What is the point of life?

[Birdjaguar]

How do we know that dolphins or flowers don't question life? What behaviour should we looking for (since they can't talk)?

I get Bible vibes from your post, where humans are the only animal with free will and possibility to leave God's straight plan?

The crown of the creation, given this useless freedom that's actually slavery, and then dispersed as sheep by Lucifer, with only one weapon: lies.

Eventually saved by the good sheperd, who said that the truth will set you free (really free) and went off to find the last one of the hundered sheep.

Well, good luck with that

We certainly don't have a clear picture of the capabilities of plants and other animals, but we can make pretty good guesses. Bible vibes from me? I'm a pantheist. You appear to have already made your choice about what is the path to truth; in doing so you have excluded some others. That kind of assumption is a personal choice. The choices one makes about how truth is found limits both the available pathways and the possible answers.

 

[Ironsided]

”-What day is it?”, asked Pooh.

“-It’s today”, squeaked Piglet.

“-My favourite day”, said Pooh.

I am leaning on the meaning of life mainly being to keep calm and do wu wei. Dao knows that is hard enough for mankind in general (and my overactive mind in particular to be honest). But let’s not force the issue. And honestly don’t mind me for I am but a smidge of our common Qi, and I’ll just continue practice my ‘do not-do’ and ‘think not-think’ now.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

You appear to have already made your choice about what is the path to truth; in doing so you have excluded some others. That kind of assumption is a personal choice. The choices one makes about how truth is found limits both the available pathways and the possible answers.

I don't care about truth, I care about love and there's no paths to that. You can't produce it and there's no use chasing it.

Many would argue that faith is the path, but you can't produce that either, as a matter of fact the Bible says that faith is a gift too.

You don't find Jesus, he finds you.

 

[Samson]

How do we know that dolphins or flowers don't question life?

We really do not know for dolphins. They have much larger brains than us, they may surpass us in philosophy. I would not bet against the reason we are eating them rather than them eating us is more to do with lack of opposable thumbs than mental capacity.

And we should not be eating them.

 

[Sommerswerd]

We really do not know for dolphins. They have much larger brains than us, they may surpass us in philosophy. I would not bet against the reason we are eating them rather than them eating us is more to do with lack of opposable thumbs than mental capacity.

And we should not be eating them.

I'm not eating them... i don't believe those lies about them dropping the A-Bombs in the slightest

It was definitely Chicken and Cow, may they burn in hell... or on my grill.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I don't care about truth, I care about love and there's no paths to that. You can't produce it and there's no use chasing it.

Many would argue that faith is the path, but you can't produce that either, as a matter of fact the Bible says that faith is a gift too.

You don't find Jesus, he finds you.

You may not care about Truth, but I'm sure you accept some things as true and others that aren't. You seem to focus on Christianity as far as religion goes even though there are others of note. The Bible says lots of things and is often contradictory. One approach is to cherry pick what you like and ignore the rest. Another is to accept it all as true. IIRC the NT is mostly a treatise on how to get to Heaven as if that is the purpose of life and why we are here.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

You may not care about Truth, but I'm sure you accept some things as true and others that aren't.

The truth is that you'll never get to taste my strengths or weaknesses, dynamically combined on the fly in a way that serves God. I just spread them out randomly and if he wants he can pick them up.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The truth is that you'll never get to taste my strengths or weaknesses, dynamically combined on the fly in a way that serves God. I just spread them out randomly and if he wants he can pick them up.

I don't think we are talking about the same kind of truths.

 

[Chicken Pizza]

I don't think we are talking about the same kind of truths.

The truth is that as soon you get out of bed, people are constantly trying to steal energy from you, often disguised by looking for anything out of the ordinary that you do, demanding that you share it or accept ridicule and submission.

The truth is that it doesn't matter if you act as the leader or the follower, and to whom. In both cases you're left alone with your own problems at the end of the day. The clown seems to be peoples favourite, playing both roles while posing no threat.

It's all a big party until the clown recieves attention from the marijuana smoking friend's new girl and gets angered insecurity in his eyes. He didn't like that at all, did he my precious? No, he didn't, not at all.

 

[warpus]

I bet there is a dolphin out there somewhere right now thinking: "Why do I do this every day..."

I also don't think you should talk to clowns

 

[Chicken Pizza]

I bet there is a dolphin out there somewhere right now thinking: "Why do I do this every day..."

I also don't think you should talk to clowns

I've read Douglas Adams but I don't get the dolphin reference. A more developed species that leaves earth before it's destroyed and leaves the message "goodbye and thank you for the fish"?

Personally I can't focus for more than 15-20 seconds before I look around for someone to assure me that I'm doing OK. I find nobody, think "why do I do this every time" and make a knot in my brain.

Sometimes I vary the way that I tie it, and where, to keep up the hope. It's hard work and I'm proud of it. I suspect that dolphins don't have that problem.

 

[warpus]

Life can be hard work, that much is true.

I was just implying that we are probably missing out on so much of the dolphin experience. All the squeaking and swimming in formation we see might just be a very small part of what it means to be a dolphin. For all we know they have their own version of the midlife crisis, existential dread, etc. Life isn't easy for anyone, maybe. Sometimes it can be great though, so IMO it's worth fighting for another day

 

[Birdjaguar]

The truth is that as soon you get out of bed, people are constantly trying to steal energy from you, often disguised by looking for anything out of the ordinary that you do, demanding that you share it or accept ridicule and submission.

The truth is that it doesn't matter if you act as the leader or the follower, and to whom. In both cases you're left alone with your own problems at the end of the day. The clown seems to be peoples favourite, playing both roles while posing no threat.

It's all a big party until the clown recieves attention from the marijuana smoking friend's new girl and gets angered insecurity in his eyes. He didn't like that at all, did he my precious? No, he didn't, not at all.

I wish you well.

 

[Kyriakos]

I bet there is a dolphin out there somewhere right now thinking: "Why do I do this every day..."

I also don't think you should talk to clowns

I doubt dolphins are aware that they are just a creature with no prospect of developing. Would you like to be some fish doing the same garbage in the ocean for x years? They obviously have no self-awareness past some small degree.
Humans can do stuff, but don't, for a great many reasons. Humans are failed in a different way, but still better than any other lifeform in this third-world planet.

At least apes (our closest relative) seem to become aware, at times, that next to humans they are a dumb, dirty animal. Usually the response is to attack the human. In that they also show how related they are to us: destroy the source of the irritating insight.

 

[warpus]

I doubt dolphins are aware that they are just a creature with no prospect of developing. Would you like to be some fish doing the same garbage in the ocean for x years? They obviously have no self-awareness past some small degree.

Do you have a citation for this? Seems like a wild assumption to make. I've read studies that seem to indicate that dolphins show signs of self-awareness earlier in life than humans, for instance.

 

[Sommerswerd]

I was just implying that we are probably missing out on so much of the dolphin experience. All the squeaking and swimming in formation we see might just be a very small part of what it means to be a dolphin. For all we know they have their own version of the midlife crisis, existential dread, etc.

For all we know all the squeaking and swimming in formation could be them trying to warn us of the impending doom of the planet at the hands of an advanced alien spacefaring species and them preparing an elaborate dance number to thank us for all the fish before they fly away on spaceships arriving to get them off the planet before it is destroyed.

 

[Kyriakos]

Do you have a citation for this? Seems like a wild assumption to make. I've read studies that seem to indicate that dolphins show signs of self-awareness earlier in life than humans, for instance.

Does it really matter? How sentient can something be, when it is a fish doing nothing of consequence for its entire life. You'd likely just kill yourself in its place.
Afaik they can identify themselves in reflecting surfaces. My point was about realizing how low their place is.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Does it really matter? How sentient can something be, when it is a fish doing nothing of consequence for its entire life. You'd likely just kill yourself in its place.
Afaik they can identify themselves in reflecting surfaces. My point was about realizing how low their place is.

It isn't a fish and 99%+ of humans do nothing of any long-term consequence.

 

[Sommerswerd]

It isn't a fish and 99%+ of humans do nothing of any long-term consequence.

Especially when you consider that "consequence" is relative. In terms of the Milky Way galaxy 100% of humans do nothing of any long-term consequence.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Does it really matter? How sentient can something be, when it is a fish doing nothing of consequence for its entire life. You'd likely just kill yourself in its place.

Meh... I don't know... Ecco the Dolphin was pretty fun