Big time Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I recently had an epiphany (I rarely have epiphanies). I don't have to do anything. I don't have to get out of bed in the morning. I don't have to eat healthily. I don't have to work. I don't have to help others. I don't have to go to that doctor's appointment. I don't have to pay my bills or taxes. I don't have to do a thing. "Ah, but what about the consequences of not doing these things?", I hear you ask. Well let me put this to you. If the worst thing that can happen is you live the rest of your life descending into abject poverty, imprisonment, or even die "before your time" because of your refusal to do anything, you would surely take comfort in the fact that even if you did bother to do those things, you'd still eventually turn into the same space dust as those who didn't. Everything you have to show for your infinitesimally short, albeit perhaps noble (at least relative to other human beings) existence will eventually turn to dust. Another 6 billion years WILL pass. Can you picture that point in time? Who are you and where is everything around you? That time is as good as passed, as its arrival is so certain. So it really does not matter, in the absolute fullest sense of the word, if I don't do anything. Don't get me wrong, I probably will get out of bed, try to eat healthily, work, try to help others, go to that doctor's appointment and pay my bills and taxes, but my god it's a relief to know I don't have to do them. Thanks to our forebeares doing something instead of nothing we live the way we do today; the relative peace and infrastructure we enjoy today didn't magically appear from knowhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 But why is hedonism 'positive' - if nothing is of any importance, then it does not matter whether you are happy or not - 'pleasure' is just the chemistry of your body acting in a slightly different manner with no consequence. It might not be important in the grand scheme of things, but what you feel is what you feel, it doesn't matter that it's just chemistry, it's still what you feel (okay, that's a bit circular, but hopefully you get my gist). If you are not around after death, then it doesn't matter if you had a 'fun' life or not. No, but it matters at the time. If I'm going to be here for some length of time, and there's a condition I enjoy (happiness) and one I don't, then I'll make a reasonable effort to spend my time here in the enjoyable condition. If you go for a night out and get so drunk that you can't remember it the next day, then it doesn't matter whether you had a great night or a lousy one. It mattered at the time though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salsafan Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 You would prefer a lie? But then you believe in god, i suppose.... Sorry? I do not understand what you are implying here, or your thought process. Why do you have a problem with what I wrote here ? What lie ? Sorry, have I told you what I believed in ? How is that relevant to what I write here, or is that one of your assumption again too ? Many people even though they are not Christians, believe in the work that Mother Theresa did. How is that a lie? The choice of believing resides in the person that wants to. The way you imply is that, you are projecting and seeing the world from your own view only. Isn't that also presumptuous? Yes, I take it, we all do a bit of that from time to time, but if people are still quite adamant in believing in her, then why not ? It goes to show that, they find this association with this lady. So, who are you, or I to argue ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Believing something doesn't make it true though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickycheese Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 It mattered at the time though. But I don't think it does matter at the time - we think it does, because that's the way we are 'programmed'. If we have no soul or similar such thing, then we are just complex organic robots; hard wired by our DNA and programmed by our experiences of life. Imagine a robot has been programmed to think that it's good to look at a red ball, but bad to look at a blue ball. Ask it if it matters whether it's looking at a red or blue ball and it would say it does... but it doesn't actually, it's just programmed to 'think' that way... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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