why continue? - Page 2

"You live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality but you do not know this. When you understand this, you will see that you are nothing, and being nothing you are everything. That is all" -Kalu Rinpoche

Claiming to be ignorant is only excepting that you can always gain more knowledge and correct beliefs as more information comes your way. It is what you do with the information you have is what matters. I was not in any way dodging responsibility and your point of it being cowardice is a question of morality and ethics at best, and not a question of enlightenment and philosophy.

When I said I act like I know stuff, that was my way of saying that I often stand behind my ideas. True honesty is a joke. We can only do our best at being honest. Nothing "true" about it. And if any response is given to that point please precede it with your definition of "true" and "honesty".

"I believe it is certainly attainable to the limit that humans are capable of. And I sincerely doubt anyone will be able to prove otherwise."

Before any one should attempt to try and prove it correct or incorrect partially or otherwise, I think you should state what you believe is the "limit that humans are capable of".

Fascinating! True: It is all illusion. I have a very good friend who taught me that evrything is just as it should be, as I want it to be. I just haven't realized that yet. I like that.

Discussions like these always seem so hopeless to me sometimes. Human thought is so diverse and opinions so varied. I do believe there is an absolute truth as opposed to a relative one, but believing such a thing will not change the minds of others since, within each of us, there is center of gravity created by a collective of experience that forms these different thought matrices and the opinions derived from them. I rarely debate with anyone because it seems so fruitless. I like to listen, and sometimes even learn.

However, the question was "why continue?" Existence and experience seems to be the key for me. Human existence and experience, although often marked by tragedy and what may be regarded as evil, can manifest itslef in ways that are noble and expressive of beauty. These higher manifestations of human expression may be the only recognizable value of continued existence. Even the simplest of people who live the simplest lives make powerful impressions in a universal cosmic sense with simple acts of kindness and love. Without continued existence of the human essence there would be only utter darkness in the world. Even lower forms of life can express forms of nobility, and even they unconsciously know that death would discontinue that possibility. All of nature struggles to continue to live despite the most severe hardships. Human beings have created an extremely complex and difficult world to live in, filled with worries and problems that, in the overall scheme of things, have no real substance. Only human beings are foolish enough to even consider ending thier existence. It's very sad, I think.

Wizard's Logic: do you think the diversity of answers to this question is a sign of strength or weakness? There seem to me to be two (widely discrepant) solutions to this problem: first, the positivistic one (and I mean that in the broadest sense, from Comte to Carnap) which says that any attempt to divine an underlying "meaning" to the reality that subsists is essentially a category error; in a word, it seeks answers to questions which aren't really questions; it fails to see that reality just "is", that reason is a conglomerate of recursive laws with no recourse to extraneous logic; in sum, it does not deign to bracket all the impudent anthropomorphisms of subjectivity as it enters the province of objectivity!
The second solution is to say that, although the question is a valid one, it nevertheless brooks no answer. This is the existentialist response. In the absence of what Lyotard called "grand narratives", life essentially becomes recreative.
None of these seem to me to be satisfactory. The question indeed is an ethical one. It arises on the back of the assumption that man has a telos, some sort of determinate role in the cosmos.

Interesting. However, I'm more inclined to believe that the fact that the question exists, and that such a question seems to be deeply rooted in the human psyche that cries out for an answer, that great works of art and literature attempt, whether subtly or overtly, to provide an answer yo that question, is atleast an indicator that the question has merit, and possibly even an answer, an answer that may go well beyond the limited sphere of positivistic or existentialist thought.

And, no, the existence of diverse opinions is not a weakness and is, oftentimes, a good thing. I just said that I will not debate simply because it really doesn't change anyone's views significantly. People hold on to thier views, even when they are shaken. They simply discard those points that disagree with thier own conclusions, and only rarely do they even re-eavaluate thier overall scheme of thought. And, more often than not, simply scoff at anyone who disagrees with them, attacking them with everything but a valid argument. I'd rather listen and learn.

I didn't read all the post or replies, if what i say is redundant, just tell me.

Yes, everything have end, even life. I am going to die one day and everything else that i work for doesn't really matter, but I still work, because why? I want to make my life better.

Life is there, it will start and end eventually no matter you like it or not, but it is a choice to make it better.

Life is here, just depend on how you shape it.

i think all intelligent people ask the very same questions. (i dont consider myself all that intellectual) but i also have asked the same questions and i think we have two options when considering this dilema:

1. we accept it: find what we love to do, and do it. try to come to terms with death, life and everything inbetween. Be as happy as we can, no matter what is happening around us.

2. we try to transcend it: this involves something that may not exist. this involves the continuation of technology. we assume that we can live forever once we are smart enough, that we are limitless beings once we know enough (which again may or may not be true). Basically it does provide hope for those intelligent people that do not want to accept fate. It we learn enough, fast enough, can we acchieve immortality?

this brings up a load of other questions. like evolution, purpose, righteousness, humans as disease on a much larger host, etc.

"I'd rather listen and learn." wizardslogic

me too. and im glad.

You know i see everyone debating and argueing about their views.... but what i really see is that an ample amount of you have a totally different opinion on life and how it works. I truly believe that the possibilities of life are endless. I mean just look around you everything that you see, every object that you see was once a thought, it never existed! All of these different kinds of waves and microscopes and medicine i mean i can go on and on about all of these unbelieveable things that were invented or found. Furthermore if you are going to worry about death you just gonna stress yourself out for no apparent reason. As everyone knows, everyone must die - no one lives forever/eternity but life still goes on. But anyone, and i say this again anyone can change the world! The more people we have the better the power or force we have to do this. As said by Albert Einstein, "Imagination is a thousand time better then intelligence."


-ty

-Simon

i think we live to interact. interaction, adventure, learning, growing, loving and dieing.

if you were suposed to be dead wouldn't you be. the point of life is not 2 live and die and become part of what is around you while you are alive so when you do die you are not taken out of your elment. Become what you wish to spend enturnity with

i wanna start by pointing out that this post is like beating a dead horse. The topic has come up many times before and for some reason people keep resurrecting this specific one. In any case I have another answer that is possibly new.

As I saw this post several months ago it got me thinking. You touch on a very important fact in your initial question at the beginning of all this. Some of us become famous but we will never be remembered forever. I have to disprove that. To this day we study the words of Shakespeare, Aristotle, Socrates, Galen, and so on. These people will be embedded in the minds of every person who will ever live, at least everone who has ever had an education. So with such GREAT people, where the hell do the rest of us come in? What is our purpose? We make those people. Maybe not directly but think about it. You will directy have a huge impact on someone's or several people's lives. Those people will take whatever lesson they have learned from you and pass it on in their own modified version. And the chain goes on. After a while we find one extraordinary person that will forever be embedded in our minds. People get so down on themselves saying that their life is pointless but that's only because they cannot see the effet of their life until after they have left this world. They cannot truly appreciate their contribution until they are dead. We all have a purpose, we all have an impact, we all are greatly important in this world, but very few people actually get to see that they do mean something.

Hello all. Gem here in New Mexico, USA.

Why why why asks why we should continue living, and what is the purpose of "existence"?
For me, as Erik has stated, the purpose of living is to expand one's knowledge and awareness, to become more and more aware of planet Earth and the universe. When one becomes aware of how patterns in the universe repeat themselves in one form or another at all the various levels of "existence" one becomes that much more aware of what I would call "God", and what others might call the "All". I call it becoming aware of the templates of God and the universe and learning to see how those "templates" interact and inter-relate.

That, and the personal growth and personal enlightenments that can result on that journey is what life is all about IMO.

Of course, life can often be a pain in the arse and the desire to leave it behind can be over-powering. But in my world- indeed universal- view I believe that checking out before one's time is like flunking a course in school. You'll have to come back next semester and take it over again. If a particular life is harsh then why would anyone want to have to live that life twice? Tis better to make it through the one you're in- that way you'll be done with it and won't have to repeat it again.

In closing, I would like to share this concept with you:

"In a universe that is infinite in time and space anything that can happen not only must happen once but it must happen over and over again in an infinitely varied number of ways."

My writing this, you all reading this and the fact that the internet exists are events that have already happened once in the universe.
Now what was that I just said about any event that happens once must happen again and again in an infinitely varied number of ways?

Think about that for awhile.

Gem

because the human race is a disease to the universe destroying each planet like another cell within a giant animal. we'll move from planet to planet destroying everything. the will to survive is just another common nature to the disease, along with giving birth and taking care of them. the continuation of the disease.