[enw]

Life is absurd. Why anything exists at all is absurd. So absurd in fact I find it unconvincing that life is nothing but a large deterministic automaton without initial cause. Maybe religions are a coping mechanism for deluded people, but I hope they point to some deeper truths that we may never fully grasp.

In any case, pain and other conscious beings are as real as it gets, so no matter how brief one lifetime is, you can have a real impact by making it better for those around you.

[CamperBob2]

Exactly. Until proven otherwise, the only sane assumption is that this is all one big joke.

[hirvi74]

What you wrote reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:

"The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."

- Alan Watts

[UncleSlacky]

Here's one of mine:

The world is like a ride in an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly colored and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time and they begin to question: "Is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say: "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." ... and we kill those people. Ha ha, "Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as ONE. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defense each year, and instead spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we can explore space together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.

- Bill Hicks

[vacuity]

Well, I certainly don't want to starve and then be not alive. Not a dig at capitalism specifically, just saying that maybe there'd be a lot more of "just living" if there wasn't so much pressure to do draining stuff for a while per day. On the absurd end, sometimes I wish I could walk through a vast meadow or something and sleep beneath the sky, without being affected by hunger, tiredness, or anything else. Just seeing and walking.