What is the point of life?

[Shmooguy]

Post your personal opinion. No religious/atheistic/other flaming.

Allow me to begin with a question.

What is the point of being nice to people? So they can like you and do nice things that benefit you? So you don't end up lonely? So you don't feel guilty? So you can end up in Heaven? Why should you care about what happens to anyone you don't know? Simply because we're all the same species? Why should human beings need to look out for each other? So you don't seem like a hypocrite?

Maybe a few questions, in case one doesn't do it for you.

What reason brings you to do anything you do? Fun? People always seek happiness, yet nobody is perfectly fulfilled, why is this? Fame? Being remembered by other people who will eventually forget you when they too die? Is all of life simply trying to leave your mark in as many places as possible? Assuming when you die there is some kind of black, nothingness that goes on forever, what greater purpose do our lives hold? What greater purpose does your life hold?

Yeah this is kinda existentialist... which usually means irrelevant, unnecessary, and annoying, but as cliche as the question is maybe some deeper people can actually make this thread useful. Just trying to spark discussion in a relatively pointless, spam-ridden forum =P

Plus I can't sleep.

 

[itsthatgb]

Money and Power.... and *****'s.... LOL?

 

[Shmooguy]

Lol yeah that's what I thought too.

But I think people are chasing an unreachable goal, because you always want more. It doesn't really satisfy, you know? Kinda like American Psycho, but without the massacre.

 

[Marceux]

But what are we without these goals? These lofty ambitions? I'm pretty sure some of us play Smash in part to get good enough and get some recognition - to differentiate ourselves from our peers. It's that very human hunger or greed that motivates our every move. Why else would someone be nice to someone else? It's greed in a sense that eventually you expect the same treatment in return. "Do unto others..." I'm not going to go too into religion because of unnecessary arguments and all that, but isn't heaven a selfish incentive? To have this paradise that caters to only you, and all you have to do is jump through hoops A, B, and C? The moral high road is a social structure, and as much as people try to stick to it, we're going to do our best to manipulate it so that it best fits the modus operandi of most, if not all living organisms: look out for ourselves.

The meaning of life is to survive and propagate, because life is a miracle, and why let it go to waste? Everything is a product of self-preservation. It's all very biological to me. Natural Selection explains it so well. Right now, we're doing the things we do because it's our way of making life survivable and livable for a while so that we can eventually reproduce and hopefully live long enough to see our offspring reproduce too.

And if that fails... All life begins and ends with Nu. That is my belief, at least for now.

 

[Shmooguy]

Life is a miracle? Really? When heaven is a selfish incentive? What I'm basically getting is that we are selfish and that's that. Everything that happens is because we are inherently greedy. What even makes anything a waste if everything is done to make ourselves happy in the first place?

By those standards, any antagonist could defend themselves with "I'm upholding self-preservation." It's natural selection, so why can't they do anything they want?

Maybe if you take it from a bigger perspective, like society as a whole preserving themselves it would work. The antagonists are deemed "unlawful" because they bring down the rest of the world. But then how would you decide what is preserving and what isn't? Hindsight is 20-20, but you can't tell what might evolve in the future. Like say... um, your family doesn't pay taxes but they get away with it (this is hypothetical, work with me). Would you turn them in because they aren't aiding the rest of America? So much is subjective, Natural Selection can't be the ultimate standard.

And what's Nu? You mean those blue things in Chrono Trigger? 'Cause if so then I completely agree, those things are amazing.

 

[Marceux]

That doesn't mean everythings a waste per se'. Someone's greed may benefit the all. And you're right, any antagonist could say that, but remember: laws, morals, and general order are social constructions. Everything we limit ourselves with are in our heads - ignoring physical limitations. While one person may say, "I'm just looking out for me, whatever." Someone else could say, "but your actions do nothing to help me or my family, and I'm sure someone else feels that way." More people survive when there is order. You could say that we, as in humanity or society or whatever, selected, as a species, for a moral code. I'm sure someone deep down, a long time ago, convinced the weaker members of his village to work with him or her in order to overthrow or rule others, and with that came laws.

It is existential, and pretty bleak to believe we're only here to look out for ourselves and our kin (or genes) but really, it makes living all the more interesting when you're fighting just to live. Not to mention, existence is bleak in general, and you don't need to be alive to realize that.

And yep, it is from Chrono Trigger. That was a quote from the game.

 

[Shmooguy]

Fair enough.

And yep, it is from Chrono Trigger. That was a quote from the game.

Heh, I recognize it now that you've told me. Too good!

 

[Marceux]

Sorry, it was late and I completely forgot to comment on the rest of your earlier post.

Would I turn someone I know in? Depends. It's all personal investment. Mothers spend 9 months with a growing embryo in them and once the baby is born they are immediately connected to them and feel the need to be motherly. I think investing those 9 months have something to do with it. It's why reptiles and some birds are so quick to lay their eggs and be gone with it. It was not as much of an investment to see it through. To them, it's hope for the best. For us, it's putting our eggs in one basket.

Now why are babies coming up? With personal relationships, we do what we can because we are interested in people due to similarities, general attraction, what-have-you. But once we spend time with that person, we do what we can to make the most of the time we spent. It's greed, again. Why do you think people are so heartbroken when they break up? Unless there was an ulterior motive to just have sex, when you enter a relationship, invest time, and then get no pay-off from that investment, where does that leave you? Look at stock brokers right now during the financial crisis.

So would I turn someone in? Depends on how long I've known them and what they've done. Taxes? Meh. Lots of people do it, and sure it may not benefit the all, and it may hurt me because that money could go towards roads - or you know, some politician's pocket.

I know people that don't pay their taxes all the time, and it's no biggie, because their company and the relationship I share with them is worth more to me than turning them in. I never said individuals have to agree with the all.

 

[Shmooguy]

I used family in the example with the intention that people would assume they like their family, but you answered my question anyway so it's all good.

**** I'm bored. Shouldn't have taken that nap earlier -_-

 

[Marceux]

sleep johns.

 

[JDM]

When I first saw the topic title, I thought you were gonna kill yourself..


Good thing you aren't lol.

 

[EdreesesPieces]

The point of life is to use Peach. Now , commence!