What if

Discussion in 'Philosophy and Religion' started by Pellinore, Jul 18, 2008.

  1. Pellinore

    Pellinore Member

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    There is no greater light, this world is just a dark place, randomness of actions and reactions.

    What if we live without a purpose, what if we are just a biological cluster of cells, wath if our individu exist out of nothing more then chemical actions and reactions.

    Wouldn't that make our life meaningless?.. when you realise that everything is fake, happyness, sadness, joy, strives, mere chemical reactions of no meaning.. is this the world i life in? this dark obscure place where everyone lives in their incompetent little dream world, where everyone lives in the light of their dreams, future strives, hopes.. what if everyone is blind for the darkness.. what if.. your dreams stopped existing, and only this dark world remains?

    Why am i still living then, if it wasn't for family and friends who need me?

    I look for answers, but nothing resonates from my shouts.. what if, all the above was true, how could one give life meaning, when everything lost its abstract value..?
     
  2. bluesafire

    bluesafire Senior Member

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    What if everything you wrote here are just thoughts..... thoughts floating by that don't mean very much? What if they are tools of the ego to catch & hold your attention, to make you become emotionally invested in these thoughts in such a way that you're trapped by them? Do you feel at peace within? If not, then you believe your thoughts too much and you've forgotten the most important thing.

    This world of form isn't the ABSOLUTE. It can seem dark when you've forgotten how to access the light within. But when you remember the light that you are, then everything you see is also seen in a deLIGHTful way, or at least without the heaviness with which you see it now. :)

    By the way, I'd like to suggest that when we begin to awaken, there will be periods when things seem dark. It's a typical process for many people so don't worry about it too much... it'll pass.
     
  3. Daksi

    Daksi Guest

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    I tend to interpret the modern evolutionism/atheism view as being as bleak as your idea of a dark place. If everything is solid matter and evolved by chance, and we are all just chemical machines, then this life has no purpose, no future, no reason, and no self-will.

    BUT! This Reality is not composed of solid matter; it is wave-based, constructed of wave energy, where even each proton is composed of no fewer than three waves (quarks), and where an energy potential exists to create and form the waves, there had to have been a reason and a cause for the shaping of waves. No, modern Darwinism attempts to ignore physics, but physics can’t be ignored, and physics dictates that there is a huge quantity of purpose behind our existence.

    A simple sequencing of logic states that nothing can move or come into existence without there first being a force to move the object. Force existed first. Force is what shapes ‘matter’ and molecules. If the force (be with you! :D ) has been shaped to create this universe and all that is in it, then what shaped the force? And why? And how?

    Something is ‘out there,’ and for whatever reason, it had a reason to make you.
     
  4. Pellinore

    Pellinore Member

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    I feel like i'm losing this peace within more and more every day, this kind of thoughts keep rushing trough my brain more and more, and the doubts become greater every day, everything is starting to lose meaning.. i don't want to live for myself, i don't care if i have a good paying job, i just want to be myself and actually live, i don't feel anymore, that society permits this, i don't feel like there is room in society for my idealism. And i keep getting depressed by all these thoughts, i'm unable to banish them, how much i try, they come back again and again.. maybe it will get over.. but at the moment, i'm not that sure of it..
     
  5. Pellinore

    Pellinore Member

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    I would like to believe that, but i tend to only believe what i can see, and at this moment, i've lost faith in this kind of theories, i cannot find a reason, and as long as i don't know a reason for my existence, i don't see how i can know that there actually is a reason, i only find doubts..
     
  6. Pellinore

    Pellinore Member

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    Bah, sorry, i'm whining to much, this was probably yet another none-sense post of me... but still.. i wonder, how someone can have faith in something based on doubts?
    What if you're faith is merely based on doubts and hopes? I want answers, and i want them now.. these answer that i want, i don't even know if they exist.. my whole life is just one big doubt.
     
  7. bluesafire

    bluesafire Senior Member

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    Hey Pellinore, just to give you a bit of perspective. You've glimpsed something and your ego became very threatened, so it's trying to overwhelm you with thoughts and emotions, to capture your attention completely. It's like it's throwing everything it's got at you, its whole arsenal... and yes this can be a bit daunting to deal with it. I totally understand... been there before. So what I'm going to suggest to you may seem to be very unnatural and the oppositve of all your instincts. But, just consider it.

    Instead of trying to escape from this onslaught of thoughts and ideas and emotions.... just ALLOW them to be there. Watch them. Say to yourself, OK... I'm not gonna resist or try to get away, I'll just carve out a bit of space in my mind so that they can be there without resistance. And keep watching... keep watching.

    The ego will say to you... "everything is dark, bleak, no life for me, no meaning, etc. etc.". Is this true? Or is it just a thought about it? Is it YOU speaking? Or is it just the ego pretending to be you?

    It's not that you're losing the peace. It's still there, in tact, completely fine. It's that right now your attention is caught up in the noise of the mind, in all these thoughts that are like clouds and have obscurred the sunlight. The sunlight is still there. If you don't resist the clouds they will naturally dissipate.

    Another way to look at this process is that you've entered a phase in which some of the underlying fear is coming to the surface, to be processed and eliminated. It's like detoxing. On the surface it may look like, "OMG I'm such a mess!" But if you look at it clearly you'll see that No, you're not... you're just detoxing.. which is GREAT!!! You're detoxing your ego. This is awesome... but feels pretty crappy while it's happening, I'll admit. :p

    Just remember... these thoughts don't mean anything. They're not important. These feelings don't mean anything. They're not important. They're just thoughts. Just feelings. That's it. Learn to recognize the difference between YOU and the thoughts & feelings that show up in the space of YOU, from time to time. :D

    You're awesome, Pellinore! Hang in there, bud.

    Oh and one more thing... I suggest you go spend some time in nature. Go somewhere quiet, somewhere peaceful. It'll help. Then while you're there, listen to the sounds of nature, feel its presence, smell the lovely smells, focus on your breath, the energy vibration in your hands. Take some time out for yourself during times like these. Nurture yourself. :)
     
  8. porkstock41

    porkstock41 Every time across from me...not there!

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    don't worry about the purpose of life...just do what you said and be yourself and LIVE. appreciate the fact that "meaningless" chemical reactions have given you the ability to think.
     
  9. xexon

    xexon Destroyer Of Worlds

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    I would grab such a person and beat them with the nearest rubber hose until they came to their senses.

    CPR for the soul.



    x
     
  10. Pellinore

    Pellinore Member

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    Damnit, i think you're right, but i keep forgetting all this, and i keep getting stuck in these thoughts, and this feeling of feeling impure, my mind feels like the monster of frankenstein, hehe..
    I'll try to not forget these things this time.. and yes, nature.. that helped in the past, but in anyway, i'll be going to nepal in 2 weeks, so that will be great.. heh, thank you again bluesafire, you helped me out previous time too :).
    Maybe i'll find a real purpose in time, maybe it's for me to find out if there is a greater light or not, i just hope that these doubts dissappear soon.
     
  11. neodude1212

    neodude1212 Senior Member

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    what if what if....

    what if....it doesn't matter?

    what will you do about it if you know? you are here. you exist. whether fake or not, you are!

    anything past that is pointless pondering. just exist. bliss...
     
  12. bluesafire

    bluesafire Senior Member

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    Hey you know you'll probably have this back & forth, remembering & forgetting, remembering & forgetting thing going on for a while. Just realize that's how it'll be and don't worry about it. Don't worry about trying to not forget because you WILL forget. But knowing this, as soon as you realize you've forgotten, just refocus on your breath, on nature, on realizing that whatever you're feeling & thinking isn't all that important and significant... and you'll remember again. There's no purpose in time. There's only purpose NOW.

    :)
     
  13. LanSLIde

    LanSLIde Member

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    Why worry about meaning?
     
  14. Pellinore

    Pellinore Member

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    How can one live without meaning?
     
  15. kaminoishiki

    kaminoishiki Member

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    Life comes first, meaning arises within life, it's not separate from it, so life does not depend upon meaning.

    Oh and, 'one' does not live life, life lives as 'one' :)
     
  16. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

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    Are you kidding? Look around you, man. Look in the mirror. Consider the phenomenon of your own existence and consciousness. If that's the product of "random" processes, it's absolutely extraordinary, amazing, remarkable, and wonderful. If it was the result of some kind of creative intelligence, that's pretty awesome, too. When you visit the Grand Canyon, do you think: what an awful case of soil erosion? When you see a beautiful sunset, do you think "The air pollution gets worse every year'? The Kingdom of Heaven is spread out everywhere around us, and we do not see it." (paraphrase:Gospel of Thomas). Of course, it can also be hell. Hell is a bad attitude.
     
  17. LanSLIde

    LanSLIde Member

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    Why, by living my good sir.

    But you've already discovered the meaning. What robs life of all beauty and livability to you is it's possible lack of purpose. You're purpose is to look for purpose, it'll be a fun, bumpy ride.
     
  18. Pellinore

    Pellinore Member

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    Then my quest shall be to find this purpose.



    I guess that is true, but i would like to know this purpose, i find it hard to live without knowing this purpose. Maybe everyone shapes his own purpose, maybe your purpose is shaped by the manner you live, but that would make purpose something random?

    Ooh well, i guess it wouldn't harm trying to find a purpose, i only fear that this search migh end up in a dead end.
     
  19. FreakerSoup

    FreakerSoup Stranger

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    Here's even more: in roughly 4 billion years, the earth will be completely engulfed by the sun. Even if the human race survives somewhere else, many people have predicted that the universe will keep spreading apart until what is now planets and stars and people becomes a mist of subatomic particles.

    Ya know what though? Living is sweet. I actually hold the belief that we are chemical creatures and that there is no inherent meaning of life. But that certainly doesn't mean you are fake. It doesn't change anything. Your subjective human experience is all what you give and take from your environment. It's cool. It's fun. It's real. The world is a beautiful place, my friend, filled with beautiful people. Granted there are ugly people too, but if you look for ugly, you will find it if you look hard enough.

    Look for beauty instead, it is in everything. Look closely.
     
  20. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

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    I'm a believer in a divine presence; Freaker isn't. But I pretty much agree with him on this. There is beauty and ugliness in the world, and it's up to you to decide what to focus on. Besides being a Christian, I'm an existentialist, meaning you don't look for somebody else to define meaning for you wrapped up in a neat package tied with a ribbon. It's something for you to figure out for yourself under conditions of radical uncertainty and freedom. Psychologist Viktor Frankl in The Quest for Meaning based his theories on his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. He noticed that the people who survived were the ones who could still find meaning in life. But he also noticed that their meaning was subjective. For some, it might be memories of loved ones. For others, it might be a ray of sunshine or a sunset seen through barbed wire. He argued that the quest for meaning was the most important human drive, but that lots of folks are looking for it in all the wrong places--in things that don't really satisfy, like consumer products or sexual conquests. To help his patients find meaning, he'd ask them questions like "Why don't you take your own life?" (he was writing before malpractice lawsuits were common) or "Is there anything you'd give your life for?" The challenge is to find meaning and purpose in something that will give you lasting satisfaction. To me, that's what makes life interesting and challenging.
     

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