Does anyone else think life is pointless?

[Misanthrope]

So, we're all the distant progeny of a bunch of random aggregates that formed in a chemical soup.

 

By sheer probability, a couple of chemical polymers managed to duplicate themselves. The more efficient they became in duplicating, the greater they grew in frequency and number.

 

Every resulting 'life' form is just a vehicle this chemical aberration used to continue this pointless chance process.

 

Everything you perceive and feel - your ability to read this here sentence and think to yourself - your ideas, your dreams, and your emotions are all time-tested, successful ploys for polymer propagation. Anything that doesn't immediately serve that purpose is only a perversion of its original intent.

 

Everybody is a nobody, our notions of self-worth and our ideals are completely imagined; They fuel happiness, satisfaction, and confidence - all of which serve to aid the indefinite replication of that chemical.

 

The rationalizations we come up with to give meaning to our existence console us, so we can stay merry and continue proliferating.

 

We struggle and shag, and live for a cosmic blink on a spinning rock that's been circling aimlessly around a gas-ball for some billions of years now.

Among billions and billions and billions of similar spinning rocks and gas-balls.

 

 

 

Anyone at all?

[Tango Charlie]

Well, it's pointless in the grand scheme of things. The world, at this very instant, could cease to be and the universe wouldn't even bat an eye. The sum of all the glory and wonder, all the love and hatred, of everything any human has ever known or done, amounts to naught but a spec of dust adrift in a vast, vast cosmic ocean.

 

So, naturally, the value of a lone human struggles to be of any importance at all. Our species is finite. Heat death of the universe or a collision between our own galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy will annihilate our civilization with grim certainty. So even if my life or your life constituted a significance in the history of our species which meant that in 100 years people might still know our names, ultimately... ultimately, nobody will ever remember that we even existed, and the stars have no use for names.

 

This is the sort of struggle with comprehending our own mortality that gave rise to religion. We invented myth to create a silver lining beyond this veil of tears so that the realization of our own insignificance wouldn't crush us beneath its oppressive weight. Some will find solace in the dreams of an afterlife. For the rest of us, we need to figure out our own purpose and reason for existence.

 

Bottom line, I say, is not to dwell on it, to embrace your mortality and the inevitable curtain call of your life, and do the things that inspire you with awe and shun the things which drag you down. Our lives are fleeting and all too often shackled by waste and neglect. We're all going to die, and that's a fact, but it shouldn't keep us from basking in the world, and marveling at the beauty of creation that's all around us. As the Romans used to say: Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. Seize the day, never trust tomorrow.

[future_doc]

Bottom line, I say, is not to dwell on it, to embrace your mortality and the inevitable curtain call of your life, and do the things that inspire you with awe and shun the things which drag you down. Our lives are fleeting and all too often shackled by waste and neglect. We're all going to die, and that's a fact, but it shouldn't keep us from basking in the world, and marveling at the beauty of creation that's all around us. As the Romans used to say: Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. Seize the day, never trust tomorrow.[/QUOTE]

 

Well said Charlie.

[Leon]

So, we're all the distant progeny of a bunch of random aggregates that formed in a chemical soup.

 

By sheer probability, a couple of chemical polymers managed to duplicate themselves. The more efficient they became in duplicating, the greater they grew in frequency and number.

 

Every resulting 'life' form is just a vehicle this chemical aberration used to continue this pointless chance process.

 

Everything you perceive and feel - your ability to read this here sentence and think to yourself - your ideas, your dreams, and your emotions are all time-tested, successful ploys for polymer propagation. Anything that doesn't immediately serve that purpose is only a perversion of its original intent.

 

Everybody is a nobody, our notions of self-worth and our ideals are completely imagined; They fuel happiness, satisfaction, and confidence - all of which serve to aid the indefinite replication of that chemical.

 

The rationalizations we come up with to give meaning to our existence console us, so we can stay merry and continue proliferating.

 

We struggle and shag, and live for a cosmic blink on a spinning rock that's been circling aimlessly around a gas-ball for some billions of years now.

Among billions and billions and billions of similar spinning rocks and gas-balls.

 

 

 

Anyone at all?

 

I actually consider the above as the ultimate motivation. I dwell on it often- the amazing sequence of random events and consequential events that led to my current existence. I'd be a fool not to utilize it to its maximum. IMO, thinking that life is pointless and giving up is like declaring the most beautiful piece of art in the world worthless.

 

And what, really, is the alternative? Suicide? I'd rather set goals for myself and struggle to achieve them and attain personal happiness that dwell on depressing thoughts that ultimately lead nowhere.

[future_doc]

thinking that life is pointless and giving up is like declaring the most beautiful piece of art in the world worthless.

 

We have all been given a gift called life.

 

We can waste this gift or use it well. "I think therefore I am." We can think and do incredible things to help our fellow human, the animals, the planet if we choose. We all are intent ot being docs. Yes, goos lifestylke perhaps for some, financial security and all that, but we will helping others to improve and extend their lives and quality of life. Life is far from pointless, depending upon your point of view.

[seeking1]

So, we're all the distant progeny of a bunch of random aggregates that formed in a chemical soup.

 

By sheer probability, a couple of chemical polymers managed to duplicate themselves. The more efficient they became in duplicating, the greater they grew in frequency and number.

 

Every resulting 'life' form is just a vehicle this chemical aberration used to continue this pointless chance process.

 

Everything you perceive and feel - your ability to read this here sentence and think to yourself - your ideas, your dreams, and your emotions are all time-tested, successful ploys for polymer propagation. Anything that doesn't immediately serve that purpose is only a perversion of its original intent.

 

Everybody is a nobody, our notions of self-worth and our ideals are completely imagined; They fuel happiness, satisfaction, and confidence - all of which serve to aid the indefinite replication of that chemical.

 

The rationalizations we come up with to give meaning to our existence console us, so we can stay merry and continue proliferating.

 

We struggle and shag, and live for a cosmic blink on a spinning rock that's been circling aimlessly around a gas-ball for some billions of years now.

Among billions and billions and billions of similar spinning rocks and gas-balls.

 

 

 

Anyone at all?

 

By the end of this, I sincerely hope you've read beyond the description of nihilism by Nietzsche to understand what it is you're talking about and how to move past it....this is not to say "ubermensch all the way."

 

f_d said it well, just be happy with who you are and what you have, and do what can be done with your life. Who knows, maybe you'll have a wiki page one day.

[Guest viscous]

The ultimate result of constant contemplation from a irreligious rational perspective is indeed nihilism. Would you want to spend your limited life as a nihilistic? Ideally we all should, or would if were contemplating about it all the time. It would lead to depression. Melancholy. blah blah.

 

Some find that nihilism leads them to religion. Others feel content with non-religion and try to avoid nihilism by worldly activities, desires, hopes, ambitions, art. Find your own liking in order to avoid nihilism, the point of pointlessness.

[blind_synergy]

Well, it's pointless in the grand scheme of things. The world, at this very instant, could cease to be and the universe wouldn't even bat an eye. The sum of all the glory and wonder, all the love and hatred, of everything any human has ever known or done, amounts to naught but a spec of dust adrift in a vast, vast cosmic ocean.

 

So, naturally, the value of a lone human struggles to be of any importance at all. Our species is finite. Heat death of the universe or a collision between our own galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy will annihilate our civilization with grim certainty. So even if my life or your life constituted a significance in the history of our species which meant that in 100 years people might still know our names, ultimately... ultimately, nobody will ever remember that we even existed, and the stars have no use for names.

 

This is the sort of struggle with comprehending our own mortality that gave rise to religion. We invented myth to create a silver lining beyond this veil of tears so that the realization of our own insignificance wouldn't crush us beneath its oppressive weight. Some will find solace in the dreams of an afterlife. For the rest of us, we need to figure out our own purpose and reason for existence.

 

Bottom line, I say, is not to dwell on it, to embrace your mortality and the inevitable curtain call of your life, and do the things that inspire you with awe and shun the things which drag you down. Our lives are fleeting and all too often shackled by waste and neglect. We're all going to die, and that's a fact, but it shouldn't keep us from basking in the world, and marveling at the beauty of creation that's all around us. As the Romans used to say: Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero. Seize the day, never trust tomorrow.

 

Very Saganesque. Sums up my feelings.

 

The earth will be toast (no pun intended) long before the Andromeda collision, though. Expanding sun and all that.

[blind_synergy]

We have all been given a gift called life.

 

We can waste this gift or use it well. "I think therefore I am." We can think and do incredible things to help our fellow human, the animals, the planet if we choose. We all are intent ot being docs. Yes, goos lifestylke perhaps for some, financial security and all that, but we will helping others to improve and extend their lives and quality of life. Life is far from pointless, depending upon your point of view.

 

While I appreciate Descartes's contributions to mathematics, many of his philosophical musings are utter nonsense (has anyone seen his God "proof"?; cognitive dissonance, if I've ever seen it).

 

But I don't mean to belittle your in any way, I just felt like responding to the Descartes quote.

 

To the OP:

[thebouque]

So, we're all the distant progeny of a bunch of random aggregates that formed in a chemical soup.

 

By sheer probability, a couple of chemical polymers managed to duplicate themselves. The more efficient they became in duplicating, the greater they grew in frequency and number.

 

Every resulting 'life' form is just a vehicle this chemical aberration used to continue this pointless chance process.

 

Everything you perceive and feel - your ability to read this here sentence and think to yourself - your ideas, your dreams, and your emotions are all time-tested, successful ploys for polymer propagation. Anything that doesn't immediately serve that purpose is only a perversion of its original intent.

 

Everybody is a nobody, our notions of self-worth and our ideals are completely imagined; They fuel happiness, satisfaction, and confidence - all of which serve to aid the indefinite replication of that chemical.

 

The rationalizations we come up with to give meaning to our existence console us, so we can stay merry and continue proliferating.

 

We struggle and shag, and live for a cosmic blink on a spinning rock that's been circling aimlessly around a gas-ball for some billions of years now.

Among billions and billions and billions of similar spinning rocks and gas-balls.

 

 

 

Anyone at all?

 

People who stress about this all the time CAN (not are) be diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.

[oto]

It's absurd to say life or anything for that matter is pointless.

 

There is a point in every action we perform, there is a point in every action every animal performs, there is a point in every action ever. And we are definitely here because there was a point in this universe.

 

What sucks though is that it's a never-ending cycle; there is no escape.

 

Plants die, new plants are born; humans die, new humans are born; galaxies die, new galaxies are formed; the universe will collapse and then it will begin again.

[kylamonkey]

I love life, and want to share my joy/passion with others!

 

The end.

[oto]

Spoken like a true monkey.

[Renoir]

I had a really great falafel yesterday.

[future_doc]

I love life, and want to share my joy/passion with others!

 

The end.

 

Well said monkey.

[AKY]

.

[future_doc]

G-d may be the first atom formed and is now part of us all.

[supafield]

So, we're all the distant progeny of a bunch of random aggregates that formed in a chemical soup.

 

By sheer probability, a couple of chemical polymers managed to duplicate themselves. The more efficient they became in duplicating, the greater they grew in frequency and number.

 

Every resulting 'life' form is just a vehicle this chemical aberration used to continue this pointless chance process.

 

Everything you perceive and feel - your ability to read this here sentence and think to yourself - your ideas, your dreams, and your emotions are all time-tested, successful ploys for polymer propagation. Anything that doesn't immediately serve that purpose is only a perversion of its original intent.

 

Everybody is a nobody, our notions of self-worth and our ideals are completely imagined; They fuel happiness, satisfaction, and confidence - all of which serve to aid the indefinite replication of that chemical.

 

The rationalizations we come up with to give meaning to our existence console us, so we can stay merry and continue proliferating.

 

We struggle and shag, and live for a cosmic blink on a spinning rock that's been circling aimlessly around a gas-ball for some billions of years now.

Among billions and billions and billions of similar spinning rocks and gas-balls.

 

 

 

Anyone at all?

 

http://panasonicyouth.buzznet.com/user/video/228337/

[seeking1]

Put simply: life is as worthwhile as you make it.

[Novus]

Anyone with a Bachelor of Philosophy or Religions obviously has a 2,0 GPA and got rejected from all other faculties,no joke...

[Cnussey]

Anyone with a Bachelor of Philosophy or Religions obviously has a 2,0 GPA and got rejected from all other faculties,no joke...

 

As with almost any degree, it really depends on which school you go to. Divinity and theological degrees vary in simplicity and difficulty.

[Julie]

That post made me think of two songs

 

Yakko's Universe song (Animaniacs)

 

and the Universe song (Monthy Python)

 

It doesn't actually answer the question, & I don't think life is pointless at all but I do really like those songs

[nosuperman]

I've felt this way but I don't believe life is pointless. I believe the idea of "pointless" is pointless and illusory, but the chemicals in my brain trick me into believing it the same way the chemicals in a leaf trick the leaf into photosynthesizing.

 

As you've alluded to, life and death, on the smallest of scales, are merely an illusion. Boil it down and we're just sub-atomic particles blasting in and out of existence (aka a spacial dimension or senses can observe) and from that scale you really can't tell the difference between live and dead.

 

To have a "point" requires a lot of assumptions that don't pan out either. First off, a point requires that you can advance to somewhere other than the place that you are. Since there is no "you" - you're mostly space, and inbetween that space "your" molecules are flashing in and out of existence - how can there be a point for you? This also requires that both the present (where you are) and the future (where you'd advance to, if there were a you) are simultaneously real. They can't be. There can only be the present.

 

It follows then that the only "point" that can exist is the point "you're" at in the present moment, since the future only exists in your mind, its a thought form. Our neurons trick themselves into believing this thought form, but belief doesn't make it true.

 

So every moment, the only point of life, is to be doing exactly what you're doing in that moment. For you, the point at the time of posting, was to mull over a byproduct of the time-illusion, and try to interpret the chemical response your body had to it, and you fulfilled that point perfectly... but even this is an illusion.. because the concept of the point-pointless dichomoty is only a concept.

 

Its like me worrying about whether I'm currently winning or losing game 3 of stanley cup finals. I'm not winning, but that's because there are no finals right now (and even if there were I'm obviously not on the ice) so I'm not losing either. The whole idea is null. So life (or existence, if we take the sub-atomic approach) can't have a point, or be pointless, it just is what it is.

[itimebomb2]

So, we're all the distant progeny of a bunch of random aggregates that formed in a chemical soup.

 

By sheer probability, a couple of chemical polymers managed to duplicate themselves. The more efficient they became in duplicating, the greater they grew in frequency and number.

 

Every resulting 'life' form is just a vehicle this chemical aberration used to continue this pointless chance process.

 

Everything you perceive and feel - your ability to read this here sentence and think to yourself - your ideas, your dreams, and your emotions are all time-tested, successful ploys for polymer propagation. Anything that doesn't immediately serve that purpose is only a perversion of its original intent.

 

Everybody is a nobody, our notions of self-worth and our ideals are completely imagined; They fuel happiness, satisfaction, and confidence - all of which serve to aid the indefinite replication of that chemical.

 

The rationalizations we come up with to give meaning to our existence console us, so we can stay merry and continue proliferating.

 

We struggle and shag, and live for a cosmic blink on a spinning rock that's been circling aimlessly around a gas-ball for some billions of years now.

Among billions and billions and billions of similar spinning rocks and gas-balls.

 

 

 

Anyone at all?

 

Here's my two cents: Evolution is a tenuous string of theories to say the least (gasp!). You're right to think that the infinitesimally small probability of us being here leaves little to be imagined in the way of purpose, if indeed it is random. I don't believe the universe is random. I choose to believe that we exist as a part of a plan by a higher authority and that life is full of meaning and purpose for us to discover. I, for one, am not living my life simply to fire off a few dopamine vesicles and have a kid.

 

Don't bother rebutting this remark if you haven't read at least one book which challenges Darwinism - there are tonnes out there not written by religious people. Darwin on Trial is a popular choice. Get to know the scientific arguments against Darwinism (to say nothing at all of the philosophical or religious arguments), and decide for yourself. For me, it becomes pretty hard to believe that we are all here due to a series of increasingly improbable, random mutations.

[oto]

Here's my two cents: Evolution is a tenuous string of theories to say the least (gasp!). You're right to think that the infinitesimally small probability of us being here leaves little to be imagined in the way of purpose, if indeed it is random. I don't believe the universe is random. I choose to believe that we exist as a part of a plan by a higher authority and that life is full of meaning and purpose for us to discover. I, for one, am not living my life simply to fire off a few dopamine vesicles and have a kid.

 

Don't bother rebutting this remark if you haven't read at least one book which challenges Darwinism - there are tonnes out there not written by religious people. Darwin on Trial is a popular choice. Get to know the scientific arguments against Darwinism (to say nothing at all of the philosophical or religious arguments), and decide for yourself. For me, it becomes pretty hard to believe that we are all here due to a series of increasingly improbable, random mutations.

 

I think evolution is one the major issues which discouraged me from religion.

 

How can the bible or koran refute such an evident truth. Every time evolution is brought up, religious folk waste no time in blurting out, 'but they don't have proof'.

 

But they HAVE found plenty of anatomical, chemical, genetic..etc evidence for evolution. Human Evolution Common Descent

 

Evolution is becoming more and more of a clear fact. Then how is it possible for me to put my full faith and trust in a book as to how to live my life, when it refutes such a fundamental fact of life and science. Makes me wonder, how many other things are wrong in the bible or koran.

 

I believe religion can help a person in many ways, but I also feel there are things in religion which can harm them as well.. because they just don't seem to be perfect.. in fact, they seem to have plenty of flaws and holes.

 

I dunno, just my 2 cents.

 

P.S. Dawkins is very rational on this issue.