Idk it's just sad that our lives have no real meaning other than to reproduce from an objective stand point. Never used to think like this as a kid srs, so many feels
Only if you decide that is the only meaning. You decide what your own life is about whether its having kids or just exploring the world there is so much potential.
Exactly. The world gets smaller as I get older, it's like I've already done everything or feels like it at least. Don't even know why I feel this way..mid-life crisis perhaps? Not looking forward to turning 24 in a week either.
I am going through the same thing lol. I am visiting my dad so I am staying in his house and it just feels very eery and I am remembering past memories of hanging out with my friends here even though we all moved away. Weird feeling indeed.
Your honesty contradicts your thread title: The point of existence is children, thus existence will never be pointless. The greatest achievement any human being can hope to attain is raising children that will care more about existence, and exceed the material (or spiritual) success, of the parents.
I'm 27 and have been having an on and off existential crisis for the last couple of years. I've heard that it is quite common during one's 20's.
A pointless existence is a good thing. You are free to just experience life. You don't have to do anything. Having a purpose is slavery to an idea.
It's a stereotypical weakness of human to fancy themselves omniscient and having mastered all knowledge. The truth is we know nothing. "it's just sad that our lives have no real meaning other than to reproduce from an objective stand point" - That's just your belief. Some people choose to believe in god, some in karma and reincarnation and some people, like you, choose to believe in nihilism. There is no "objective" standard to it, because you do not have any sort of knowledge or information about it. You may assume that it's likely that this or that is true, but there are people that assume that it's likely that other things are true. So, in the end "life having no real meaning" is just your 'religion', your belief. Because that's what belief-systems and religion do, substitute knowledge where we don't have knowledge. We don't know so we act as-if. I'd encourage you to adopt a more positive, more productive belief-system that allows you to enjoy life and live it to the fullest.
Yeah it is. I went though something similar, but its during this time you do the most amount of growing
I disagree, because if what you were saying were true, people would not have the need to find purpose in their lives. The need only exists because an objective purpose does truly exist. It's just a matter of finding it.
What meaning do you want for your existence? What are you comparing your existence to? Fictional stories? People who live and develop a meaningful life don't sit around wishing that they have more meaning in their lives before doing anything.
I've adopted all those beliefs before, starting with Christianity. I wish I could make myself believe again--really I do. Take a look at 1st world countries (aka developed countries). There seems to be a common pattern of majority atheist belief systems. The most intellectual minds are athiest too (should I say Mr. Hawking or Elon Musk)? I understand I'm not the only one with this world view, to be honest I don't even consider myself an intellectual. God or reincarnation could very well exist too, I just don't know and neither does anybody else like you said. But the ultimate question is--why does it seem that only adults struggle with the concept of purpose and meaning?
The ancient debate of the Devil vs. God. The Devils perspective: Life is suffering. You didn't choose to be born, yet here you are, forced to suffer. There's no meaning in this world. Just make yourself feel as good as possible through instantaneous pleasures, don't care about tomorrow, don't care about the others, just make sure you suffer as little as possible by pleasuring yourself and then die. And while you're at it burn down as much of this wretched unfair reality as you can before you go. God's perspective: Life is suffering. But you are and always will be more powerful than your suffering. You are part of a collective of living beings in this world. Your faiths are connected. If you live right you will achieve something called harmony within yourself, extending to your family, extending to your community. Achieving harmony is hard but it decreases suffering for you and everyone else and will make you feel good. The meaning of life is found in the responsibility for well being of yourself and all life around you which ultimately makes your suffering worth it. You don't need to believe in God or the Devil as metaphysical beings to understand the argument. We humans constantly decide between the two perspectives. The problem is they're both right from a logical perspective. But only one of them provides us with long-term thriving of life. Not just for the generation that comes after us, but for our own future. Nihilism, or the belief that existence is meaningless, ultimately is the negligence of personal responsibility. This state of mind clearly interferes with our biological systems as can easily be proven. It leads to depression and decrease in life quality. Human beings need a belief system that provides them with a higher purpose. Traditionally filled by religion, this role is nowadays filled by all sorts of crap eg. gurus and self-improvement movements, vegetarianism, etc. You don't need to become religious. But you do need to realize there's a way that slowly turns life good and a way that slowly turns life to shit. No one can deny that, not even a nihilistic atheist.
