3am musings (Humans)

by dhw, Sunday, September 11, 2011, 14:26 (4621 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

Tony (Balance_Maintained): Why bother doing all the things that we do for things that do not in fact exist at all as anything other than nebulous transient ideas?-David and BBella have both offered you some very wise counsel, but I will add my own pennyworth. Philosophically, I have to accept the possibility that life and the world are nothing but a collection of "nebulous transient ideas", but the philosophical level is quite literally a dead end. It kills off all pleasure, all compassion, all love, all art, and in short all the things that we should treasure as part of the gift of life. What's more, it is ridiculously out of touch with all the commonsense realities of experience. BBella is absolutely right to insist that you are here. And I will insist that you are happier well-fed rather than starving, healthy rather than sick, laughing rather than weeping, being kissed rather than kicked, loving rather than hating. So are other people. This present moment and present experience is real to you, and tomorrow's experiences will also be real, and these experiences will go on being real to you until you die. The answer to the question "why bother?" is "because we're happier that way." And there is nothing nebulous about any of the above. Transient, yes ... and if our experiences were not transient, we would be sick of them in no time. I enjoy my daily ration of chocolate, but if you fed me on nothing else, how long do you think my enjoyment would last? It's the transience that gives our pleasures their special value. Even relationships constantly change, just as our own bodies are never the same from one day to the next. -It seems strange to me that someone who believes in God should question the value of his own and other people's happiness. Do you think your God could really have given us this life so that we would merely moan about its transience? My advice to you would be to get on doing all the things you really like, and do them while you're still able to do them. The one condition would be that they should not cause harm to others or to yourself (so watch it with those cigarettes). I don't know how old you are, but for heaven's sake don't "why bother" yourself into crusty old age, and then look back and start wishing you had bothered.