What's the point?

Pompous

I believe we are alone in this galaxy and when I die I will cease to exist. No afterlife, no heaven, no reincarnation... it will be just like before I was born, an eternity of nothingness.

So what's the point? Everyone has to find their own meaning in this brief life... what is yours?

biko

There is no point

TerrorFirmer

The point is to enjoy it. We had no say in being here, and don't get any say on leaving either....so may as well make the most of it. The 'point' varies from person to person. For some it's about having kids and passing the torch on. For others it's about seeing and experiencing everything the world has to offer. Most people probably sit somewhere in the middle.

FingerDeKat

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I do believe there's a life after death but that's for another discussion.

Life is wonderful, invigorating, challenging, sensual, and stimulating. Of course it can be cruel, drudgery, heart-breaking, and sad, but the point is to make the best of it. If you can break through to the joy of life it is, albeit too fleetingly, a blast.

Don't fall into the quagmire of Life's a bitch and then you die.

Pac1Man

Being out of the house 13 hours every weekday earning money to survive doesn't help the cause of 'life is great'.

pleas advice

existence is futile

Tell me how

Pac1Man wrote:

Being out of the house 13 hours every weekday earning money to survive doesn't help the cause of 'life is great'.

Find a job you love. If you can.

Mightn't be easy, but it's not impossible.

Trigger Happy

I love life most of the time. For me that is the point.

hmmm

The chances of you ever being born is infinitesimally small - people play the lotto all their lives hoping to win, when everyone who was ever born has already won a much larger lottery.

It doesn't matter if there is a point, and it doesn't matter if you don't find your own meaning, just enjoy it as best you can. We're all sharing this little planet in the huge universe together, so try not to harm anyone else while doing that, and look out for each other. Think about that point when you're on your deathbed and you reflect back on your life, and wonder what you would like to say to yourself then. That's about all I know.

biko

Because they have the capacity for introspection people tend to think they are somehow special.
What's the difference between us and other primates? Almost nothing, yet we think we are destined for heaven but monkey just die?
It's preposterous to think we are different.

TheValeyard

OP is great fun at parties

Rubberchikken

Be happy. Appreciate the little things. Be grateful, we have so much to be thankful for. Laugh. Live. Love.


And posts on boards at 17.02 instead of doing what i should be doing:)

The J Stands for Jay

biko wrote: »

Because they have the capacity for introspection people tend to think they are somehow special.
Whats the difference between us and other primates? Almost nothing, yet we think we are destined for heaven but monkey just die?
It's preposterous to think we are different.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK3iSglbZUM

splinter65

The point is to love other people and to receive love. That is all that matters. Who did you love and who loved you.

NIMAN

Pac1Man wrote: »

Being out of the house 13 hours every weekday earning money to survive doesn't help the cause of 'life is great'.

You could buy less sh1t.

If you only need to buy food and clothes, you could probably get less hrs per week and enjoy life more.

Example: how much does it cost you to post on boards? How much did that smartphone cost, or the laptop, and the monthly Internet subscription? How many hours do you have to work for the man to pay for that?

mzungu

It's what the 3Arena used to be.

Pompous

Pompous wrote: »

I believe we are alone in this galaxy and when I die I will cease to exist. No afterlife, no heaven, no reincarnation... it will be just like before I was born, an eternity of nothingness.

So what's the point? Everyone has to find their own meaning in this brief life... what is yours?

Sucks to be you, OP. You really should find a less depressing philosophy.

What's the point? Stop thinking about death, and enjoy your life.

buried

Pompous wrote: »

So what's the point? Everyone has to find their own meaning in this brief life... what is yours?

Playing 'Space'

Pac1Man

NIMAN wrote: »

You could buy less sh1t.

If you only need to buy food and clothes, you could probably get less hrs per week and enjoy life more.

Example: how much does it cost you to post on boards? How much did that smartphone cost, or the laptop, and the monthly Internet subscription? How many hours do you have to work for the man to pay for that?

I'm frugal to a fault. Distance from work is the killer here.

retalivity

Pompous wrote: »

I believe we are alone in this galaxy and when I die I will cease to exist. No afterlife, no heaven, no reincarnation... it will be just like before I was born, an eternity of nothingness.

So what's the point? Everyone has to find their own meaning in this brief life... what is yours?

The Fear is starting early this bank holiday weekend...

Mackerel and Avocado Sandwich

I don’t think there is a point and when you’re gone you’ll just cease to exist and that’ll be that. Just try to enjoy what you can. People seem to say kids are their point but I don’t really buy that because what’s the point in their kids? To have more bloody kids?

quickbeam

splinter65 wrote: »

The point is to love other people and to receive love. That is all that matters. Who did you love and who loved you.

I hope that's not "all that matters", or there'd be a sizeable minority for which there is no point.

Outlaw Pete

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24O7p6JZSh4

splinter65

quickbeam wrote: »

I hope that's not "all that matters", or there'd be a sizeable minority for which there is no point.

Well what else matters in the end? All the “stuff” you buy it or otherwise Asquith doesn’t matter. How clever smart or intelligent you were doesn’t matter, it was only useful for getting you the useless “stuff”.
Can you think of anything else?

Irish Praetorian

The point is to help other people who aren't so worried about it all.

A Pint of Goo

I find the fact that my existence is utterly meaningless in the context of the universe to be a great comfort.

gozunda

Life is vital. Hell is other people ....

Hector Bellend

I like cake

quickbeam

splinter65 wrote: »

Well what else matters in the end? All the “stuff” you buy it or otherwise Asquith doesn’t matter. How clever smart or intelligent you were doesn’t matter, it was only useful for getting you the useless “stuff”.
Can you think of anything else?

I don't have an answer. But if you're right and the only point is love then there are people who have no point at all. And that's depressing.

Avatar MIA

Pompous wrote: »

I believe we are alone in this galaxy

You're almost certainly wrong in that belief, but if you mean a god like entity that's going to have a fat fingered cherub play classical music into your ear for all eternity then probably not. Possibly for the better if the little fcuker only knows chopsticks!

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

Avatar MIA

Hector Bellend wrote: »

I like cake

On behalf of the universe I'd like to thank you for showing appreciation for one of it's gastronomic creations, but you might want to get out more. Out of After Hours anyway.

Avatar MIA

jacksie66 wrote: »

Life is suffering and an endless treadmill of disappointment.

Oh gawd, ye masochists get all the breaks.

Bredabe

biko wrote: »

There is no point

This + to be part of the designated underclass that makes some political parties and politicians feel they are as wonderful as they think, cause they can look down on ppl like me. Instead of making efforts to tinker systems to allow me equality.

joe40

https://youtu.be/pR7e0fmfXGw

This is a good answer for non religious I think
(Not sure if I have linked it properly)

Lorelli!

Op, the point is..the ace of spades, the ace of spades ....

Avatar MIA

Bredabe wrote: »

cause they can look down on ppl like me. Instead of making efforts to tinker systems to allow me equality.

The burning question everyone is dying to ask you, what is scratching on the inside of their skulls hoping you satisfy... Do you know how they get the figs into the fig rolls?

buried

"The point, the point, the point". Why does there have to be a point? No point to dancing or moving to music, but it is highly enjoyable. Don't mind the point. F**k the point. Play Space and Dance.

Pyr0

hmmm wrote: »

We're all sharing this little planet in the huge universe together, so try not to harm anyone else while doing that, and look out for each other.

F*ck you, Pal. Don't tell me how to live my life :mad::mad:

chrissb8

You're here and that is amazing within itself. Living a productive life is the most important thing as I believe that's where one derives the most pleasure from as a person. Humans are after all busy bodies by nature, The thing is to not let other people to tell you what is a productive life for you. Accept there is pain in any goal that's worth going for and even years where you'll think is it worth it. But when it is and you've gotten to where you've wanted to be you'll see that it was worth it. Scale expectations though and really look at yourself and what you want.

I wouldn't be happy bag packing all over the world and I wouldn't be happy slaving away forever trying to get to the next level as it were. I want a career where I can make a decent amount of money and live a life that enables me to do the things I want. A house of my own and the money to buy the one or two nice things I want like a great drum kit or an amazing surround sound system. I'm not pushed about 5 star hotels, flashy cars or all the other s***e that people tell you that you'll only be successful and happy if you get A, B or Z. Just find your level and when you're happy there just be happy.

Don't buy into bulls**t either that there's no point in work as we're going to die anyway otherwise if we all had that attitude we simply wouldn't have the amazing inventions and lifestyle we live now that has been built on by the work from those before us. Just try leave a bit of good behind either in your kids or in your work. Or don't, it's your decision. To insta quote and sign off this post on a cringe note:

You do you (but know who you is)

ThinkProgress

Pompous wrote: »

I believe we are alone in this galaxy and when I die I will cease to exist. No afterlife, no heaven, no reincarnation... it will be just like before I was born, an eternity of nothingness.

So what's the point? Everyone has to find their own meaning in this brief life... what is yours?

Why would anyone look forward to nothingness?? (not even sure if that's a word)

This is where I find conflict with many atheists... because so many of them, seem so gleefully happy at the prospect of an eternity of nothingness!

I don't get that desire... I don't believe in god or an afterlife, but I also cannot rule it out either. Nothingness seems rather illogical, considering all our experiences and memories are of somethingness! (ok that definitely can't be a word) :P

Cheerful Spring

The afterlife doesn't make sense to unless me there some proof everything was made by this god. That we are living in a simulation that we never truly understand till we die. Basically everything Space, planets everything has to be a creation for the afterlife to exist.

Since we don't have solid evidence it exists there could be nothing there. If other lifeforms exist in the universe maybe they know?

The point is to continue human civilization that's about it.

Beasty

Alfie may have the answer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAuoNa5g6i8

I'm not sure he managed to get back to Cilla in time mind

Pompous

Pompous wrote: »

I believe we are alone in this galaxy and when I die I will cease to exist. No afterlife, no heaven, no reincarnation... it will be just like before I was born, an eternity of nothingness.

So what's the point? Everyone has to find their own meaning in this brief life... what is yours?

My favouritist book in the worldist on this topic:

Ernest Becker, Denial of Death

Sheer genius. So much to think about in it. I also find great solace in existentialist thinkers and authors. Camus's The Outsider & Beckett's Waiting for Godot were brilliant about six months after I read them when I finally got them - and loads and loads of scenes in Dostoevsky's novels (most memorably The Grand Inquisitor exchange in the Brothers Karamazov) and Notes from the Underground which is mindblowing as a novel philosophising on the meaning of life.

But, yeah, the pointlessness of it. Check out Camus's Myth of Sisyphus as a great parable on life (a very felicitious summary right here).

ThinkProgress

ThinkProgress wrote: »

Why would anyone look forward to nothingness?? (not even sure if that's a word)
.... Nothingness seems rather illogical, considering all our experiences and memories are of somethingness! (ok that definitely can't be a word) :P

Not only is it a word, it's a whole philosophy. Beckett's Waiting for Godot was famously described as:

“[Waiting for Godot] has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice.”

'Nothingness', Stanford History of Philosophy

'Nothing' in Western Philosophy

Sartre: Being & Nothingness

Capt'n Midnight

hmmm wrote: »

The chances of you ever being born is infinitesimally small - people play the lotto all their lives hoping to win, when everyone who was ever born has already won a much larger lottery.

There's 8,324,608 ways of pairing two chromosomes vs 10,737,573 combinations in the lotto.

And it sucks if you have to share the prize, ask any twin or triplet.

bloodless_coup

Life is like watching a really below average movie you've decided to watch to the end but are constantly checking the time waiting for the end credits.

That's the point.

hmmm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

There's 8,324,608 ways of pairing two chromosomes vs 10,737,573 combinations in the lotto.

Multiplied by the sheer improbability of being in a universe that can even support life in the first place

Capt'n Midnight

HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Capt'n Midnight

hmmm wrote: »

Multiplied by the sheer improbability of being in a universe that can even support life in the first place

IIRC the probability of us living in a universe that supports life is pretty close to 1.0

Check out the flake equation https://xkcd.com/718/