Theological slant.

I'm just curious how you all perceive what "is"
I was washing some dishes today, not enjoying it one bit, when the thought crossed my mind, why is my existence, my participation in society, being wasted on doing something so awful and mundane? It's not that my ego declared it beneath me, it's just that even the "awesome" things that people want to do, everything from thrill seeking by skydiving to finding love seems kinda, overall, "pointlessly personal" I could never find reason in science or religion, I've always been sort of an "I really don't CARE" sort of guy. I guess that makes me "Agnostic" but not out of true apathy, but in knowing that nobody knows. (Plato? Socrates? who knows they robbed eachother's quotes so whatever) So what? if this "god" is real, he's not talking to me, he's not helping me, and on the pretense of good faith when I was younger, being raised by a religious mother, he certainly never responded to my prayers. The internet kinda let me see the horrors of the world, and really sealed my belief that we're on our own at this point.
On the flip side, I can't really qualify that I believe the "big bang" stuff either. Mainly because it's that we exploded in to existence out of nothing. Where did space? or gravity, light/dark and the very laws of physics themself come from then? The concept of time, manmade? or real?

I was just wondering, if there is no afterlife, if this really all there is (bizarre as it is if you really think about humanity as a whole from start to finish) why now? why this body? this consciousness? this gender? this region? this language? these hands? this level of technology?

it's just so... WEIRD to me to even try and fathom these things, I don't care because I know that no matter how I answer, nobody will verify, nobody can verify.

Like I guess, I don't understand the point of understanding to some degree. Say science proved itself true down to every possible question answered, to every possibility imagined and made real, from the creation of life, both real and artificial, to creating universes, true mastery of time and space. Would that mean anything? would humans "become god" at that point?

Inversely would it matter if God proved it's existence finally? Stepped down from the heavens, was like "hey, sorry, I was doing important universe creation work like 20 trillion light years away for extra credit, I'm back, lets get this apocalypse started!"

I just can't wrap my head around "this" being "it" I am the only one that will live this life, as me, the only one. You are the only you. Nobody asked to "be" anything. Is our existence forced upon us? are we, as a culture, as a society, a tribe of existential rape victims? Trying to cope with what we never asked for? trying to make sense of it all? is that the reason people seek meaning? seek a higher purpose?

You and I, we're here, but why? Whats your reason?

 

I tend to believe that everything started as random chance and continues down such a course. Life, existence, whatever.

We, as individuals and as a society, just developed enough reasoning and technology to steer it a little bit.

Growing in the dark like magic mushrooms, Shauk. So, yeah, there is no purpose aside from the one we assign ourselves (occupation) or have assigned to us by others (parents' teachings) or society (laws, for example). Somebody, at some point, made the rules we all follow today.

Whether you believe in magical outer space superheroes (religion) or science (math is god), there is no single truth.

We all gotta make your own waypoints, bro. As individuals, as societies.

 

Yeah. What he said.

 

"We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion year old carbon."

Our life as matter is one thing, easily encapsulated by a quote, but conscious self-awareness is another animal altogether, since we are somehow tied to this body and assume an identity with it. Why this specific human being and not another? I don't have an answer to that without talking out of my ass, and I would hope to either know at some point or be no more.

What I do believe is that our sense of self dies with the brain, based on the fact that noncorporeal life has yet to be discovered.

 

Whether or not you believe in a god or in the purely secular, the damned dishes still need to be washed.

 

Amen.

 

Looking back at some of the older threads and thinking about reviving one, this seemed like a good one to spark new life into...

I've spent the better part of three decades trying to resolve my position on god and purpose. The thing is, both of those are man-made. Your purpose is what you decide it is. If you need god in order to function in life you can make it, he, she...in any image that suits you. Multi-armed elephants or lighting throwing Vikings, god can be anything, or nothing.

Personally I believe that god is like the boogeyman. Made up in order to explain those things that we're lot able to explain. As a child, scary noises outside our windows at night are easier to blame on the boogeyman than to understand that blowing wind makes the tree branches rub against the house. And god is easier to blame for natural disasters than to understand that tectonic plates moving against each other caused an earthquake.

I like the comment someone made about no matter your purpose or place, the dishes still have to be done. That isn't related to theology. That is related to society. You could choose not to use plates and forks. You could choose to live in the woods and eat berries.

All the questions about the meaning of life is irrelevant. We exist...that is all. It's not important how or why. What is important is choice. What will you choose to do with your time here? Today I chose to do little to nothing. If there really is a god and he has a plan then there really is no choice, and that seems like a futile existence to me. I'll stick with being an atheist. What I do or don't do is up to me and based on who I am. If I help people, I'd do so because I want to. Because I'm an inherently nice person. Not because some imaginary man in the sky told me to. "I'll pray for you" has to be one of the biggest copouts ever. It doesn't actually require you to DO anything to seem like you are helping. But, enough pontificating. I've been praying the dishes clean all day and they still sit there dirty so I guess I'll clean the kitchen.