Asklemmy

A lot of things happen after you die. And if you participate actively (both positively and negatively) then some of that have your contribution and thus you leave a legacy.

There’s no point, and that’s beautiful. Go live your life the way you want to — nothing will happen after you die

Ngl this type of post on reddit used to make me depresssed as a kid and id make them too, dont want to see them, theres no point in thinking about this thats why ppl either dont or spend all their time religious

Because you dont know jack shit no one does, might as well wait til the longest possible length to figure out the unknown

I think life is about maximizing positive subjective experience. If it doesn't make you happy or allow you to live happy in other moments, don't do it. Work sucks, but it gives you money that allows you to buy things that make you happy.

Why does there have to be a point? I have no legacy, I'll never pass anything to the next generation, I have and will not ever make anything that changes the course of humankind, the world will probably not be a better place after I am gone. But I still feel happiness when I see a beautiful sunset, I laugh when my dog does something goofy and I smile when I see others expressing real joy. I don't have to have a direction to still enjoy life while I am here to enjoy it.

You've got to outlive your enemies

Why aren't you creating meaning?

Without a god, there's only one option left for anyone with agency - us.

The fuck are you doing whining about it? Time's wasting and you don't have much. Get out there and build something that matters.

people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why?

Why not? Happiness comes from what happens while we're still alive. It's ""just"" a question of finding those things.

There’s nothing after this, so make the most of what you get. Try leave your corner of the world a slightly better place then when you were born.

There are two types of thinking about it:

1. There is no point in living. We are doomed to get into the grave, and eventually be forgotten forever.
2. There is no point in living. No higher order, no higher purpose, no higher authority. We are free to live our lives, to explore, to insert any meaning whatsoever into it. We are forging our own destiny.

The point is there is no point. No higher order. We're an accident of physics.

Does there need to be a point? We eat because we're hungry, sleep because we're tired, live because we're instinctively apposed to death.

To make evil men and women powerful.

Plenty happens after you die. You're just not there for it.

there is no point. simply try to enjoy it

Friedrich Nietzsche had a lot to say about this.

Suffering is part of what gives life meaning. If you don't know how hard it can get, you don't know how good it can get as well. And there's good suffering out there. Physical exercise, challenging yourself, testing your potential to see what you can actualize are all sufficient things to do in this life. You don't know what you can do until you try to do it.

Then you have to consider things like morality and knowledge.

We humans (and specifically old, white humans) tend to subject others to a certain kind of suffering through the patriarchy. That's not right. Every human should have a chance to live a good life in contrast to suffering. And the ethical pursuit of morality doesn't have to stop with our specific species of life. Humans also subject hundreds of other biological species to a life of slavery, torture, and death. It is a noble cause to bring freedom to those species, just as it is to bring freedom to Palestinians or Ukrainians or Hong Kongers. Their potential is limited by human made constructs which can just as easily be deconstructed.

Also, the universe is infinite (as far as we can tell). There are many machinations ongoing that cause certain events to happen. Why? Why was my local village destroyed by a rock flying in from space? Why is my town in Texas experiencing freezing temperatures when that's never occurred before? How long do I have to get to higher ground until the tsunami that earthquake caused reaches the coast? It's in our interest to learn about the natural world due to the hazards it brings to our lives, of which reality could end prematurely. Humans are also curious. Why is our universe the way it is? Why can't we live in a 4D reality? Can we even grasp reality? How do I know something caused something else? How confident can we be in those judgements?

The human condition since The Enlightenment has meant we've shifted our epistemological focus away from us towards the greater world around us. If we no longer have an Almighty God which has all the answers and tells us what's good and ill, who does that now? We do!

God is dead. But morality, knowledge, and the good life of flourishing are not.

There is no inherent goal or point in life. You get to decide. You get to give your life meaning.

It can be hard. Sometimes, material conditions like poverty, working conditions or social pressure make it hard to find meaning. Sometimes, you can loose the meaning, like when you loose a loved one. A good society should help empower all people to give themselves meaning. Sadly this is not the direction many countries are taking nowadays.

But despite everything: You are ultimately empowered to create meaning for yourself. Nobody can truly take that away from you.

But you are here now, so live a good life and enjoy it while you can. Maybe try to help others do the same. This is all we get, so use it to the fullest.

Life is the point, this one

Why do you need reward in a second life for the first one to matter?

What's the point? Nothing. Congrats.

Yet (...) people still manage to catch a glimpse of happiness. Why? Fuck if we know. Chemical shenanigans on living organisms.

There is no point. This life is what you get. It's up to you to make something of it.

Existentialism is the branch of philosophy that deals with these problems, I think you would have an interest in it. I struggled with these kind of questions a lot when I was in my 20s (what is the point? Does anything even matter?). I read a lot and hitchhikers guide to the galaxy was the first book that really eased this anxiety for me. There probably is no point in living, it’s fine. Everyone decides on what they are going to do based on their circumstances in life. In the end the universe may not exist again, so what, we were all perfectly fine before it existed and who knows, maybe everything that made your conscious possible will be able to exist again in another universe, you won’t have memories of your past life, at least you shouldn’t have anyway.

I write a little and one of the first stories I wrote was about a being that created the universe from nothing because it was bored, I made a character narrate later on and his thought process was along the lines of “if you existed in this universe, who’s to say you won’t again in another? Whatever random events lead to life being self aware could happen again. The universe could expand until there is no energy left and then retract until the next big bang does it all again. It may not happen for the next trillion cycles but eventually something could happen again like it is now. Maybe it’s all happened before and we just don’t remember it.”

So, even if you don’t find a purpose. You are not alone in your journey. It’s part of being human, to have awareness of your own existence but powerless to know as to why you exist. Some people just can’t handle those kind of truths, it scares them stupid and that’s why you get things like hedonism, flip it the other way and you get nihilism. Despair can come from both.

My own personal thoughts on it are:

You are alive and you are able to do as you please. You always have a choice. If you make your life a journey of accumulating a larger number than others then so be it, I am happier without playing any number games. I want to see things and meet people and interact with them. I love petting cats and dogs, I love ducks. I enjoy the fact that my tongue evolved enough so that I can enjoy the taste of good food and tasty bourbon. I like to know that I am helping someone or something else not be scared of existing, like if my cat is worried because of a noise, I can soothe her nerves and she doesn’t have to feel fear anymore. I am still able to see the good in humanity even if I don’t have much faith in the world currently. There are problems with society as it currently stands in the west but if everyone can find it in themselves to be honest with each other and help one another out then the world will be somewhere worth living in, no matter how short that time is in the grand scheme of things. One day the sun will explode, will the universe care about some billionaire’s wealth? No. Nor should anyone now, if that’s what they choose then so be it. What really matters is not what you do for yourself but what you do for everything else.

/schizo rant

"If nothing we do matters - then all that matters is what we do."

Try playing disco elysium

The point is petting dogs and the warmth of their smile, crying and laughing at movies and books and music and art of all forms, its supporting your fellow being, its finally cracking some problem that you've been trying to solve for ages.

As others have said, if nothing we do matters then the only thing that matters is what we do. Be kind, seek joy, seek experiences, punch fascists, pet animals. Be kind.