What should we strive for in our lives?

What is meant to make a success of one's life? Earning loads of money, perhaps? Or becoming some famous figure? If the latter, surely not someone like David Beckham? But what about an influential scientist like Newton or Darwin?

Is it the transient happiness of having loads of money, or the feeling of satisfaction obtained from fame, that should be the goal of life? But what happens if we achieve either of these? What happens if one becomes incredibly rich? Or incredibly famous? Will that bring some sort of ultimate satisfaction, ultimate fulfilment? I doubt it. We need to bear in mind that at the end of our lives we are all equal; we either just cease to exist, or enter some strange new reality (or perhaps not so strange, I don't know). So what is the ultimate point of becoming rich or famous?

I'm unconvinced that striving to make as much money as possible, or striving to obtain as much admiration from others as possible, is what we ought to aim towards.

I think we should try to be as honest, open, and authentic as possible. Express our feelings to others, especially anyone special in our lives. Forget putting on a mask to get on with others. If they think you're weird, so what?? Be yourself, don't pretend to be what you're not.

What is love?

What is love? I kind of regard it as being something like a total and complete appreciation of another person's essence, a total empathetic identification with their being. Often people say love is all in the mind, or it is merely chemicals. But what would it mean to say that such feelings are in one's mind? How would this differ if they were not in one's mind? Is mere liking of a person also in one's mind? Hating a person? Admiring a person?

I would guess they mean that love is caused by processes occurring in the brain. But how do we know the causal relationship always runs from the brain to the mind? Perhaps feelings of love precipitate processes in the brain?

If I am Reincarnated

The evidence from young children who seem to remember a previous life, and even the period between lives, suggests that at least some people appear to have some degree of control as to where, and to which parents, they will be born to in the next life.

I think I'll decide to be born to parents who are both rich and loving. I think I'd probably prefer to be born male, in the west, in idyllic countryside. And would be great to be good-looking, intelligent, enigmatic, mysterious, outgoing, and strangely alluring.

Intellectual Fashion

If our ideas are dictated by prevailing intellectual fashion, and what's acceptable in the academic community, then our ideas will not be revolutionary.

For our ideas to be truly great, we have to be independent thinkers and forsake common "wisdom".

The problem though is that if one advances ideas against the prevailing consensus, then one's "absurd" idea will be vehemently attacked, mercilessly ridiculed and, should one be a scientist or philosopher etc, one's career will consequently be severely negatively impacted.

Of course, sometimes "absurd" ideas will really be absurd. And indeed most of the time they will be. However, the blanket ridiculing of new "absurd" ideas cannot be desirable, since it will serve to stifle human progress in understanding the world.

Nothing to do

I'm astonished to hear that many people -- if not indeed most people -- would find it profoundly boring not being in a full-time job as an employee. That they would have nothing to do all day. Indeed, many people claim that when they were unemployed they were sleeping 12 hours a day and were just depressed.

I have to say, I find this utterly bizarre. So going for walks in the countryside; visiting museums; learning and becoming proficient in some subject and perhaps even becoming an expert; discussions on a variety of subjects on the Internet and elsewhere; reading novels; playing games; exercising; just simply thinking about reality and our place in it and what it all means; laying in a field in the warm bright sunshine in the arms of the one you love. And so on and so on and so on... None of this has any appeal? Peoples' only aim in life is to sell their labour to an employer? Nothing else in life is worth doing? Wow...

Our lives and the Universe are bizarre!

How often do most people sit back and reflect on how utterly bizarre their situation is?? The fact they find ourselves existing... yet they do not know why they are here, what the world is, why anything exists at all, why the world is as it is, what it's all for, what will eventually happen to them when they die.

OK, I understand many people think their existence is just pure blind happenstance, that the Universe just came into being by pure blind happenstance, that we're just here for the ride. But how do they know? And irrespective of whether this is true, this does nothing to lessen the bizarre situation we find ourselves in. Not having a clue whether or not there's a purpose to their lives, and if it is, what that purpose is.

There are 2 possibilities

There's 2 possibilities:

a) This is the only life there is. When we die, we simply cease to exist. Our lives and the Universe are, in a sense, ultimately absurd. In that case, nothing we do ultimately matters. How much money we accumulate, and our social status are transitory and ultimately unfulfilling, and in the end are to no avail since we all end up in the same boat -- namely eternal non-existence. I suggest instead we just live our lives, have a laugh, have a few drinks, be kind to others, but most importantly of all not to take life too seriously.

b) Or there is a "life after death", and perhaps an ultimate purpose to our existence and to all things. But if we continue to exist after death, why do we think what we achieve in this life is so terribly important? If there is some ultimate purpose to life, we don't know what it is, but presumably it will have nothing to do with how much money we accumulate and our social status. I suggest instead we just live our lives, have a laugh, have a few drinks, be kind to others, but most importantly of all not to take life too seriously.

If everyone in the world disappeared apart from me.

I'm wondering what I would do if I woke up one morning, and apparently every single other person in the world had simply vanished. Presumably that first morning I'd still have electricity, but perhaps no internet. So I would be wondering why I'm not getting the Internet. I'd ring up Vodafone (my ISP) and not get any answer. After ringing around a few places with no responses, it'll suddenly impinge upon me that I cannot hear any traffic. I go outside, and I cannot see or hear anyone at all! I walk into the town centre and the place is wholly deserted, and all the shops are closed! So what would I do then?

I note that cars are on the road and crashed into each other and buildings. So it's as if everyone just simply suddenly vanished -- except me. But I also note that birds are still alive and insects. So the first thing I would do is try to find someone else, start shouting etc. At some point, I hear a dog barking. It's behind someone's door in someone's house. Do I break in at this point to rescue it? I think maybe.

As the day wears on, and maybe electricity gets cut off?? (no idea how long I would have electricity), I'm going to have to think about rescuing as many animals as possible, as they'll all soon die of dehydration. Dogs and cats from peoples' homes, pet shops and zoos.

Over the long term, I'd keep a lot of the dogs and cats for pets, they'd make great company. And move to a huge mansion in lovely countryside overlooking the sea. Trouble is I have no practical skills so would have no idea how to obtain electricity. Need electricity for PC too . .hmm . . maybe I could find some mansion that runs off solar power? Thankfully, my watch uses solar power. I can just raid the supermarkets for tins of food. Grow fruit and stuff too. Tins of dog and cat food also from the supermarkets for all my pets.

Of course, I could never know I was the only person left alive in the world. Perhaps 1 in 10 million, or 1 in 100 million, survived. That would give me a goal in life, to locate any other survivors. And when I do, she would look at me in stunned disbelief, then run toward me crying and sobbing into my arms, saying she thought she was the only one. Then we could procreate and restart the human race.😉

But, if I were really the only one, and I somehow managed to obtain electricity, then I think my life might be bearable. Sitting outside drinking ice-cold bottles of becks with a couple of dogs at my feet, watching the sea crash against the cliffs, and if at night, looking at the stars in the night sky brilliant in their intensity since there wouldn't be any light pollution.

Edited to add. Now this looks as if it could be an ideal place to live in.

Depression, Suicide, and the Modern World

According to this article, Greenland is the country with the world's highest suicide rate. From 1900-1930, Greenland had a suicide rate of 0.3 per 100,000. Now it's a staggering 100 in 100,000 and is the highest in the world! Why such a huge increase? In the first half of the 20th Century they lived much as they had for the past 4000 years-- namely hunting and fishing and living in small villages. So perhaps something to do with the change in the way they live?

I suspect people are happier in small closely knit communities with a shared history and identity, where everyone knows each other, and where they do traditional work rather than doing repetitious work for some faceless company in the modern world. I would speculate the modern world, and the style of living it inaugurated, has some role to play in why so many people are depressed and commit suicide.

That which is inimical to our yearning souls

I don't really like the idea of a job where you're working for someone else from 9 to 5, and you don't find the work interesting at all but find it dull and repetitious. The type of work where you occasionally look at your watch and hope 5pm soon comes round. And the weekend! Wishing our lives away. Then feeling gloomy on a Sunday evening as it's soon going to be the start of another week.

The thing is, we live finite lives. Maybe there's a "life after death", and I think there is. But maybe I'm wrong and there isn't. But while we're healthy, is it really a good idea to spend most of our daylight hours hoping that the evening and weekend will soon roll round?

There's making friends and the general camaraderie with work colleagues. And there's the issue that we all need to have money! But the point I'd like to make is that there seems to be something fundamentally wrong and unsatisfactory about this whole arrangement. Something fundamentally wrong about the way modern society works. Unsatisfactory and unfulfilling, and ultimately dispiriting to our yearning souls.

Reading Books

It's strange when people say something like they don't like reading books. No books whatsoever?? If we consider novels, I probably don't like most novels. But a minority of novels I really like. The situation is exactly comparable to someone saying they don't like music. Most music I don't like at all, but some of it is really good! It's just a question of finding what we like.

At infants

I remember when I was in the infants (about 5 or 6 years old) the teacher asking me to work out something or other (can't remember what). I kept saying I can't. I can't do it! She said there's no such word as can't! So I replied, I cannot do it. The look of exasperation on her face was a picture! But I didn't understand why at the time, and for some time afterwards I never used the word "can't" but said "cannot" instead.

When I move again

Next time I move home, which might be soon, I fancy some quaint old dwelling with lots of character set in an idyllic picturesque countryside setting with gentle rolling hills. What I emphatically do not want is a terraced house set in a fragmented urban dystopian hell with plenty of chavs to keep me company!

In the far future

I wonder what it will be like in the year 802,701? Or in the 111,394th Century approximately 11 million years from now? Will human beings be long gone? Will there still be complex life on Earth? Or will the Earth be wholly devoid of life due to some catastrophic event? Such an event will surely be very unlikely. Perhaps gigantic creatures like dinosaurs will exist then. I'll probably never know.

Modern Life

I read the following article:

Depression Is a Disease of Civilization: Hunter-Gatherers Hold the Key to the Cure

Modern life can be a perpetual, debilitating state of anxiety. Hunter-gatherers and the "stress" they deal with is of a different nature to the stress that we often feel. Any "stress" hunter-gathers felt would presumably have been short-lived. Escaping from a predator might have short term stress, but then there's the thrill of escaping from such a predator, relying upon others to save your life, and you saving other peoples' lives in your turn. It's living life in the raw and all the thrill that entails.

What I'm really interested in

I am interested in what the world is, what I am, what we all are. I'm interested in why I'm here. Did I have a choice in being here? Am I supposed to be doing something now I am here? If so, then what? Is it possible I might never have existed? Does the Universe have a purpose? Do we have some ultimate purpose? Do all things have some ultimate purpose? Or are our lives and the Universe ultimately absurd? Is this the only reality? Or are there many realities or dimensions, whether afterlife realms, parallel Universes, or even magical lands like Narnia? I want to know what all things mean. These are the questions I'm interested in.

Journey on the train of life.

We're all on this train. We do not know where our fellow passengers come from, not even where we ourselves come from. Perhaps people just materialise out of nothingness, or perhaps people just don't remember. And we do not know where people will go when they finally get off the train. But we know we will finally get off at some point. To some strange destination, or to oblivion -- we do not know. Meanwhile, the train and its inhabitants are our world -- the only world we know. Let's read, chat with our fellow passengers, play games. Something to do before we alight from the train to our new strange destination, or to oblivion.

Soul relocating to my younger self

I'm just wondering what it would be like if my soul travelled back in time and inhabited my 13 year old body? I'm guessing I'd lose my current intelligence, but yet retain my current memories as an adult. But if I do keep my memories, it seems I might understand more on, say, something like philosophical issues, than I originally did when I was 13. But I wouldn't understand as much as I do now.

Technology and time travelling

Imagine if we could go back in time, say to 1810, and explaining to someone in that year what 2014 will be like with the Internet, mobile phones (cell phones) etc. Even if they comprehended what you meant they'd think you were completely barmy.

[Y]oung children, regardless of their cultural background, are inclined to believe that they have an immortal soul – that their essence or personhood existed somewhere prior to their birth, and will always continue to exist.

Will Religion ever Disappear 

Yes, I remember how utterly shocked I was when at a very young age I asked my dad what happens when we die, and he said we cease to exist. Interestingly, atheists frequently claim we are born atheists, and we are indoctrinated into believing otherwise. But it seems that we are born with the innate supposition that there's an ultimate purpose to our lives, the Universe and all things. Such an innate supposition seems very far removed from the family of beliefs associated with modern western atheism.

The existential despair engendered by the modern world

I read the following article:

Science and Mysticism

Both the Copernican Revolution and Darwin's theory of evolution have been utterly devastating in transforming the image we had of ourselves as spiritual beings living in a world full of magic and ultimate purpose. The lack of a story of what we are, where we come from, why we're here, has wrought unparalleled damage to our collective psyches.

In a million years time

I was just thinking. Suppose we could go into the future exactly 1 million years from now. What would we see?

I would speculate that our technological civilisation will have disappeared and most probably that we will have become extinct and the Earth will have returned close to a pristine condition.

Will other life forms have evolved with limbs and something like opposable thumbs so they can manipulate their environment? Probably not, but maybe. But even if they did arise I doubt they would build a technological civilisation like ours.

The last human being ever

I wonder who will be the very last human to ever live, what his/her life will be like, what his/her thoughts will be, and when this will occur.