Life and Death

[Your Funny Uncle]

If there is no afterlife I won't know it and it won't matter because I will no longer exist (I fully acknowledge this possibility). Whilst I count myself as an agnostic, I choose to believe in an afterlife because: 1. The universe has ALWAYS proven to be larger and more complex than our ancestors ever imagined (even our parents) and I don't see why we're any more intelligent or insightful than they were and 2. It makes me feel better in the here and now. If there is nothing after this, then feeling better in the present is really all that matters.

I take the opposite view. It's pretty much impossible to know for certain, but there's no good evidence to believe it's anything more than wishful thinking. I therefore want to make the best of the time I have assuming that it's all there is, and if perchance I am wrong and there is an afterlife, then that'll be a great bonus.

[Danimal]

If I feel better about my afterlife prospects then I may live my life now with more confidence, security, and happiness. I don't totally disagree with you point of view, I just choose to view things differently. To each their own...

[Your Funny Uncle]

To each their own...

Indeed. I enjoy explaining my point of view but I'm not arrogant enough to be intolerant of others' opinions.

[Flaffer]

I'm actually quite anti religion but at my Nans wake last Monday I found myself chatting to my cousins about how she was probably bossing her husband ( who died 31 years ago ) about. I think the afterlife is a comforter to those scared of death or who hate the ideas of their loved ones being gone forever, but who knows, the idea is a nice one

[glennjridge]

I wonder other things about the afterlife, such as, if I am to live forever on the new earth,will it be static and unchanging like earth is now.

having a short lifespan makes going to say, paris seem really exciting.but if I were to have eternal life, I'm sure like 2000 years in,seeing paris for the 400th time,a sort of ...meh...might creep in.

but I'll be able to fly so that will make up for some stuff.

[Your Funny Uncle]

having a short lifespan makes going to say, paris seem really exciting.but if I were to have eternal life, I'm sure like 2000 years in,seeing paris for the 400th time,a sort of ...meh...might creep in.

Well that's it. Eternity means that however long you're there, you've only just started. Even after a billion years, you still have infinity to go. Sounds deadly dull to me. I've often thought that it would be cool to be able to live a few thousand years, but forever? I'm not so sure that would be much fun.

To quote one of my favourite authors:

I don't believe in an afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of heaven would be even worse.

[glennjridge]

I think all that is is just the end result of living in a physical mortal body and mind. a sort of blase' and crabbiness sets in due to the wear and tear of life on the body and spirit and its easy to get jaded about the prospects of a heaven being any different.

CD lewis said earth wont be transformed so much as engulfed.
like a kid playing in the mud having fun, the mother says lets go to a amusement park. the kid says no cause he's never been to an amusement park or know what it entails....he just knows playing in the mud is fun now....,not realizing something far greater exists.

[Deschanel]

Taking a purely nihilistic view serves no-one and advances nothing.

Very much agree with this. Nihilism is a pose and luxury of the young. Was discussing the depressive, druggy, nihilist nature of "grunge" music of the 90's recently. Cobain's dismal suicide capping that off. I still like Nirvana's music, but what a waste of time, what a wallow in self-pity and depression and misery. I've fought some depression in my time, but dear god, I could easily jettison and forget all of that miserable music then. Thank god for alternatives like "Very" at that time, for me.

At my age of 42 you treasure life, you treasure love, family, friends, art and nature, anything good in this world. A good laugh, maybe that's the ticket. Appreciate it, all of it. Every day. And there is good, there is meaning, it really is a blessing to be alive. At least where we lucky ones are. We can only do our best, be good people, only connect, in our brief time here. And smile, create, love. No time for nihilism.

[Patrick Bateman]

I don't think that Kurt wallowed in self-pity for the sake of it; if you read Heavier than Heaven his suicide seems sadly inevitable. Anyway I'd rather be Kurt blowing my brains out at twenty-seven than most of the pointless t**** on this planet with their pointless existences. Who actually makes a positive difference to humanity? 0.00000001% of the population?

Nihilism is not that bad a thing when you see what a hypocritical and phoney world we live in.



Says it all. You're given the precious gift of life and all the possibilities that it offers, and you spend your time chasing after inanimate objects.

[glennjridge]

I read stuff about him over the years.. .some sources implied one of the reasons he killed himself because he had one of the worst cases of daily acid reflux and that doctors couldnt fix it and he was in pain and it made him angry and depressed all the time. in fact I think he refernced it in his suicide note.

[York Minster]

What you're saying is that it's better to remain in blissful ignorance built on comforting fairy-tales? I'm sorry but I can't buy that.

No, I didn't say anything about that. What I am saying is that relativism applies to then and it applies to now. We live in an age that defines itself as a "progress" over other eras. I'm not perhaps denying that the steamtrain and the internet are empirical devices that work in the "real world". But in terms of moral development, you can't really say that we are superior. Relativism impedes at all points in time, including this time now.

We may not know the whole truth but at this point we are clearly closer to it than ever before. In the past we were happy to accept made-up stories of gods and afterlife and such because they made some sort of sense, were comforting and we had no way to know better.

We still have no way to know better. Remember, the evil genius may be foolings us at any point. When it comes to the difficult issues, such as human free will, science will never have anything to say. Nor can science impede on moral territory. There in fact can be, though I don't necessarily find them true myself, many inductive arguments for transendence.

I think what we need to remember, is that for some of us, there isn't just "meaning" available. It may be available for you and many others, but not for all. Deschanel and others seem to ascribe things like "moping" and "depression" to a chosen way of being. And yet, I can yell you, cultural and moral relativism haunts me. For instance, on a daily basis I think about such things as: what right do I have to any of my material goods when there are many suffering without clean drinking water? That question is already very difficult and I have many many more that pop up. Now, I have OCD, and probably a damaged brain. But this type of thinking is not so much nihilistic, but very very concerned about moral problems. How the f#ck to we build a foundation in life? How do we know the "truth"?

What I find is 99+ percent of people live their lives on a basis of contradiction. When I discuss philosophical problems with people, most will say that yes they see what I'm saying and I'm making sense but it just doesn't bother them, they just don't spend mental time on it. Well, I do, and I've tried not to. And my mind refuses to allow nonlogical conclusions to rest in a jumble on top of each other. I also live in a country that does not have many introspective people, which doesn't help.

[York Minster]

I don't think that Kurt wallowed in self-pity for the sake of it; if you read Heavier than Heaven his suicide seems sadly inevitable. Anyway I'd rather be Kurt blowing my brains out at twenty-seven than most of the pointless t**** on this planet with their pointless existences. Who actually makes a positive difference to humanity? 0.00000001% of the population?

Nihilism is not that bad a thing when you see what a hypocritical and phoney world we live in.



Says it all. You're given the precious gift of life and all the possibilities that it offers, and you spend your time chasing after inanimate objects.

Good post.

[Drico One]

And yet, I can yell you, cultural and moral relativism haunts me. For instance, on a daily basis I think about such things as: what right do I have to any of my material goods when there are many suffering without clean drinking water? That question is already very difficult and I have many many more that pop up. Now, I have OCD, and probably a damaged brain. But this type of thinking is not so much nihilistic, but very very concerned about moral problems. How the f#ck to we build a foundation in life? How do we know the "truth"?

I never thought I'd say this to you, but don't think so much.

There is no "truth". Do centipedes ponder "the truth" as they go about their lives? What makes you think we have more chance of discovering any "truth"? Most people live lives of quiet desperation. There's a good reason for that.

Drico.

[Devices]

Seeing the baby chasing after the dollar bill reminded me of this video. A reminder that if you take the chase too seriously, it can destroy you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY

It always makes me think of a guy I knew, though not very well, who lost everything he had trading options. A smart guy, well-educated, seemed to have everything going for him. But he was trying too hard to get rich, chasing after the images we all see on tv, and took on too much risk on one "sure-thing" trade that ended up doing the opposite of what he expected. He ended up killing himself.

[skyhigh]

I never thought I'd say this to you, but don't think so much.

There is no "truth". Do centipedes ponder "the truth" as they go about their lives? What makes you think we have more chance of discovering any "truth"? Most people live lives of quiet desperation. There's a good reason for that.

Drico.

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