Indeed, taking one idea at a time seriously leads to crazy conclusions. You have to take all the ideas you believe seriously. If you took seriously the one ide

Indeed, taking one idea at a time seriously leads to crazy conclusions. You have to take all the ideas you believe seriously. If you took seriously the one idea that "the purpose of human life is to produce more humans" [SolaceQuantum below], you should be trying to have as many children as possible. For a male with upper-middle class resources, 1000 children should be achievable. (You don't have to raise them, just "produce" them.) A billionaire with strong organizational skills might manage 10^6 children. This conflicts with the (unstated) idea that children should be raised well, in a nurturing environment with good parenting. Also, that overpopulation is bad. And that other people have an equal right to children. And ... So I don't think you need epistemic helplessness. You just need a broad perspective.