What is your personal theory on life?
Are we here for a reason?
Has a god created us in his own image?
Do we really know the reason behind life? Do the people in power know the reason behind life?
I went through an atheist/nihilistic phase, but recently I am starting to turn back. Nothing of life makes any sense. We are created by a higher power, and the science that we can observe (Evolution, DNA, emotional feelings) are all tools used by God.
I'm not sure what I am.
I believe there's no concrete evidence for either side of the argument, and we can only truly find out if there really is a Heaven/Hell or an afterlife of any other kind after we die. I would like there to be a Heaven/Hell because honestly the thought of there being nothing after death is quite terrifying.
I guess I'm technically in the "agnostic" category, but again I'm not entirely sure.
>>78110231
That black hole in your pic is the black pill. Life is an accident of molecules coming together in a certain way. Conscience is an accident of enough neurons coming together. Life has no purpose. Life is suffering. God and religion were created because purpose is needed to create a society. Now that atheism is taking over we are witnessing the collapse of social cohesion.
how is consciousness an accident of enough neurons coming together? why do you believe that rather than it being something more, another element to the world?
>>78111082
was meant for >>78110884
Whatever happened, we're here now. The universe goes its way, but the universe does not have the ability to choose where it goes.
We, as creatures that can make choices have the power to make of this universe something. Use that power to make good in the universe.
>>78110884
>Conscience is an accident of enough neurons coming together. Life has no purpose. Life is suffering. God and religion were created because purpose is needed to create a society.
What is the grand scheme of things? Obviously no one knows, There is more to life then what when can just observe.
How was this all an accident? If there is matter in the Universe, then how can, what we perceive as "nothing", become "something".
Ask yourself, why are we here? Just ponder on the thought of existence. None of it makes sense. We know nothing.
>>78110884
I can't bring myself to think like that man. I don't want to feel like life is all for nothing.
>>78111082
What reason do we have to believe it is such. When we look at other high primates and dolphins they seem to have a conscience just not as complex a one as we do. Nothing exists that points to conscientiousness being supernatural.
>>78111200
>Ask yourself, why are we here? Just ponder on the thought of existence. None of it makes sense. We know nothing.
That's pretty much just as bad as nihilism.
>>78111313
Good. Don't ever let the delusion of purpose fade. Once you become nihilistic and black-pilled it's impossible to go back.
No big or trascendent reason to exist other than whatever goal or dream you decide to follow.
No god.
No afterlife, you die and that's it.
I don't even know man. There seems to be some sort disconnect between the quantum world and the macroscopic world
>>78110231
I like to think God made us in his own image, though I don't get too caught up on the details. I try to accept Jesus, and I'm gonna fail every time I try on my own.
I suppose reincarnation is also a possibility; being reborn as a brand new baby from a brand new womb without any memory of your previous life.
>>78111334
I believe it because it can't just be explained by material science. It allows for willful decision making that is not dependent on raw chemistry -- free will. Yes, other animals have a consciousness to. Even the most insignificant life forms probably have some kind of consciousness. Humans just have more consciousness, and therefore more free will.
>>78110231
>Being this concerned about something that doesn't even matter
>Being so new to philosophy that you resort to nihilism and don't think of any alternatives
Everything else you wrote points to a desire for absurdism, research Albert Camus, ffs, not the retard entry level nihilism on /r9k/ or twitter.
>>78111431
Not necessarily, but I can see where you're coming from.
Its more of an acceptance that Life is extremely complicated, and that as humans, we are confined to such a small amount of information.
I am a theist, and I do believe there is a purpose to all of this. something or someone has created the universe, whether it be a computer simulation, a God, etc.
>>78110231
Nobody fucking knows and nobody can ever know.
Believe whatever you want but you don't know.
>>78111746
>I believe it because it can't just be explained by material science.
God of the gaps
>free will
Why do you think free will actually exists. Everything points to it not being possible. Also consciousness just means we are aware of our own existence and experience. Consciousness does not necessitate free will.
>>78111909
Oh wow, aren't you so smart.
Anyone who believes they're on the track to the answer of life is flat out wrong. All philosophies hold the same weight.
>>78111910
>I am a theist, and I do believe there is a purpose to all of this. something or someone has created the universe, whether it be a computer simulation, a God, etc.
Do you believe this because you have a logical reason to or do you believe it because accepting that there is no purpose is just to depressing?
>>78111992
>>78111560
>No afterlife, you die and that's it.
But the influence of your life remains in this universe FOREVER.
>>78111992
No matter what happens, death is a peaceful thing right?
>>78112155
> All philosophies hold the same weight.
Some are more logical than others. Nihilism is probably closer to the truth than Abrahamic philosophies. Abrahamic philosophies are more logical than Scientology.
>>78112065
>free will doesn't exist
please explain
Perhaps it's greater than anything our mere human minds can grasp. We will never have the ability to know or understand and in that is a beautiful simplicity.
>>78111746
>I believe it because it can't just be explained by material science.
That's more evidence for disbelief than belief.
Life is meaningless
>>78112268
Why would you think that?
Every situation is what you make it, as corny as that sounds. One man's hell can be another man's heaven. If your "soul"/consciousness/mind is at peace and if that soul somehow carries on to a different state or plane of existence when you die then its probably safe to assume that you'll still be at peace there no matter if its a "heaven" like the Christian heaven or your in the pits of Tartarus from Greek mythology
>>78112459
Define "meaning"
>>78112459
your life is meaningless. God's isn't.
>>78112350
He doesn't know if free will exists or not. He's assuming consciousness derives from within this physical reality, which if that's the case then yeah free will, in the strictest definition of, doesn't exist. But if conciousness is derived outside of this reality and just using your mind as a window to access this reality then free will could very well and probaly does exist.
>>78110231
>We are created by a higher power, and the science that we can observe (Evolution, DNA, emotional feelings) are all tools used by God.
Same, OP
>>78112350
Everything in the universe is atoms interacting. Humans are just a collection of atoms that follow physical laws. This means that with enough information all of our actions could be predicted ahead of time. This means that our actions are not free.
Free will would also necessitate that there is some non-phyical force that we use to make decision. This force is not bound by the laws of physics but somehow we have access to it and can interact with it. This is sometimes called spooky metaphysics because we are claiming something weird and non-empirical exists just to solve a problem.
A common response to physical laws being determined is that quantum mechanics isn't deterministic therefore it could flow for free will. This is wrong. Quantum mechanics follow probabilistic laws. So it does not allow for true freedom, just more determined options. Also our actions operate on the macro scale where quantum mechanics doesn't.
>>78112545
>Why would you think that?
Because according to Atheists: you can't think or feel after you die. There is nothing to feel, no sadness, no pain.
According to Christians: You are sent to Heaven if you are a good enough person and spend eternity meditating or what have you.
Either way, there is no more pain after death, so it must be a peaceful thing.
Overthinking
The thread
>>78112733
Even if consciousness derived from outside of physical reality this does not mean free-will is suddenly possible. There are a ton of theological problems of how a god could be all-knowing and all-powerful, but somehow we can still be free.
>>78112870
Funny thing is how can you assert there is no pain after death when you never experienced death?
>>78110231
Don't ask why we're here - accept that we are. God's something bigger and more complex than anyone can wrap their head around. You have an average of around 75 to 80 years in this mortal existence - make the best of it. Try to leave it better than you found it, and hope other people do the same.
>>78110231
There's no way to know
But there is honor in being good to good people.
There is positivity in a strong community.
We're fortunate to live in a time when we can choose to live simply and not give in to decadence, or strive as hard as we want for wealth
We can choose to live by a code of morality or not
The reason behind life is to live.
Dont worry about whether there's a god or gods or not.
If you live well and choose to live with righteousness over apathy I believe you'd be in good standing with a higher power.
If you want to worship, do so. If not, don't. Focus on doing well and you'll do your species a good service.
I'm am agnostic but I do everything I can to live well by the positive teachings of all walks of life. I lift spirits of my Christian friends and stand by them when they need me. I say merry Christmas because it's not about the tradition. It's about honest to goodness meaning the damn words.
Bottom line, live a good life. Listen to advice. Weed out the bad shit and adopt the good in people. I think you'll be happy living that way, and I think it would make any god appreciate you.
I am an Atlantian that chose to reincarnate at this time to be a healer. I will not share my life, but many aspects of it have led me to a position and expectation of providing true healing, which is not medicine.
Listen to the creator. Empty your glass, so it may be filled. Meditate and learn to separate mind from consciousness. You'll start to read the messages, it really does feel like you're in the matrix. Just remember, you're something much more channeled though a holographic universe.
>>78110231
We don't have any biological purpose. I don't see any metaphysical system net for us, when we die. We fall eternal into nothingness.
But in life, we must live with spirituality and with a deep sense of community. Stuff that lacks on the modern age.
>>78113103
'Empty your glass, so it may be filled'
I'll drink to that
>>78113032
How can somebody be so positive there is no God if they've never died before? All those "I've died for a couple minutes and saw blahblahblah" stories are full of shit because once you die, Heaven or no Heaven, you're dead. Not "oh, but only for a few minutes". You only lost consciousness in those few minutes. That's why I don't like both overly confident Atheists and Christians.
>>78112870
Why are you so afraid of pain? Pain can be a great very rewarding thing. Do you lift weights or have you ever done martial arts with sparring involved?
For me, an existence with no pain would not be a heaven by any means. That sounds like an opiate-induced hell to me where you're in this fake bliss state like you're a heroin addict.
>>78112174
I believe this because of an emotional feeling, and emotions are very hard to describe, almost like describing colors. I wouldn't describe it as "depressing".
Its all really hard to explain, but I am trying my best. The connections you feel with certain elements, with certain choices you make in life. Things seem to line up. Love is a very powerful emotion, and love is what gives birth to new life, which is the most beautiful thing in humankind. You can chalk these emotions up to a tool that was used through natural selection for the overall survival of man, but I believe it was a tool created by something much more powerful.
Alot of it deals with personal experiences as I get older, which would take a long time to explain. I am admitting there is nothing logical behind it, just made this thread to dwell on the idea of life with others.
I know I am being very vague here, but your personal belief on existence is hard to explain, I am no Plato or Socrates.
>>78113236
Same here
Both same side of the coin
Agnosticism makes most sense
>>78113007
I never said there was an all-knowing, all-powerful god
I just think it's probably more likely that this universe is not the extent of all that exists. I think it's much more likely that another "reality" exists outside of here and obviously there is no possible valid extrapolation to be made about that reality because we have no way of knowing the laws of that reality unless you infer that theyre somehow similar to ours because if this universe has a creator then that creator derived our laws of physics from its experience.
If the source of the big-bang was outside this universe then we can't even begin to imagine what that source could be like.
>>78113270
>I believe this because of an emotional feeling, and emotions are very hard to describe, almost like describing colors.
This idea that how we perceive the world is unique to each of us is called (qualia).
>Love is a very powerful emotion, and love is what gives birth to new life, which is the most beautiful thing in humankind.
Love can be explained pretty well with chemicals. Regardless why is new life inherently beautiful.
Anyways I get where you are coming from. I think that both of us just have completely different qualia about the world. You see it as having purpose, I don't.
>>78113250
I suppose. But I wonder what Heaven would be like if you could still feel pain. I guess you'd be your same old self, only no longer able to interact with the living?
>>78113544
Those other realities could also be determined or they could not be. Regardless the universe we live in currently is deterministic as far as we know.
Any meaning of life must be derived from life itself. I find this similar to using a word in its own definition; it doesn't make sense. From this, I have decided that all life is ultimately meaningless and that our only goal as living beings is to procreate and carry on our species' miserable existence in our little corner of our vast, unknown universe.
And then I remember that despite this I can't even justify ending my life. So I drown out my thoughts with dank memes pretending I'm not having an existential crisis on a Greek financial advice forum.
Fuck. Why does anything even exist at all?
>>78110231
All life in the universe, is related. Life on Earth probably started because of meteors bombarding the surface, full of microorganisms and single cellular organisms. It may even be how we got water.
I imagine all across the universe this is how life starts for many planets.
There is no purpose of life or the universe. Well, maybe it is to exist
Anon, we aren't the first civ or people to ask these questions. Some, may have gotten much further than we have. Some, may have never gotten past sticks stones.
The important thing is that you're here to ask these questions. Curiosity has done a lot for mankind.
Who knows what secrets we may unfold in the massive ocean that is the universe.
>>78113715
>deterministic
No its not
We "know" at the most base level of physics, the wave function is a probability distribution.
Reality is probabilistic
>>78113803
>our only goal as living beings is to procreate and carry on our species' miserable existence in our little corner of our vast, unknown universe.
Why is that our goal. Why couldn't we just go extinct. Evolution has no purpose.
>And then I remember that despite this I can't even justify ending my life.
You can't justify living either. Justification means that their is purpose either way you could point to. It's nihilism all the way down.
>>78110231
>What is your personal theory on life?
your personal theory is relevant
empirical evidence is what matters
>>78113803
This is it
Avoidance of the truth
>>78114073
>probability distribution
At the base level. At the macro level it isn't probabilistic. Regardless does quantum level probability really give us the free-will we actually care about. No.
>>78110231
I don't know that answer but you can understand much of the world bullshit by just learning animal behaviour
seriously we are just animals, those who aren't animals probably doesn't feel human either and are marginalized by society
I personally believe that there is some really weird shit going on behind all of this, probably i'm in the agnostic category with some abrahamic influences
I also believe that the world will not last more than 30 years from now on, probably something bigger will happen (and if nothing happens then probably god doesn't exist, but if SOMETHING happens then it's very probable that some kind of god exists)
>>78110884
This has been my philosophy for as long as I can remember. Doesn't me me happy, nor sad. It just is.
Probably in a simulation. The universe may potentially be a self propagating computer designed by higher dimensional beings
I can't get scientific evidence, but the longer I live, the more I have become convinced that we are much more than just atoms that suddenly became conscious. We are the pinnacle of the universe (humans). Somehow we are much more than the sum of the parts. I think science needs to address some of the more strange things that we all know are there, but aren't explained by materialism. There is more. We all know it.
Zen is superior to all other doctrines :^)
>>78114496
Zen is simply nihilism
>>78114537
you grossly misunderstand zen
>>78114584
you are probably some western hippy who has read Zen from some very bad translated books
i think life as we know it is just one anomaly after another and there is no reason for us but we are just products of random chance
>>78112258
Life is energy, and energy cannot be created or destroyed. It just transfers to one form or another.
Einstein said that. I like to believe it. What makes you "you" is lost when you die; but the energy that you gave off will always exist. It's comforting.
>>78114584
Zen is pretty much saying that all (desire)life is suffering therefore avoid all desire and become a recluse. Zen is just stoicism but with colored togas instead of white ones.
>>78111484
>Once you become nihilistic and black-pilled it's impossible to go back.
Nihilism itself a delusion you fool.
>>78110884
There is no evidence to suggest this, in fact the evidence has been nearly proven the opposite.
Read "The closing of the American mind"
American Nihilism will always be defended as objective fact Americans on every level, its become the general consensus endemic to our population yet it is entirely unfounded and completely unreasonable.
You make a whole lot of claims in that post, claims which I am certain you can personally verify, and if that's the case then you can see how your credibility is strained.
You might cite some sources, of course, yet you must keep in mind they are without a doubt afflicted with the same brand of Nihilism that comes from America.
At the end of the day, all the scientists, all the philosophers, thinkers, and scholars unsurprisingly come back to the same old inescapable rhetoric of "maybe, but maybe not".
That's where we all are.
>>78114273
dont be a Buddhist
>>78111313
Rest assured anon, such is not the case indefinitely.
>>78111560
Do you have any proof of this aside from your own opinion. and I mean proof that goes beyond mere suggestion?
>>78110231
>Created by Evolution
>Purpose is to spread life across the Universe. Does not necessarily need to be human life, but we are more than capable of genetically modifying bacteria that could survive on distance planets at this point
>We do not know the reason behind life, but we understand reproduction plays a very important role. We are fascinated by it at all times in our life.
I'm still an atheist. Religion is cute, but it gives no predictive capability. It's as useful as being a pagan without the stigma.
>>78114350
> I think science needs to address some of the more strange things that we all know are there, but aren't explained by materialism. There is more. We all know it.
I agree, science is just observing what we can see with out eyes. We need to dig deeper into more complex theories, but unfortunately I think they are to complicated for the human mind to understand.
Almost like testing a chimpanzee intelligence, There is some things that chimpanzees just cannot understand that is easy for humans to grasp. We are limited by our sense, and by our intelligence.
simulation
>>78114858
>what we can see with out eyes
was meant to be: what we can see with our* own eyes.
>>78114918
So life is just a higher being playing The Sims all day?
>>78114350
>There is more. We all know it.
EXACTLY.
"The heart has its reasons which the reason does not understand" -Pascal
Very profound sentiment from one of the greatest intellects to ever live.
It is not a defense of feeling, but an affirmation of a "higher" intuition. One which we all can sympathize with and understand intuitively.
Surely those who claim the earth is the center of universe are prepared to more than a geographical argument, home is afterall where the heart is.
We lived so blissfully, so ignorantly, that truth has escaped us.
We have focused so much on existing itself that we forget why we exist in the first place.
>>78114858
Our brain can only comprehend so much, it's only so useful.
However, Computers have created a lot data storing and processing that humans can not do naturally. Computers have greatly aided human understanding of the world.
>>78110231
No intrinsic point
No
No gods
No. No.
Point of life is to reproduce and survive
>>78114720
I can't really be trying to explain it to you over the /pol/ senpai but if you want some rich and informative texts you can read D.T. Suzuki's Doctrine of No MInd and then Hubert Benoit's The Supreme Doctrine
>>78114780
stoicism and Zen share elements to be sure but you don't have to live an ascetic life in Zen, nor is all life considered suffering (rather that craving/attachment are the cause of suffering).
Teeny tiny pieces in a processor, trying to find a pattern to pi.
>>78114780
>>78114584
>>78114537
Zen, well, all eastern mysticisms are about suicide, abolishing the self.
make total peace and achieve total harmony so that one can reject evil itself, abolish suffering, but in the same stroke, reject good and abolish joy.
It is stoicism's last resort applied to the spirit.
>>78115097
>However, Computers have created a lot data storing and processing that humans can not do naturally.
Yes, maybe when we create artificial intelligence that trumps humans,then maybe they can give us the answer, but computers cannot think. They cannot ask "why?". They just compute.
I like my religion. I find it comfortable, but not in a controlling manner.
I think that in the beginning, God, or whatever you want to call some kind of benevolent force, set all the natural laws in order in such a way that they would play out in a pre-ordained way. And yet I also believe in free will. So it's pretty hard to reconcile those two, yet I do.
Also, as far as I know, it's impossible for me to divine my own purpose. Kind of like trying to observe an atom's position and velocity, you can't do both at the same time; while you're alive, you can't see your purpose because of your frame of reference. So maybe there is some big purpose, but you aren't capable of knowing it, or maybe there is none and this is all just some cosmic joke. I like to think it's the first one though. At the end of the day, it's all the same, you have to find your own purpose.
Existence is pretty fucking cool though. The odds are what, 1 in 10^2,685,000? That's pretty fucking nuts, so I have to believe it means, that on some level, it means I was meant to be here.
Also, it's really cool, how entropy trends towards more chaos, but once life arises, it trends towards more order. Really impressive stuff.
>>78115102
evidence, aside from "maybe or maybe not"?
Anything definitive and conclusive, absolutely determinate?
>>78115119
>rather that craving/attachment are the cause of suffering
what is there to life other than craving and attachment.
>>78110231
You were created to praise, reverence, and serve God; and by that means to save your soul.
>>78115167
I always found it weird that eastern religions are all about the abolition of desire and self, yet eastern cultures are more materialistic than western ones.
>>78115167
I didn't realize how many people on this site thought they knew a lot about Zen
Maybe it's because you speak in such figurative terms but I really don't think you get it. Zen does not require that you abolish joy. Zen does not require a figurative suicide. It has nothing to do with good and evil (manmade concepts)
>What is your personal theory on life?
It exists. Wherever and whenever the conditions are right, life will develop. The areas where these conditions are present, however, are very rare throughout the universe.
>Are we here for a reason?
No, we create our own reasons to live.
>Has a god created us in his own image?
No, gods do not exist.
>Do we really know the reason behind life? Do the people in power know the reason behind life?
There is no reason. We find ways to give meaning to our lives.
>>78110884
This. Hard to overestimate the importance of religion in social cohesion or to overestimate the importance of social cohesion to a society that wishes to thrive.
most people cannot see beyond their own nose.
>>78115261
The full range of human emotions and experiences
but without the need to cling to them
passing through happiness and melancholy, pleasure and pain, all alike
>>78115242
To continue:
What if the whole "God created us in his image" thing is a reference to creating itself? It just strikes me that so much of the Universe is destruction and entropic vacuum, whereas life is uniquely singular in that it trends towards more order and specialization.
>>78115119
Zen kills your individuality when it's in fact that the most important thing to make you be in the world. Christianity is better because they focus on doing things, on acting upon the world.
In fact all this shit about eternal consequences of your actions HAS to exist in a religion to make you actually feel like you are part of the world. Zen just kills your place on the world and makes you another cog
>>78115293
fuck that
>>78115242
>I like my religion. I find it comfortable, but not in a controlling manner.
I was brought up Christian, So if there was a meaning behind my life, It only makes sense that Christianity would be the answer.
I do find comfort in reading the bible. Going to church fills me with an explainable, happy feeling.
But then I realize the bible was written by man, and that when compared with scientific facts, you must intemperate the bible in your own words in order for it the make any sense.
I just settle on the belief that there is a god, but every religion on earth is just a single mans interpretation that people have chosen to follow.
>>78115097
Really? Like what?
Correct me if I am wrong but are computers not functioning solely on algorithms and programmed man-made information, limited by and only capable of re-creating our human capabilities?
>>78110606
Hell might not exist but the Spirit realm does. The good continues in other Worlds while Evil suffocates there own existence.
>>78110231
I've had enormous contentment in my life by adopting the seven noahide laws, the supposed universal morality given by God to Moses, but meant for all the non-kikes. The laws are as follows:
Do not deny God
Do not blaspheme God
Do not murder
Do not steal
Do not engage in illicit sexual behaviour
Do not eat of a live animal
Establish courts for the administration of justice
I think what i like most about these is it leaves room for agnostics and free thinkers who realize that, epistemologically, we cant know anything, but morally, know that without a benevolent, supermatural basis for morality, there can be no objectivity to our moral systems.
Personally, i want to pursue medicine, and hope to repair the world in my own small way, restoring people to health so that they can draw close to God, whatever their religious traditions. Makes me happy at least :)
>>78110231
>What is your personal theory on life?
An experiment into existence.
>Are we here for a reason?
Self reason, we are here to be here. Whatever comes next is your personal reason, as is your relationship with God.
>Has a god created us in his own image?
Only the mind, the body is still developing.
>Do we really know the reason behind life? Do the people in power know the reason behind life
Yes. The others are kept poor and stupid deliberately, they refuse to accept it is time and has been time for hundreds of years. They have the same delusion eastern monks and judeochristian esoteric have, that all progress needs to be stifled in order to let the others catch up.
For this brief moment I'm speaking with the word of God, that's not how things are meant to be.
>I went through an atheist/nihilistic phase, but recently I am starting to turn back.
I will always be here for you, at worst, I'll always be a shadow in the back of your mind. All Australians post under the cross.
>>78115541
>Zen kills your individuality when it's in fact that the most important thing to make you be in the world. Christianity is better because they focus on doing things, on acting upon the world.
This a thousand fucking times. I hung out with a bunch of acid heads in college (did it myself a little, but that's beside the point). All they ever fucking talked about was "going with the flow" and "letting yourself go". It fucking clashed like crazy with my personality, I'm really individualistic, and in the end, I realized that it was just incredibly contrary to free thought as to be near-incompatible with many Western ideals.
>>78115491
Cohesion can be found in many, many other places. Family, work, school, clubs, sports, etc. Religion is not needed for cohesion. If anything, religion is one of the main reasons why people, on a whole, are divided.
>>78115541
nobody is going to take you seriously if you think the world will end within 30 years, friend. also it is clear that you don't know much about Zen at all.
You are not a separate agent. I will leave you with that
>>78115500
Passing through them is the same as ignoring them. If anything this is just nihilism.
>>78115726
Your acidhead friends are not Zen
Zen is productive to the free thought which was stamped out in your impersonal government education
>>78115491
Religion is the only thing that can get people to submit themselves willingly for the greater good. It's what keeps people society destroying degeneracy in check. Nationalism was a weaker less effective form of this, but even now it is fading.
>>78115571
Yeah, that makes sense to me. I think God exists, I think he does care about us, but I also think that he wants us to figure things out on our own. He'll give us pointers now and then, but generally not direct intervention.
The Bible is a great book, but it is limited by the fact that it was written by humans, who are by their definition, flawed. Same with most holy books. It's a good code to try to model your life after though.
>>78115746
Just see how people live under Zen in Asia. See how they work the farms and how they don't even doubt anything at all because of Zen. There are a lot of western guys who have went to Asia and lived the "zen" experience at first hand
At least Christianity makes you doubt which is again number 1 thing to make a change upon the world. I would say Christianity is even more deeper than Zen and Buddhism
>>78115674
>Do not deny God
I honestly do not think it is bad, or sinful, to genuinely question or be skeptical of if God exists. If you question, but then conclude that he is real, that would be great and you would reaffirm your faith. If, however, you question and realize that maybe God does not exist, then you have found an explanation that you think is more true and will have not lost anything. I tried this but I arrived at the latter conclusion.
>>78115887
Well in that case, what is Zen? I'm actually curious, if it's not just simply "going with the flow, letting the wind blow you where it will"
>>78111200
No the White Race was here first. Created as workers to mine Diamonds in South Africa. Then the Jew God created the mud.
>>78115758
Your emotions are just like what you detect with your senses - ethereal impressions that you perceive temporarily even as they fade away.
I don't want to try to explain this anymore so I am out this thread. You should all do better and more research before you form your opinions
Life is a luck of the draw, even the most basic organisms can reproduce
>purpose
To die. That is my goal, the only one I can and will achieve
>>78111431
Anything we havent created has been made in distant Earths.
>>78110231
There is no God.
Only gods, embodiment of natural aspects. All life was born of chance, and chance being Chaos, the god of Chaos is responsible for creating life. Such is the word of Kek.
>>78116002
aw shit baby I am leaving the thread but it's a doctrine meant to adjust your mindset in order to eliminate suffering, I recommend you read the books I mentioned earlier (probably available online) and for an easier and more enjoyable primer, you can watch lectures by Alan Watts, an expert.
Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFL21yWeqC4 is an ok place to start, there are 3 other parts to this lecture
just know that satori is possible
>>78115500
>>78116018
You are actually describing Zen as we say it but you don't realize it. Zen makes you a bubble out of you just like stoicism, they are primordially slave philosophies. It's no wonder that almost all military men LOVE zen because it means to them that they can do absolutely atrocious things without asking the why
>>78116164
>chaos
>Kek
I saw that coming.
>>78116198
u haven't lived it baby
ok now I'm out for real
>>78114795
>proof
Burden of proof is not on me, you know.
I have no reason to believe in stuff like a purpose of life, god or afterlife. The ones that need proofs are the ones claiming they exist.
>>78114803
You dont need religion to understand you were created. Religion is infrastructure. Theres Good and Bad. To think Our meager intellect is the High Class of Existence only shows the Weak minds of the World.
>>78112459
Life is meaningless and meaningful both at same time. Its crazy.
I used to be know all smug atheist since childhood. Its the way we're raised here. I couldn't understand believers so I mocked them inside my head. But things change. Trough personal suffering, hardship and life experience I slowly started to believe in God.
I remember first time when I prayed to God. It felt like succumbing to insanity. Getting on my knees and crossing my fingers thinking "Now I've lost it, I've gone insane, this doesn't make any sense in my rational mind". But I did it anyways. Saying the prayers out loud was the hardest part. Even when I was praying out loud I was thinking "I'm on my fucking knees talking to a fucking wall, is this how low I have sunk?". Then it was over. After 15 minutes lo and behold my prayer was answered. I couldn't fucking believe it. Total madness. How is this even possible? Later on I tried to explain it to myself rationally that its mind making connections between random events in a positive way. Crazy.
Faith has been great boon in my life. It has helped move forward where a rational man would have given up. My belief in God has gotten to the point where I wish to join a church or a parish or something. But none of the mainstream religions appeal to me. They seem dishonest. I try to go deeper and seek meaning in the "old ways". In events men always attach meaning to, such as equinox, changing of seasons and so on. I want to place offering in woods for entity I met there but I'm still undecided if this is the right time of year. I keep all my beliefs to myself. No one knows I pray, or do any of this. I keep it to myself and I feel if I tell it to someone wrong it might lose its power.
In hour of wolves all men fall on their knees.
>>78116383
>There's Good and Bad.
Is there?
>>78110231
>What is your personal theory on life?
We are here to experience and interpret the universe according to our own capabilities. I adhere to a Greek Orthodox Christian outlook.
>Are we here for a reason?
To find purpose for ourselves and not leave this Earth until we have accomplished all we have felt compelled to achieve.
>Has a god created us in his own image?
I believe God endowed us with an intelligence capable of understanding the world around us and creating wonders. He would want us to explore all aspects of his creation. I don't think that the creation narrative is a literal enactment of what was described in Genesis, but that evolution is part of His creation.
>Do we really know the reason behind life? Do the people in power know the reason behind life?
To love one another, learn as much as we can, and leave the world a better place than we found it.
>>78115587
> limited by and only capable of re-creating our human capabilities?
In most instances, you're correct. However it could be possible that you create a virtual reality, you create laws (laws of thermodynamics) that that VR has to abide by, you put in values for certain categories (time and space) and give them constants (C = speed of light) or ranges (probability distribution like the wave function) and an algorithm for laws of phsyics (momentum, inertia, mass, gravity, etc) and then press play which would create a universe then you could start that program over and over and it would create an entirely new universe each time
>>78111567
i wouldn't call it a disconnect, the macro world is just the emergent properties of the quantum/micro world
>>78116410
Were you always an atheist? I was born and raised as a Christian, and really believed and was religious, but when I stopped believing, I felt like I understood more about life and got out of a "box" that I was trapped in.
>>78116437
There is good and evil and it's strongly present in all things one do
Don't fall for the eastern influences, good and bad exists but you have first to make the leap of believing that they exist to actually start seeing them
>>78116410
Oh sorry, I read again and missed the first part. Your post is interesting.
>>78116410
>Faith has been great boon in my life.
Faith is the key. Don't loose it.
>>78115333
This instantly made me think of Koreans.
>>78116792
Yeah, Koreans seem to be the most vain Asian people.
>>78116437
My take is there's creation and destruction. Those are the two base forces of the Universe. Anything else is a construct.
>>78110231
We are a freaking accident, nothing to discuss. There is no higher meaning to life of existence.
>>78116682
>Don't fall for the eastern influences, good and bad exists but you have first to make the leap of believing that they exist to actually start seeing them
>if you believe in something then you will believe in it
Great justification.
>>78116792
>>78116844
I was actually thinking mostly about Indians, but I agree Koreans are pretty vain.
>>78110231
If there is no purpose in life, isn't the next logical step to make purpose?
Seems to me that universe is an empty canvas and it's up to you to pick up the brush and start painting.
>>78116869
There is no creation or destruction in the universe. Just change.
>>78116876
I don't think we are an accident. I just think we are very rare. I believe that the universe is so large that the right conditions for life probably exist somewhere else to, and so some other lifeforms probably exist somewhere out in space too. But I don't think we will ever make contact with any intelligent alien beings, if any even exist (universe is too big, takes too long to communicate and travel).
>>78115236
Who's to say, we haven't already created AI?
>>78116876
This mindset is most commonly found, in my experience, among people incapable of
higher more complex thinking and reasoning.
Be it a phase or limitations in the mind of the individual it is very adolescent.
>>78110231
the universe we live in is based around violence, war, competition and conquest. It's like a game, and the end goal is for the best competitor to come forward by beating and suppressing everything else. I also believe our universe is a simulation and we are inside of some sort of computer. I think there are other universes with different rules, or other simulated universes... and I think the best course of action is to accept the nature of our universe and play the game as it is
>>78117194
Not so rare actually.
>>78116879
The other way is going full Kantian so you better be a sentimentalism if you are going moral and just make a leap of faith.
>>78117010
The eternal parmenides vs heraclitus my man, I side with Parmenides in this one though.
>>78117211
I am euphoric not by accident, but because it i have purpose.
>>78117010
>There is no creation or destruction in the universe. Just change.
That is true in the most literal sense, but I'm talking macro.
If you want to get literal, eventually every proton in the Universe decays (into what, I don't know), and we're left with a void.
Tangent, but if you haven't read The Last Question, definitely do it.
>>78117211
I disagree. Humans look for meaning where no meaning might exist. We try to make sense of everything when there is no sense to be made. If someone, for example, dies in a random, freak accident, we try to come up with a reason for why it happened, apart from how it happened. Asking why things happen is good, but may not be applicable when it comes to existence. Some things, maybe many, are a certain way for no reason, that's just how they are. To think this, in my opinion, takes more critical thinking and analysis than just believing people telling you that things happen or are in a certain way because of God or whatever. You do not have to dismiss people who do not share your views as less intelligent or as kids.
>>78116166
I can't believe you posted this shit, you are full Drunning Kruger effect
>>78117349
Ebin
Meme all you must, it does not change anything.
>>78117211
I am an engineer and after finishing my studies and learning about physics and quantum physics and the like, I found pretty stupid to try to use philosophy to explain our life and existence.
Life works in a mathematical harmony such that arguing that there is any other meaning in life other than the mathematical marvel that is the universe itself is meaningless. We maybe able to explain how it works in all its glory someday but until I can only marvel at it greatness and basically just realize how fucking mundane and worthless human life is.
>>78115236
>>78117194
I'll bite, what's your definition of AI?
I'll remind you, computers aren't capable of any actions it wasn't either designed to do, wasn't trained specifically to do (read, with examples in the millions against what a child could do with only 3 or 4) or isn't within its set of arbitrarily defined rules. Artificial intelligence is artificial as it always resolves to the transference of intelligence from a human to a machine, the intelligence is never unique.
Remember, if you try to talk about sentience or consciousness, you must define either word very clearly and very succinctly.
>>78116410
I really like this post, something about it struck a chord with me.
I want to find the answer and meaning behind existence, and I agree that mainstream religions wont guide me there. I am going to have to find it within myself.
>>78110231
Consciousness was a mistake.
- The Universe
>>78117505
>I am an engineer and after finishing my studies and learning about physics and quantum physics and the like, I found pretty stupid to try to use philosophy to explain our life and existence.
>the field I studies is better than all others
Typical engineer desu.
>>78115625
Shut it, you hippie
>>78110231
>We are a computer program
>We are an experiment for aliens
>We are on the other end of a black hole
>The universe is actually some giant brain of sorts and created life to aid its own understanding.
>>78117551
Consciousness is a spook
- the spook
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end.
I'm here for Bernie and Bernie alone
>>78117505
nigger i'm also an engineer and i can assure you that engineering courses doesn't teach anything about this particular question
>>78117686
And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Anyone who says there is no meaning to life is either underthinking it or overthinking it.
It is very simple. The meaning of life is that we must discover more. As far as we know, nothing else in this universe can observe and think like we do, so it is up to us. Great power = great responsibility, we are the only ones with the power to figure out the secrets of life, matter, time, reality etc, so it is our responsibility.
>>78117570
My field of studies is the applied science, I wish I where a physician and basically be able to understand more of the mathematical marvels that rule the universe. I only understand what is applicable to my fields because is useful to create shit. I am basically 50 years behind what the modern theoretical and practical physics know of how our universe works and their current knowledge will only trickle down to the rest of us in like 50 years or so when said new discoveries are useful to make something.
>>78116357
>Burden of proof is not on me, you know.
the assertion that life is meaningless is an assertion, one does not simply assume that there is no meaning, the onus of proof is squarely upon you.
it isn't meaningless until proven otherwise, that isn't a rational stance.
Certainly I would ask, If you are correct in your assertion, why should we care about the burden of proof?
You yourself can not even defend your own stance as your entire philosophy is wafer thin and an intellectual wasteland.
>>78115384
>manmade concepts
You know how I know I'm right?
>>78117505
But why do the laws on the universe exist? I know its an end all argument, but why are these mathematical functions set in stone in the laws of our universe?
We all know we live in a universe with these set laws, but don't ask yourself "how", ask "why".
>>78117551
Consciousness is rad. Fuck what the Universe thinks.
- Humans
>>78110231
Lulled to sleep by maddening drums & the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes, He dreams us all into reality.
>>78117832
many things are arbitrary, and only relevant to our human perspective, but you are right, the universe is also made up of several constants. These constants are quite perplexing, and point at some kind of structure to this universe that would indicate a simulation, or a created universe. Or, it could simply be explained by our universe being one of many, and each one has different constants, and these constants have infinite different values depending on which universe, which would mean that they are arbitrary and the only thing 'real' in this reality would be infinity.
>>78117832
The Why is meaningless. The how is everything. People that ask Why never reach a conclusion, people that ask How reach a conclusion and can move on to answer other questions.
>>78110231
Life doesn't matter. Your existence is a random accident. Our solar system could be wiped away and the universe wouldn't give a shit.
Or its a big nothing and everything will cease to exist with no purpose.
>>78110231
Life is pointless. There is no way you can prove me wrong.
>>78117834
The jews did it
-/pol/
90 mph into concrete wall, no seatbelt, survived. God is real, proved it to myself.
>>78110231
Personally I believe God started the creation of our universevents with a big bang equivalent and tries to be as hands off as possible. However those who seek his help will find it. As for our purpose it is to live good lives and make a beneficial change in the world.
>>78118162
it matters to us. at the risk of sounding redundant, that's all that really matters.
To all niggers reading this, i recommend to you, short reads:
- Ecclesiastes from the bible
- Job from the bible
- Isaiah from the bible
- The puppet and the dwarf: The perverse core of Christianity from Zizek
- Plato Gorgias and Apology (you can read others if you want but those two are short and easy to understand)
- Fear and Trembling from Kierkegaard
- An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals and Treatise of Human Nature by Hume
- Orthodoxy from Chesterton
- On the Essence of Truth by Heidegger
>>78110231
Maybe there is a god.
But he is too powerful, too busy, and too important to be doing stupid shit like:
1.answering your prayers.
2.setting bushes on fire.
3.inseminating virgins
4.watching people masturbate.
5.hating teh gays.
Every religion is wrong. If there is a god we are all so insignifigant as to barely register in his celestial plan.
If there is no god...then then the results are basically the same. You have to come to terms with your insignifigance. Uou have to set aside the lies of religion. And finally you have to find the strength to be a good person regardless of the existence of a higher power.
MAGA
>>78110231
capitalism is a shit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvZSpET11ZY
>>78118736
>You have to come to terms with your insignificance
This is cuck talk
I believe that no matter what happens technologically, or politically, or economically, we will continue to fall into the same traps that we've fallen into for the last 10,000 years.
That unless humanity evolves, we're still the same group of people that will turn to inward destruction of our own societies without external threats to our survival. I believe that the closer we get to understanding the truth of the universe and life itself, the closer we get to destruction. Unless we can reach some evolved consciousness that allows us to reconcile both our short lifespans with the futility of life and the lack of any kind of afterlife/reincarnation, we will continue to self destruct every time we come short of a utopia.
A good comparison for this is Star Trek vs Legend of Galactic Heroes.
The discovery of Warp Drive after the Eugenics Wars forced a human evolution vs the discovery of Warp Drive without the evolution.
Linear progression vs the constant rise and fall, bubble and burst cycles of societies/civilizations.
As for why we're here? I don't know. Honestly I cannot even fathom it. I don't think we could. I think we can easily surmise, but could we ever really understand it? Even if a God really did do this, would we really still understand it? Could we? What if there really is an upper limit to our capacity for intellectual thought? Maybe we're just one position on a long line of hominid evolution, and we're just biding time, and holding fast until the next species comes along to supplant us and look back on us like we do on Neanderthals and Homo Habilis. Maybe that hominid species will get it better than we could. Maybe they'll go Q Continuum on us.
>>78118400
>those who seek his help will find it
I don't think so. When you pray, as in every situation, 3 things can happen. 1, what you prayed for will happen. 2, what you prayed for will not happen. 3, what you prayed for will happen, but later on. In situations 1 and 3, you would think that God made it happen, but if situation 2 happened, people would argue that it is no what God wanted, or something along those lines. In reality, in my opinion, it's just chance and choices playing out, not God, that determine the outcome. Also, why does God apparently help people with low priority, relatively unimportant things, but doesn't help a lot of people who desperately need help. Why do bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people? It doesn't seem logical to me.
>>78110231
To spread love, and understand the ultimate love from our creator, the Universe God.
And to help God(the universe) or (ourselves) find a way to last forever and defeat entropy
To find a way to let duality exist, without one or the other destroy each other.
The universe is an imperfect reflection of a perfect being. Two sides of the coin. One cannot exist without the other.
Humans use language to explain the universe imperfectly
God uses math to explain the universe perfectly
If these sentences don't strike chords in your hippocampus, then there's some red pills that you need to swallow.
>>78117751
Yeah I know, but I am talking mostly about what I came to understand when opening my head to the crazy theories that are relativism and quantum mechanics in general.
The first basically taught me that we are like squares living in a 3Dimensional world and not being able to understand intuitively the world that surrounded us. The former taught me that even our most advance understanding of the universe is so incomplete that we may never truly understand it and our only way to explain certain phenomenons is to completely change our ways of how we understand the universe and ergo life itself.
>>78118753
Oh, that's just Kek. Everyone knows about Him.
>>78119100
Don't forget the 4th dimension, time. Space-time is very interesting and it does get crazy.
>>78118954
That is part of the hands off image of God in my opinion. I think if you are praying to God so God will directly influence your life you are doing it wrong. Praying should be about being humble and seeking solace and confidence in God.
>>78118954
Well the oldest book of the bible is Job and it is concerned almost exclusively with those questions.
God's answer is Fuck You Job, who are you to insist I explain anything to you? You think you're smart enough to understand it anyway?!
And Job shits his pants and realizes God is right and quits talking and just trusts.
But of course fags who think that God is so important that he couldn't possibly be interested in their lives also believe he is so simple that they can be told the meaning of everything in life and so small that they can order Him to or else hold it against him.
It's faith my man. Then you'll understand all the rest, as much as you need to
>>78118394
70 mph into a tree. Friend died, I lived. Nonsense.
>>78117291
>passing off thumbnail copy as the real thing
Reported, partyvan is on the way. You counterfeiters are destroying the pepe market.
>>78119309
Absolutely this
Mental energy exists as does physical, it is all part of the same world. Love is the highest energy state of all, and is achieved through being a good person and loving others.
>>78119230
Yeah that is why I used the square living in a 3 dimensional world analogy. A square will never understand the 3rd dimension because its own existence is restricted to 2 Dimensions and it has a fix position at the 3rd one being able to only exist in one position at the same time.
The same goes for use and our concept of time and space. We can move in the 3 dimensional world without worries but time is a foreign concept to us. If you ask someone what is time or how to measure it and you will find out that basically no one truly knows what time is.
>>78118954
What if God is to us what we are to ants? Maybe he's not actually paying attention to what we're saying nor could even if it wanted to. But he decides to interact with us simply out of curiousity, boredom, or perverse cruelty.
Maybe in the grand scheme of things, this deity sees one of these ants moving towards a source of food, and for some reason picks it up and drops it closer to the food source just to see what happens. He could not know, or care if the ant was praying for food at the time.
I like to think that if there is a god, and it did create this all, that we're as capable of understanding it's will, and it's existence as a mouse is capable of understanding the workings of an internal combustion engine, or the molecular structure of the food it's eating.
I guess what I'm saying is: ants make tunnels. Mice make nests. We make interplanetary vehicles. God makes reality.
Each being on this ladder is far above what's below, and what's below is so far below it cannot fathom the will or the intellect of what's above it.
But the gulf between us, and the two tiers below us are nothing compared to what's above us. Is it even possible to understand what could be the human to our ant? Would we even be ants? Maybe we're not even single-cell organisms to it. Maybe we're not even atoms. We're likely nothing.
God created everything.
>>78119483
WEW LAD.
POST MODERNISTS GET OFF MY BOARD. REEEEEEEEEEEe
I can't believe logically that all that there is in the world and all that I am, was simply a coincidence.
>>78119309
I've read that. I've read and studied a lot, actually. I used to have a lot of faith, but faith was no longer enough for me as I became an adult and started to think critically and question. Plus, everyone has faith in their own religion as is convinced, but not all can be true, but all can be wrong. I wish there was evidence, real good evidence, not some guy saw an angel apparently, because then I would believe. however, since there is no such evidence, I do not believe. I am not content with faith, because with faith, by definition, there is no evidence, you just believe and hope it's true. I need evidence to believe that something is true, which I think is normal and should be expected for everything.
>>78119681
Why not? It is far more logical that shit is just random chance than to be some motive for life existing in the first place.
>>78119713
As a smart guy you would realize that if there was concrete evidence of the existence of God then there would be no need for faith for anyone, which is a staple behind the christian religion.
>>78119518
but m8 we can't make interplanetary vehicles because the Earth is flat
>>78110231
The universe is infinite, but our "limited" way of seeing and understanding cannot fathom that. We're all a part of the balance. There's a flow of energy that connects all living things and we have yet to discover that. There's no God, no divine beings as such, just the natural order. What lives must eventually pass on back into the balance and gain new life through it.
> did you know light is created when sperm meets the egg?
Funny how life starts with a flash of light...
There's all sorts of different lifeforms. We're not really that unique and there's endless possibilities in the universe. But just because we're not unique doesn't mean we don't matter. Every choice we make, together that is, will make or break us in the end. No, not talking about fucking vegan bullshit or "save the planet", because it ain't dying anytime soon - but our mentality, our way of life and the way we see life, it's getting a bit too dangerous for my liking.
We're animals but we've exchanged the one thing that tells us apart from others, our humanity, with the value we put on money.
We weren't meant to be so cold.
>>78110231
pic related
>>78110231
I think God may or may not exist, but religion (especially abrahamic religions) are stupid and immoral.
>>78119518
But what you're envisioning is not a higher order being just a bigger stronger human type being who would do human type things for human type reasons.
Which is ironically enough a failure of imagination in your otherwise imaginative approach to theology.
God is far beyond us to the point that we can't really quite say what he even IS... For example Eastern Orthodox theology is generally just apophatic which means it only says what God is NOT. Evil, for example, or unjust, or unloving, or untruthful... etc
But in an imaginative scheme if you're contemplating God who is different than and superior to us (which is correct) why not imagine a God who is also superior to us in terms of morality, love, creativity and and all the rest.
These are, after all what we perceive as our highest traits and it makes sense that a higher being would exemplify them to a degree that we cannot fully grasp. This is incidentally something like Plato's intuition about God, which I think is properly called prechristian and and arrived at from secular methods and sources
>>78119862
I don't see that that being as more logical actually. Do you think it's more logical that a watch assembles itself rather than there being a watchmaker?
Like the world which came from Chaos.
I too came from chaos.
Life is the materialization of order.
Enjoy.
>>78120013
immoral wew lad
>>78110231
There is no concrete proof of any afterlife. Believing in one if it makes you better is not an issue. Not believing it because you are skeptical is ok too. Wasting time debating is unproductive and useless.
Morality does not exist. It is purely a human construct that others want you to follow. Knowing this, one can improve his condition by acting moral to the public, while being amoral (if needed) in private or provided no one will find out.
Your soul/consciousness is not above your body. It is a tool for your body. When your body tells you orgasms are good, he is forcing your consciousness to find a way to get more of it.
As such, overstating the importance of your mind is pointless. Your mind does not move things, your mind does not fuck people, and your mind works primarily to feed and please your body. As such, you should take care of your body and be healthy.
Since morality is a construct, and your mind is a tool used by your body, values and virtues are unique to each people, and are not universal in nature. Try to live according to your values the best you can.
>>78119491
fuck off timecube
holy shit it is gone
hurray for archive
http://archive.is/Ytwf2
>>78119939
That's the problem. I don't like the idea of faith. It doesn't sit well with me. I'm happy with not being a religious person, though.
>>78120041
I do. Because nothing in the universe is "logical" by human standards. Like at all.
>>78120024
Actually no, my very point is that we cannot fathom it, because it's purpose and existence would be as alien to us as we are to ants, and ants are to us.
But on a much larger scale.
Maybe I just suck at explaining it.
>>78120114
They are immoral according to my sense of morality. Good enough for me.
I think that "our' universe is a very nice place and only grows more beautiful as we learn more about it.
The fact that everything worked just right to make us, or hell, to allow any matter to exist, is nothing short of incredible.
I took a course on fluid dynamics and it nearly gave me faith in a creator diety. If God exists, he would certainly be beyond the scope of the human mind.
As for an afterlife, i'm keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe I will just 'wake up' and find it was a simulation or I was some immortal spirit all along, hell, maybe i'm everyone and so are you. Maybe God will decide that my consciousness is worth saving for one reason or another. I think it's more likely that we are and then aren't, and so I will try to do what I can before the curtain falls.
>>78119713
Well I've experienced the evidence myself at times (unworthy as I am!) but that can't be conveyed to others credibly so I wouldn't try.
One thing I'm quite sure of is that if you genuinely seek God you're certain to find him. The bible is quite clear on this point and it's also highly intuitive... If there is a creator of the universe who loves you and desires communion with you how could it be that He would be inaccessible to honest attempts.
*genuinely* is a big word there though and I also know that it doesn't necessarily happen on the timeline you wish. I've banged on the door and been in the dark for years and years and in some ways I still am... But I'm not ONLY and ALWAYS in the dark, if that makes sense
"Lord I believe, help my unbelief" is my favorite prayer in the bible and one I think a great many of us could cry out.
Even great theologians and saints spoke about the dark night of the soul, this sickness unto death, spiritual dryness whatever.
I couldn't begin to explain why that exists but I know that there's also more if you persist.
>>78120336
Most people generally agree on what is moral and what is not anyway.
>>78110231
What I want to believe is that reincarnation exists and it's the only way to reach wisdom and enlightenment. Souls that have gone through several cycles are born with wisdom, and the greatest among them go on to become great men who are responsible for making history.
What I actually believe is that most people are pieces of shit and such a silly concept can't even possibly make sense when one really thinks about it. Death and suffering are the only certainties, and whatever cruel deity thought that would be a good idea has most certainly fucked off from this universe by now
>>78120547
Hmm, I don't think so. People from a same civilization at the same period of time might do, but take any country and go back 200 years and you will see what is considered moral changed a lot.
If you take all human beings that have ever lived, you'll see very few agreements. Maybe thou shall not kill/steal, and even still, with humanity's warmongering past, I would put that to question as well.
Anyone here ever read books about near death experiences, the most popular being Life After Life by Raymond Moody? They all say similar things, but I'm not sure if it's a new age scam done by doctors who want to make a quick buck.
I'm an Orthodox Christian, but I believe it is God's will that He decides who goes to Heaven or Hell. I believe he can choose if an atheist that has lived a life and was a good person goes to Heaven, or if a Christian who was a bad person goes to Hell. It's not up to be to condemn people, and God's mercy knows no bounds
>>78121339
What makes a "good person"?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastes
>>78121258
I almost drown myself when doing surf some years ago. I pass out and was revived on the beach by lifeguards, I didn't remember seeing anything that could qualify as an after life, take that as you will.
>>78110231
pic related, it's all done by the illurminati, we're just here along for the ride
>>78121399
Well, all around good morals; treating people with respect, selfless actions, helping people. Being a good person is subjective, but I think being a good person encompasses what we all immediately think of when of what a good person should be like.
This is what god does to pass eternity in which there is nobody else, rolling dice and watching the consequences from every split perspective.
Terrible, but also comforting in a strange way.
>>78121399
Someone who doesn't harm others for his own gain. Someone who doesn't do evil unto others or spread hate in the hopes of starting a wildfire.
A good person makes mistakes but owns up to them. A good person forgives others before forgiving himself. A good person knows he has flaws and thus doesn't judge others for theirs. A good person pursues love and not hate. A good person does good things.
Doing the wrong things for the right reasons/doing the right things for the wrong reasons.
A good person would know the difference.
>>78110231
This is my TLDR:
http://pastebin.com/Syiqvh2v
"...Nihilism is an empirical reaction to objective relativity.
A game of chess is the object which represents our lives, the variability and relative nuance of life is perspective. I discovered nihilism around 14, later quitting school at 16 despite receiving exemplary credit. I mention this because it is the game and my devotion to it, hence it's cessation being the figurative suicide."
This is my expanded hypothesis
http://pastebin.com/u77DcH4T
Don't forget to read my other periodicals, they're mostly about how socialism is death and all socialists are empirically, literally, evil.
And since i'm going full shill, here's where i orate and enact shitpost incarnate, because shitpost is the game of chess that i choose to live by.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtry60oPw4YUYNSvVkBgJrA
>>78116410
Hey Finnbro, check out Mormonism. It's pretty much regular Christianity with an added emphasis on personal contact with the divine kinda similar to what you described.
t. mormon
>>78110231
You're better off going outside and asking each blade of grass if it has the answer.
Grow up and stop going to others for answers.
>>78110231
My own personal beliefs and philosophy are that life is wonderful and precious, and that in my career and in my personal life, I want to do everything I can do defend and promote life and make it better.
I don't believe in any god. That doesn't mean that I definitively believe that no god exists, but it does make me an atheist. And I do definitively disbelieve in the gods I've heard and read about.
Life itself is what I believe in and place my hope in. I have proof of it, and I love it and find that it's something beyond my full understanding, something that animates me and the world around me, and something that gives rise to all that I love and can be thankful for. It's something I can praise and celebrate. It's something that I consider greater than I am, and which I can willingly devote and even give up my own life to.
I believe that life ends, but that it also has the phenomenal power to create itself anew, from itself. What comes after death is more life, but not my own, except that it is my own in the same way that the cell's life is the organism's life. I don't think there's anybody to answer my prayers except myself and other people. The idea that people, who are as confused and frightened and flawed and mortal as I am, are all I can place my hope and faith in frightens me, but I think it's true, and I've seen us little apes work miracles. I think that all life, even that of the universe itself, will die one day, and that life's scarcity makes every life, from that of the planet itself down to the life of the smallest insect, PRICELESS.
It might sound silly or new-agey or whatever, but it's what I believe in, and I act on it more than I see almost anybody else act on what they claim to be their religion. I love and worship life and all living things.
>>78112350
Because the brain is simply a biological computer and our consciousness the operating system and software.
We are simply following our programming, based on our electrochemical reactions from stimuli.
There isn't free will because we cannot act outside of our programming.
If someone were to aggregate the data of your life they'd be able to introduce you to anything and predict exactly how you'd respond.
>>78112689
Life is meaningless and your god isn't real, it's okay to believe in something that makes you able to live life easier as long as that doesn't harm others. The only purpose life has is that which you make for yourself. That's why religion can be so fulfilling. You have a clear cut path for how to live life and proselytize and by doing that you find fulfillment. You are executing the purpose you have given yourself.
All God is is your own perception of reality.
>>78112814
Bingo.
It was ignored because the follow up retort did not exist.
And it's okay, it doesn't mean someone is better than another, just that their perspective is different.
So be it. If you live a moral life and do not harm or infringe the natural rights of others then there's nothing to bitch about.
Some of my own life experiences led me away from the God I was raised with, and that's just dandy. Perspective changes.
>>78110231
We are an experiment for some fucking weird ayy lmao shit.
>>78125038
>So be it. If you live a moral life and do not harm or infringe the natural rights of others then there's nothing to bitch about.
If free-will doesn't exist can anyone ever be truly blameworthy for infringing on another's rights.
>>78114777
>>78112258
This, my dudes.
>>78111746
free will is an illusion. Your brain manufactures the illusion of choice 3-5 seconds after the decisions have been made.
