Reading through some of these posts, I often get this feeling that most of us here don’t seem to enjoy life, and have to find ways of coping etc.
I often feel like this - ‘Would it be better/easier if I’d never been born?’ Is this deppresion on my part? or extreme laziness? or is it normal to feel like this?
So the question is this: Is life worth living?
As a Christian I personally should be saying a resounding ‘Yes!’ in response to this question, but I don’t feel it, at the moment. Sometimes I feel like the good things in life are far more fragile and subtler, and less, than the bad things. When we watch the news only bad things seem to be happening. There doesn’t seem to be any resounding ‘goodness’ to counterbalance it. Or am I veiwing it wrongly? Are things like flowers, trees, the sun, stars, laughter, love, the opposite sex, and the essence and concept of life itself the ‘good’ things, only we don’t see it because for some reason we take it for granted?
As a Christian,
i feel it is our duty to carry these burdens for it is only that we see that we suffer, and that God has blessed us to see we must also seek that which we are graced to. That is that we can feel so much however hard it may be we are all in this togeather and in that life may be as hard to live as it is to you but our sharing is what makes it all the more worth while,
seek and you shall find, whatever it is that you seek and here it just may be that you do not suffer alone.
I think our beliefs and philosophies have some effect on the way we view our lives.
I love life. It’s all I’ve got (or all i believe I have got which is perhaps synonymous in this situation) and I am determined to make the most of it. I’m not on a 24/7 high, far from it but I try to take everything that happens in my life as an experience to learn from and appreciate. As a non-believer (at present) I sympathise a great deal with existentialist philosophy. I don’t believe in a greater plan or purpose for my life and so instead I give meaning to it myself. Perhaps I have more reason to want to enjoy my life because I do not believe in an after-life.
I know christians and people of other faiths who embrace life in the same way that I do. However, perhaps the idea of an after-life predisposes the believer to not focusing as much on this life. Certainly christianity is very clear about it’s focus on the after-life and dumbs down our earthly life as merely a transitory stage. This may (and doesn’t in all cases) make people feel a tension in “making the most” of this life in the same way that an atheist or non-afterlife-believer does.
I think one of the most important things in life is passion. We all need something that drives us whether it be faith, art, music, philosophy etc. Without a motivation, we become stagnant and this may lead to depression and lack or enthusiasm for life. In my opinion, as a christian, you have plenty of opportunity to do things in this life. I disagree with a lot of christian dogma but there is no doubt that there are a lot of good moral teachings in the new testament. During a sermon at church once I heard a priest say “Preach the gospel, and only when necessary, with words.” Basically he was saying people were focusing too much on the book (and I think this is true of many religious people) rather than living out what the book said.
Be an example unto others, fulfilling what you believe to be morally right (in your case, ones you can glean from the bible) and perhaps it will raise your spirits. Perhaps this will put things into perspective a bit more. I do not see life as a burden and I think you are missing the point of christianity if you do. Life is a gift, free will is a gift, creation is a gift from God ( if you believe it ) and I believe this archaic negative view of life is one that has been left over from medieval times. Embrace your life (from whatever beliefs you may have) and live it to the full.
Follow your passions and let them inspire you to do good in the world.
As Carl Sagan has said, we are the cosmos wondering about itself. I 100% agree with his vision. I see life as being good if you have experienced things that have left a mark upon you, one incident in time whose impression you carry with you long after the event has concluded. Isn’t that what our lives are made up of, little moments in time captured in our hearts and our heads that stay with us forever, we relive those events over and over again, and their outcome although recorded only once in actual history is played out over and over again in our minds. Remember the first time you kissed someone, or the first time you rode your bike, those feelings we carry along with us for the rest of our lives, and the joy and feelings we associate with them remain with us as well. This reminds us of where we came from, of who were once were. And if they are strong enough, they can define who we will always be. I don’t see life as having a purpose or having a reason. Maybe life exists because it can, not because it should or needs to. We are an extension of the universe, we are made of the same material that is found throughout space. We are just arranged in such a way that we are alive. Life is an opportunity, your opportunity to be a part of the universe that dreams about itself, realize where we came from, imagine where we are going, and what we hope to see along the way. Life is a journey, and as such it has a start and a finish. We all need to come to grips that someday, we will not be here, and the world will go on. What will make us live on isn’t religion or science, but we will live on in those impressions left on other people, we can be a part of those little pieces of time that left their mark on someone else, that piece that they carry with them for the rest of their life, such as who was with you when you learned to ride that bike, or who did you share that first kiss with…
First of all,
Being a Christian does not relieve you from the common pain of life. However, a proper Christian outlook (theology, worldview) gives us the potential to deal with lifes issues in a healthy fashion.
For the most part, it depends on the person. Whether your religious or not. Some people are able to focus on the ‘brighter side of life’, while others tend to be prone towards depression. There are all kinds of psychological reasons for this. People are NOT the same.
Some atheists live healthy happy lives, even though they have no philosophical justification for “meaning” in their experiences – or for human dignity; or for any worthiness regarding life itself. But, thats because they were created by God, and live in a God bathed world that works according to God’s values placed deeply within us; however suppressed by sin.
Of course, the atheists problems with the value of life, meaning, human dignity…etc… does not stop them from living as though life has meaning and worth, or that their lives and others have worth and dignitiy. They certainly live as thought they ‘ought’ to continue living, or that their is some kind of goal in their life – happiness, family, philosophy…whatever. (as if such things matter in a materialistic naturalistic world)
I dont believe they can offer the preconditions for the intelligibility of such things as human dignity, worth, value, or the dignity of life itself; the same goes for the value of suffering, pain…etc.
But, like I said before, they conitnue to live in opposition to their own worldview – Which Is evidence that their worldview is a sham – it doesn’t comport with the way we live, nor can it offer a philosophical justification for it’s dichotomy of life and belief, nor can atheism offer the preconditions upon which they can even discuss the matter.
In stead, they live in a God bathed world, and they suppress the truth about God. They want to deny God, but at the same time they cannot deny the very way they were created by God to yearn for happinness, wholeness, worth, value, dignity, satisfaction, accomplishment.
Life is good when one remains grateful for it, when one ceases to be grateful no matter how many “good things” one has one will not be content for long.
I enjoy life; often I turn things into a joke and just laugh it off. People even say that I am funny, well, I just look at people and report the facts. Sometimes it will seem as your French kissing your despair, not much you can do, just walk it off. Just don’t kill what you claim to keep alive and laugh while it’s kicking you around you know. And people should often stop complaining about life, I’m not saying that you are, but quit worrying about it, it’ll go away. The price for humanity was humanity itself. But that’s my point of view; I like to think that it’s my intelligence, unoriginality and perception of things that keeps me alive. Always looking positive, but it’s the others that bother me sometimes. Some people are alive only because it’s illegal to shoot them, right? But it is sometimes hard to live these days, its easier to get further with a thought and gun then a thought alone. And for the laziness, well, hard work pays off later, laziness pays off now. And for me, my biggest problem is women lately. I often wanted to drown my troubles, but my girlfriend will never go swimming… I think its worth it, very much so. Take a look at my signature too.
hello man.i belive that the life that we live is THE MIND. and we can control or change the life we live whenever we can finish the new subject i have been creating in my mind in my life.life can be any emotion you want it to be all your life is your emotions.we as human beings are ruled by our emotion which are rules by our wants and needs.those are the beinging to the subject i am creating called THE WEB post me and i can give you more infortmation.
disire and passion are with out a doubt essential. i beleive everyone has them, even if its in a minute form.
i also try and take EVERYTHING as a learning experiance, if some thing sad was to happen id ‘mourn’ over it for no more then a day. one must realize life must continue and be “normal” once again. so why waste days, months even years of you life mourning over some thing when you know your are just going to contimue once again. thats just time wasted with you feeling “uner the weather”.
if there is one thing i cant stand is people complaining and not taking action. the majority of the time its ones own fault as in it was thier lack of effort before hand that got them into the situation. exampls that come to mind are when people complain about being fat - your fat cos you eat too much and dont do enough exercise, or complaining about a job, you messed around in school, got crap qualifications now your stuck in a crappy dead end job, its your own fault, go do some thing about it!!!
sorry this is turning into a rant so i’l leave it here.
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i just read homunculus post in the review window - wow, that really touched me, thanks for posting !
It won’t come as a surprise to anybody that has read my posts but when I was nineteen I tried to kill myself.
I jumped off a bridge, thinking that the impact would immediately kill me. It only broke my legs. I am still unable to walk although that hasn’t stopped me from becoming an avid fan of bungee jumping, which I am today.
As to whether life is worth living. There are two types of life. Those that are designed for you and those that you design. If you feel like ending it all it is because either
You have not lived i.e. you have lived a life designed for you by external forces
or
Or you have lived your own life but that you designed it really badly so that it was shit
Life is what you make of it - in other words life is fictional and you have to be creative about it.
Life is only about experience. I will admit that I have hurt myself on occasion when really low- no serious suicide attempts, but self-asphyxiation, cutting, huge alcohol/drug binges… but ultimately life is mostly what you make of it. Of course there are factors which you cannot change, but it is up to you to make the best of the hand you’re dealt…
The exerience of life alone is enough reason to live. Even if you want to kill yourself, it would be foolish to leave it behind without knowing what it was you rejected.