Is desiring to live without an objective purpose irrational?

Lucian Hodoboc · Post by **Lucian Hodoboc** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 11:28 am

Is desiring to experience life (with its struggles and occasional moments of happiness) while being aware that your existence is an incredibly limited, meaningless, accidental period of awareness in the middle of an eternity of nothingness a rational behavior, from a psychological point of view? What do you think? Is desiring to remain alive without believing in an objective purpose and an afterlife rational?

Neatras · Post by **Neatras** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 3:23 pm

[Replying to post 1 by Lucian Hodoboc]

Sure. It's actually quite easy when you haven't been taught to respond with anguish or disgust the moment someone brings up that objective meaning is non-essential to life. Knee-jerk reactions are the main reason why Christians can't fathom existing without some kind of divine benefactor telling them they're worth it. When you've convinced yourself you've tasted the best wine, you'll grimace at anything less unless you convince yourself to step off the pedestal and find the value in (or give value to) anything.

Lucian Hodoboc · Post by **Lucian Hodoboc** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:02 pm

But why even bother attempting to give meaning to or search for meaning for anything or everything if you're aware of the meaninglessness of your incredibly limited existence? Your point of view would make sense in an utopia in which all humans are 100% happy their entire lives, but that is not the case of our current world, so why struggle to face all the hardships of this temporary existence just to experience a few moments of happiness (considering that eternal nothingness awaits)?

Neatras · Post by **Neatras** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:27 pm

[Replying to post 3 by Lucian Hodoboc]

I'll have an eternity to be dead. I've got just a few years to enjoy what I can. This isn't hedonism, it's acceptance of the fact that as long as I am alive, possibilities exist. Possibility isn't a goal for me, but it provides a groundwork for why I persist. There are so many things I haven't seen or done. And I'm really curious. Future me can rot in the ground, since that's what all living beings do. He's not gonna be around to admire amazing things.

But I'm here now. I'm seeing things I've never seen before, done things I'll never get to do when I expire.

Things exist. Isn't that awesome? Death can wait until my turn is done.

Lucian Hodoboc · Post by **Lucian Hodoboc** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:51 pm

Neatras wrote: [Replying to post 3 by Lucian Hodoboc]

I'll have an eternity to be dead. I've got just a few years to enjoy what I can.

You had eternity to not exist before being born. Did that bother you when you first started to become aware that you're alive? On what grounds do you base your belief that experiencing consciousness is better that (or superior to) not experiencing anything at all?

Neatras · Post by **Neatras** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:58 pm

[Replying to post 5 by Lucian Hodoboc]

If I don't exist, I don't get a say. The hypothetical "me" that didn't exist before I was born doesn't get to weigh in. It's my life to live, not some philosophical dead-beat's.

I. Am.

Divine Insight · Post by **Divine Insight** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 5:03 pm

Lucian Hodoboc wrote: But why even bother attempting to give meaning to or search for meaning for anything or everything if you're aware of the meaninglessness of your incredibly limited existence?

Because living is either meaningful to you or it isn't.

If a temporary life has no meaning to you, then extending that meaningless life for eternity is not going to miraculously give it meaning.

wiploc · Post by **wiploc** » Sun Mar 11, 2018 6:23 pm

Lucian Hodoboc wrote:On what grounds do you base your belief that experiencing consciousness is better that (or superior to) not experiencing anything at all?

On what grounds do you base your belief that experiencing consciousness with a purpose assigned to you by an invisible eccentric better than not experiencing anything at all?

Lucian Hodoboc · Post by **Lucian Hodoboc** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 4:13 am

wiploc wrote:
Lucian Hodoboc wrote:On what grounds do you base your belief that experiencing consciousness is better that (or superior to) not experiencing anything at all?
On what grounds do you base your belief that experiencing consciousness with a purpose assigned to you by an invisible eccentric better than not experiencing anything at all?

On the grounds that I find desiring temporary existence to be irrational, and I only find rationality in a state of painless immortality.

wiploc · Post by **wiploc** » Mon Mar 12, 2018 10:31 am

Lucian Hodoboc wrote:
wiploc wrote:
Lucian Hodoboc wrote:On what grounds do you base your belief that experiencing consciousness is better that (or superior to) not experiencing anything at all?
On what grounds do you base your belief that experiencing consciousness with a purpose assigned to you by an invisible eccentric better than not experiencing anything at all?
On the grounds that I find desiring temporary existence to be irrational, and I only find rationality in a state of painless immortality.

Okay. I find it irrational to want more of something that isn't good in finite amounts.

Debating Christianity and Religion

Is desiring to live without an objective purpose irrational?

Is desiring to live without an objective purpose irrational?

Re: Is desiring to live without an objective purpose irratio