[JohnCrow]

Essential nihilism is the idea (not belief) that reality came before you (or anyone else) and any idea that you hold as dear (or anyone else) and will continue on past you (and everyone else)

The universe came first and it has no meaning, no purpose

We exist by chance, biology and loads of mistakes. Biology has a reason; it is make more of the same thing you are

Now, if you choose, you can give yourself meaning. We are sentient, we can imagine a reason for ourselves, apply it and give it force

But there is no inherent meaning to any of this (sweeping hand gesture to everything about me)

And if I ever found evidence to refute this, it would break me.

But there is no inherent meaning to any of this (sweeping hand gesture to everything about me)

And if I ever found evidence to refute this, it would break me.

just trying to clarify - you like believing that there's no meaning to life?

[JohnCrow]

Originally Posted by jo_thorne

just trying to clarify - you like believing that there's no meaning to life?

It is not a matter of whether I like it or not, it simply is

It's like people who wish the world was fair. If the world was fair, then bad things would only happen to bad people

I don't need things to mean something. They simply are. And staring into the void, looking for meaning will, like Nietszche said, have the void stare into you

Coming soon, why we have no free will (nope, none. and I am fine with this)

I know most people are uncomfortable with real existential questioning. But facing the truth, Truth if you will, gives me strength. The universe does not need me or want me. Or not not want me, to be fair.

Little things, like I did not exist for a long time, then I was born, then every five years or so every single atom in my body us replaced and, when I die, every single atom will be re-used and I will not exist again, ever

The default is non-existence so having even a short time to think, to feel, even if it is kind of crappy, makes me feel privileged

Thanks for the above post. Existential questioning doesn't make me comfortable. I don't understand it very well, and it feels difficult to reach any valid conclusions, but I am fine with the questioning itself. I used to do more of it when I was younger, but I think my brain has gotten middle-aged and prefers more concrete types of reasoning now.

I was mostly asking about your comment that "And if I ever found evidence to refute this, it would break me." I was wondering why finding out that what you've written isn't true would "break you".

I think I would be fine with either situation, but I'm a fence-sitter by nature. I have a special padded chair to make my philosophical fence-sitting even more comfortable.

[vonmoxie]

I tend to advise friends and family not to read too much philosophy (with my tongue only partially in-cheek), because indeed it offers little practical solace to look behind certain curtains. I could never resist diligently seeking truth though, having been brought up under a shroud of poison secrecies, and when I really started getting into Deleuze and Baudrillard especially, my brain lit up with so much recognition it was as if it represented many lifescapes of repressed memory, things that had been on ice in what comprises my subsconscious for ages. Now that it's memetically welded to my conscious awareness I've no way to unsee any of it.

I'm quite sure it beats most other alternatives, in terms of other hazardous cognitive reality that might have appended itself to my psyche, and was probably an unavoidable destiny of an understanding for me personally to arrive at.. but it's lonely information indeed. How I envy even the moderately blissful.

[Tauren]

Originally Posted by JohnCrow

Essential nihilism is the idea (not belief) that reality came before you (or anyone else) and any idea that you hold as dear (or anyone else) and will continue on past you (and everyone else)

The universe came first and it has no meaning, no purpose

We exist by chance, biology and loads of mistakes. Biology has a reason; it is make more of the same thing you are

Now, if you choose, you can give yourself meaning. We are sentient, we can imagine a reason for ourselves, apply it and give it force

But there is no inherent meaning to any of this (sweeping hand gesture to everything about me)

And if I ever found evidence to refute this, it would break me.

I completely agree.

Or as Dr. House said, "I find it more comforting to believe that this isn't simply a test."