Originally Posted by
Ethereal
This thread is mainly geared towards Coeus,I've noticed how much he has been advocating this philosophy and I really just wanted give my personal opinions of this system or lack thereof. I assure you this won't be turned into a Christian vs. Nihilism type of interaction, and would prefer a peaceful debate void of redundant insults.
You seem to be an intelligent guy, and unbiased so this should be a smooth debate. (unless Visible pops in.)
Okay, you got my attention
Originally Posted by
Paroxysm
So I've researched this quite a bit for the last few days, mainly focusing on Nietzsche and Rosen. I have to admit I found this philosophy extremely interesting, it was something that I related with because I was at a point in my life where I shared many of these ideas. Things are different now obviously, and I have to say that I truly feel there is great potential for danger in Nihilism.
True, many aspects of nihilism can be perceived as depressing, dangerous and they're not excluded from suicide notes either.
Originally Posted by
Ethereal
You do not have to believe in a deity to find meaning in this world, we all take different paths in life, Some live primarily for the afterlife and some for the now, but to believe that life has no meaning..I cannot accept this personally. Things are far from perfect here on Earth, we deal with a great amount of stress every single day of our lives, but I think that life itself is special, and I always felt that way even when God was far away from my mind. I do not believe that morality is something contrived, I think if this was the case animals would be extinct. It's a proven fact that many species of animals show the characteristics of possessing morals, I am not talking about natural processes like nursing, but I'm referring to the many species of mammals on this earth that live in packs/communities and go above and beyond their duty to watch out for one another.
Originally Posted by
Paroxysm
Meaning != Objective Meaning
Nihilism argues life has no Objective Meaning. One can still find meaning in things they care about.
Pretty much that ^
What I'm saying isn't that life and living is pointless and without meaning, it just doesn't have any value or meaning as is often presented in religions. You can still, as Paroxysm said, make your life meaningful and find meaning in the things you care about.
Originally Posted by
Ethereal
You get out of life what you put into it,
if you felt that life was meaningless then why did you attain those math degrees?
There must have been something that exists that you found meaning in.
What about love? Surely this has meaning. I don't have children, but one day I would like to have them and maybe you would too if you found someone that you truly loved. Imagine yourself laying eyes on your newborn child, how could this be meaningless? Luckily I was blessed with parents that really loved me, and they knew of the sacrifices that had to be made to make me a part of their family, that a great deal of selfishness had to leave their minds.
As said, life itself may be meaningless in the sense that is promoted by religion, but I still find joy and meaning in doing stuff I like (note: no maths degrees yet, I'm still working on my IB diploma and then I have a university and most likely post-grad studies
), even though I believe that there is no "predefined" set of moral values that we follow, I was brought up in a society that taught me about right and wrong. And regarding emotions, I believe Ekman's study should be sufficient proof that at least some basic emotions are biologically based with the more complex ones being yet again passed to you from the people around you.
Originally Posted by
Ethereal
All I'm saying is this..
even if you do not believe in God,
Life does have meaning, and Love is very important.
Without love, we would have dropped the global population by 98%.
To believe in nothing at all, not even morality isn't a good thing bro.
This is a very Melancholy type of Philosophy,
and if you ever got to a point of mental distress/depression,
following something like this has the potential of taking you off this earth, or worse.
And so I conclude: life may be meaningless, but you have meaning in life, emotions are biologically based and based on one's culture. I believe in morality, just not in one that is universal and inflexible, one made by God. If I were taught that trust and selflessness were weaknesses from an early age I would probably have backstabbed half of my friends by now. Furthermore, even if it may be considered depressing and dangerous, I believe that I'll survive just fine as the nihilistic you believe I am - just goes to show it might not be that bad after all
