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The complete and utter pointlessness of life

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Sand
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25 Jul 2009, 8:41 am

claire333 wrote:
Sand wrote:
Like plants and other animals we breathe, eat, defecate, modify the environment and reproduce. That is all nature seems to require. All else is egotistical decoration.
Maybe at one time humans could have been viewed in the same light as plants and animals, thought I am not even convinced of that much, but we have become quite the destructive and festering blight.


If you assume that the Earth should always remain a great place for the current form of organic life to flourish then of course you must be distraught over humanity's present concentration to change the inter-relationships of temperature, atmosphere, fertility etc.
But the universe exhibits no concern for any particular form of chemical activity on any of its minuscule blobs of solid matter. Life could well be a passing temporary phase on such an insignificant blob. Look at Venus and Mars, both of which may have had seas and perhaps even a form of life. Look at the messes they are now(from our point of view). So what?



claire-333
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25 Jul 2009, 9:56 am

:D Crap. I did not realize I might have to come up with a so what. :D Yes. I am sure it all has very little meaning to the universe.



ruveyn
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25 Jul 2009, 1:28 pm

claire333 wrote:
Plants, insects, and animals are most likely more meaningful than us. They all contribute something to their envioronment or ecosystem. They are interdependent and important cogs in the machine. I cannot say the same of humans. Their meaning is objective; our meaning is certainly subjective.


We all contribute something. When we die we rot and that helps the grass and flowers grow.

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25 Jul 2009, 4:58 pm

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little"


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Magnus
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25 Jul 2009, 11:19 pm

This thread has been interesting. It seems as though we have proven that there is no meaning to life and that is...okay.
But, why do so many humans feel a need to find meaning? I still think it's our souls memory nagging us to break out of this alien created world and become free of the vicious cycle of reincarnation so that we can return to the source of oneness with our ultimate creator. :tongue:


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Sand
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25 Jul 2009, 11:28 pm

Magnus wrote:
This thread has been interesting. It seems as though we have proven that there is no meaning to life and that is...okay.
But, why do so many humans feel a need to find meaning? I still think it's our souls memory nagging us to break out of this alien created world and become free of the vicious cycle of reincarnation so that we can return to the source of oneness with our ultimate creator. :tongue:


To search your inner preferences for the basic interactions of the forces of the universe which are irrelevant o human desires seems to me a rather strange way of going about analyzing what is going on.



Magnus
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25 Jul 2009, 11:34 pm

Which human desires are you referring to Sand?


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Sand
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25 Jul 2009, 11:46 pm

Magnus wrote:
Which human desires are you referring to Sand?


A good many humans see themselves as overwhelmingly significant in the universe and even stridently deny their obvious close genetic relationship to other animals. Other much more humble people concede that humanity has roots in other Earth life but still firmly separate their worth from other living things and demand that they are somehow universally special. No doubt each person can search for a meaningful role within human social groups or even individually in a relationship to encountered forces and events and decide individually what that might be. Nevertheless the universe is far vaster than most people can accept or even visualize and the planet Earth is of no real consequence at all in this context. We each see ourselves as the center of the universe since that is how we are constructed and it is a gross mistake to accept this very individual view as the nature of the universe.



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26 Jul 2009, 1:32 am

Life is what you make of it. If you choose not to, someone else gladly will for you. And if you choose to quit, you a damned fool and I can't help but both pity you and feel scorn for you lack of a most basic foresight.


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MR_BOGAN
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26 Jul 2009, 2:59 am

I believe that when you are alive life has a point and a meaning. After you are gone it doesn't because you are dead.


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claire-333
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27 Jul 2009, 4:12 pm

Magnus wrote:
It seems as though we have proven that there is no meaning to life and that is...okay.
I have only agreed that life likely has no meaning to the universe, and that is ok. This does not change the fact it is meaningful to me.



MrMark
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27 Jul 2009, 4:21 pm

claire333 wrote:
Magnus wrote:
It seems as though we have proven that there is no meaning to life and that is...okay.
I have only agreed that life likely has no meaning to the universe, and that is ok. This does not change the fact it is meaningful to me.

Interesting. I believe that we are the universe, the universe becoming conscious of itself. We are made of the same stuff the stars and planets are made of. We are matter & energy that has become organized enough to develop some self-awareness. We, the universe, exist to behold our own magnificence.


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Sand
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27 Jul 2009, 7:10 pm

MrMark wrote:
claire333 wrote:
Magnus wrote:
It seems as though we have proven that there is no meaning to life and that is...okay.
I have only agreed that life likely has no meaning to the universe, and that is ok. This does not change the fact it is meaningful to me.

Interesting. I believe that we are the universe, the universe becoming conscious of itself. We are made of the same stuff the stars and planets are made of. We are matter & energy that has become organized enough to develop some self-awareness. We, the universe, exist to behold our own magnificence.


Although there is no denying humanity has acquired a rather special niche in the variety of animal species to over rate that peculiarity into magnificence is another example of the emperor having no clothes.



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27 Jul 2009, 7:12 pm

You don't find the universe magnificent?


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Sand
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27 Jul 2009, 7:23 pm

MrMark wrote:
You don't find the universe magnificent?


When I am very hungry a pancake is magnificent. The universe is just there. Humanity is an insignificant amusing noodling with the possibilities of the thing. A bumblebee, by your standards, is also magnificent. Bumblebees and humans are really quite similar by universal standards.



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27 Jul 2009, 7:55 pm

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
- William Shakespeare


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