Am I the only person alive who actually thinks about anything??!!

[spacedog]

Ok, so I'm an 18 year old guy and I live in England. As I've grown up I've thought more and more about life, and what exactly we're doing here. I've found that looking at things from a non-human perspective casts the world in a very different light.

The human body, and every other 'body' or organism on the planet and maybe beyond is a machine. We ourselves are extremely complex but take insects; they observe a stimuli and respond to it. Responding to the correct stimuli in the correct ways increases chances of survival and so by the process of evolution this system becomes more and more complex until the organism made up of millions of single celled organisms develops a conscience. Now this may seem like a gift, but to me it just makes the whole of humanity seem pathetic and dumb!
The human body does a good job at surviving, and it's amazing to think that it's developed from a single celled organism. However, it doesn't do that efficient a job, we have to waste time eating, sleeping, and of course trying to reproduce. Maybe in the future people will abandon their inefficient bodies in favor of a machine which supports the parts of our brain required to have a conscience.
So I've given a zoomed in picture of the waste of life we spend here on Earth, but when I look at the big picture things get bleak.
There's no god. That's been obvious to me since I can remember, it's just a retarded idea that goes against all science. I just don't understand how people can believe in god. Are they all just dumb? Are we more influenced by our parents than we'd like to think? (the people I know who believe in god have religious families) Or do people find the prospect of life without some kind of supernatural being watching over them, or perhaps of death being the end, too daunting to deal with?
I admit that unless the universe has existed forever it must have started somewhere...where did it come from? What was there before? Some people would say god, personally I find that explanation almost comical, a 5 year old could come up with a more logical answer.
There's so many unanswered questions and so much we don't know, but one thing really digs at me. The universe is huge and perhaps isn't the only universe or is part of a much bigger picture. The human race is a species of evolved monkeys who have managed to gain a conscience and ponder their existence; we're stuck on a rock in the milkyway galaxy and we're totally and unimaginably insignificant. Nothing we do matters, if anything we have a negative effect on our environment, not that that matters because everything just exists, nothing has a purpose it just exists because it can exist. We all go about our pathetic insignificant wasted lives and nobody at all seems to think! Why am I waking up in the morning? Why find a job? Why bother to do anything? There's no point to any of it!

The only positive outlook I can draw from all this is simply stick around on Earth and see what happens, enjoy yourself, who cares if eating and fucking are only fun because our body responds to the hormones they cause to be released. But still, that perspective doesn't always get me through...
So this is an Atheism forum, if there's people who think out there then maybe I'll find you here. Does anyone have any views on what I've said?

[GordonHide]

Originally Posted by spacedog

So this is an Atheism forum, if there's people who think out there then maybe I'll find you here. Does anyone have any views on what I've said?

Welcome to the Forum!

Well, you took a long time to say very little. However, I don't think you're going to find many atheists that disagree with you. However, if you don't find a way to give your own life meaning your in for a bleak, (if short), time.

Here are a couple of threads that deal with the subject. There are probably several others:

http://debate.atheist.net/showthread...hlight=meaning
http://debate.atheist.net/showthread...hlight=meaning

[spacedog]

thanks for the reply

I thought I was saying a lot because I was expecting all these threads to be debating the existence of god but it seems people are actually beyond that, so hopefully this is where I can find people who actually think.

Your threads helped, but there is no meaning to life, just experiences to be had; that's what people have said on the threads anyways.

as for 'if short'...committing suicide is like turning off a good movie half way through...I'm not suicidal I just struggle with motivation.

[steenkh]

Originally Posted by spacedog

Your threads helped, but there is no meaning to life, just experiences to be had; that's what people have said on the threads anyways.

Like I have said in earlier discussions on the meaning of life, I am still puzzled why people expect life to have a meaning!

I define the meaning with my own life, and that is currently to learn as much as I can, and enjoy myself while doing it. I also want to work towards getting the best life possible for me and my wife, and that means that I will have to work also for the best possible life for everybody else, because I believe that I cannot have one without the other.

[spacedog]

thanks for the reply

I agree we should give our own lives meaning but trying to get the best possible life for others is complicated in our capitalist society which is highly destructive to people who aren't at the top. I just think it's best to enjoy life by doing whatever makes you happy, and not take anything too seriously.

[GordonHide]

Originally Posted by spacedog

thanks for the reply

I agree we should give our own lives meaning but trying to get the best possible life for others is complicated in our capitalist society which is highly destructive to people who aren't at the top. I just think it's best to enjoy life by doing whatever makes you happy, and not take anything too seriously.

One of the ways you can analyse your own world view is to consider what would happen if everybody shared it. If you believe this would lead to a vibrant and prosperous society fostering creativity and the search for knowledge then you know you haven't got it too far wrong.

[Vermillion]

It certainly is nice to see another teenager on the forum. Hopefully theres a few more, but I've only counted you and me so far (not that i've really been on here that long. :P )
As far as a "meaning to life" goes, my philosophy is thus: The meaning of life is to live it. There is nothing deeper than that to life, and does there have to be? Our existence, in and of itself, is such a gratuitously unlikely and amazing event that there really doesn't have to be more to life than living.

[spacedog]

It does sometimes seem that other teenagers don't ever think about this stuff and just live in their own little worlds...I know some people who do have opinions about life but there's also a lot of retards out there :P
And yeah, I agree with you, the fact we're all here is amazing really, we should just make sure we enjoy life and experience as much as possible.

[spacedog]

A great idea I agree, but there's always corrupt and selfish people out there, it's just our nature. Take communism; idealistically it's better than capitalism, but in reality it just becomes an oppressive dictatorship which results in death and infringement of human rights.

[GordonHide]

Originally Posted by spacedog

A great idea I agree, but there's always corrupt and selfish people out there, it's just our nature. Take communism; idealistically it's better than capitalism, but in reality it just becomes an oppressive dictatorship which results in death and infringement of human rights.

Are you sure you are comparing like with like?

Capitalism is not meant to be a way of organising society. It's actually organic, evolved, so one can't say what its purpose is as though it was designed with that purpose in mind. We can, of course, assess what its effects on human society are. In my view it has been instrumental, along with technological development, in bringing about unprecedented prosperity. I would certainly agree that this economic effect is very unevenly spread. But it is the job of government, not the economic system, to effect an equitable organisation of society and its resources which will maximise well being and enable individuals to effectively contribute.