Posted By Nadette on 05 Jan 2012 11:21 AM

I think I was asking about goals and purpose of existence and stuff because getting all up in arms takes a lot of effort and if you don't actually have a goal, how do you know it is worth it? It seems like most people just don't think in terms like that. There are the religious people who think they have all the answers and therefore don't need to think at all, or the people who get caught up in narrow focus missions, or the people who just try to be comfortable and secure at most any cost.

That is what it seems to be Nadette. People think they have figured everything out. They try to hide behind religion. Or try to secre themselves at all costs. One thing to think here is that if your current day is no different than your last day before you die, then why did you live so long? Second thing, my experience shows that I get very surprised by how different my initial view on things was before I fully learned it. And it completely contradicts to what I used to belive before. Then, how can I pass a judgement over something and accept it as holy grail if it tends to completely change once you get to know it better? You can't trust your initial view on things.

Posted By Nadette on 05 Jan 2012 11:21 AM

I agree with this:

How can you understand the purpose of existene without all the possible knowledge out there?

But, why should I be motivated to contribute to collective knowledge, especially since it is probably not going to make much difference in my lifetime? How do we know that collective knowledge is going to help anyways? We haven't exactly progressed much as a species in the last 3000 years. If there is no reason to exist, why would I be motivated to stay alive and keep fighting? I really don't enjoy fighting unless it has a purpose I deem worthy enough. So, I am left to either construct a falsely meaningful purpose or deny that purpose exists and admit that my existence is futile and no amount of suffering will ever be redeemed.

Perhaps this is why it seems like nobody cares or thinks, Entejay. If life is pain and history is cyclical, what is the rationale behind going through the discomfort of mental exertion and the penalties of insurrection/revolution/civil disobedience/what not?

I really enjoy your thinking style Nadette.

To answer your question....Why we should add to collective knowledge.....I think when everything boils down, that's the only meaningful thing we can do. Just to think of it. If you really do nothing and spend your life in complete apathy, what are you ending up with? Just another addition of dead flesh over the pile of millions or perhaps billions before you ever lived. Then why did you exist at all? Was that a purpose? On the other hand, if you really contributed something new, now you are someone who contributed something. Now you at least "had" a purpose. And you fulfilled it. Nobody else did your part. You did.

Of course that may not be much meaning to your lifetime. But then, do you think you have much meaning to be a part of pile of flesh on other side? If you compare these two, who actually made a difference? Besides, what other choice do you have? If you want to have some meaning to your existence, then only choice you do have is to do something that others haven't done yet. You would be the first. You would be the fulfiller of that purpose. And that is your place. And that is what makes you any different from the rest of the pile of flesh. Because you did something that others didnt. And it's still something when compared to be nothing and do nothing. However the small, it's still the difference. And that is the best you can do.

Just to think of it, if every generation would reject any reponsibility to add something new, what would we really ended up now? Imagine there was no Albert Einstein...there was no Nicola Tesla...or even Napoleon...what we all would be in right now? Of course...we would be cave men. Hell, you might not even survive the birth process. We all could have been dead right now due to some bacterial that infected us during birth and killed us all. And we would never have any chance to chat over the internet. Did those people reap the goodies from things they did? Of course no. But they allowed us to have it. And just like them, we must do everything we can so our kids could reap our doings. There can't be any other purpose to live other than that. I'm sorry. As long as we find means to defeat the death, that's the best we could do.

In some way I could say that our purpose is to do something that we can do in the best way possible.