Why do you choose to live?

[azzaman333]

Because I can't be bothered dying.

 

[warpus]

Why do you feel your life is worth living?

Life is interesting. Every day is a new adventure.

What do you hope to accomplish?

As long as there are breasts to be fondled, bacon to be eaten, and trails to be hiked, I will be alive.

until I die I guess

 

[IglooDame]

Death is not like sleeping (assuming it's nothingness). There's the rather crucial difference that you wake up from sleep. Imagine not waking up from sleepless dreaming. You can't because it's incomprehensible.

It's called extrapolation.

 

[LucyDuke]

I have unanswered questions. And for some reason there are people that like me better alive.

 

[IglooDame]

I have unanswered questions. And for some reason there are people that like me better alive.

You're lucky you don't have a bunch of necrophiliacs for friends.

 

[G-Max]

My work isn't done. I still have to attend Comic-Con with a hooker, dressed up as characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Then I'm not really sure what I'd do.

 

[IglooDame]

My work isn't done. I still have to attend Comic-Con with a hooker, dressed up as characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Then I'm not really sure what I'd do.

I don't know about a hooker, but I'm pretty sure your odds of doing so with the likes of Candace Bailey or Sara Underwood are fair to middling.

 

[SuperJay]

Igloo, have I told you lately that I love you? You too, Lucy. I like you much better alive.

For me, even in the depths of the despair that I've confronted in the past, I keep coming back to simple truths: That no matter how bad things get, the sunshine on my face in the summer still feels good. That this Sam Cooke song always sounds great. That my friends and family are pretty cool and it would hurt them to lose me. That there's still so much to learn and discover and explore, and I can't do any of that from a coffin.

It sounds pretty cliche, I know. But if I just gave up, no more sunshine.

 

[Smellincoffee]

My life is full of little pleasures. If I lived in prison I might have a different perspective.

Is life worth living? Well, I can only answer for myself. I like to be alive, to breathe the air, to look at the landscape, the clouds, the stars, to repeat old poems, to look at pictures and statues, to hear music, the voices of the ones I love. I enjoy eating and smoking. I like good cold water. I like to talk with my wife, my girls, my grandchildren. I like to sleep and to dream. Yes, you can say that life, to me, is worth living.

Robert G. Ingersoll

 

[Tani Coyote]

Why do we choose to have kids?

Why do we choose to let other people die?

I think those could be explained in evolutionary terms.

Kids: Continuation of the species.

Letting people die: Focusing on others in a different set of circumstances would lower your chances of survival. This isn't valid in a world as abundant as ours thanks to agriculture, but the evolutionary wiring is still there...

I have another. Why do we care for those seriously injured - say, a limb blown off - in say, combat, when it would seem more economically wise to just leave them to die? Why do we care for the terminally ill?

---

Much of humanity's mentality would seem to spawn from evolutionary instinct, but other parts of it seem to answer to a higher calling...

Kids would seem to be easily explained by a desire to continue the species, though then you have parents who don't care for their kids or even murder them. Or you have those who wait until they're financially stable enough to have a child, vs. those who have them straight out of (or even in!) high school.

 

[amadeus]

'Cause I don't have anything else to do?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I don't think my life is worth living. I can't accomplish anything as I'm no good at anything and if I try to get better I always fail. If I ever want to do anything all it does is get in the way of others and I get into trouble. It seems like all I am is a pathetic waste and the only way I could do to make it better for others is if I was gone.

 

[IglooDame]

I don't think my life is worth living. I can't accomplish anything as I'm no good at anything and if I try to get better I always fail. If I ever want to do anything all it does is get in the way of others and I get into trouble. It seems like all I am is a pathetic waste and the only way I could do to make it better for others is if I was gone.

There's a lot of people here that think you're pretty okay, and way too hard on yourself.

 

[Greizer85]

It's called extrapolation.

Um. The point kinda was that you can't extrapolate the comprehensible to the incomprehensible. But I suppose that's a subject for a different thread.

@Chukchi: When I get that feeling I think of the fact that there's 100 billion x 100 billion stars in the Universe (or more, probably). It kinda puts our hills of beans into perspective. Not to say things ain't worth doing, just that it's ok if you don't succeed.

 

[IglooDame]

It's called extrapolation.

Um. The point kinda was that you can't extrapolate the comprehensible to the incomprehensible. But I suppose that's a subject for a different thread.

I don't know why it is incomprehensible to you, it is comprehensible to me - enough to put it in perspective, anyway.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

I don't think my life is worth living. I can't accomplish anything as I'm no good at anything and if I try to get better I always fail. If I ever want to do anything all it does is get in the way of others and I get into trouble. It seems like all I am is a pathetic waste and the only way I could do to make it better for others is if I was gone.

Now thats a huge lie. There is simply no way that if one continues pursuing what one starts that the succes or progress sooner or later doesnt come. It is universal law just like gravitation.
To get in a way of others is often good thing and to get in trouble sometimes as well. What one needs is to look on bright side of things - see the reality from positive side. Thats all.
No one is indispensable so in a way we are all just a pathetic waste. From the lowest to the greatest we are all just silly and childlish. Except when we have love and good will toward others than we are badly needed.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Why do we choose to have kids?

Family instinct?

 

[Greizer85]

I don't know why it is incomprehensible to you, it is comprehensible to me - enough to put it in perspective, anyway.

Well, I do comprehend the fact that I won't wake up. I just don't... I don't think there's a word for it. It's kind of like with space: I understand that space is infinite, but infinity itself escapes my grasp. Things must have a beginning and an end, otherwise the human brain just gets all dizzy and goes "Dude, like, far out, man.". At least mine does... It's said that one can indeed 'grok' infinity, but only in a mystical/drug experience, temporarily. Certainly a mystical experience would help to alleviate my fear of death, even if it was all hooey in the end.

 

[NiRv4n4]

There's no reason to live, but there is also no reason to die. Therefore, I just tend to live by my gut, and be impulsive. Since no outcome is better than the other, I needn't worry about the consequences. So I don't really choose to live, I just don't choose to die; of which a side effect is life.

Since I live by my impulses, I decide I have a base intention of doing something, and I do it. That doesn't mean I am some sex crazed hedonist, as that isn't me. I don't think nihilists are any different than other people - that is, if they are true nihilists, they don't care about nihilism, and therefore just live. They might be less concerned with life/afterlife, but they can function just fine.

Of course, there is always the possibility that I am wrong in my nihilism, so I still generally obey laws, avoid rabid iconoclasm, etc. Why am I saying this? Because there really isn't any reason not to.

 

[Greizer85]

There's no reason to live, but there is also no reason to die. Therefore, I just tend to live by my gut, and be impulsive. Since no outcome is better than the other, I needn't worry about the consequences. So I don't really choose to live, I just don't choose to die; of which a side effect is life.

Since I live by my impulses, I just think - I enjoy/want/think this, and carry it out. I don't think nihilists are any different than other people - that is, if they are true nihilists, they don't care about nihilism, and therefore just live.

Of course, there is always the possibility that I am wrong in my nihilism, so I still generally obey laws, avoid rabid iconoclasm, etc. Why am I saying this? Because there really isn't any reason not to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J41iFYO0NQA (sorry for spam, I simply had to. Warning: makes no sense if you haven't seen the movie. In which case... Go rent it. It matters. It really does. )