What If It Was All For No Reason?

What if it all was for no reason?
Would that make each fleeting experience any less valuable?
Do the things we experience through our 5 senses not have an intrinsic value in and of themselves?
Why do we feel the need to seek confirmation in the eyes, hearts and mindsof others as to what is ok, what is good, what is bad?
Why do we feel the need to seek confirmation of our beliefs through other people, through different philosophies, ideologies, religions and Big Books?

 

What do you mean "what if " I believe we are no less random than a leaf blowing down the street !!
you can live and love without needing any kind of faith in (whatever ?) But if people need a faith
Then live and let live I say Thats just me though and I could be right or wrong

 

It's what we make of our five senses that determine their value.

 

Reasons come and go depending on what you're trying to do.

What we experience through the senses is filtered and sorted by the brain. Being rational creatures, we have no choice but to have reasons for just about everything we do.

There were reasons for stuff I did 20 years ago, reasons which have faded away with the passage of time. But that doesn't devalue anything or make it pointless.

 

Just wait till your first kid heads off to college. I never felt so useless in my life. I had a feeling that I was finished, I had accomplished my primary purpose, time to die off and let the next generation take over. I spent 2 weeks reviewing every moment that I probably should have been there for my kid. While totally ignoring the fact I was indeed there for all of my children most of the time. When I wasn't, it was usually because I was working in some hellish, hot country. Still, at that moment all I could think of was all the things I didn't finish, not the ones I did.

Maybe I'm not going to change the world. I have to live with that. But what if someone in my line does? Would that not give value to my life? And is there at least some possibility I might influence someone unrelated to me for the same result? I'd think so. Sure, life is not specifically about what one can accomplish by simply being a random factor. Reason though is harder to define. Which maybe gives rise to religion. I keep wondering who the first person was to think of being a preacher.

What made it happen? Was he a traveler who simply assembled tales from his travels? When did he figure out how to score gold with this tale?

 

I've been through that too. We only have one child left at home and she is growing up fast. But once our sons were out of the house, I had this period of "What do I do now?" and second guessed a lot of things I wish I had done better. But then I got to the point of thinking...I did the best job I could have most of the time, nobody is perfect and I'm still not done influencing them...even if they are grown. Maybe I'll never do anything great but maybe I was never meant to. Maybe the greatest thing I can contribute is raising great, caring people who will contribute to others lives. Maybe they will do something great and I was only meant to be a catalyst. As to the question of "What do I do now?" Whatever the hell I want. As much as I miss my sons not being with me every day....I sure do like the freedom I've gained.

 

"We" feel? I feel no such thing.

 

what does 'for a reason' have to do with it? (reasonING, is something we do, to avoid causing more harm then good)

the idea that everything has to have a reason to exist in order to do so, is without sense or basis.

together we can make what our world gives back for each alone to experience, better or worse or the same.
the universe won't stop us, nor make us. and if there's a god, its not at war with anything either.

there doesn't have to be this idea of stress, coming from anything else then how we treat each other.

only alone do we feel. only together, along with everything else, do we make what is there for each of us TO feel.

there is no collective experience. there is only collectively creating, what we then each individually and each in our own way, feel.

there is one other thing though, and that gets back to avoiding causing harm, and that is to consider, in how we together make our world,
how we make it for each other to individually experience.

 

define "it."

 

Yea the experience is the reason.

And I agree with wiz, that those of us that have, or will eventually have, kids...that raising others to go out and create love, peace and change, well, that is the purpose.

The experience and bettering it, in big and small ways along the way is the purpose. Anything deeper on WHY (are we doing this) just doesn't matter when it all comes down to it.

 

Might want to checkout some existentialist philosophy, these are pretty much the exact types of issues the existentialists address.

 

This may be way out of place in this thread or it may fit right now.

But I remember rolling on some decent shit at foam parties and stuff and achieving... well, bliss. Heaven on earth. And beyond. And just thinking, BOTTLE THIS!! Because the moment was just pure... excellence. The thing is, what if the point IS that.. the stolen moments when life is right. And the contrast. When it hurts but we learn. We live. We still feel.

Example, you do a bunch of heroin. You get dopesick. Shit, music sounds AMAZING. You're sick in any way.... your bed feels NIIICE. Notice the small things.
That's all we have is moments...some are great, some.. you gotta notice.

Just... walk on a street in June...a residential, quiet street with blooming flowers and smell after a rain. Look at the ocean.

Heaven is on earth.

 

A more direct answer to the question op as you question why we even need to refer to philosophy, books, etc. may be that we can better understand the human condition as well as our individual circumstances.

 

Okay, to that question.. I feel like sometimes we know things and we forget. And we need propped up. You mentioned the big books. People already know how to do all that. But sometimes.. it's hard. These things, and religions too can help you find the path and get back on. But the path is always there. People just don't always see it because life is sometimes hard and often life hurts.

And...what do all those things have in common...except maybe reading philosophy texts alone... is community, having others around you to validate and prop you up. People thrive on that. Sometimes, some people just need that. But it can be less authentic at times.

It's always there but those are some reasons.

 

I will come back on this thread and tell you that this exact question used to scare the crap out of me.

Just, that there is nothing. No rhyme, no reason..nothing... but really it's comforting now. It used to feel so empty when you think about space and about NOTHING but really, is nothing not everything?

 

Existance, life itself, all our struggles, our work to overcome them and all the great things we accomplish in our lives...

It sometimes makes me very sad to think of all that I and the people I know go through then to drive past a graveyard realizing thats where we will all be in 100 years and there could be nothing more and any meaningfulness could all have been an illusion of our minds to comfort us while were here.

But then I remind myself that without death there is no life and our very decaying bodies literally lay the ground on which new life grows.

I remind myself that even if there is no ultimate purpose, rhyme or reason, each moment, each experience has value in and of itself and when we stop trying to figure it all out and BE in THIS PRESENT MOMENT we are making the most of what we have, of all we might ever have. All we have is this present moment, this breath.

I see people all around me clingling to religions and other cults and I realize my own illusions. I realize that all I can know for certain is I know nothing for certain, therefore all I can do is experience each moment with as much presence as possible, experience as much of what life has to offer in my short time here and in some way shape or form make a positive impact that lives on beyond me.

 

oh, well it kind of is for no reason. i mean, existence and life itself are just there for the reason that conditions happened to allow it. our struggles and accomplishments do have a reason, but those reasons vary between each struggle and accomplishment, so it's not like there's really a single greater reason for all of them.

 

the only reason to imagine the universe needs a reason, is to gratify our own ego.