To be or not to be?

Answer 1

80% of humanity, the religious folks, don't need to ask the meaning of life, the church tells them....the supernatural explanation. But the rest of us can't swallow religious dogma, because there's no evidence. Nobody can prove that there life after death, that people are tortured or rewarded after life or that there's invisible spirits running around.

I've come to two conclusions recently:

1. Life has no meaning
2. Life has a million meanings.

First, there's a certainty that death and annihilation awaits not only you, but the Earth in general. It's an astonomical certainty that our sun will supernova and leave the earth a burnt crisp, not to mention all the other extinction level events around the corner.

Second, the million things that give us meaning are the pleasurable experiences we can conjure up during the short period we are here on the earth, in the form of the relationships we have with our kids and other people, and the 'housekeeping' types of purposes. What i mean by that are the curing disease, ending hunger, improving literacy, reducing crime, preventing war, helping other kinds of things.

So the bottom line is, we only have a temporary meaning to life, to reduce pain and increase pleasure, other than that everything is lost to oblivion.

To be or not to be? "To be" is temporary and "not to be" is inevitable.....

Answer 2

To be! There were many times in my life when I asked just such a question of myself.
To be and take chances, was my ultimate answer.
If you don't like where you are, change it.
If you don't like being unhappy, make yourself happy with what you enjoy.
If you don't like who you are with, find someone who loves you for who you are.
To be is so much more interesting than ending. Life is an adventure, IF you allow yourself to be adventurous.

Answer 3

To Be of course! Being is living and not Being is Not living. Even if I were blind,crippled,mute ect...I would still be able to feel love, for and from others.I have learned that no matter how bad things can get or seem to get, they always get better, no matter what.its only a matter of time.Less worry and more optimism helps to pass the time.

Answer 4

This is Shakepeare's articulation of the question-- why is there something rather than nothing? The question acknowledges the inherent contingency of existence, which begs itself the question as to whether or not there is a reality that is not contigent, that is the condition for the possibility of existence.

Answer 5

That is... a difficult question and it always depends on your situation: If you're young and healthy that's one thing. If you're stuck in terrible pain, like if you have something like Lou Gerhig's disease or some such, then it might be your choice to want to get out. So To be or not to be is not an easy question.

Answer 6

When Hamlet said this in the play by the same name, he was dealing with his own mental state: His father has died unexpectedly, and the ghost returns to tell Hamlet that he has been murdered. Hamlet's mother has married his father's brother, and Hamlet suspects his uncle of the murder. As he deals with his own depression, the sense of responsibility for setting things right, the feelings of his mother's betrayal by so soon remarrying, and the sense of turmoil over what is right, he has this debate with himself. Is it better to suffer in life as he is or is it better to sleep in death-- literally "to be" or "not to be." He wonders if sleeping in death might lead to dreams. And he is afraid of his own fate in the afterlife. He chooses action to solve his dilemmas over inaction and suicide.

Are you asking what it is to be as opposed to what it is not to be? The truth is that no one can actually tell you, since there is no measurement we can make about life after death and report those findings back to the living. Many will tell you what they believe, but no one really knows.

Perhaps you are asking what choice we here at YA are making. If that is so, I'm choosing to be: Action over despair.

Answer 7

There really is no choice. Our only choice is to postpone it for a while.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 8

well personally i think the chicken came first...
but seriously its better to be and then regret then regretting you never did it.

Answer 9

If you ever find out, let me know.

Answer 10

To be. Its always better to be something then nothing. (Unless your a criminal) ;)