Here's why I'm alive and happy for it

the morning sun over the river, migrating ducks, hot coffee on a cold morning, camping in the middle of winter, the smile on another face, red wine, song, dance and the poetry of life.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

​

RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

I plan to live forever or die trying

I have not until now read countless provocative and interesting replies and rebuttals to intriguing topics. Thank you so very kindly.

What is this? These are a few of my favorite things?Should Julie Andrews come out prancing?Shall I list my "favorite things"? Oh boy.What admin. promoted this crap?

Hi Robin,Welcome to the Coffee House!Be sure not to let the door hit you on the way out!BenP.S. It's sarcasm. I'm not generally a fan of the Coffee House, but it's not really hard to just ignore Coffee House topics.

That's all very well, but I have a serious philosophical point to make. This "few of my favorite things" theme will not do.So what? You have a few lousy things you enjoy? A few miserable pleasures? Does that overcome Prophex's powerful message, which incidentally I agree with, except for his alternative worldview?So what is Annafan's point?

Presumably, his point is that reality isn't so bad that one must live in delusion to maintain happiness.I'm curious, what part of Prophex's "powerful message" do you agree with? That life seems great, therefore God created it in six days or less?

That life is meaningless.

Speak for yourself!Life is what you make of it!Only creatures capable of assigning meaning can make something meningfull or not. If life seems meaningless to you, then you havn't worked very hard to give it any meaning.What you call "a few miserable pleasures" is actually a whole big chunk of that meaning. What do you want? Something more? You wan't someone to tell you that if you die the earth will stand still?Personaly I'm thankfull for sex, food, mountains, ocean, fluffy bunnys, fish, etc. I think it's awsome. And I like existing. And YES that is why life is worth living to me. I am not arogant enugh to demand some transcendental reason for my existence.The galaxy doesn't give a shit about us, but we give a shit about the galaxy. That's the difference.

WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.Avatar. Lol! the poor bloody baba!

That's what I'm doing. There are severe limitations on what you can make of it.

Prophex's argument was that evolution must be false because life isn't without meaning.I find it curious that you, as a nihilist, seem to be more willing to align yourself with a theist who believes that humans are inherently "special" and are given love and meaning by a god, than with secularists who argue simply that one doesn't need to believe in the supernatural to perceive life as good.

I see. I didn't catch that. I still maintain it's completely up to the person. A search for meaning in life is a very personal project. Different people find it in different areas of life. Just playing guitar, or eating good food, or seeing the sunrise every morning, or playing a sport gives them a feeling of fufillment.Meaning is not discovered with the head. It's discovered with your mind and your body. Even prophex has found such coordinated meaning, by choosing an alternative world view.Honestly, it seems that we have similar underlying feelings about life and meaning. I haven't been unable to find anything that has meaning; i.e. makes me feel content. I don't strive for some "greater meaning" any more; I am comfortable with the view that it doesn't exist.For me, the best things that give me a feeling of purpose and meaning are: loving someone, sharing my thoughts, searching for answers about what it is to be human, and playing guitar. It's a simple point. Someone who has found meaning can enjoy life, isn't always pulled down by a lack of meaning. Once you've got that, you can simply enjoy small things. Annafan just wants to share those things.Here's a question for you, robinrohan. It seems to me that you think it's more .... SOMETHING to be right rather than to be happy. You'd rather have a world view that you think is correct, rather than have a world view that makes you happy. Seems that you've arbitrarily put critical importance on logic. I know we've discussed this a bit before, but let's revisit it. Why do this? If you can't find happiness within the confines of logic, why not let it go?

All right... what would you like to make of it?ABE: What would you like to make of it that you can't due to limitations?This message has been edited by Yaro, 11-04-2005 09:40 AM

Love and beauty, most of all: a Woman who devotes herself to my happiness and pleasure as ardently as I devote myself to Hers; to create art and to experience art created by others, to savor clear light and fresh air, to return the gaze of wild creatures so without thought or malice that they come close...to clear the mind so completely that my boundaries blur and merge...Sheer cussedness: To gaze into the abyss of mortality and apparent vast insignificance and seize my own meaning, to lock eyes with infinite sorrow and, grinning, say, "Still...nonetheless..." and not back down.To laugh, finally, when one-more-trouble makes all the troubles too absurd...to laugh their weight away entirely.Mystery: The mystery of Being rather than Not-Being, the mystery of Mind, the mystery of the Other, the infinitesimal possibility of Knowing that each day brings...the Mystery of Me--is being Me anything like being You? Let me in, let me see...But love, love most of all.