I’m here to seek answers to questions I regularly have about the meaning of life, whether God exists, why is there so much suffering, why is life sometimes unfair to some etc. etc.
I hope to connect with like minded people who will be able to give me their perspective on my various questions.
The meaning of life is what you make of it and as for the idea of God, most of us here are humanist/atheists/freethinkers/non-theists/non-religious… As for suffering, I believe humans cause the suffering themselves and bring it on each other, outside of nature. Nature itself can cause suffering too- ie COVID-13 pandemic.
I don’t know why life is unfair, but I will give you my philosophy on that. Everyone was promised a rose garden, thorns and all. Life is very much like a rose garden, IMO. I love roses and nature. I can see the simile in a rose garden and life. Life has beauty and it has thorns, sometimes more thorns than beauty. One’s first born child is a numinous experience when you first hold them in your arms, but the bills the hospital (humans) impose on you for having that baby are thorns. A healthy baby is beautiful and while a sick (nature caused) child is still beautiful, the illness is a thorn. The list of examples goes on and on, but it’s how I see life.
Ms. Pereira. This can be a bit of a lions den. And I can be a bit of a lion tamer which means I can stand by you. Unfortunately I can be a bit of a lion too…
Martin, I read then and thought . . . . . . .
Then it was nice to see you fill in the rest of the story.
rowenapereira I welcome you and look forward to hearing your ideas and questions. Please do step up and start some threads, new perspectives and discussions are always welcome.
Warning, a good many of us regulars are boomers, as they say, so you gotta take that into consideration.
Hello Mriana, Thank you for your response!
I appreciate it very much.
However, very often I am left wondering why some people will just go to their graves with so much built up sadness and grief, whereas on the other hand some are blessed and are able to live a meaningful lives.
I may sound silly, I agree, but why do you think the world functions this way? Why does there have to be any form of suffering at all?
Hello There
Absolutely, haha! In fact, I’m here to seek answers from the boomers.
I’d rather call your lot - “the wise and experienced” and not “boomers” (primarily because on social media “boomers” is used more like an insult).
Ms. Pereira (Guyana?). Our family doctor described me as a benign control freak. Myers-Briggs (one step up from horoscopes) came up with ‘shepherd’.
This site has multiple dimensions, the mediators being at least as benign and less controlling than me. I have a fiercely rationalistic bent, hence the bit of a lion. Calculating, fact checking, challenging. Anyone, without fear or favour. Anyone making a claim. Anyone attacking human frailty. Which easily spirals hypocritically out of paradoxical control. But like everyone I want to be loved.
I was also a fundamentalist cultist for nearly 30 years.
So I know that the Devil is a roaring lion, but don’t worry, you’re safe here thanks to the mods. I yearn for God, but have to face the cold light of day without Him. He is still a habit of mind I talk with. So I’m sympathetic and I hope empathic. I’m more of a worrying sheep dog than shepherd.
I was born 1955, just a couple months ago in some YouTube comments dialogues I started getting hammered, from a few directions, for being a “Boomer”. My problem is I’m a bit of a scrappy dude and come at me with some bullshit and I’m liable to do my best to shove it right back and down the punks throat. So my humor gets a bit twisted.
The Boomer thing is pathetic and say more about the speaker than the recipient,
besides my sad comeback to all that would be: “well at least I got to experience the good years.” with a big raspberry smack on the forehead.
Can’t tell you how much that reality hurts me, especially when I’m hanging out with my grandkids `2 1/2 & ~1/2. I’ve learned to totally switch off the future thinking thing - because I’ve lost all trust in our future, and every day that’s still nice and good, is worth cherishing.
In the end, we each have just now to live, so I try focusing on that.
@rowenapereira I don’t find it silly at all and I’m sure many other people wouldn’t.
I think there’s suffering in the world just because of the nature of being human. Humans feel physical and emotion pain. Maybe you mean, “Why can’t everybody be nicer to each other and realize that peace is better than war?”
That’s a darn good question. People experience pain to a different degree, and other people react differently to bad things, and other people have more “bad” things happen to them, and yet other people can have many bad things happen to them and still feel peaceful and blessed, in my opinion.
Some reasons off the top of my head:
People are different
Many people’s biology is different
Many people’s brains are different
People are taught different ways of coping when they are young, or not taught any coping skills at all
I can’t think of any more right now, but hopefully that helps answer your question at least a little bit.
@mriana Additionally, I think sometimes children are promised a rose garden, but without the thorns, which may cause unrealistic expectations that may contribute to unhappiness (or suffering) later.
Ouroboros , emblematic serpent of ancient Egypt and Greece represented with its tail in its mouth, continually devouring itself and being reborn from itself. A gnostic and alchemicalsymbol, Ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation.
It occurred to me the other day, when reading on how we can convince people to fight global warming, knowing that efforts won’t pay off for another 70 years or so. It doesn’t seem baked in to our mindset.
But, then, I thought about, what mindset? I read up on indigenous philosophy, or philosophies of villages that have survived many empires, they just keep going like they have for centuries. It could be laws and governments are shaped by ideas that don’t work, like selfishness and profit making.
How can selfishness even work if there isn’t someone willing to sacrifice? Is caring about future generations the real driver or civilization and progress? Could be. It doesn’t eliminate suffering, but it gives it a purpose.