(May 23, 2018 at 6:46 am)pocaracas Wrote: I was writing this yesterday, but then gave up, because time... today, I noticed GC praising this reply by neo, so I figured I'd give it another go.
Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Then everyone alive now, in the past or in the future will die hopeless meaningless deaths.
I wouldn't see things that bleakly.
Hope is always there.... perhaps not hope in any eternal life, but hope that things will get better for everyone else... hope that your family can cope with your death and move on... hope that mankind will do this or that... I don't think I'll die hopeless.
Human life generally has societal meaning, purpose, and value. Can't that be enough?
Let's not confuse hope with enjoyment. Sure you can enjoy life but that in itself isn't meaningful. You can build stuff but it will all fall to ruin eventually. You can hope our ancestors will carry on, but then they will die too, if not now, then eventually when the universe itself dies. If human existence is extinguished by death and all our legacies erased by time then there isn't anything to hope for beyond that boundary.
<insert profound quote here>