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Jan. 14th, 2004 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheSomeone posted this in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
abstractthought:
I have been thinking about how the best way to live is, if it is better not to care and just to get on with it, or if it is better to consider morality, or if the people who are ignorant really have it the best.
I thought to myself, The best way to live is to consider mortality, not morality.
Four years ago, I had the outlook that there was no evidence to suggest that there is anything beyond the physical. Death was the end. The person, personality, soul, whatever, it all ended at death. I thought I would be realistic about that and I tried to reconcile myself to that inevitability.
This is because I'm the average American--I was trying to be a pragmatist about the situation. I still am a pragmatist about the situation: I was born in a physical body, and it will degrade eventually and cease. That is an inevitability that everyone comes to.
What that viewpoint did (or does) was inform my ethical views. Life is the ultimate value insofar as that it is irreplaceable; murder is a crime because life cannot be restored. Et cetera. Eventually I pared that back to the idea that "Life is". That was as simple as it got, and I was content with that.
After that, I got involved with the study of time. And it was this that freed me from my fear of death. Time is an illusion. Death is a moment in time. We are already dead, in a sense. The big bang and its aftermath has already happened. My body is in its progression towards dissolution, but the whole shebang has already resolved itself. We're just witnessing it. Life is ultimately perspectival.
Life is also a matter of scale. Human scale physics differs from subatomic scale physics. Why is that? We don't know. Time isn't the same in these differing scales. Why? We don't know.
There are too many mysteries that we still don't understand. What is light? We've been intelligent for several thousand years, and have been utilizing light intelligently (i.e., incoporating it into technology) for several centuries. Why don't we know what light really is? Light determines our universe.
I don't even want to get into gravity.
Then consider: Why are we even here? We ripen via hormones released through the pituitary gland, in order for ridiculously small cells to unite so that very small strands of information can interact and create a new life. Consider the difference in the matter of scale: two humans, male, female, fumbling. Separate sets of DNA centimeters away.
The eye perceives light, but what is really "light"? Our planet is gaseous; we see through our atmosphere, but that doesn't mean it's invisible. We see through nitrogen, probably because it's so prevalent, if we didn't see through it we wouldn't be able to see. Do you see what I'm saying? Is light a phenomenon of evolution? Or is it an independent phenomenon?
What are these things that we are seeing?
It's kind of a new perspective.
And it's that perspective that gives life new meaning.
Once you realize that life inherently is meaningless, you get to the point where you see that you need to create your own meaning. Life gets more meaningful as you go along, but only as you invest yourself in it. And why not invest yourself? You're already dead! Might as well enjoy the scenery and sights. Make friends! Take up a hobby. Understand yourself in relation to the universe.
Be a mensch.
Enjoy the dance.
abstractthought:I have been thinking about how the best way to live is, if it is better not to care and just to get on with it, or if it is better to consider morality, or if the people who are ignorant really have it the best.
I thought to myself, The best way to live is to consider mortality, not morality.
Four years ago, I had the outlook that there was no evidence to suggest that there is anything beyond the physical. Death was the end. The person, personality, soul, whatever, it all ended at death. I thought I would be realistic about that and I tried to reconcile myself to that inevitability.
This is because I'm the average American--I was trying to be a pragmatist about the situation. I still am a pragmatist about the situation: I was born in a physical body, and it will degrade eventually and cease. That is an inevitability that everyone comes to.
What that viewpoint did (or does) was inform my ethical views. Life is the ultimate value insofar as that it is irreplaceable; murder is a crime because life cannot be restored. Et cetera. Eventually I pared that back to the idea that "Life is". That was as simple as it got, and I was content with that.
After that, I got involved with the study of time. And it was this that freed me from my fear of death. Time is an illusion. Death is a moment in time. We are already dead, in a sense. The big bang and its aftermath has already happened. My body is in its progression towards dissolution, but the whole shebang has already resolved itself. We're just witnessing it. Life is ultimately perspectival.
Life is also a matter of scale. Human scale physics differs from subatomic scale physics. Why is that? We don't know. Time isn't the same in these differing scales. Why? We don't know.
There are too many mysteries that we still don't understand. What is light? We've been intelligent for several thousand years, and have been utilizing light intelligently (i.e., incoporating it into technology) for several centuries. Why don't we know what light really is? Light determines our universe.
I don't even want to get into gravity.
Then consider: Why are we even here? We ripen via hormones released through the pituitary gland, in order for ridiculously small cells to unite so that very small strands of information can interact and create a new life. Consider the difference in the matter of scale: two humans, male, female, fumbling. Separate sets of DNA centimeters away.
The eye perceives light, but what is really "light"? Our planet is gaseous; we see through our atmosphere, but that doesn't mean it's invisible. We see through nitrogen, probably because it's so prevalent, if we didn't see through it we wouldn't be able to see. Do you see what I'm saying? Is light a phenomenon of evolution? Or is it an independent phenomenon?
What are these things that we are seeing?
It's kind of a new perspective.
And it's that perspective that gives life new meaning.
Once you realize that life inherently is meaningless, you get to the point where you see that you need to create your own meaning. Life gets more meaningful as you go along, but only as you invest yourself in it. And why not invest yourself? You're already dead! Might as well enjoy the scenery and sights. Make friends! Take up a hobby. Understand yourself in relation to the universe.
Be a mensch.
Enjoy the dance.