Dealing with existential nihilism

[Brian37]

I believe the meaning of life lies on the temporal happiness we enjoy. Which makes things such as memories, love, family, friends, goals, etc., painful to remember with time.

I just dont want to have a long, painful death. Nor do I want to become those old men in an asylum who dont look aware of anything. Or get Alzheimer´s disease.

What makes me sad is that I will not be able to see the future, nor the completion of my work/legacy. And that once the people you love die, they are gone forever. I guess I simply have to accept it.

Our meaning is what we chose it to be now while we are alive but in cosmic time in the age of the universe, no, none of this matters. Our universe will ultimately continue on with no record of our existence.


But it depends for me what others mean by "the meaning of life too" because humans act on what they believe and when that gets political that can have an affect on my life. Even for oneself, you can certainly be happy as an individual and still be dead wrong. So to me, it still depends what context you mean by "the meaning of life lies on".

There is the personal, there is the mere opinion, there  is the political push by a group, and then there is the scientific reality. "the meaning of life" has to be put in some context before I respond. 

It makes me sad my mom died so painfully over days, but in the scale of cosmic time no, nature does not make me sad, nothing lasts forever so there is no sense in being afraid of that. I like you would be afraid of prolonged pain and not being with my loved ones. I would also hate being in mental decline not knowing what was going on, or having others be in emotional pain watching me go down because of mental decline. 

I don't want to see the future, say maybe for things that might improve life and health but ultimately our species will go extinct like the dinosaurs long before our planet dies some 5 billion years from now. The way our species is acting now it is far more likely we will kill ourselves off with pollution and nuclear war, so no, I don't want to see that future. I still hold out some hope we might pull our heads out of our asses collectively as a species.