Should we deny things just because they are subjectively depressing?

[1137]

We are just another part of nature. Should we deny this just to feel special?

Everyone you love will reject you or die. Should we create magical afterlifes of paradise where we will see them again, or is this just causing more harm than good?

One day you will be dead, it will be over. The same question as above applies.

The world is rudderless, nobody is in control. Is it really better to accept complex conspiracies and supernatural intervening beings than embrace the chaos?

Bad things happen, the world is absurd. Is it healthy for us to pass it up to bad luck or evil forces rather than try and overcome the obstacles we encounter in a meanigless and uncaring universe?

Just some examples. Discuss.

 

[Twilight Hue]

**** happens. Best bumper sticker ever made.

 

[1137]

Hehe I agree

 

[CynthiaCypher]

I embrace death. And I embrace my fear of it to. I truly believe most religion are how people deal with the very things I have chosen to embrace.

The truth is a hard thing to embrace.

 

[Penumbra]

I value truth above anything else. I would not want to knowingly pursue something else over truth.

Unfortunately I'm not always convinced that truth is the best thing to seek for the health of the species.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I think we should just realize life is life, nothing more to it, and nothing special. After we accept that, nothing will be bad or good anymore. No more pain.


See how enlightening Nihilism can be?



"Atheism - The more honest, the less it matters." - My favorite youtube comment.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

I value truth above anything else. I would not want to knowingly pursue something else over truth.

Unfortunately I'm not always convinced that truth is the best thing to seek for the health of the species.

How do you deal with the knowledge that someday you are going to die?

 

[Bob Dixon]

I embrace death. And I embrace my fear of it to. I truly believe most religion are how people deal with the very things I have chosen to embrace.

The truth is a hard thing to embrace.

Embracing death is proper, but why would you embrace your fear of it? Why would you not try to cast that aside?

 

[Penumbra]

How do you deal with the knowledge that someday you are going to die?

I don't see that as any sort of problem to deal with.

It is of no concern to me.

(I would fear a painful death, but not death itself.)

 

[CynthiaCypher]

I don't see that as any sort of problem to deal with.

It is of no concern to me.

(I would fear a painful death, but not death itself.)

But many people do. It's one of the greatest concerns and motivations of my life. I know someday I will die and I am not going to come back in anyway.

 

[Penumbra]

But many people do. It's one of the greatest concerns and motivations of my life. I know someday I will die and I am not going to come back in anyway.

It is for that sort of reason that I think cultures all around the world developed various sorts of afterlife scenarios. That's not to say I think an afterlife is entirely impossible, but it seems to me to be far more likely that it was created rather than real, and that it would only have been created in so many seemingly separate cultures if it had a useful purpose at the time.

What's true, and what's useful for survival and prospering within certain constraints, are not always the same thing.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

Embracing death is proper, but why would you embrace your fear of it? Why would you not try to cast that aside?

Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto

 

[Penumbra]

But many people do. It's one of the greatest concerns and motivations of my life. I know someday I will die and I am not going to come back in anyway.

As a gnostic, you believe in a god but not in any sort of afterlife for yourself?

 

[CynthiaCypher]

As a gnostic, you believe in a god but not in any sort of afterlife for yourself?

I die but the divine spark that resides in me goes back to the Pleroma with memories of me. The divine spark isn't an individual or personal soul or spirit but something that resides in everyone and everything. So atleast I'll be remembered forever.

No matter what you'll always be a part of this space/time continuum.

 

[Bob Dixon]

I die but the divine spark that resides in me goes back to the Pleroma with memories of me. The divine spark isn't an individual or personal soul or spirit but something that resides in everyone and everything. So atleast I'll be remembered forever.

No matter what you'll always be a part of this space/time continuum.

"Pleroma" meaning "fullness of divinity", for everyone who is unfamiliar with this Gnostic/Christian term.

 

[Penumbra]

I die but the divine spark that resides in me goes back to the Pleroma with memories of me. The divine spark isn't an individual or personal soul or spirit but something that resides in everyone and everything. So atleast I'll be remembered forever.

No matter what you'll always be a part of this space/time continuum.

So this god benefits but you don't, 'cause you're dead? Sounds rather one-sided.

Do you worship your god or merely believe in it? If you worship it, do you do so because you believe it provides you with benefits? If it doesn't give you an afterlife, does it have the ability to improve or provide blessings to your current life?

 

[1137]

I die but the divine spark that resides in me goes back to the Pleroma with memories of me. The divine spark isn't an individual or personal soul or spirit but something that resides in everyone and everything. So atleast I'll be remembered forever.

No matter what you'll always be a part of this space/time continuum.

That seems like a comforting afterlife creation. Being forgotten seems to be a very great and common fear among our species.

 

[Me Myself]

Embracing death is proper, but why would you embrace your fear of it? Why would you not try to cast that aside?

Because you cannot cast it aside until you embrace, for starters.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

That seems like a comforting afterlife creation. Being forgotten seems to be a very great and common fear among our species.

It's comforting to me. Whether it's true or not I'll never know because I'll never be there to find out. In my afterlife I'm not resurrected or reincarnated, I am just remembered. I become information within the Pleroma.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

So this god benefits but you don't, 'cause you're dead? Sounds rather one-sided.

Do you worship your god or merely believe in it? If you worship it, do you do so because you believe it provides you with benefits? If it doesn't give you an afterlife, does it have the ability to improve or provide blessings to your current life?

How didn't I benefit? I got to experience this. But there are people out there who don't get to experience what I have, and that is why we should show compassion to those who are in a worse state than ourselves.