Why Wait?

I think the meaning is the question itself. The whole point of us being here is to figure out why we’re here and what we’re supposed to be doing with ourselves. Then once we figure that out, it’s up to us to help the younger generation figure it out too.

See, personally I don’t see how we have any reason for being here. I think we want to believe we have a reason so we all feel special inside. I know we are here though because our parents had sex, and through the process of pregnancy, we were born.

That’s my reason we are here, but why do we stay? What keeps me from killing myself? I have a few, one being I’m far too scared of death. Another is that I’m trying to figure out why we want to stay here since no one will remember us anyways and there will eventually be an end and everything we all as a race worked so hard to achieve will be obliterated. Yet with all of that, we have children. Simply by having them we force them to live a life which will sooner or later mean nothing.

I also love children, and I want to be father someday yet somehow I find it selfish to subject new life to suffering for my pleasure. Just as The First Nobel Truth of Buddhism says “Life is Suffering” yet we, including myself, want to bring children into the world.

Whatever it is, heaven, hell, nirvana, spiritual plane, nothing, etc, the life we live now really is meaningless in the long run since we will end up at one of those for eternity.

Maybe because life is good sometimes, and we want to experience that. I don’t live my entire life thinking that I’m going to make an impression or be remembered. Sometimes, I just like having fun. We can’t have fun after we’re dead. This is all there is, right?

That’s sort of what I’m saying, but once we die we won’t remember having fun anyways. So, why wait if you aren’t going to remember anything anyways. It’s not like we are going to die and be like “Damn it, I was having the best day too.”

Since we’re here by accident (we just happened to be the fastest ones), why not take the best out of it? The only problem is what we consider to be the best. For some people is selfishness, for some is serving others, for some is serving god… You just have to try to find your reason to be here. After all, when you get to a death-bed, you’ll be on your own and your fears (if not struck by a truck), and if then your think of your life as a fulfilled and if you can die happy, than you don’t have to care if people would remember you in 10.000 years. And as a bonus you made other people happy, than you couldn’t ask for more. My scale is going like this:

Happy atheist –> happy familly —> happy community –> progress —> survival

Well, that’s my point, there is no reason to be here to me. And my other point was if I die happy, sad, in pain, or whatever, it won’t matter because I’ll be dead I think, maybe, it’s more of a survival issue with the brain why we don’t kill ourselves and try to find meanings. Humans are just trying to find levels of enjoyment so that we don’t want to kill ourselves. If we kill ourselves then the our race dies. If we can reach a level of happiness each day for a consecutive amount of time we will hopefully survive long enough to reproduce. That’s the only reason I can think of after thinking about this even further.

As a culture (possibly as a race in general), we are very afraid of suffering. But in my experience, suffering is a refining fire. If Ghandi had never been discriminated against in Africa, he probably wouldn’t have become so dedicated to pursuing peace throughout the rest of his life. There are so many examples of people throughout history who were motivated to change life as they knew it, in part, because they experienced suffering.

On a separate note, I find in interesting that whether or not people believe in God, we all seem to be searching for the same thing…meaning. Why is that?

While it’s fun to think otherwise, I think we make a mistake in thinking that consciousness denotes purpose. My cat certainly doesn’t seem to have a purpose. “Meaning” overall seems to be something we only attribute to ourselves.

To me, it somewhat seems like a grain of sand contemplating it’s purpose in forming a beach.
The beach can be rather spectacular, but it’s all rather irrelevant to a grain of sand.
It could study the wind and ocean currents that brought it there, the age long process of erosion that caused it to become a separate particle from a stone, etc etc. What does that grain of sand stand to gain by questioning except to better understand the variables?

I see patterns. Spherical objects moving in circular(err, elliptical) orbits, and the many dizzying levels of rotation above that. Ecosystems, food-chains, etc. Wouldn’t be at all surprised if our entire universe orbited other similarly vast entities. The natural tendency to equilibrium is everywhere.
While so many struggle to slap a name on it, or pretend they actually understand it all, I feel comfortable accepting that things simply work the way they do. To me, divinity is the pattern and form at work in the universe and there is nothing else. I don’t see ever figuring out a “meaning” to living, but simply understanding more of the variables that placed me here.

@Christopher One of the best comments on my blog so far. You should write me an article to put it on here

Thanks for flying the flag for atheism and technology. More like Tech.Atheist.Awesome!

I highly recommend the book or podcast “The Atheist’s Way” by Eric Maisel. It’s a short instruction manual for atheists in a natural universe. We don’t have a purpose-driven life, we have a life-driven purpose.

If you define yourself in terms of god (non-existent) or universe (uncaring), you might be in trouble, but if you define your purpose in terms of all of the rest of us* (family, friends, potential friends, blog readers, passers-by, recipients of your charitable donations)… you find a life brimming with purpose and meaning and fulfillment.

Jason
* It’s ok to throw a little basic, unenlightened, hedonistic joy in occasionally.

We want to survive for purely biological reasons. We are little more than animals, for them life is simple: eat, sleep, make babies, ensure babies survive. Our emotions and beliefs convolute these ideas. To search for meaning in life is to search for god. People need to stop worrying about everything just kick back and enjoy life while its here, thats the good thing about emotions. And sure dead you sure won’t regret living a boring life, but dying you sure as hell will. The closest to heaven anyone will ever get is dying happy.

Now that’s a comment, thanks Josh!

P.S. dying bored/lonely/sad doesn’t matter once you die tho

But what I’m trying to get at is lets say I did give it that meeting, and i spent my whole life making other happy, they will all die eventually, and even with stories being passed on, my legacy will die eventually. So, in the end, nothing matters no matter what purpose you give your life.