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I can't remember a time where the finality of death and the pointlessness of life hasn't struck me. I can't remember a day past the age of 16 where I didn't thi

I can't remember a time where the finality of death and the pointlessness of life hasn't struck me. I can't remember a day past the age of 16 where I didn't think about the fact that everyone I know, literally every single thing I've ever experienced will die, or wither away. Even the sun. One of the most powerful entities my mind can possibly comprehend. The entire reason for everything we know. The source of nearly every tiny bit of energy we consume. It's temporary. It'll be gone one day and when it is, it'll be like it was never there. Accepting these things is one of the most terrifying, difficult, powerful and freeing things I've done. It's very powerful to be able to step back and assess my situation in the context of "will this matter in 50 years when I'm on my deathbed?" In so many difficult decisions, it's made the answer clear: "in 50 years, will I remember feeling good because I took my parents' advice and didn't move and didn't upset them? Or will I look back with regret on the opportunity I didn't take across the country." I really like this article. It's very important to remember that everything we think is so strong and foundational can go away in the blink of an eye.

joslin01 11y ago
I've also been thinking on it much of my life, but my conclusions are unlike yours. I believe what's true is true and that what can die is incapable of truth for it's in the nature of truth to always be true. As a result, I do not believe in this world's reality and reject it as just a dream. The contents of the dream do not matter; just like your dreams at night, it is in the symbolism that you must look for true meaning. Why are you going through the things you are? Are there lessons to be learned? Nor do the laws of the dream matter -- only your belief in them. Would it be possible Jesus resurrect if this world were true and death were king? Or is there something more than the body's eyes see? Anyway, I'm a follower of the course (A Course in Miracles) if anyone cares about this kinda stuff. If I go on any longer I'll just get down-voted by this pedantic community that will be like "Well actually, a big explosion happened long ago and gave you your free will you stupid lofty-minded primate"
- Omniusaspirer 11y ago
  Why do you feel the the Big Bang is incompatible with Christian beliefs? "Let there be light" is awfully ambiguous.
  - Retric 11y ago
    Sure, and the book is exactly four words long so nothing else contradicts anything anyone has ever observed. A less snarky response is context is important. PS: Sorry if this came off as harsh, but ambiguity is not really a win. It's like a defense attorney saying look my client is wearing a top hat today he must be innocent; it's just not relevant information.
    - joslin01 11y ago
      The Bible is best seen as a story rather than a factual account. Like anything in this world, its value lies in its symbolism. It's a beautiful book if read truly rather than read as a weapon for attack to say "I believe in this!"
      - Retric 11y ago
        There are many times and places where people would have killed you for saying that. This gets back to context. You interpret things in such a fashion, but many people are horrified by the morality presented in the Bible. “Suffer not a _ to live.” Really that’s just such an uplifting message. Granted, ignore the inconvenient parts is a very common approach, but if you’re doing that then just be honest about it. Ex: Timothy 2:12 is just not quoted that much anymore, but it used to be tossed around quite frequently.
        mercer 11y ago
        In the same way one can consider a deeply flawed person beautiful and valuable, surely it's possible to consider the bible a beautiful and valuable book while accepting it's inconsistencies and horrible parts? The Sermon on the Mount I find beautiful. The general account of Jesus' life too. I also rather like Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon is basically porn!
- kajecounterhack 11y ago
  "Resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downvote you." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - joslin01 11y ago
    I get downvoted consistently in /r/christianity and you would think they would at least hear me out. Don't mean to be rude or bait, but it's just true and what happens. People write me off as crazy (maybe it's true) and down vote me because it flies against all their beliefs. Oh well, whatever, didn't mean to bore you.
    - ctb_mg 11y ago
      I understand your tendency to talk about the downvotes, and I don't think you are being rude/baiting. Readers here are probably more interested in your argument/contribution to the discussion itself, rather than your opinion of how your argument will be received (discussion about being downvoted). Additionally, a broader point to take away is that downvotes and discourse work differently here than on reddit (despite what reddit's general rules claim).
zubspace 11y ago
There's a wonderful entry on wikipedia which describes the future of our solar system. The story about what's going to happen to us, our world and our sun in the far, far future is a fantastic read. Somehow it feels very comforting to me, thinking about this and the size of the universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
- methodover 11y ago
  That is an incredibly cool article. Totally wrecked my productivity this morning. I was surprised by how close the end is. The circle of life of stars -- where they form, die, and are born again from the ashes -- looks to be impossible more than 1-100 trillion years from now. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the most dangerous thing in the article. Without new stars forming, there are no new planets forming in new habitable zones, which means no new life. I wonder if something could be done by intelligent life to avert the ultimate end. Could intelligent life theoretically artificially keep new stars forming?
  - zubspace 11y ago
    This is way above my head to answer your question coherently. One way to look at it is, that the possibility of colonizing the solar system is low, maybe impossible. Without this, at some point all energy will simply evaporate into all directions if we can't reach other suns. The Great Filter is an interesting study in this regard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter Besides, I found another interesting article regarding earths future: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_the_Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_the_Earth
  - SerpentJoe 11y ago
    INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER. [0] [0] http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html
  - aswanson 11y ago
    Eternal inflation, if true, keeps universes forming all the time...so I don't see why not.
Retric 11y ago
IMO, looking at things from a 50+ year perspective is like trying to calculate a score on life. It just seems to miss the point. IMO, you’re better off doing things based on how they improve your life on a random day in the next 50 years. Consider, becoming a doctor may allow you to take some great vacations and be content that you helped people on your death bed, but those are just a few days so you need to consider the day to day life as a doctor not just the highlights.
- myth_buster 11y ago
  On a contrary note, someone famous said that it's better to set you life's goal as a very hard problem and chip away at it. Every decade you will see the progress you made and will keep you focused. The argument is that if you keep short achievable goals then there is a transition period between goals which are tough and perhaps in hindsight it may look like a sail in the wind. A very comprehensible example for me is Don Knuth. A part of his drive is his ambition to finish the series of books. Having said so, there is no panacea and I think it very well depends on how one's system is wired.
  - Retric 11y ago
    That’s kind of like saying “don’t get cancer” it’s true that avoiding cancer is a good idea, but it’s not really under your control. Another way of putting it is if you talk to lottery winners you’re getting a very biased viewpoint.
    - myth_buster 11y ago
      The premise is that the goal is sufficiently hard and the reward is the incremental advancements. If at the end, the goal is achieved, it's simply cherry on top. If the goal is not achieved due to unforeseen circumstances, it doesn't mean that the life was purposeless as you can very well see the progress made by tracking incremental achievements. As I said before, its all down to wiring. Also given the advancements in medicine and increase in life expectancies, I think the chances are a lot many people will live to 60+ so planning life for the worst case may not be optimal.

joslin01 11y ago

I've also been thinking on it much of my life, but my conclusions are unlike yours. I believe what's true is true and that what can die is incapable of truth for it's in the nature of truth to always be true. As a result, I do not believe in this world's reality and reject it as just a dream. The contents of the dream do not matter; just like your dreams at night, it is in the symbolism that you must look for true meaning. Why are you going through the things you are? Are there lessons to be learned? Nor do the laws of the dream matter -- only your belief in them. Would it be possible Jesus resurrect if this world were true and death were king? Or is there something more than the body's eyes see? Anyway, I'm a follower of the course (A Course in Miracles) if anyone cares about this kinda stuff. If I go on any longer I'll just get down-voted by this pedantic community that will be like "Well actually, a big explosion happened long ago and gave you your free will you stupid lofty-minded primate"

Omniusaspirer 11y ago
Why do you feel the the Big Bang is incompatible with Christian beliefs? "Let there be light" is awfully ambiguous.
- Retric 11y ago
  Sure, and the book is exactly four words long so nothing else contradicts anything anyone has ever observed. A less snarky response is context is important. PS: Sorry if this came off as harsh, but ambiguity is not really a win. It's like a defense attorney saying look my client is wearing a top hat today he must be innocent; it's just not relevant information.
  - joslin01 11y ago
    The Bible is best seen as a story rather than a factual account. Like anything in this world, its value lies in its symbolism. It's a beautiful book if read truly rather than read as a weapon for attack to say "I believe in this!"
    - Retric 11y ago
      There are many times and places where people would have killed you for saying that. This gets back to context. You interpret things in such a fashion, but many people are horrified by the morality presented in the Bible. “Suffer not a _ to live.” Really that’s just such an uplifting message. Granted, ignore the inconvenient parts is a very common approach, but if you’re doing that then just be honest about it. Ex: Timothy 2:12 is just not quoted that much anymore, but it used to be tossed around quite frequently.
      - mercer 11y ago
        In the same way one can consider a deeply flawed person beautiful and valuable, surely it's possible to consider the bible a beautiful and valuable book while accepting it's inconsistencies and horrible parts? The Sermon on the Mount I find beautiful. The general account of Jesus' life too. I also rather like Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon is basically porn!
kajecounterhack 11y ago
"Resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downvote you." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- joslin01 11y ago
  I get downvoted consistently in /r/christianity and you would think they would at least hear me out. Don't mean to be rude or bait, but it's just true and what happens. People write me off as crazy (maybe it's true) and down vote me because it flies against all their beliefs. Oh well, whatever, didn't mean to bore you.
  - ctb_mg 11y ago
    I understand your tendency to talk about the downvotes, and I don't think you are being rude/baiting. Readers here are probably more interested in your argument/contribution to the discussion itself, rather than your opinion of how your argument will be received (discussion about being downvoted). Additionally, a broader point to take away is that downvotes and discourse work differently here than on reddit (despite what reddit's general rules claim).

zubspace 11y ago

There's a wonderful entry on wikipedia which describes the future of our solar system. The story about what's going to happen to us, our world and our sun in the far, far future is a fantastic read. Somehow it feels very comforting to me, thinking about this and the size of the universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future

methodover 11y ago
That is an incredibly cool article. Totally wrecked my productivity this morning. I was surprised by how close the end is. The circle of life of stars -- where they form, die, and are born again from the ashes -- looks to be impossible more than 1-100 trillion years from now. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the most dangerous thing in the article. Without new stars forming, there are no new planets forming in new habitable zones, which means no new life. I wonder if something could be done by intelligent life to avert the ultimate end. Could intelligent life theoretically artificially keep new stars forming?
- zubspace 11y ago
  This is way above my head to answer your question coherently. One way to look at it is, that the possibility of colonizing the solar system is low, maybe impossible. Without this, at some point all energy will simply evaporate into all directions if we can't reach other suns. The Great Filter is an interesting study in this regard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter Besides, I found another interesting article regarding earths future: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_the_Earth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_the_Earth
- SerpentJoe 11y ago
  INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER. [0] [0] http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html
- aswanson 11y ago
  Eternal inflation, if true, keeps universes forming all the time...so I don't see why not.

Retric 11y ago

IMO, looking at things from a 50+ year perspective is like trying to calculate a score on life. It just seems to miss the point. IMO, you’re better off doing things based on how they improve your life on a random day in the next 50 years. Consider, becoming a doctor may allow you to take some great vacations and be content that you helped people on your death bed, but those are just a few days so you need to consider the day to day life as a doctor not just the highlights.

myth_buster 11y ago
On a contrary note, someone famous said that it's better to set you life's goal as a very hard problem and chip away at it. Every decade you will see the progress you made and will keep you focused. The argument is that if you keep short achievable goals then there is a transition period between goals which are tough and perhaps in hindsight it may look like a sail in the wind. A very comprehensible example for me is Don Knuth. A part of his drive is his ambition to finish the series of books. Having said so, there is no panacea and I think it very well depends on how one's system is wired.
- Retric 11y ago
  That’s kind of like saying “don’t get cancer” it’s true that avoiding cancer is a good idea, but it’s not really under your control. Another way of putting it is if you talk to lottery winners you’re getting a very biased viewpoint.
  - myth_buster 11y ago
    The premise is that the goal is sufficiently hard and the reward is the incremental advancements. If at the end, the goal is achieved, it's simply cherry on top. If the goal is not achieved due to unforeseen circumstances, it doesn't mean that the life was purposeless as you can very well see the progress made by tracking incremental achievements. As I said before, its all down to wiring. Also given the advancements in medicine and increase in life expectancies, I think the chances are a lot many people will live to 60+ so planning life for the worst case may not be optimal.