Ethics = completely pointless

Words to the effect of "just look around you and you'll see that the world is shit" are an appeal to common sense. Those who want to believe you will be able to find evidence.

I - not "some" - would say that any claim that the world is getting "worse" is also entirely subjective. At the very least it's a misleadingly general word to use when we are usually referring to something incredibly specific (e.g. the decline in perceived, popular and publicly expressed acceptance of a certain type of spiritual belief). e.g. wars are a bad thing if we choose to measure good and bad by the number of people alive, but someone might just as easily say that the world is unsustainably over-populated, and that given how reprehensible we find the idea of deliberate government population control, a war where a lot of people just happen to die is a happy medium.

I'm not burying my hand in the sand. I just don't plan on burying my head in my hands.

Also, as a Christian, isn't it problematic for you to regard all these signs of The Last Days as a bad thing? I mean, think about it: if it's written in the Bible that these things will come to pass anyway, how can they be considered a bad thing? For them to not happen would be a defiance of God's word, surely?

 

I don't think so. I think what will happen is that those who believe in a God and think this way will have the luxury of waiting around for these "hopeless" people to fix their problems, and when they do, they will be able to say that it was their God and their faith that saved them, even though all the evidence would indicate that it was the "hopeless"' lack of faith that motivated them to try and solve the problem themselves.

That's what I think.

 

Personally, I have never noticed any difference in morality or goodness or kindness between believers and non-believers. Actually, I've probably seen more mean-spiritedness from believers.

I have never believed in God. My morality is based in the Golden Rule, which is kinda common sense.

 

Actually, there’s plenty of evidence, whether you want to believe me or not. And I’m not the one saying it, it’s all those scientists, that everyone seems to trust so much, that are saying it or do you only trust them when they’re disagreeing with the Bible?

This I would say, falls into the category of saying what is good is bad and what is bad is good.

So what are you planning to do? Paper or plastic?

Knowing that mankind is killing it’s self is not a happy thing for Christians, even though we know that the end result will be good, the unnecessary pain and suffering that mankind will put it’s self through will not be pleasant or enjoyable for anyone.

 

Dude, life as a whole is pointless. The sooner you and everyone else realise this the sooner we can all get on with our lives and get back to dick jokes and sarcasm.

 

Sorry Christians are not holding their breath waiting for the “hopeless” to fix anything. If you paid any attention at all to the world around you, you would know nothing is being fixed. You seem to be saying that, some person, some where, will some how, come up with something, some time soon and will save the day. Now who has faith in miracles?

 

Gosh you Americans are so negative. The world is beautiful and wonderful as long as you stop dwelling on everything that you would like to be better but isn't and won't be.

 

I case you were refering to me I'm not American. And I didn't mean my comment negatively. I meant it realistically.

 

It just seems like it's all the Americans whining about how the world is horrible and falling apart lately. The world is what you make of it

 

Actually I was not referring to you. Although I disagree that life is pointless. Life is inherently meaningless, however we are able to give it meaning and a point.

 

Yes there is still much about the world that is beautiful but honestly, do you really believe that being a Pollyanna will stop the barrier reefs from dying? Or stop the release of green house gases? Or stop the melting of the permafrost? Or stop the Oceans from being polluted? Or fish from being fished to extinction? Or stop foreign insect pests from devastating the forests of north America? Or the stop clear cutting of rain forests? or get rid of the permanent brown cloud over most cities? Do you really see all this and more, going away if we all just put on a happy face?

 

Who said anything about it going away? Are you arguing that these things are bad, or that they are making things worse? Because if they're just bad, then they can carry on being bad. No rational person expects the world to be and remain perfect. Constant change is as natural as being at rest.

 

Sorry, I think you're confused. No-one is denying that things like climate change is happening. Scientists have basic consensus on this. However it is a major leap from that scientific consensus to "the world is falling apart and we need to pray real hard". Very few scientists who believe in climate change and even man-made climate change believe that it can be reversed.

Then you'd be wrong.

I don't understand the question.

Mankind is not killing itself. There's 6 billion of us now, and that's following such massive depletions of the population as the Black Death. If anything, Man is far TOO successful as a species. But we'll figure something out. We always have. God may like to torment us now and then with plagues and disasters, but we've always won.

That is completely inaccurate and I think you know it.

 

No. However a happy face is favorable to dwelling on it.

 

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

I guess your comment; "I don't understand the question.", pretty much sums it up for you. Maybe one day you will. Till then, may you be happy in your not understanding.

 

Not really. Human beings take things from experience, beliefs, and religion (if they are religious) and they use those to define life for themselves. They don't give life meaning however. There is no meaning to life, you just 'are'. Even if you're religious, you live your life right, then die and go to heaven. Okay, but what was the point to being here? To live right and peacefully. Living 'right' and 'peacefully' define your life for you but they don't give it a meaning.

 

There's definitely a point to living, making the most of it while you're hear. However I think I got the semantics mixed up and didn't make the distinction between meaning and point. Life is indeed meaningless. By "life is pointless" did you mean that it was inherently meaningless?

 

You forgot to wink.

 

In that scenario, surely the lack of an inherent and knowable meaning to life is actually incredibly liberating, because it means that, rather than trying to figure out which if any of the hundreds of "meanings of life" people have asserted over the ages is the right one, you can just make up your own and keep yourself occupied. As Voltaire said, "let us work; it is the only way to render life tolerable".

 

Yay existentialism

I do believe that happiness and fulfillment are the only irrefutable absolutes in life, as they're what make existing preferable to not existing. However what constitutes happiness and fulfillment is completely subjective.