(January 6, 2018 at 8:30 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: Life is more vital when one life is all there is.
Some people waste their whole lives living for some afterlife that does not exist.
You have one life, make the most of it.

Neo-nazis feel the same way. That's scary. They don't want to work and be sad. They want to enjoy tribal warfare and unity with their savage friends as well.

(January 6, 2018 at 8:37 am)purplepurpose Wrote:

(January 6, 2018 at 8:30 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: Life is more vital when one life is all there is.
Some people waste their whole lives living for some afterlife that does not exist.
You have one life, make the most of it.

Neo-nazis feel the same way. That's scary. They don't want to work and be sad. They want to enjoy tribal warfare and unity with their savage friends as well.

Is this godwins law showing its head?

(January 6, 2018 at 8:44 am)downbeatplumb Wrote:

(January 6, 2018 at 8:37 am)purplepurpose Wrote: Neo-nazis feel the same way. That's scary. They don't want to work and be sad. They want to enjoy tribal warfare and unity with their savage friends as well.

Is this godwins law showing its head?

Thank neo-nazis and other broken criminal minds.

We are extremely lucky to be here. I love how Dawkins explains this:
We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?”

(January 5, 2018 at 2:58 pm)Brian37 Wrote:

(January 4, 2018 at 5:10 pm)Mikeykitty123 Wrote: If we are just created by chance and nothing else, then what's the point of living if in the end, we are just gonna die and be forgotten? If we are nothing but a bunch of cells and sperms that had evolved over time, then why must we care and love one another? And no, saying that we need others to survive is not an valid answer. I don't care about surviving. If life's is just about surviving, then that means we should only care about ourselves and nothing else. So that means that hospitals and medicine and things like that should not exist. Nothing in ever matters so we might as well die and not exist since nothing we ever do as humans will accomplish a single thing. So why bother? God does not exist. Heaven does not exist. Spirits don't exist. The only thing that exists is just us in a dark, empty void with a bunch of gases that we call the universe. That's it. So we should need to live a long, happy life since we will just die and soon be forgotten and wither away. Life comes from nothing, death means we become nothing, therefore life itself means absolutely nothing. I hate atheism.

^^^^^ This bullshit is pessimistic. Not us.

Just because the ride ends DOES NOT mean we are fatalistic, it just means the ride ends.

You go to a movie knowing it ends, but you still go. You go to a music concert knowing it plays a last song, but you still go. You go to a sporting event knowing one team will win, and one team will loose, but you still go. You read a good book knowing it has a last page, but you still read it. You get a pet dog or cat, they live 7 or 12 years, they die, you mourn but even then,you might get another pet after that and be happy with the new one. 

What is the use? BECAUSE I don't want to die and I still enjoy my life. I still have ups and downs, I still feel love, I still value family and friends. I just lost my late mother last March. She printed out a saying for me on a ribbon of paper I had on the visor for my van for a long time, "Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.'

Atheists feel the same things you do, the only difference is we don't assign the good or bad in life to sky heros vs ground trolls.

THERE MOST CERTAINLY is a reason to live for atheists. Curiosity, love, family, friends, education. You don't get scared thinking about what your non existence was like 4 billion years ago, so why do you think your non existence 5 billion years from now will feel any difference?

I would not want to live forever in any case, especially if it meant kissing one beings ass for eternity. If I wanted that I'd move to North Korea because Kim Jong Un is worshiped like a God there. 

Atheist are NOT pessimistic one bit. We accept this is it, so to us, that one shot makes it far more valuable. It does not make us suicidal, it does not mean we value lawlessness or dictators. Accepting the ride ends only means we accept the ride ends. What we do between is what matters to us.

---

In the scope of a 13.8 billion year old universe no, humans don't mean anything. But WE do mean something now, while we are alive.

How exactly can you feel love if you don't even have a soul?

(January 6, 2018 at 11:49 pm)Mikeykitty123 Wrote: How exactly can you feel love if you don't even have a soul?

That sounds like something for neuroscientists to work out.

To the OP, I would like to add that theists and atheists alike can endure existential despair. It often comes about due to reflection upon suffering. Those who don't suffer or witness extreme suffering are usually content to live for family, love, or whatever else keeps them going. That's why existentialist philosophers often search for meaning--

"He who has a why to live to live for can bear almost any how."
                                                               --Friedrich Nietzsche

(January 6, 2018 at 11:49 pm)Mikeykitty123 Wrote: How exactly can you feel love if you don't even have a soul?

Probably because love doesn't actually require souls.  It requires the ability to feel emotions, and someone or something to love.

(January 6, 2018 at 11:49 pm)Mikeykitty123 Wrote:

(January 5, 2018 at 2:58 pm)Brian37 Wrote: ^^^^^ This bullshit is pessimistic. Not us.

Just because the ride ends DOES NOT mean we are fatalistic, it just means the ride ends.

You go to a movie knowing it ends, but you still go. You go to a music concert knowing it plays a last song, but you still go. You go to a sporting event knowing one team will win, and one team will loose, but you still go. You read a good book knowing it has a last page, but you still read it. You get a pet dog or cat, they live 7 or 12 years, they die, you mourn but even then,you might get another pet after that and be happy with the new one. 

What is the use? BECAUSE I don't want to die and I still enjoy my life. I still have ups and downs, I still feel love, I still value family and friends. I just lost my late mother last March. She printed out a saying for me on a ribbon of paper I had on the visor for my van for a long time, "Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.'

Atheists feel the same things you do, the only difference is we don't assign the good or bad in life to sky heros vs ground trolls.

THERE MOST CERTAINLY is a reason to live for atheists. Curiosity, love, family, friends, education. You don't get scared thinking about what your non existence was like 4 billion years ago, so why do you think your non existence 5 billion years from now will feel any difference?

I would not want to live forever in any case, especially if it meant kissing one beings ass for eternity. If I wanted that I'd move to North Korea because Kim Jong Un is worshiped like a God there. 

Atheist are NOT pessimistic one bit. We accept this is it, so to us, that one shot makes it far more valuable. It does not make us suicidal, it does not mean we value lawlessness or dictators. Accepting the ride ends only means we accept the ride ends. What we do between is what matters to us.

---

In the scope of a 13.8 billion year old universe no, humans don't mean anything. But WE do mean something now, while we are alive.

How exactly can you feel love if you don't even have a soul?

What evidence do you have for the existence of a soul or it's ability to grant emotions?!?

(January 6, 2018 at 11:49 pm)Mikeykitty123 Wrote: How exactly can you feel love if you don't even have a soul?

How exactly can you see colours if you don't even have an invisible duck on your head?

(Does that make sense to you? Now ask yourself why.)

(January 4, 2018 at 5:10 pm)Mikeykitty123 Wrote: If we are just created by chance and nothing else, then what's the point of living if in the end, we are just gonna die and be forgotten? If we are nothing but a bunch of cells and sperms that had evolved over time, then why must we care and love one another? And no, saying that we need others to survive is not an valid answer. I don't care about surviving. If life's is just about surviving, then that means we should only care about ourselves and nothing else. So that means that hospitals and medicine and things like that should not exist. Nothing in ever matters so we might as well die and not exist since nothing we ever do as humans will accomplish a single thing. So why bother? God does not exist. Heaven does not exist. Spirits don't exist. The only thing that exists is just us in a dark, empty void with a bunch of gases that we call the universe. That's it. So we should need to live a long, happy life since we will just die and soon be forgotten and wither away. Life comes from nothing, death means we become nothing, therefore life itself means absolutely nothing. I hate atheism.

We can't help how you feel psychologically, OP. You can hate a position all you want, but if it's the truth, then it's the truth, regardless of how one feels about it.

You can hope for a God to exist, and choose to believe in it, if that makes you feel better. Otherwise, we're all in this together. Just enjoy life, if that's possible. Spend time with loved ones, laugh with them, do activities with them, share your stories and views with them. Pursue hobbies and interests. Do whatever to distract you from this excessive morbid thinking because it's not going to be productive in any way, just always thinking about this stuff. Even work it out with a professional therapist, if that's what is required for you to get you on a more productive path.

FTR, I went through an existential crisis myself for a good period of time with the whole parallel universe thingy (many worlds interpretation), but eventually, I just said fuck it. I may not be able to control my "destiny", nor the "destiny" of my "alter-egos" and my loved ones, but I can still hope for the best. So I moved on, and it's all back to normal for me now.