Ask HN: Do you Consider Life to be Futile

I turn to the great philosophers of the early 90's when struggling with these sort of existential questions:

    Life's a bitch and then you die
    That's why we get high
    Cause you never know when you're gonna go
    Life's a bitch and then you die
    That's why we puff lye
    Cause you never know when you're gonna go

http://rapgenius.com/Nas-lifes-a-bitch-lyrics

Good Argument. Then Do you believe in More is better?

> There isn't a lot of scientific evidence for anything related to conciseness.

Or consciousness either. :)

But it's true, whichever spelling we use -- consciousness is a subjective, philosophical area with no real scientific substance, and it will probably remain that way.

If there is no God, if all there is is the physical universe, then we are here only by chance. The universe doesn't care about us, because there's nobody there to care. All there is is matter and the laws of physics.

Therefore, all we can be is matter that obeys the laws of physics. That's all we can be - nothing more.

In particular, it is impossible that we have any kind of free will or real choice. Matter that obeys the laws of physics doesn't choose anything - it just obeys the laws of physics.

Love (in the real sense, that of choosing to do what's best for the other person) is impossible, because choosing is impossible.

And you can keep going down the list. Everything that we think of as making us human is dead, and we are just machines made of atoms biochemicals, and neurons. We're slaves to the laws of physics.

If that's the case, then what kind of meaning is possible? Even meaning that we make for ourselves, we're making as robots.

There lies the horror of modern humanity. We have all these human aspirations, including the longing for meaning, but we don't believe that what we long for is at all possible. The impersonal universe, creating us by chance, has made us with desires but with no way to fulfill them. What a horror we are trapped in!

You have asked that we not bring God in. But at this point, you kind of have to, because the existence of God would totally change this picture. If there is a God, and if God is a He rather than an It, then personality can a real thing, rather than just a "ghost in the machine". And if He made humans, then human personality can also be real rather than just a facade that emerges from complex mechanistic behavior.

So that's the alternative: Either you were created as a cruel joke by an impersonal, mechanistic universe, or as a true personality by a God who is a person. Now to my point: I assert that your desire for meaning is not just a cruel joke. It is evidence - evidence that you are more than the materialist view says that you can be.

Commence hellbanning in 5, 4, 3...

I like your comment, but I think it creates a false dichotomy between a deterministic universe or one with a higher power. What about a middle option, where there is no higher power but the universe isn't deterministic?

If the laws of physics include randomness / some amount of vagueness, then maybe it changes things from a philosophical perspective.