What is Existence? -

STM · #91 10-10-2011, 02:02 PM

*raises hand...actually I do understand quantum physics to a degree ^-^

But yeh I agree, I'd rather be in a dream forever than live forever I think sometimes, in a dream you can be slaying zombies one minute or chilling with your dream woman the next, and if you get bored of that you can go talk to deceased loved ones or perhaps go by your favourite chocolate that went out of business...except you can't taste in your dreams but never mind that.

My point being, dreams are easy and fun, life is boring and hard work.

Bullet Magnet · #92 10-10-2011, 06:26 PM

I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. - Richard Feynman.

Mac Sirloin · #93 10-10-2011, 06:45 PM

I just wish people could agree that we're all bound by some kind of mystery pertaining to the nature of the Universe and let that be a nice comfort in common.

Bullet Magnet · #94 10-10-2011, 07:00 PM

I can honestly say that I have no idea what that means.

Sekto Springs · #95 10-10-2011, 10:05 PM

I think he's saying that humanity's lack of comprehension of the unknown forms a kinship.

moxco · #96 10-10-2011, 10:29 PM

Religion?

STM · #97 10-11-2011, 07:59 AM

Religion, the study of science, hell if we found out the true nature of the Universe, more likely we would turn away in fear and stay ignorant...I believe I'm paraphrasing Lovecraft.
=/

Wings of Fire · #98 10-11-2011, 08:07 AM

Lovecraft was a fag. I'll chance cosmic despair to avoid ignorance.

Sekto Springs · #99 10-11-2011, 08:08 AM

I probably wouldn't.

STM · #**100** 10-11-2011, 08:19 AM

I like to think I'd be the same as WoF, I mean I'd be gobstruck but hey, if it's God, Shiva or a giant omnipotent space worm, I'd be pretty happy there was something.

Bullet Magnet · #**101** 10-11-2011, 08:20 AM

I'll take that bullet. I skirt madness every day anyway.

But hey, I'm happy that there's a star the size of Jupiter's orbit out there that's visible from Earth with the naked eye. Isn't that enough?

Wings of Fire · #**102** 10-11-2011, 08:24 AM

And if the world is under the throes of the Old Ones and everything we do is ultimately meaningless, hey, there's always absurdism.

MeechMunchie · #**103** 10-11-2011, 08:28 AM

Don't be ridiculous.

STM · #**104** 10-11-2011, 08:28 AM

What's that?

Well if there are Gods I'll be happy. If it's the Christian God then hell I got it right, Amen brudda.

Bullet Magnet · #**105** 10-11-2011, 08:31 AM

The chances are that it would be made of Hydrogen. And that means stars.

STM · #**106** 10-11-2011, 08:33 AM

Star Gods? Wait...the C'tan?[/nerd]

Nah I can picture that, I mean hell if there was no God, the Sun would be the next closest thing for us.

Bullet Magnet · #**107** 10-11-2011, 08:39 AM

And one day it will consume us, puff its mass away and slowly freeze into a shitty little ember.

That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange aeons even death may die.

Wings of Fire · #**108** 10-11-2011, 08:46 AM

:

What's that?

:

Camus states in The Myth of Sisyphus: "Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death, and I refuse suicide."[14] "Revolt" here refers to the refusal of suicide and search for meaning despite the revelation of the Absurd; "Freedom" refers to the lack of imprisonment by religious devotion or others' moral codes; "Passion" refers to the most wholehearted experiencing of life, since hope has been rejected, and so it is concluded that every moment be lived fully.

Life has no intrisic meaning. Party on.

Bullet Magnet · #**109** 10-11-2011, 08:49 AM

The name bugs me. Nothing about the concept seems absurd to me at all. Mundane.

Wings of Fire · #**110** 10-11-2011, 08:53 AM

The absurdity refers to the contradiction between our search for life's intrisic meaning and the understanding it doesn't have one.

For the record, I'm a Nietzchean. Life's intrisic value is what we aspire ourselves to be. The lack of meaning of life just means we should stop being lazy and make our own.

MeechMunchie · #**111** 10-11-2011, 09:03 AM

:

The lack of meaning of life just means we should stop being lazy and make our own.

This.

Every time someone asks me 'What's the meaning of life?' I say 'To find one'. Or occasionally 'What does life mean to you?'

STM · #**112** 10-11-2011, 09:12 AM

:

Life has no intrisic meaning. Party on. And companying quotation.

WoF...I love you, that quotation couldn't have come at a better time, I just need to memorise it and use it and I'll be all set!! ^_^

Dixanadu · #**113** 10-11-2011, 10:29 AM

I won't be content til I find the meaning of existence.

I wonder if there was, some kind of existence before the Big Bang that ended in...well, a big bang.

Same way an asteroid fucks shit up, but the environmental stage changes and new life is born. Animals were ugly as sin back in the million year stage. I mean, there was a shark with a fucking buzzsaw for a mouth.

Perhaps a hyper-advanced race of squids created a Hadron Collidor and the Big Bang happened.

Really hate that thing.

Bullet Magnet · #**114** 10-11-2011, 12:59 PM

The Faculty of the Unseen University, Ankh-Morpork, Discworld, offer their own purpose for the humanity of our universe: to get the hell off this deathtrap planet.

MeechMunchie · #**115** 10-11-2011, 01:26 PM

There's another quote, from Unseen Academicals, though I can't quite remember it.

It went that there was a postition, like Professor of Egocentric Biology or something. His job was to press his argument that the entire point of life's existence was to eventually evolve into a race capable of producing a Professor of Egocentric Biology.

Bullet Magnet · #**116** 10-11-2011, 01:52 PM

I always liked that guy.

***Nate*** · #**117** 10-11-2011, 02:22 PM

You're thinking of the Professor of Applied Anthropics. And that was from Hogfather.

:

Well if there are Gods I'll be happy. If it's the Christian God then hell I got it right, Amen brudda.

But if there is a God and it's not the Christian one, S/He'll be pissed off that you weren't worshipping Xer. Best to hope that there isn't any god at all.

Yes, it's Paschal's Wager for the 21st century!

Bullet Magnet · #**118** 10-11-2011, 02:30 PM

Perhaps it's a great big fish-thing that eats passing souls as they go on to their respective hells, and the best we can hope for is to pass by while it's still chewing on the guy before you.

Manco · #**119** 10-11-2011, 02:45 PM

I like to think any potential deity out there would be able to understand a human’s reasoning for worshipping the wrong/no god, and would be able to see past that to a person’s intrinsic “goodness” and judge them accordingly.

That raises the issue of what “intrinsic goodness” is, but I’ll cross that bridge when/if I get to it.

Bullet Magnet · #**120** 10-11-2011, 03:05 PM

I don't think they'd care.

Why does every idea concerning possible gods seem to imply both their interest in us and the existence of an afterlife? Lovecraft's misotheism seems to be the only exception.