91–100 of 173 posts
However, there’s also no rational reason why this question should bother you - that is an emotion.
In a normal hormonally balanced brain, endorphins encourage you not to dwell on such questions emotionally.
If you find yourself consumed by it, then you might want to look into why you are feeling that way. It’s possible that you are suffering from mild depression.
42 (can't believe nobody said this?) I don't think there is a point to life. Reminds me of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Warfare-Three-Enlightenment...
Work backwards from moral and practical mandates and find the Point.
"We thought of life by analogy with a journey, a pilgrimage, which had a serious purpose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you're dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played." Allan Watts
That might be true in the abstract, as a theory. But when it comes to point-of-life I think it’s better to judge a philosophy based on how a person has lived it. And it doesn’t seem like Watts lived as good of a life as he could.
But anyway, if you meet buddha on the road kill him, and beware people claiming they have all the answers. There isn't a single truth, as this whole discussion shows, only a variety of perspectives, and I am fond of this one, even if it is a fiction.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those who are lucky may think they enjoy it, for a time, until their bodies wear out and everyone they know dies. But even then their enjoyment comes at the expense of the suffering of other beings.
If you start off with the assumption that life is suffering and any enjoyment is a temporary illusion, no amount of evidence suggesting the opposite will convince you otherwise. But simply looking around will reveal much beauty and happiness, plain for all to see amongst the (also existing) gloom and depression. Not everyone sees life as unending torment.
I don't see any way to justify that suffering just so that some can experience joy and happiness, which as far as I can see have no true inherent value.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn‘t every game end where it started?
Games don't usually involve inflicting suffering on unwilling participants.
It's not terribly important that you get everything exactly right as an individual (even if it was possible). The universe is large enough you can get away with your best honest approximation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Games don't usually involve inflicting suffering on unwilling participants.
In the context of the game a lot of them actually do. In this view there is ultimately only you playing with yourself, so there can‘t be any unwilling participants. They are all seen as masks of god.
And He also said: "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/pgp/mos... verse 39.)
Consider that: God's purpose is for our eternal benefit, and the purpose of life is joy.
I have learned for myself that the above is true, that mercy and justice are real, and our choices matter, and life, while legitimately full of hard things, does have purpose and can lead to peace, and eternal life. This mortality is not the beginning or the end, for sure.
There is so much more, and I have found (amid divorce/remarriage, long-term health issues, mistakes, sweet grandchildren now, and a variety of learning experiences) that it really, really helps, and life is good.
Edit: minor wording clarifications.
It all ends up about the same with the heat death of the universe.