose, why should we? This is where religion comes in.

But since you brought up the question, I've often considered not having children so they wouldn't have to experience the fear of death*, then death itself, and then whatever happens afterward (Hell, etc.). And Hell scares the shit out of me.

Given the choice, I don't think I would ever want to have been born. I mean I fucking love life, but death or going to back to not living (different, but probably the same), is fucking scary.


tell me, in your opinion, why is it even worth being alive?

All I have to say is, consider the alternative....


*"Without the threat of death there's no reason to live at all." -Marilyn Manson

I'm drunk and it's New Years, so fuck you if this doesn't make sense (or dollars:)).

[Black Water Park]

no it does make sense, thank you:)

[MastaChronic]

the point of living is to entertain yourself
plain and simple.

[ValkyrieAg]

Can I make everyone sad for a moment?


One day, when i was 6, my dad took me to Corpus Christi to visit a meat packing plant. He is in the meat industry and was visiting some guys down there. I stood at the kill floor eating a sandwich and a dr. pepper. I could see the thick steers headed up the shoot. They would smell around for a little bit. Look up. And there is a man there with a prong-gun, it fires a .22 cal rod, its like a little hammer. He puts it on the head, and it quickly disables the animal, which is good because you can't have an animal sitting there flopping around...thats time and time is money. Well they string it up quickly with hydraulics and within 20 feet on the conveyer, there is no head, no skin, and its muscles are twitching. It was when I was eating that sandwich and drinking my Dr. Pepper, I realized that one day I would die. I would end up rotting and I probably would be none-the-wiser. We are only here for a short time and when that time is up, i think we lose our self awareness. But the 'good' thing is that after death, eternity could feel like one second. Pretty wicked for a 6 year old to comprehend. I am still afraid of death, and i try to seek spirituality, but when our own personal future is so bleak......oh what the hell, i gotta go load a bowl.

[ValkyrieAg]

Ya know, to add to that above, now that I think back, I remember when i realized what death really is.....and you know what? I was okay with that. I was OK with death. But I realized that I have my whole life ahead of me. While I still have my life ahead of me, (im 21) i can't help but see that I am ~30% done with my life. I don't see myself living past 80.

To those who are older, do you ever look back at the years you've spent breathing and say "god damn, the party could end in the forseeable future."

(i see foreseeable future as 20-25 years.)

[ericwt]

Ya know, to add to that above, now that I think back, I remember when i realized what death really is.....and you know what? I was okay with that. I was OK with death. But I realized that I have my whole life ahead of me. While I still have my life ahead of me, (im 21) i can't help but see that I am ~30% done with my life. I don't see myself living past 80.

To those who are older, do you ever look back at the years you've spent breathing and say "god damn, the party could end in the forseeable future."

(i see foreseeable future as 20-25 years.)

Too busy enjoying the party now. Will be too involved in the party to see it death coming. I am 40 years old.

[nikweiser]

i think life is a test to what we have in our afterlives
what i belive in when we die is not heaven, but like when we dream is just gonna be like when we die we wont even know we are dead just dreaming

[WhosGotTheHerb]

I think my favorite thing to ponder when i'm fairly baked is a lot of the shit on this thread, existence, the universe, death... it freaked me out a bit earlier, when I began to think about what it would be like to die, and how you then cease to exist... and then your inner-self, your buddy or 'conscience' also ceases to be (i'm an atheist) and that truly terrified me, to stop thinking forever, you might as well never been born since you have no memory of your life since you're dead and just a dead body. Not even realizing you fall asleep and never waking up again... fucked up. Times like these i wish i believed in god.

[memoryburner]

I believe that we live...to die. Some people say its to reproduce...but not everyone reproduces, now do they? but EVERYONE dies. To me, the meaning of life would have to be something everyone does. and everyone dies. Theres my 2¢

[afghooey]

I don't think that the meaning of life is to reproduce.

I think reproduction is incidental to life, and I also think death is incidental to life. It's the only possible way for things to continue moving and changing.

If no one ever died, there would have been no room on earth for you to have been born. Death is just as much a miracle as birth, because they are a seamless duality.

As for the meaning of life itself... well, the first step to finding out is to have a perfectly clear understanding of just what you mean when you ask that. What do you mean by 'meaning'? Purpose? Significance?

Remember, these are human-contrived terms. That's fine if you think that the universe revolves around humans, but most people have moved away from such beliefs. So why should anything, including living things, have to have a point or purpose beyond existing? To our (admittedly limited) knowledge, humans are the only beings that create concepts like 'meaning' and 'significance', so why should we go looking for such things anywhere else?

[Stoner Shadow Wolf]

i have no understanding of the meaning of life.


seems utterly pointless.

[Polymirize]

I believe that we live...to die. Some people say its to reproduce...but not everyone reproduces, now do they? but EVERYONE dies. To me, the meaning of life would have to be something everyone does. and everyone dies. Theres my 2¢

But if the meaning of life is to be found in something everybody does, or rather, something that automatically happens to everyone, well, that makes the meaning pretty trivial doesn't it?

Makes life kinda meaningless...

I don't think we live to die. But for the same reason I don't think we live just to reproduce.

What else are you capable of?

[delusionsofNORMALity]

....seems utterly pointless.

it is pointless, but does everything have to have a point. i know that every species is completely self-absorbed, but aren't we intelligent enough yet to realize how unimportant we are. in the grand scheme of things we are nothing, so i just enjoy the fact that i'm here.

[Stoner Shadow Wolf]

see, that's jsut the thing, in the grand scheme of things, we do nothing!

granted, every individual component is meaningless without the rest, WE are meaningless period!


we serve no purpose! nature has balance, and all creatures, chemicals, and elements serve to uphold this balance, whereas humans do not serve any such purpose. without us, the world is a beautiful place, i can see it having purpose, to be a work of art, natural beauty, but throw humanity into the mix, and it loses all meaning.

[afghooey]

I agree and disagree with you, Shadow Stoner Wolf.

The known universe is more immense than most people can wrap their minds around, but I don't think that makes us insignificant. You said, "Every individual component is meaningless without the rest". I don't think we're excluded from that. We're expressions of the universe, just like everything else on this planet. The difference is, most people don't realize it, and so we feel that we've become something seperate from nature. I think it's this feeling of alienation that creates such an incredible hostility and/or indifference in people.

In the grand scheme of things, I don't think we do nothing. We react to the energy around us, just like everything does. I don't see why we need a purpose beyond that, though.

[Matt the Funk]

You live to do what you want.

[delusionsofNORMALity]

....we serve no purpose! nature has balance, and all creatures, chemicals, and elements serve to uphold this balance, whereas humans do not serve any such purpose. without us, the world is a beautiful place, i can see it having purpose, to be a work of art, natural beauty, but throw humanity into the mix, and it loses all meaning.

purpose

beauty


balance



nature

all these are fictional, they are just IDEAS
if you wish to follow the classical definitions of these terms and place them on pedestals as ideals then you are doomed to a life of abject depression.
instead try redefining them to fit in with your lifestyle. find the beauty in the mundane, see that even the most caustic acts of mankind are perfectly natural, keep yourself balanced and on the road of your choice.
that should be enough purpose for anyone.

[Coelho]

well... nobody of us knows when will die. it can be tomorrow... or today... who knows? so... instead searching for a meaning of life, try to realize the thing youre doing right now can be your last act on this earth. So, there is not much time left for thoughts... if this were your last act on the earth, would you like waste it? or would you run to do some thing worth of the effort?

"Death is our eternal companion. Its always to our left, at an arm's length."
Don Juan Matus - Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda.

If anyone could read this book, do it! its great! have many good points about nature of life, death, reality and this things.