Do you believe that our soul,emotions,dreams and imagination are just chemicals and hormones in the brain,caused by evolution?Are all our actions and virtues like bravery,honor just evolutionary traits?According to neuroscience,we are just brains and there is nothing after death.Our spirit doesn't live on and this life doesn't have any meaning.This sucks.This reality sucks,it is cruel,colorless and vain.I used to dream and think that all of this has a meaning and that we are something more than crude matter and my imagination and hopes roamed free.But now my world became bleak and hollow.I have seen close relatives die,my pets die in front of me and I could see their flame that made them who they are,leaving them an empty worthless body.What are your thoughts b/.What do you believe in?If this is all a lie why do we have conscience anyway.I am not a christian,and I do not believe in a magical god that sends us to heaven or hell all that religious crap,but I believed in an afterlife where the spirit that we build in this lifetime exists somehow.I used to watch movies like lotr and star wars and relate to characters like yoda and gandalf.Now I just can't.I am dead inside and everything seems pointless.
Do you believe that our soul,emotions,dreams and imagination are just chemicals and hormones in the brain...
i certainly hope that our souls survive after death. i think the fear of death and consciousness ending is probably the reason why religions were created.
unfortunately, the most logical conclusion is that when our brains stop functioning, there is nothing and we go back to the void.
Yes, I do believe that all of those "dreams of there being more" such as relgion and what not are just coping mechanisms for those with weaker stomachs.
Just because existance is all there is does not mean that things like honor are just evolutionary imperatives. That things like art are also just coping mechanisms to help people get through the day without suicide. Look up existentialism, it is the belief that meaning comes from existance and the things we do, as something sprouting up organically rather than an outside force that we adhere to and our guided by.
If I were you OP, I would look up Carl Sagan. Look up some of his lectures or short speeches, his ideas about the universe, and watch the original (and new) Cosmos if your attention span lets you. He also has some great books. The man changed my life, I used to be extremely nihilistic after discovering what I believe to be the truths about reality.
The universe is under no obligation to make you happy or conform to your wishes. When you die that's it. Show's over.
However if there is a void what is the purpose of life anyway.And this life ultimately sucks so much.Our imagination,movies and music are much better anyway that this.
Agreed.
What we do in life echoes in eternity. At least for some.
Make it happen OP, make this life count.
However neuroscience says that all things like honor,pride,love are just chemicals and evolutionary traits that just such you to pass on your genes.For example if a man is brave and is willing to give his life away for the people he loves,that means he will be a better protector of his family in a survival situation.That means everything we feel is just an illusion,we are just self conscious of that.That our identity and character are all fake.
Yes,but look how many valiant men and women existed through history.How many of them do we remember.And does this change anything?If we do not have souls, and our souls are nothing more than evolutionary illusions,the concept of making anything count is just a dream.
If anything, the idea that life is not somehow supernatural with the idea of souls and cosmic beings is comforting.
Think about it, your consciousness is an amalgam of natural procecees that differ from every other life form in only time and circumstance. To believe in ourselves as being superior or manufactured from the supernatural only alienates us from what truly exists.
Life in its simplest forms is like small robots, action and purpose are nothing more than mechanations, the result of push and pull no more conscious than magnets.
If life is not super natural and consciousness isn't the result of immortal omnipotence, this means death is equally as meaningless. This point of view is not nihilistic, but optimistic and thoughtful. It means nothing separates us from what existence means except our own perception getting in the way, ego that seeks purpose where there is nothing to be found but peace.
And why are we so wired to think that our spirit lives on?No other animal seems to have any realization that it will ultimately die and we are only the ones to have so wired in the idea of an afterlife.It feels natural and at home.For example,when you take a walk by the beach with another person it feels at home,when you look into a campfire into the flames and look at the night sky it feels at home.When you listen to good music it feels good.Why did ancient cultures believe that our souls exist.It feels natural to believe that.It is like we know we will go somewhere.Like an instinct.
>Do you believe that our soul,emotions,dreams and imagination are just chemicals and hormones in the brain,caused by evolution?
Yes everything you ever experience is chemical reaction in your brain, that doesn't make anything pleasurable you experience any less real. It doesn't mean love isn't love, food isn't delicious, etc. It's real to you.
>According to neuroscience,we are just brains and there is nothing after death.Our spirit doesn't live on and this life doesn't have any meaning.
No one can prove we don't live on after death, but no one can prove we do either. Also we are more than just our physical brains. We have an indefinable "soul" or "spirit", what ever you call it. It's the sum of your life experiences, your personality, beliefs, emotions, etc. It's what makes every person unique, you can't quantify it with science.
Lighten up man, accept that some questions about life and our existence are unknowable. Maybe it's meant to be that way. Wouldn't life be boring if we knew all the answers? Life has whatever meaning you give to it. You only have so much time in this world so make your life one worth remembering. A life you can be proud of on your death bed.
>But now my world became bleak and hollow.I have seen close relatives die,my pets die in front of me and I could see their flame that made them who they are,leaving them an empty worthless body.
But in a way they're still around. As long as you remember them they're still alive in a way. No one can take memories of another time from you. I guess in the long run we will all be forgotten. It's a bitter pill to swallow but that's why you have to find your own meaning in life that makes life worth living. Maybe it's friends and family, maybe it's studying something you are interested in, hobbies, whatever. Just find that thing.
>What do you believe in?
I believe that life is a gift from nature. Nature can be very beautiful but also very cruel. Take the good with the bad.
You're pretty hard set in what a specific denomination of science in a specific line of thinking. This means that you are both irrational and difficult to debate with. I'm not going to really waste my time typing out a bunch of pages with only 2-3 people in this thread, so I would just suggest looking up some Carl Sagan and going from there. You are thinking in absolutes, which is not only unhealthy but will also get you nowhere as far as both truth and comfort go in these types of topics.
Op is faggot
You are on a journey and must not consider why you struggle you must just find the deepest meaning you can and make that your life. For me, it's the love I have for my gf that makes me think, "Ok, I can do this!" Never give up, we will be immortal gods one day. Life does go on, death is freedom to do as you wish again.
yes,but if feels like it is probable for life to have more meaning than death.Because it exists.Death exists also,but It cannot exist without life.Death is defined by life,because if life,being the opposite of death didn't exist,then there would just be void.And isn't it bizarre how life happens in the first place?Humans always thought that there is an end where imagination and science ends.When people thought the earth was flat they believed that the world ended where the maps end.When the could only see at the sky they thought that there is nothing beyond it.Could it be that we are just so blinded by the limits of our sensory organs that we truly miss the essence of what makes us?And that is the soul?Neuroscience tells us now that there isn't even a soul to begin with,that right and wrong are just wired in our DNA so we can function as a social species.Therefore,we are just as good as the rocks on the ground.Just more complex.
this is what i want to believe in.It just feels right
I am agnostic but I really believe that there is something out there our minds cannot comprehend.I am not irrational and I am open to debate.I will check the guy you said and thank you for the recommendation and your response.I just read articles and opinions of atheist groups who categorically reject the idea of life after death and individuality.And that made me really depressed.Literally.I am like that for a week and It feels like forever.
Who isn't?!
You're kind of an idiot, I would suggest broadening your education and raising your IQ before trying to get into deep philosophical conversations like this. I can literally see the parallelisms between how your thinking and speaking was when you were brainwashed into some kind of religion. It really is something you need to work on breaking, otherwise nothing will really make sense to you or you will need to make lots of justifications and leaps in logic to arrive at your opinions. Which is never healthy for a rational mind.
Atheism is illogic and is literally just anti-culture. Nobody can prove a deity doesn't exist, they only form and take that stance because they hate religion and think that it has a negative effect on humanity (which I agree with but it doesn't make their positions correct).
Start thinking for yourself.
this is what I believe as well
I never believed in a religion.I just believed that we are meant to better ourselves any way we can and that there is probably something better out there.Also,you are right that I might be confused as I feel that way.The fact is that I have read that we are basically just biological computers and that all our hopes and dreams are just illusion formed by the process of evolution so that we can survive and pass our genes.That our sense out identity is nothing more that an illusion
The Universe is a hologram
In our previous state there must have been some emergency where all we had was computers and infinite life. Then someone was like let's keep our minds busy and at least think of things. So someone pressed a power button and here we are.
>hits the bong 19 times
Am I in the right thread?
>hits bong
Is there a wrong thread to be in?
We're existence, embrace everything, EVERYTHING. Have a good life, see you on the other side!
To answer your question, yes and no. Yes I believe that things like consciousness and our experience of 'reality' has to be made up of something--just like particles make up stars and energy flows in light, etc. there has to be some underlying 'stuff' and 'rules how said stuff works' for the existence of everything you described.
But NO, that doesn't mean that they are worthless, meaningless, or less magical. I'll share with you a truth many overlook: a lot of what you will hear or read (or most likely, watch) will be opinions. Essentially, everytime someone says something on a certain subject, whether something 'factual' like 1+1=2, or something like 'user you are a colossal, worthless fag, kys already' are all opinions, the only difference is that what we call 'facts' are something a lot of people agreed upon and/or are verifiable, so for our convenience we regard them as 'fact' or even (dangerously) as 'true'. The other one, much less so ('hurr durr, I was only pretending'). The correspondence of chemicals and hormones and synapses producing this concept of 'consciousness' and the 'experience' we call reality is an opinion as well, no matter how many titles and acronyms follow the name of the person who said it, in so far as they haven't really found out exactly how 'it' works.For instance, they have no idea what makes a 'thought' the thing that it is. Is a spark of electrons jumping from a synapse to a neighboring neuron have enough substance to form a proper 'thought'? How much of this thought is in that spark? A pixel's worth of color? A single cycle of vibration sensed as sound? The beginning of a subcomponent of emotion?
You should study physics. The whole point of that discipline is to find out "what it all means." Many forget that and just get stuck or settle on finding out "what everything is and how it works." But that's only half the question. Why don't you help in the search for truth and find out yourself?
Found the scientologist
I'm not a scientologist I'm just working on a movie plot. I wanna reboot 'The Matrix'.
I don't think life is worth living at all but that could just be me, I'm dysphoric as shit so nothing I do makes any difference as to how I feel, so I end up doing very little because there's no fucking point in going out of your way to do something when it doesn't make you feel any better
Why?
Because I can write better than the old script.
Then make the plot about a bunch of cultists who do what you just said. Then cast Tom Cruise and John Travolta and other Scientologists. That way you just made a meta-film.
>hope
same
so,is there a possibility that our conscious self lives on?Is there more than just a fade to black?
Is there any credible evidence to suggest that dreams and imagination are the result of something other than chemical reactions?
I mean,atheists say that when you die your brain dies and with it everything you really are.They compare it with a computer when you pull out the plug.
your soul and your existence is tied together forever. The beginning of the universe was so long ago no one can do the math which leads me to believe that the future is just as long.
So people should believe in any nonsense they can't strictly disprove?
No thanks. I'll pass.
they say that the concept of soul doesn't exist,thats the problem.That it is only your past experiences that form it and that it is only reactions in the brain that only serve survival and procreation.
The physical world is representative of something much larger, we are as a shadow cast onto water.
...
what about the buddhist view of the afterlife?It sounds pretty advanced for its time and I think it is one of the most peaceful religions.
'they' would be wrong. The soul exists. I know some small details about where I lived in my previous life. and some of the dreams I experienced between these lifes.
checked
>I know some small details about where I lived in my previous life. and some of the dreams I experienced between these lifes.
Like what?
Also, if I don't have any memories from a previous life, would you grant that it's reasonable that I suspect your claims to be bullshit?
I currently live in Australia, born here.
I used to live in the USA, born there I assume, I lived in a two story house somewhere in Kansas, had a TV.
In the land of time between these lives I lived as a King, as a pig and as an everyday human. It's a dreamstate so it's hard to describe.
Here's how I know:youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
youtube.com
and here's me in a previous life:
youtube.com
>I used to live in the USA, born there I assume, I lived in a two story house somewhere in Kansas, had a TV.
>In the land of time between these lives I lived as a King, as a pig and as an everyday human
And what information in these dreams would lead you to believe that your dreams are more than a fabrication of your mind?
I have no proof.
Then how am I to distinguish your claims from those of a schizophrenic man that believes satellites are there to read your mind? For that matter, how are you able to distinguish your claims as fact?
You won't.
Well, one interesting thing about new Sup Forums... lots of spiritual/mystical types to go with the traps and cancer. 7 years ago, this board was atheist libertarians as far as the eye could see.
OP, read this pic I'm attaching. Find yourself a Decker. We all love Decker. We all love you.
Thanks for that,decker is life
And all you have to ask yourself is, whether it's real or not, whether it's all just a dream or not. Do you want to wake up? Give yourself a reason not to, and live the dream.
I dream of The Void. The thought of it comforts me. I'm willing to embrace it. I don't have depression or suicidal thoughts. Just deathwish. Why are you afraid of it? Imagine how dangerous human can be if he doesn't fear death. I've always frowned upon ones who had a deathwish and just killed themselves. Such potential wasted. I guess this isn't real deathwish if you commit suicide. World is no place for those with a weak stomach, or cowards. To realize the meaningless nature of life is a gift. It creates strong people. Willing to kill. Willing to die.