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Less than 120 years ago you did not exist. Are you bothered by that?
Personally, I do believe there is something else after this life. I have faith. I believe. I am at peace and I sleep very well at night.
This is a very interesting comment. Whats weird is that when I think about it in that context; it occurs to me that I FEEL as though I DID exist. Just not "here".
Not just dead in 120 years, but no one will really care that you existed. Your name will be on some tombstone and that will be it.
Not neccessarily true.
I became interested in Geneology earlier this year in order to solve a "medical mystery" of sorts.
Basically; something was amiss; either I wasn't who I had been told I was or somebody else wasn't who they said they were!
I was left looking for a woman who had given birth to several children but with only one child who had lived past infancy.
It HAD to be that exact scenario; anything else would have been a dead end.
Not only that; if I DID find her ... She ALSO had to be the ONLY surviving AND firstborn child of HER parents (otherwise, medically/genetically I was not who I thought I was).
Initially I thought the odds of me finding this person were slim to none. But I found her SIX freaking generations back I found her.
The people I "met" along the way were so interesting to me. Each one I "met" I wondered about ...
"...Did you ever think that in the year 2016; over 200 years after you died & were buried that someone would be searching for you as hard as I have? That I was looking for your sweet babies that you had to bury somewhere out there on the plains of Iowa & Nebraska (for whom there are no tombstones with names)? That I know their names & that as a mother who has had to bury a child herself that I know how much you hoped that they would not be forgotten?"
I can't comprehend that a tombstone will be the only lasting legacy of my life (It's ... a rock... it WILL literally return to dust).
Even the lives of those not genetically related to me; the schoolteachers, the merchant, the children who died of diptheria ... they lived & they were "remembered" (back then; if you had a birthday party or your Aunt came to town for a visit; it made the papers!).
Maybe I'm just weird but in 120 years there will be some "as weird as me" around & we will have mattered too.
Then it is a sunk cost. You are not being picked on. None of us gets out of this alive.
I have on my worst days not appreciated my parents deciding on my behalf to thrust me into this world, but I am nothing if not curious, and practical at the same time. Curiosity makes me want to have more experiences to satisfy my curiosity. Pragmatism tells me that I can stop having new experiences anytime it should ever come to that.
Sure, this life has little to commend itself to us, if you want predictability, stability, safety, certainty, guaranteed acceptance, and permanence for the whole of it. But if you accept it on its own terms, and dont demand from life things that it isn't able to give, it still manages to kick ass on a regular basis.
I can't justify deciding on someone else's behalf that life is worth living or that life is a gift. To me, giving life to someone is probably the most selfish thing a person can do. I would be playing God (no offense atheists, just a word), and would be choosing to saddle my unborn child with the burdens of existence, and that, to me, is the epitome of selfishness (selfishness I know is a human construct and has no inherent meaning, but for our discussion here I will use it). To exist, is to suffer. You always inflict pain and suffering when bringing a child into the world. Life is a struggle. The moment a child is born that child has very real needs that must be met or else that child will die. And those needs follow that child into adulthood and all the way to the end of life. And it's because of those needs that life is a giant struggle (not the only reason, but a main reason).
And complicating matters is the fact that beyond satisfying a child's basic needs of living, no parent can guarantee that his/her child will grow up to be a healthy, happy, functional, mentally sound individual. To bring a child into the world requires a parent to make a huge gamble, but the currency being wagered is not money or assets but an individual life. Parents play the odds and gamble with their child's life that their child will avoid any major pitfalls (accidents, illnesses, harm) and will instead grow into a healthy, happy, well-adjusted person who loves living and loves life. But of course that doesn't always happen. Sometimes Murphy's Law comes into play. Bad luck. Fate. But those are external concerns that can wreak havoc. Those say nothing, however, about the injury that is caused just by existence itself. The burden of existence that was handed to someone else as if it were a key to a big giant fun house.
But the realities of existence are many. And I think in order to feel good about procreating people have to intentionally focus on the good and positive about life and living while simultaneously ignoring many of the harsh and sometimes brutal realities that go along with life and living.
Last edited by AnthonyJ34; 09-17-2016 at 02:20 PM..
Reason: Spacing
Oh please. If death wasn't such a big deal, people wouldn't plead for their lives when it was threatened. Easy to sit here now and say, "whatevs, I don't care, it's no big deal" but when someone threatens your life, you'll be begging and crying for them not to take it.
Dying sucks. I agree with that part. The process of getting there is likely to be difficult, but death itself is a state of rest that I would think everyone would look forward to. The process, dying, is something you can't avoid, anyway, so there's no reason to resent the reward it brings.
Dying sucks. I agree with that part. The process of getting there is likely to be difficult, but death itself is a state of rest that I would think everyone would look forward to. The process, dying, is something you can't avoid, anyway, so there's no reason to resent the reward it brings.
If death is a reward, then that must mean that living is a punishment. So why reproduce and have kids only to consign them to the chains of living? Not asking you specifically; mainly asking those who believe death to be a reward but who also have or plan to have kids.
If death is a reward, then that must mean that living is a punishment.
That does not follow at all. For example I see sleep and rest at the end of the day as a reward. Not because my day was awful.... it was full, fulfilling, and stimulating and exciting. But I still welcome the end of it and a chance to rest.
So no it does not follow that people wanting the ultimate rest (death) at the end of the ultimate day (life) are saying that viewing one as a reward means they viewed the other as a punishment.
One can be rewarded for the good as well as the bad. I am not sure what reward structure you were reared under where you only got rewarded for things you hated doing.
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