[adwn]

> Are we better off having been born? Can't say.

If you're not sure whether there's a point in being alive, then why do you think there's a point in not "mentally/emotionally enslaving ourselves", as you wrote in your original post? If you have no terminal values [1], there is no point in anything, and everything is meaningless.

I suspect that you do value being alive [2], and your father does value his wife not having died in childbirth. But you take being alive for granted, because actually facing death (yours or that of your children) is a rare occurence, and the probability that you or your loved ones die before the age of 60 is very low. Again, mostly thanks to technological progress.

[1] I.e., a value that is not in service of another value – similar to an axiom in mathematics.

[2] If you really don't value being alive, you might suffer from depression. In this case, please seek professional help.

[ta1234567890]

You are making way too many assumptions about me and life in general. It's ok for people to have different points of views.

About not being able to say if I'm better off having been born, I don't know/remember what it was like before being born or being dead, it might be amazing, I don't know, so I can't compare. Doesn't mean I want to be dead right now. I also never said there's no point in being alive.

Why does life need any "terminal values" at all to be meaningful? Do you think there needs to be an absolute truth to it? What if someone disagrees?

[adwn]

> Why does life need any "terminal values" at all to be meaningful?

Life doesn't have or need terminal values, people have terminal values. Without terminal values, you cannpt have any values at all, and without values [1] nothing can be meaningful.

> Do you think there needs to be an absolute truth to it?

No, terminal values depend on the individual, and don't even have to be constant over time.

[1] "Values" in the sense of "goals" or "things important to you", not in the sense of "moral values".