RE: Driving force of an Atheist
March 16, 2010 at 10:30 am
(This post was last modified: March 16, 2010 at 10:37 am by Violet.)
Indeed what is the point? Why not just enjoy life now and give no heed to tomorrow?
I don't see it as a hump... it's just the reality (that we can do with our life what we will, but that others will also do with their lives what they will). It turns out that what I want to do is enjoy my life (currently a harder task than it should be)... and I want to let other people enjoy their lives so long as their doing so doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of life. And then, even if it does: it's just the reality that they have a life too... and that nothing is inherently right or wrong... and further that neutrality is the base position.
It's foolish to think that by a thing not being eternal... it is somehow weakened where it matters: the here and now. Extending a the time of a thing (such as life or love) does not make it more any more potent along any point of its being... similarly it is its being that must be remembered more than its time of being (for what is age but continuity over time?).
So I may have previously been in "this hump"... but no longer. It does not matter if it might make a difference after you are gone... unless its doing so makes a difference to you in the here and now (Example being I build a house for myself and my family... and it brings comfort to me that my house will be the house of several others... therefore I have mattered in their lives wether they realize it or not. The fact that you built it changes not that it is a house, and it might serve others after you are gone whether twas your intention or not. Similarly it may be scrapped to make way for a new supermarket.). All that matters to me really is that I enjoy my life and enjoy it more (which I enjoy making people happier... therefore all the more reason to do it).
But you as a person will also continue to "live on" in what you have done and in the memories of others. Death is a derogatory term that means "lootable", so I've heard
I don't see it as a hump... it's just the reality (that we can do with our life what we will, but that others will also do with their lives what they will). It turns out that what I want to do is enjoy my life (currently a harder task than it should be)... and I want to let other people enjoy their lives so long as their doing so doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of life. And then, even if it does: it's just the reality that they have a life too... and that nothing is inherently right or wrong... and further that neutrality is the base position.
It's foolish to think that by a thing not being eternal... it is somehow weakened where it matters: the here and now. Extending a the time of a thing (such as life or love) does not make it more any more potent along any point of its being... similarly it is its being that must be remembered more than its time of being (for what is age but continuity over time?).
So I may have previously been in "this hump"... but no longer. It does not matter if it might make a difference after you are gone... unless its doing so makes a difference to you in the here and now (Example being I build a house for myself and my family... and it brings comfort to me that my house will be the house of several others... therefore I have mattered in their lives wether they realize it or not. The fact that you built it changes not that it is a house, and it might serve others after you are gone whether twas your intention or not. Similarly it may be scrapped to make way for a new supermarket.). All that matters to me really is that I enjoy my life and enjoy it more (which I enjoy making people happier... therefore all the more reason to do it).
(March 16, 2010 at 10:30 am)leo-rcc Wrote: And I see no reason to believe that death is not the end of my existence as a person. My molecules will be scattered eventually and end up some other place, but me as a person will seize to be.
But you as a person will also continue to "live on" in what you have done and in the memories of others. Death is a derogatory term that means "lootable", so I've heard
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
