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Most people play sport to enjoy the game, not to become champions at it. What about having offspring gives life purpose? Do you just beget children to... help
by jlokier 4y ago
Most people play sport to enjoy the game, not to become champions at it.
What about having offspring gives life purpose?
Do you just beget children to... help them grow up to beget more children so they can... help their children to beget more children so...
That doesn't sound (or vibe) purposeful to me. That description is obviously missing something essential.
If life has a purpose (or feeling/vibe of one) there must be something else than merely having offspring to propagate the species for its own sake.
Whatever that something else is, it seems obvious to me that it is not conditional on your own offspring specifically.
For example if you love children in person, there are a lot of orphans who would like soneone to raise them. And plenty of teaching and medicine to do.
If you love children more generally, there's plenty of science, entertainment, ending hunger, looking after the planet etc which lots of children really appreciate. They find that stuff purposeful, and that feels to me like that counts for a lot.
You do you, but you see where I'm coming from.
- dustedcodes 4y agoLife is very basic at its core. The purpose of all life is survival. Offspring is paramount for survival.
- fsflover 4y agoWhen there are too many people on Earth to support a sustainable live for humanity, not having kids is the paramount for survival. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33879397 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33879397
- frumper 4y agoIt's my job to teach my kids well enough to get them into a position to survive. The Earth is huge.
- fsflover 4y agoI was talking about the survival of humanity.
- frumper 4y agoI know, I am talking about the portion of humanity I can help survive.
- fsflover 4y agoBy adding another portion, you decrease the chances for the whole.
- frumper 4y agoI'm sorry you feel that way. If everyone stops having kids the chances for the whole is 0%.
- fsflover 4y agoIt won't happen anytime soon, so you don't have to worry. I am not arguing that everyone should stop having kids. This comment will not be read by everyone. Also, it's not just my feeling, it's proven by research: https://www.kimnicholas.com/uploads/2/5/7/6/25766487/fig1full.jpg https://www.kimnicholas.com/uploads/2/5/7/6/25766487/fig1ful....
- frumper 4y agoI wasn't worried. Research assumes a lot of things, like how the future will go. Humanity tends to do things to affect the course of the future. It may be that we use less, run out of stuff, or find alternatives. We have wars, famines, acts of god, or even plain old cultural shifts. Not having kids because you're worried about something like climate change that won't happen anytime soon feels kind of silly. The humans in the future will either adapt and survive, or not. Nothing I do will change the fact that life will change and they'll need to adapt in various ways.
- D13Fd 4y ago> What about having offspring gives life purpose? Each child is basically a project that you spend lots of time working on and care about deeply.