The pointlessness of life?

Question

With all the work that has been done on the benefits of optimism and the disadvantages of pessimism, when you ask WHY should I be optimistic, you always get the same answers.

"you should be optimistic because you'll accomplish more"
"because you'll likely be healthier"
"because people will like you more"

But if you ask WHY you should CARE if you are healthier, if people like you, or if you accomplish anything, they are pretty much left with one answer "because it feels good". Now that I can relate to, because the only thing that really matters to me in life is how I feel from moment to moment. Everything else is just a means to an end of how I believe it will make me feel.

But go to a morgue and look at a corpse...rotting, discolored, quickly turning to a squishy pile of mush. Does it matter now how accomplished that person was, or healthy, or popular, or happy? And I'm not saying there's no afterlife, but who knows, who cares?

So people can tell me I'm wasting my life, being 34, never had a girlfriend, a virgin, make $13 an hour, have no friends and only leave the house when I have to.

But one person can go and accomplish all these things, have all these neat "adventures", and I can go on doing what I'm doing, and guess what? We're both going to turn into that nasty clammy discolored pile of mush. What will it matter? It won't.

Thus is the pointlessness and meaninglessness of life, and I am probably smarter than most people because I see that nothing matters, so why bother?

Answer 1

Life is a challenge. The beauty lies in picking up those ideas and working on them so as to embellish life rather than finding faults with existence which is infinitely bewildering and at the same time most colourful.

Answer 2

I can't think of a good reason to be optimistic either. In fact, I'm the most pessimistic person I know. Or maybe I just need to get out more. Anyways...

Personally, I don't care. So no arguments from me. But I have found something to live for: the little things. Not the little things that everyone else says like love and hope and all that. But the way the sun sparkles on fake rock flooring. Or...how beautiful a spider web is, even though it's a destructive creation. How many stars there are in the sky.

Death is beautiful, too. Yes, we all end up dead. But it would be a cruel fate indeed to live forever. It doesn't matter what other people think about you or what you've accomplished, as long as you are at peace with yourself. I am not a hippie. But! What matters is seeing the small things. The way order devolves into chaos. The way water ripples when you throw something in.

That's all my opinion anyway. Whatever works for you.

Answer 3

You are correct - No one escapes death. But life does have a meaning or "point". It is to live and survive and procreate.
I have concluded that there is no afterlife, but that conclusion does not lead to pointlessness.
There are those that make much to do about nothing. I like to give a happenstance a time test.
Will it matter tomorrow? Next week? Next month?Next year? In ten years? 50 years? 100? 1000?... Ever?
We are all part of a great cycle. I am now as my father was then, and my son is now as I was then.
There is great wonder in this creation or existence. Look at the vastness of the Milky Way.
That is just one galaxy, and there are maybe billions. Biology and the workings of DNA and genes are marvelous.
Are you studying anything? The richness of knowledge and inquiry can give great joy and satisfaction. I presume that you do not play sports. Get out and walk or run if possible. There are great sights and things of interest in nature.
Do you like music? Do you have a hobby?
Go do something that you enjoy!

Answer 4

Maybe your point is to make a point about the pointlessness of life? There are many people out there who think that their lives have a point or even points. You are the evangelist of pointlessness or, a pointless evangelist.

But I have pity on you so I will give you a point. It's a sharp one. You can change the whole world using it. All you have to do is to nudge the "record" from a simple fact to a reverential position in society. The record being historical, science and your personal journey. Go on then, mention this to every person you know and wrap your life around it. Tell people with confidence. When people lie you can tell them why they shouldn't, it corrupts the record in other people. When they go into denial you can say why they shouldn't, it corrupts the record within them selves. It will get you laid and you'll feel good. You can commit all your soul to this and make it a passion for you life. And as time goes on you will lean more and more about what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Answer 5

Yes, true on both points. It doesn't matter in any real sense whether you personally live or die, or how you live or whether you write books or invent a new mousetrap. And, how you feel from moment to moment is the only presentation of reality that matters to us. But, I disagree with your conclusion that therefore don't try to do anything because doing something feels better than not doing anything.

So given that feeling good is the only sensible pursuit in life, then you should sample more of the pleasures of life, not fewer. It feels good to have friends, it's even worth the rejections and false starts it may entail. And sex is just fabulous, more than you could imagine. So I would at least recommed to you that you do those things if nothing else, simply because they do feel good.

Answer 6

This site may help a bit: http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/self-efficacy.html

However, if you're motivated to read some people who have known, look into "Men in White Apparel," Ann Ree Colton, a quiet seer who spontaneously levitated while giving public lecture, etc.

Also, "The Masters and Their Retreats," Mark Prophet, by an accomplished out-of-body traveler.

"Autobiography of a Yogi," Paramahansa Yoganada, http://www.yogananda-srf.org is also relevant, as he talked with his Resurrected guru, and recounts that.

"Life before Life," Jim Tucker, M.D. also evidential, as is Martha Beck's "Expecting Adam," and Elizabeth Mayer's "Extraordinary Knowing." Http://www.iands.org and http://www.divinecosmos.com and "The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free and Wilcock, and "Reborn in the West: The Reincarnation Masters," Vicki MacKenzie.

"The Field," Lynne McTaggart, and "Psychoenergetic Science," Dr. William Tiller, http://www.tiller.org also worthwhile.

Even C. S. Lewis' novella "The Great Divorce," Patricia Kirmond's "Messages from Heaven," Helen Greaves' "Testimony of Light," and Ann Ree Colton's "Watch Your Dreams," and O. M. Aivanhov's "Light Is a Living Spirit" are fairly educational.

cordially,

j.

Http://www.coasttocoastam.com has some guests who speak to your question.

Answer 7

I think it is obvious that you are not religious and on that I congradulate you. You have decided that you don't exist after your life ends and that's a good thing. This will enable you to see through all of the irrelevancies that life will try to throw at you.
I have no insight to your life specifically and I don't pretend to understand how or why you have come to the conclusions that you have reached. I can only judge you by the statements you have made and I have only one thing to offer by way of an answer.

You do not wish to be convinced that there is a point to life.

Being convinced would mean that you have been living your life under a false premise and you would have to reevaluate your philosophy. I, nor anyone else, can convince you of something that you will not accept.
Therefore, I pose this question to you in return.

Why did you post this question in the first place?

Answer 8

You are absolutely right for even more reasons than you listed. Think about Nick Bostrom's argument, and you will see that life is even more pointless than you are admitting. It is possible that a civilization could create a computer simulation which contains individuals with artificial intelligence.
ii. Such a civilization would likely run many – say billions – of these simulations (just for fun; for research, etc.)
iii. A simulated individual inside the simulation wouldn’t know that it’s inside a simulation – it’s just going about its daily business in what it considers the “real world”.
Then the ultimate question is – if one accepts that points 1-2-3 are at least possible, which of the following is more likely?

a. We are the one civilization out there in the universe that will eventually develop the ability to run AI simulations? Or,
b. We are one of the billions of simulations that has run? (Remember point iii.)
In greater detail, this argument attempts to prove the trichotomy, that:

either
intelligent races will never reach a level of technology where they can run simulations of reality so detailed they can be mistaken for reality; or
races who do reach such a level do not tend to run such simulations; or
we are almost certainly living in such a simulation.

If we then assume that the human race could reach such a technological level without destroying themselves in the process (i.e. we deny the first hypothesis); and that once we reached such a level we would still be interested in history, the past, and our ancestors, and that there would be no legal or moral strictures on running such simulations (we deny the second hypothesis) - then

it is likely that we would run a very large number of so-called ancestor simulations;
and that, by the same line of reasoning, many of these simulations would in turn run other sub-simulations, and so on;
and that given the fact that right now it is impossible to tell whether we are living in one of the vast number of simulations or the original ancestor universe, the likelihood is that the former is true.
Assumptions as to whether the human race (or another intelligent species) could reach such a technological level without destroying themselves depend greatly on the value of the Drake equation, which gives the number of intelligent technological species communicating via radio in a galaxy at any given point in time. The expanded equation looks to the number of posthuman civilizations that ever would exist in any given universe. If the average for all universes, real or simulated, is greater than or equal to one such civilization existing in each universe's entire history, then odds are rather overwhelmingly in favor of the proposition that the average civilization is in a simulation, assuming that such simulated universes are possible and such civilizations would want to run such simulations.

Answer 9

...Is when we can't see our OWN reflection- in the Mirror. It's YOU who make your life whatever it IS. The "Why's to the World..."- are NOT beyond us- but WITHIN US. You think life is pointless?- Then so YOU are. You think Life ia a waste?- Then what are YOU doing about it? You think nothing "matters"? -Then why aren't YOU looking for something that means something- to YOU??? ...The bottom line IS; NONE of us is handed a book at birth- that tells Us what Life is "supposed to be". It's up to US to make something out of it- with whatever talents we possess. And if we "blow" the Opportunity we're handed...-such is a pointless life........

Answer 10

DUDE!!!
If youve never had any sweet **** happen in your life you need to start doing drugs NOW! I snort coke and drink mostly to escape the pointlessness myself and Ive had lots of great expieriences myself. Just nothing fills the void like drugs. So I mean if your 34 and are unhappy and always have been. Try something different! What have you got to lose but a pointless worthless life anyway?