ULTIMATE GOAL
We all have written exams , participated in seminars , used our 15-20 years of life to study about our lives , lives of other species , our history , earth's history , our present conditions etc. . We all want to earn money , some of us don't have the basic income to support our lives and on the other hand there are people who have the money to support hundreds of their generations with just the interest they would get, by investing the money in a bank ! We humans are one of the few species , who work , keeping in mind distant goals . We are earning the money so that our future generations don' have any financial difficulties . Lets think about what will happen if all our generation live a life without financal problems . Are you sure they will be contented ? Are you sure that they won't need anything more to become successful? Not sure right ? Think about those who are not having ancestors like you who have saved money for the upcoming generations . Are you sure that they won't be happy throughout their lives ? Or atleast , can you confirm that your generation which is financially secured would be happier than the other ? No ! there are so many people who are still working hard to make money , after having a source of income which keeps their bank balances increasing with lightening speed ! They are not any more happier than me and you , the common people .
Imagine you got Aladins lamp , you summoned the jinn and asked him to give the boon by which , whatever you want will be achieved by you ! (How exciting is it to imagine such things right?) You got the boon , and by this you got 100% in 10th , 12th , bachelors degree , masters degree . You got a beautiful wife / handsome husband , who is perfect in all arenas . You got a job , which gives you 6-9 digit monthly income . You used the money to buy a panel of most talented and skilled doctors and became the most beautiful / handsome , strongest and wittiest person alive . Are you sure that you would be any happier than now you are , a month past these achievements ? Some of you might think so , but thats not true . Human minds are built in such a way , in which they want constant development and will never be satisfied with what they have , no matter how much they have at present ! Its like , when we were in 10 th , we thought , after 10th it would be so easy , 12th standard life would be superb , we will get our mobile phones , we would be allowed to go out with friends and overall we will be happy forever after 10th . And no doubt everything we wanted happened , but new thinkings emerged , new goals came up . We thought , after 12th , we'll be free to do anything , we will be at 18 , no restrictions , night outs, rides , etc. and like this we go on till an age , when we would realise that we are not happier than , we were earlier ! Infact many of us won't even be as happy as we were 10 years ago .
Then what's the point in developing ? Is there any ultimate goal , where will will get the eternal happiness , we dreamt of , since we were young ? What's the point in living a life , in which , we will never get a permanent satisfaction ? now you might be wondering about what am I trying to say . "Are you saying that we should all quit our lives as there is no meaning in living a life without meaning or goal ?" , "NO!!" because even dying doesn't have any meaning ! dying is also , as goalless or meaningless as living !
We humans are continuously working to develop as much as we can . From a point of time when humans were the weakest species on earth , as they don't have the ability to run away , fly away or fight back their predators , to a time , where humans are the supreme power and can do things which other species can't even imagine !!
While all other species adapt to the environment , humans make the environment adaptable (nowadays this has become an awful irony) !! While other species just want to survive out the present day , we humans are working upon immortality ! While these species have to wait for the evolution to swipe away a pathological disease , we just need to have some pills (vaccines) ! While other species are unknowingly getting their brains sharpened to answer their questions , we are working upon artificial intelligence !! So , we have no doubt on the topic , what human beings are capable of doing. Evn wiping up the entire species on the planet, is just a few hour's play and they are close to bringing up life on another planet . Humans have their limits in developing , we will discuss it later . Humans don't have any goal to work upon , we are just working because we want to work !
NIHILISM
What I made you to think , was what philosophers many decades ago , thought ! Nihilism is the belief that our lives are meaningless and outcomeless , nihilists deny every meaningful aspects of life ! Nihilism is a term with broad meanings and broader dimensions ! When summarised , they think , nothing in the world is meaningful including the fact that nothing is meaningful , and nothing we do will ever have a meaning outside and thus there is no point in trying (yes they are super pessimistic) . If you die right now it won't change anything in the big picture . If you weren't even born , no one might care !
According to wikipedia...
WHAT IS OUR LIFE?
We were born just a few years ago into this world and after some more years became conscious to find us in a place which was filled with other conscious beings like us ! We could eat some , some could eat us . There were liquid and solid stuffs that we had to eat or drink when we feel hungry or thirsty . There were things that can be used to make other things which could be again used to make more things ! In the day time , there was some bright round thing , shining in the sky that warmed our skins and in the night time there were tiny little dots all across the sky twinkling beautifully above us . This place was made perfectly for us , we had people watching over us who looked simillar to us but were a bit bigger . Much less scary and confusing right ?
But as we grew older , we learned more about the world and ourselves , we came to know that we became concious because of other beings and many other factors , all liquid and solid stuffs are not edible , and we eat them to get energy to live , all the things can't be used to make other things which can make more things , the round thing which warmed us was not shining for us or those little dots of the night sky were not twinkilng at us but was twinkling becuase...it was ! The world was not made for us , but we were made according to the conditions of this world .
We learned how little non living things interacted to make a living thing and how those tiny living things made more complex beings . But still we don't know how these non living things , became living things , which constituted the larger beings , who are conscious for a reason we will never know . And we are just a part of a history which has a long past as well as a longer future ! We became conscious to realise , that this story is not about us (it felt to me like someone cracked an inter-galactic joke on us) . We are just in a pile of moist dust which has a strange shape and is revolving around a medium sized star , which is a part of a solar system , in a galaxy with millions of stars and planets , in a galaxy supercluster , in a universe which is much much more huge than we could ever think ! we are nothing more than a dust particle for this huge wonder!!
But these sizes or descriptions doesn't mean anything , our brains can't comprehend these assumptions . And in fact these sizes are not the scariest part of this story , Time is !! Specifically the time that's left for us . Most of us have multiple decades left to leave this messy body , thats a few thousand productive weeks , but still it isn't really too much ! And then ? You won't be the dynamic person who you always were . You will just mix up with soil in a few years until nothing's left of you . Some belive that there are more dimensions of life we will experience after this life , nobody knows , so lets think this is it ! We are dead forever . It seems scarier than it is , because if you think of the 13 billion years and all the earlier species that passed away before you , you won't even remember . Dont get confused ! You were right there in some part of the universe as dust particles or in some other form (do you remember all the conservation theories?) . The materials you are made of were something else a few 100 years ago , and before that , again , something else ! Just that you weren't conscious and were in parts . And this is what's going to happen after your life . So the trillions and trillions of years that's coming , will also pass in no time after you are gone!! And in the end , we know that the universe itself will die and after that what will happen is also not yet clear . Even our emotions are just hormones and different chemical reactions of our brain .
This was the story to which we are a part , in brief . Did you find any meaning to our lives ? Most of you , now have thoughts simillar to existential Nihilists .
OPTIMISTIC NIHILISM
Now as the story has became a bit scary and our lives has became a bit meaningless , lets approach this in a more subjective and less scientific way (as science doesn't seem too pleasing now and doesn't do , lot to make this less depressing) . I don't know any more about the human existence than you do . But I have an optimistic view that will surely strengthen you to overcome the existential dread you are feeling right now . From what's written above we came to know that nothing exists for a purpose , so we are free to make our own purposes of life , everything bad you have ever faced or done will be forgotten . There are no rules in this story and thus we are free to make our rules and decide whether to follow it . If this life is the only thing we get to experience , then isn't it the only thing that matters ? Now we are the dictators of our lives . No principles are there other than the principles we make . Anyway , like everything else , we humans also will cease to exist some day . But before that , we get to explore ourselves and the world around us , experience feelings and relationships . The fact that we can think about all this , is already an incredible thing to be proud of . Earlier , I said that we are just as meaning less to this universe , as a dust particle , but also , as a nebula or an electron star , but we are somewhat better , as we have a thinking part too ! Thus , we are truly free in a universe sized play ground , playing a game who's rules are made by us . We have a lot to do in our life , we don't know what consiousness is , or what life is or how it came into existence . We have a lot of people to help , lot of places to see , lot of video games to finish and a lot of more feelings to experience . We have so much to do . And this itself is the purpose of life ! Being happy is the point of life . Just think whether you get happy, without taking away happiness of others , if yes , then what are you waiting for? Helping others is a scientifically proven method of getting happy !
Wrapping up , you have used a little time of yours , very effectively , and now you know that nothing , you ever worried of , doesn't really matters in the big picture . And now you have a purpose . And that's being happy . When we think about all the facts above , we dont find any reason to not make fun , or do what we always want to do . Lets call it the beautiful nothingness of the big story !
We all have written exams , participated in seminars , used our 15-20 years of life to study about our lives , lives of other species , our history , earth's history , our present conditions etc. . We all want to earn money , some of us don't have the basic income to support our lives and on the other hand there are people who have the money to support hundreds of their generations with just the interest they would get, by investing the money in a bank ! We humans are one of the few species , who work , keeping in mind distant goals . We are earning the money so that our future generations don' have any financial difficulties . Lets think about what will happen if all our generation live a life without financal problems . Are you sure they will be contented ? Are you sure that they won't need anything more to become successful? Not sure right ? Think about those who are not having ancestors like you who have saved money for the upcoming generations . Are you sure that they won't be happy throughout their lives ? Or atleast , can you confirm that your generation which is financially secured would be happier than the other ? No ! there are so many people who are still working hard to make money , after having a source of income which keeps their bank balances increasing with lightening speed ! They are not any more happier than me and you , the common people .
Imagine you got Aladins lamp , you summoned the jinn and asked him to give the boon by which , whatever you want will be achieved by you ! (How exciting is it to imagine such things right?) You got the boon , and by this you got 100% in 10th , 12th , bachelors degree , masters degree . You got a beautiful wife / handsome husband , who is perfect in all arenas . You got a job , which gives you 6-9 digit monthly income . You used the money to buy a panel of most talented and skilled doctors and became the most beautiful / handsome , strongest and wittiest person alive . Are you sure that you would be any happier than now you are , a month past these achievements ? Some of you might think so , but thats not true . Human minds are built in such a way , in which they want constant development and will never be satisfied with what they have , no matter how much they have at present ! Its like , when we were in 10 th , we thought , after 10th it would be so easy , 12th standard life would be superb , we will get our mobile phones , we would be allowed to go out with friends and overall we will be happy forever after 10th . And no doubt everything we wanted happened , but new thinkings emerged , new goals came up . We thought , after 12th , we'll be free to do anything , we will be at 18 , no restrictions , night outs, rides , etc. and like this we go on till an age , when we would realise that we are not happier than , we were earlier ! Infact many of us won't even be as happy as we were 10 years ago .
Then what's the point in developing ? Is there any ultimate goal , where will will get the eternal happiness , we dreamt of , since we were young ? What's the point in living a life , in which , we will never get a permanent satisfaction ? now you might be wondering about what am I trying to say . "Are you saying that we should all quit our lives as there is no meaning in living a life without meaning or goal ?" , "NO!!" because even dying doesn't have any meaning ! dying is also , as goalless or meaningless as living !
We humans are continuously working to develop as much as we can . From a point of time when humans were the weakest species on earth , as they don't have the ability to run away , fly away or fight back their predators , to a time , where humans are the supreme power and can do things which other species can't even imagine !!
While all other species adapt to the environment , humans make the environment adaptable (nowadays this has become an awful irony) !! While other species just want to survive out the present day , we humans are working upon immortality ! While these species have to wait for the evolution to swipe away a pathological disease , we just need to have some pills (vaccines) ! While other species are unknowingly getting their brains sharpened to answer their questions , we are working upon artificial intelligence !! So , we have no doubt on the topic , what human beings are capable of doing. Evn wiping up the entire species on the planet, is just a few hour's play and they are close to bringing up life on another planet . Humans have their limits in developing , we will discuss it later . Humans don't have any goal to work upon , we are just working because we want to work !
NIHILISM
What I made you to think , was what philosophers many decades ago , thought ! Nihilism is the belief that our lives are meaningless and outcomeless , nihilists deny every meaningful aspects of life ! Nihilism is a term with broad meanings and broader dimensions ! When summarised , they think , nothing in the world is meaningful including the fact that nothing is meaningful , and nothing we do will ever have a meaning outside and thus there is no point in trying (yes they are super pessimistic) . If you die right now it won't change anything in the big picture . If you weren't even born , no one might care !
According to wikipedia...
Forms
| Epistemological Existential Metaphysical Mereological Moral Political |
Nihilism has many definitions , and thus can describe multiple arguably independent philosophical positions .
Metaphysical Nihilism
Metaphysical nihilism is the philosophical theory that posits that concrete objects and physical constructs might not exist in the possible world , or that even if there exist possible worlds that contain some concrete objects , there is at least one that contains only abstract objects .
Extreme metaphysical nihilism is commonly defined as the belief that nothing exists as a correspondent component of the self-efficient world . The American Heritage Medical Dictionary defines one form of nihilism as " an extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence ." A similar skepticism concerning the concrete world can be found in solipsism . However , despite the fact that both deny the certainty of objects' true existence, the nihilist would deny the existence of self whereas the solipsist would affirm it . Both these positions are considered forms of anti-realism .
Epistemological Nihilism
Epistemological nihilism is a form of skepticism in which all knowledge is accepted as being possibly untrue or as being impossible to confirm as true .
Mereological Nihilism
Mereological nihilism (also called compositional nihilism) is the position that objects with proper parts do not exist (not only objects in space, but also objects existing in time do not have any temporal parts) , and only basic building blocks without parts exist , and thus the world we see and experience full of objects with parts is a product of human misperception (i.e., if we could see clearly, we would not perceive compositive objects) .
This interpretation of existence must be based on resolution . The resolution with which humans see and perceive the " improper parts " of the world is not an objective fact of reality , but is rather an implicit trait that can only be qualitatively explored and expressed . Therefore, there is no arguable way to surmise or measure the validity of mereological nihilism . Example : An ant can get lost on a large cylindrical object because the circumference of the object is so large with respect to the ant that the ant effectively feels as though the object has no curvature. Thus, the resolution with which the ant views the world it exists " within " is a very important determining factor in how the ant experiences this " within the world " feeling .
Existential Nihilism
Existential nihilism is the belief that life has no intrinsic meaning or value . With respect to the universe , existential nihilism posits that a single human or even the entire human species is insignificant , without purpose and unlikely to change in the totality of existence . The meaninglessness of life is largely explored in the philosophical school of existentialism .
Moral Nihilism
Moral nihilism , also known as ethical nihilism , is the meta-ethical view that morality does not exist as something inherent to objective reality ; therefore no action is necessarily preferable to any other . For example , a moral nihilist would say that killing someone , for whatever reason , is not inherently right or wrong .
Other nihilists may argue not that there is no morality at all , but that if it does exist , it is a human construction and thus artificial , wherein any and all meaning is relative for different possible outcomes . As an example , if someone kills someone else , such a nihilist might argue that killing is not inherently a bad thing , or bad independently from our moral beliefs , because of the way morality is constructed as some rudimentary dichotomy . What is said to be a bad thing is given a higher negative weighting than what is called good : as a result, killing the individual was bad because it did not let the individual live , which was arbitrarily given a positive weighting . In this way a moral nihilist believes that all moral claims are void of any truth value . An alternative scholarly perspective is that moral nihilism is a morality in itself . Cooper writes , " In the widest sense of the word 'morality' , moral nihilism is a morality . " WHAT IS OUR LIFE?
We were born just a few years ago into this world and after some more years became conscious to find us in a place which was filled with other conscious beings like us ! We could eat some , some could eat us . There were liquid and solid stuffs that we had to eat or drink when we feel hungry or thirsty . There were things that can be used to make other things which could be again used to make more things ! In the day time , there was some bright round thing , shining in the sky that warmed our skins and in the night time there were tiny little dots all across the sky twinkling beautifully above us . This place was made perfectly for us , we had people watching over us who looked simillar to us but were a bit bigger . Much less scary and confusing right ?
But as we grew older , we learned more about the world and ourselves , we came to know that we became concious because of other beings and many other factors , all liquid and solid stuffs are not edible , and we eat them to get energy to live , all the things can't be used to make other things which can make more things , the round thing which warmed us was not shining for us or those little dots of the night sky were not twinkilng at us but was twinkling becuase...it was ! The world was not made for us , but we were made according to the conditions of this world .
We learned how little non living things interacted to make a living thing and how those tiny living things made more complex beings . But still we don't know how these non living things , became living things , which constituted the larger beings , who are conscious for a reason we will never know . And we are just a part of a history which has a long past as well as a longer future ! We became conscious to realise , that this story is not about us (it felt to me like someone cracked an inter-galactic joke on us) . We are just in a pile of moist dust which has a strange shape and is revolving around a medium sized star , which is a part of a solar system , in a galaxy with millions of stars and planets , in a galaxy supercluster , in a universe which is much much more huge than we could ever think ! we are nothing more than a dust particle for this huge wonder!!
But these sizes or descriptions doesn't mean anything , our brains can't comprehend these assumptions . And in fact these sizes are not the scariest part of this story , Time is !! Specifically the time that's left for us . Most of us have multiple decades left to leave this messy body , thats a few thousand productive weeks , but still it isn't really too much ! And then ? You won't be the dynamic person who you always were . You will just mix up with soil in a few years until nothing's left of you . Some belive that there are more dimensions of life we will experience after this life , nobody knows , so lets think this is it ! We are dead forever . It seems scarier than it is , because if you think of the 13 billion years and all the earlier species that passed away before you , you won't even remember . Dont get confused ! You were right there in some part of the universe as dust particles or in some other form (do you remember all the conservation theories?) . The materials you are made of were something else a few 100 years ago , and before that , again , something else ! Just that you weren't conscious and were in parts . And this is what's going to happen after your life . So the trillions and trillions of years that's coming , will also pass in no time after you are gone!! And in the end , we know that the universe itself will die and after that what will happen is also not yet clear . Even our emotions are just hormones and different chemical reactions of our brain .
This was the story to which we are a part , in brief . Did you find any meaning to our lives ? Most of you , now have thoughts simillar to existential Nihilists .
OPTIMISTIC NIHILISM
Now as the story has became a bit scary and our lives has became a bit meaningless , lets approach this in a more subjective and less scientific way (as science doesn't seem too pleasing now and doesn't do , lot to make this less depressing) . I don't know any more about the human existence than you do . But I have an optimistic view that will surely strengthen you to overcome the existential dread you are feeling right now . From what's written above we came to know that nothing exists for a purpose , so we are free to make our own purposes of life , everything bad you have ever faced or done will be forgotten . There are no rules in this story and thus we are free to make our rules and decide whether to follow it . If this life is the only thing we get to experience , then isn't it the only thing that matters ? Now we are the dictators of our lives . No principles are there other than the principles we make . Anyway , like everything else , we humans also will cease to exist some day . But before that , we get to explore ourselves and the world around us , experience feelings and relationships . The fact that we can think about all this , is already an incredible thing to be proud of . Earlier , I said that we are just as meaning less to this universe , as a dust particle , but also , as a nebula or an electron star , but we are somewhat better , as we have a thinking part too ! Thus , we are truly free in a universe sized play ground , playing a game who's rules are made by us . We have a lot to do in our life , we don't know what consiousness is , or what life is or how it came into existence . We have a lot of people to help , lot of places to see , lot of video games to finish and a lot of more feelings to experience . We have so much to do . And this itself is the purpose of life ! Being happy is the point of life . Just think whether you get happy, without taking away happiness of others , if yes , then what are you waiting for? Helping others is a scientifically proven method of getting happy !
Wrapping up , you have used a little time of yours , very effectively , and now you know that nothing , you ever worried of , doesn't really matters in the big picture . And now you have a purpose . And that's being happy . When we think about all the facts above , we dont find any reason to not make fun , or do what we always want to do . Lets call it the beautiful nothingness of the big story !
Evolution disproves modern religious teaching, the universe is a massive expanding place, and stars are jst big dumb stupid crap thts really far away.
ReplyDeleteLife is meaningless, don't hold value in your current existence.👍