No more bizarre than the Great Green Arkleseizure hypothesis.
Still better. Just like Stephen Kingâs mythose of our universe being vomited up by a cosmic Turtle god with an upset stomach.
I know almost nothing about Stephen Kingâs writing. Other than Cell and Pet Cemetery, Iâve never seen a King movie nor read one of his books.
Stark - the dark half is one of my favorites, book and movie are really good.
People keep looking for a meaningful reason for their existence not wanting to believe theyâre a biological creature recreated by the same creatures at a specific stage of evolution. They live for a few decades and the universe goes on with not much of an impactful change for the billions of years to follow.
I do envy the religious who believe in heaven. That must feel comforting.
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Spiritual people too. Maybe not so much in Heaven, but at least a life hereafter (or that dying will not be the end). Not that Iâm all that âspiritualâ, but I can say I have a foundation in religion. Either way, it does lessen (as itâs called ) âthe sting of deathâ.
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Iâve been an atheist for at least the last 40 years. Iâve never found the prospect of death scary or even considered the âthatâs all there isâ argument to life without an afterlife. In my opinion, knowing that this life is all there is just serves as a reason to make the most of what I have and spend as little energy as possible worrying about what comes after.
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Thatâs always been my reason for concluding that nothing in this life matters, because there is no ultimate consequence but the same empty void for everyone. The prospect of no life after death, of this being all there is and its ending being inevitable, is what saps any meaning or enjoyment from life. This is all just chemical reactions in a cause/effect series of events and all thoughts of ourselves as conscious entities is an illusion. If this is all there is, then not only does nothing matter, but itâs also not worth it.
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Well, it may be all there is for you but it isnât all there is for everyone else. If we never had the thoughts of Edison, Einstein, Newton, Pythagorous, Aristotle, etc., etc., etc., weâd be in an entirely different place now than we are. Those lives mattered and our individual ones do too, even if they donât exist forever.
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Either this life is all there is, or it isnât. Itâs not subjective; itâs either one or the other, regardless of whose perspective itâs from.
No, weâd be in the exact same place we are now; drifting through existence until it abruptly stops, with none of our actions changing that outcome.
How exactly? Before those people existed, every human being came into the world without choice, had to endure pain, loneliness, humiliation and loss at various times in their lives while struggling to consume and process various chemicals in order to continue that life, and then one day, whether they were ready for it or not, and regardless of any actions they took or did not take in their lives, those lives ended. After those people you mentioned came along⌠that situation did not and has not changed at all.
The fact that they donât exist forever is exactly why they donât matter. The newborn who dies an hour after birth, having no life experiences beyond the pain of birth itself: that life mattered? The coma patient rendered unconscious for decades, experiencing nothing, influencing no one, and then one day is taken off life support: that life mattered? All the people down the line who remember the lost loved one, until they die and their loved one is no longer remembered, and then that personâs loved ones remember them, until they die and no one remembers them now, on and on until our species is extinct with no one left to remember anybody or anything, and the planet spins uninhabited for a few more billion years before the sun destroys it: all those lives that exited on that barren rock several epochs ago mattered? How? Why? How did their existence, as a species or as individuals change that outcome that has been predetermined and inevitable from the moment the sun and then the earth first came into existence? How can something matter just by existing if it doesnât change the outcome of anything even if it hadnât existed?
Whether you live a âfullâ life full of experiences and relationships and are surrounded by loved ones, whether youâre the recluse who sits and stares out their window all day, experiencing nothing that âlife has to offer,â or whether youâre the life that ends almost immediately after it begins, the outcome is the same. No matter what choices you make, no matter what incidents beyond your control happen to you, nothing changes the outcome, so it doesnât matter what happens from the moment you begin existence to the moment you leave it, especially if thereâs nothing after. Youâre just here, waiting for the end, with no control over it, and you wonât remember or be aware of any of it once itâs over if thereâs nothing after, rendering everything that happened during that time utterly meaningless.
This is weird; thatâs the first time in over ten years that Iâve said stuff like that and not felt super down and depressed afterward. I wonder if my improved sleep and diet over the past couple of months is aiding my mental health, even though, intellectually, I still have thoughts and beliefs like the above. 
Youâre still focusing on your own existence and your own reflection on that existence and thatâs the fallacy in your thinking. Yes, if you want to focus solely on your own life as if it exists within a vacuum, then sure, perhaps your personal existence doesnât matter in the grand scheme of the cosmos. The 70 or so years (give or take a few decades) youâll be polluting the Earth wonât matter one whit to another galaxy, or even another planet in our own solar system (most likely), but it will matter to at least some other people on this planet.
I know from your other posts that you are married. Do you think your wife would care if you just dropped dead tonight? Do you think the mother of the infant who dies in child birth is unaffected? We still discuss Einstein and Aristotle so clearly those lives mattered at least a little bit to someone. If you want to claim that a life doesnât matter unless it has universe-shaking significance, then sure, I guess you win, but I donât see the value in a life as having anything to do with eternity or the cosmos or the universe.
My own life has mattered to my children, my parents, my siblings, and my wife. I work for a company that provides healthcare to service members and veterans. What I do matters to those people, even if they have no idea who I am. Thatâs good enough for me, even if it isnât for you.
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I get your point, and it seems that you get my main point, but I still can not reconcile in my mind a life with an inevitable end point mattering, even to others, when those others themselves have that same inevitable end, and so donât ultimately matter themselves. Yeah, they might matter to you, but they wonât once youâre gone; you might matter to them, but you wonât once theyâre gone. And since everyone will be gone, nobody matters, because nobody can. We can care, yes, and itâs what keeps us going when we do, but it doesnât infuse existence with any more meaning than if we had no one to care about, because the results are the same.
Ultimately, Iâm aware of what my problem is, and why Iâm incapable of seeing this issue differently despite all the different views and philosophies thrown my way, and my desire to see it differently even though I canât: Iâve always been psychologically inclined to focus on results, on outcomes, and rarely ever the processes that lead to those outcomes. Iâve never cared about the journey; Iâve always been focused on the destination. Iâve never been able to alter that way of thinking, and thatâs what leads to my depressing view on existence: I can only see the destination this journey of existence takes us, and it makes the journey not worth it.
If you focus on results, you are by definition looking for something that comes after the journey, so hoping for that journey to never end is a paradox on your end.
Well, I did point out that I want to think differently, I just canât. Iâm hoping for no end because Iâm tired of my mind always focusing on the end.
Itâs not really that I find it unfair, I think that the fact weâre alive at all is amazing, itâs just a bit of a bummer that some people get their one chance cut off permanently at young ages that bums me out
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What if there is no end, but you never know that? You die here and go to X place with all the knowledge from here, but zero knowledge of what happens when you die there? Etc etcâŚ. At some point I assume youâd settle into âthis just goes forever,â but youâd never really know for sure. Maybe the next life is the last one?
Surely if this system existed the religions in world 2 and 3 and 4 would be insane.
Oh boy⌠
Sorry to do this, but please take it as merely a suggestion. Iâm not embedding or linking to any particular video (just his channel) so you can take your pick at what you might watch at your own leisure should you feel inclined.
Sorry if itâs all too ânew ageyâ or hippie trippy or whatever. And there are other channels that go over similar subjects. I recently came across this guyâs channel and liked what he had to offer in interviews.
And maybe some of you know or heard about this kind of thing (the things him and his guests talk about) and just donât believe any of it⌠Thatâs fine too. Admittedly, Iâm making an assumption here, but some of you seem to not know anything about it. Why else would you be convinced(?) thereâs nothing after this existence?
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No, and you shouldnât be neither. Read Platoâs âPhaedoâ, itâs freely accessible online, relatively short, and has all the answers you need : )
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There are no more answers found in this book than in the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, the Rosetta Stone, or Martha Stewartâs memoirs.
Socrates supposes and assumes many things that are no more different, and no more confirmable, than any other examination of or argument for the possibility of an afterlife as any other view of such. Itâs all just hope; no confirmation.