The Human Animal (Humans)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Tuesday, August 11, 2009, 13:28 (5375 days ago) @ dhw

As regards your second point, the argument that if we remove God (or man's special place) from the equation, then "everything means nothing" has always seemed depressingly lugubrious to me. Of course we know that all our experiences are transient, but that doesn't mean that the present is meaningless. I would rather be happy/pain-free/laughing at this moment than miserable/in agony/weeping. Multiply that by a lifetime, and you have a lifetime of meaning. Multiply that by the number of people whose moments you can change from tears to laughter, and you have another collection of meanings. Why does meaning have to depend on eternity, on an unknown outside force, or on a special place?
> 
> I think you and I may have found some common ground here! - You, me, and Nietzsche... see, you understood him after all! - Two paths to nihilism, both lead to destruction.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"