What does matter in life?
We live, we die. End of story. Or is it?

What sets us apart from every other animal in the world?
The fact that we can think? The fact that we are much smarter than the rest of the animal kingdom?

We are man. We are the greatest there ever was and ever will be. What next?

I dont understand. I do not understand anything one bit. Maybe religion would make me understand, but do not care for a preacher.

Personally, I think, what makes us different what makes US matter above everything else is how we live our lives. Happiness, sadness. Its how we take what comes to us.

I sometimes think I do not know what I am talking about, and I probably dont. But this is what I hate to say:

I always thought that life was about principles. About doing the right thing at the right time.
I have always imagined life to be worth something.
I imagined sex to be something intimate.
I expected people to care about one another.
I expected promises to be kept.
I hoped that everyone does the right thing.
I expected reality to be accepted by everyone.

The long I live, the more I see. And I hate it all. It just seems everything that should mean something does not mean anything at all.
People dont care about one another or infact about themselves. The people who fuck others over are the ones who are always ontop. The "decent folk" are the ones who seems to finish last.

And there is nothing. Nothing at all. At the end of the day, we all just fucking die, and thats the end of it all. A few people cry/whine, but no one gives a fuck.

A good friend of mine died yesterday. I found out this morning. The person who told me that said it with a smile on her face. She was much closer to him than I. But its like she didnt give a fuck. It's almost like no one gave a fuck. Maybe no one did. How can we be like this?
Sure I am going to hear that quote of Stalin's "one death is a tragedy while a million deaths are a statistics" or something of that nature.
But it just scares me to hell to think that when I die, no one will think even think twice about me.
Sure maybe my parent would cry/whine about it.
But in the few weeks they would move on a few friend would be sad. But thats it. Nothing else.
Nothing at all.
The world would keep going, on and on and on...

I can't live life thinking this is all worthless.
Could someone just give me a nice easy answer that tell me what does matter in life. What makes it worth it living?
There are so many reasons to kill oneself, but so few to live.
Two reasons stop me from ending it once and for all...
My father, and the possibility of hell or something bad on the otherside. I have contemplated it so much for so long. But living nor dying makes any sense to me.

I asked "god" more than once to take me. Just becuase I cant justify suicide, since i think that would bring quite more pain to those around me. But a natural death would be so much easier for everyone to handle.

It just seems nothing is worth living for. The end is always the same. Death. I could live another 60 years, or another 60 minutes and it wouldnt make a difference to the world. I am horrified at the though.

If there's anything in here worth discussing please do so. Else leave it to die like everything else.

Maybe there isn't much more than us being animals. While we are the top of the food chain, maybe mans great curse is being able to reason. Even if there is nothing else to us than to live and eventually die, should we really feel like life is nothing special? I would say no. I can accept that one day I will not be here, but I also accept that my life will have some type of purpose. It may not be something magical and it may just be to have a family so that my genetic line continues.

I am somewhat religious and also believe in evolution. I have a cat and she isn't overly intelligent. The point is, once I was able to truly rationalize that somewhere way back when me and this cat could have been on the same genetic path life seemed a little more simple. Things live and things die. Just because we understand this and know it is coming doesn't mean we have a special meaning.

What matters is up to your personality. Some thrive on the idea that nothing matters. Others are depressed by the idea that nothing matters. I just see nothing mattering as a fascinating thought exercise, then I go on with my life. I could sit there and be depressed about it, but that doesn't matter. I'd rather indulge in hedonism. Experience all this " being human" shit :)

The long I live, the more I see. And I hate it all. It just seems everything that should mean something does not mean anything at all.

What you see is what you get. Why would you expect anything else? What you're doing and feeling right now, that's all there is to life. You can expect and theorize and judge and justify and strive all you want, but all those are just things in your head. the entire universe is composed of what is in front of you right now.

find your own purpose in life, my son

Then? Give unto me everything that you possess. All your money & all your worldly goods.

Go with nothing. Nay, not even clothes. Go & wander the woods. As nothing, to you, means anything: give it all to me. :)

Life is neutral, no one gives you purpose but you. This means you have ultimate freedom and get to do exactly what you want. :)

Art is the one thing that man does that animals have no vestige of; art is both meaningless, and the only thing that has ANY meaning.

Art is the one thing that man does that animals have no vestige of; art is both meaningless, and the only thing that has ANY meaning.

I beg to differ. Birds & dogs also have an interest in the artistic sounds beyond the normal territorial/mating sounds... ;)

I beg to differ. Birds & dogs also have an interest in the artistic sounds beyond the normal territorial/mating sounds... ;)

bullshit...

art is artificial, man made beauty. not to be found in nature; the very antitheses of nature. there is nothing un-natural about dogs and birds.

bullshit...

art is artificial, man made beauty. not to be found in nature; the very antitheses of nature. there is nothing un-natural about dogs and birds.

I bow to you, sir. You're just too cool to argue with.

I guess you diss the parrots who can say the colors of objects too?

no, me and the parrots made a truce 6 months ago, on that fateful morning when the sun stood still and the women wept for the burning churches, packed to the rafters with pamphlets of every persuasion and shape and color. the smell of so much conviction in the air burnt to ash as they were once scorched by the hand that once weld them left something gaping in the victims-not-to-be, and the parrots and i decided we had best put our differences aside for the moment.

doesn't mean i don't sleep with a loaded shotgun, doused in gasoline with a bic lighter in my hand, though.

but i don't see what parrots being able to recognize color has to do with anything.

For all of me? You just don't see.

pray the big J

Art? Art is a label.

hmm come to think of it.

The 'artistic' things that we see animals produce (whale's song, decorated nests, etc) are all methods of survival or mating (for communication with fellow whales, or attracting a female bird).

But what if the "art' that we as humans make are simply a remnant or highly developed version of such instincts?

The only thing that matters is to be happy.


There is only one way to be happy. Positive Creative Expression. Any other act or belief which causes "happiness" through any negative expression is pseudo happiness brought on by subconscious suppression...

If you feel this way (nihilistic) you should probably reevaluate life (and past) because it just sucks and isn't worth feeling...live and love...its all that matters and until you know that you will never be content (i.e. happy)

You fucked up. You thought too hard about life...and death. Also can be a side effect of consuming psychedelics. ;)

But you know what, nothing actually matters. But if you go through life thinking like that, you'll be sad, depressed and lonely. You've got to build a "framework" or sorts, based off of of what makes you happy. Ultimately, what matters the most is that you are feeling "positive" emotions happy, content, etc, etc doing whatever makes you feel good. :)

...aka this
The only thing that matters is to be happy.


There is only one way to be happy. Positive Creative Expression. Any other act or belief which causes "happiness" through any negative expression is pseudo happiness brought on by subconscious suppression...

If you feel this way (nihilistic) you should probably reevaluate life (and past) because it just sucks and isn't worth feeling...live and love...its all that matters and until you know that you will never be content (i.e. happy)

What does matter in life?
I always thought that life was about principles. About doing the right thing at the right time.
No.


What does matter in life?
I have always imagined life to be worth something.
No.


What does matter in life?
I imagined sex to be something intimate.
No.


What does matter in life?
I expected people to care about one another.
No.


What does matter in life?
I expected promises to be kept.
No.


What does matter in life?
I hoped that everyone does the right thing.
No.


What does matter in life?
I expected reality to be accepted by everyone.
Fuck no.


I had an experience with a psychic out of my town the other day. Now, keep in mind, being an atheist I am EXTREMELY skeptical about this kind of stuff, so to organise the meeting I called up and only stated my first name and the time I would like to see her.

Anyway, I went to her, I kept my mouth shut pretty much the whole time and she told me lots of things that got me thinking. Stuff that only a few people VERY close to my life would know about (my Dad's recent suicide and his name, childhood friends, and lots of other personal information about my family and life which now seems to be in the process of happening), keep in mind none of my family live in this area and would not have been able to give her access to this information)

But it just had me thinking that there might be more to just this life (I'd like to think something like this exists to stop me from extreme bouts of depression)

Fun is my justification for existence. Having a good time is what I almost always strive for. I don't know if the distinct lack of morals in my case is helping your cause here, but I hope that's a good enough reason to help along your fucked up emotional diatribe of an existence right now.

well since u totse members didnt seem to write anything new to me here comes my bash.
AS HUMANS in the cycle of life our whole purpose is to reproduce, and create babies and have them survive for as long as they can and repeat cycle until evolution evolves.
but thats just what HUMANS supposed to do.

But as in individual, i strongly disagree on religion.
because when u die, there is no heaven and hell.
its just the pitch black emptyness just like what u saw before u were born, U SAW NOTHING, u didnt exist anymore.
and only thing thats left is the memories people have of u and when they die, ur gone forever unless ur like a legend.

ANYWAYS to find a meaning in life other then those 2 things above are DREAMS and what kitty said being happy,
i live today to live for my dreams. Dreams keep me going as well as the high i get when im speeding in my car or fucking a girl or raving my ass off or drugs.

i like living life with a bang, and yes sometimes u cant do that but thats my main motto as poor as i am.

Live and do the things that make u happy. get "high" and it doesnt have to be from drugs.

I try not to worry about it. I was lucky enough to be given life so I might as well enjoy it. Everyone is on the same page (everyone has to die), so it doesn't really matter in the end as we're all equal in that regard.

enjoy the malleable reality

bullshit...

art is artificial, man made beauty. not to be found in nature; the very antitheses of nature. there is nothing un-natural about dogs and birds.

I've heard of elephants and monkeys painting...Just thought I'd rebuke your theory.

Human beings are part of the natural world, and should not be separated from such.

So there shouldn't be any difference between painting done by elephants and painting done by humans.

But this is clearly false, as art created by human beings has a great deal of thought put into it, whereas a painting created by an elephant is just random brush strokes.

Human beings are part of the natural world, and should not be separated from such.

So there shouldn't be any difference between painting done by elephants and painting done by humans.

But this is clearly false, as art created by human beings has a great deal of thought put into it, whereas a painting created by an elephant is just random brush strokes.
I think that's a complex issue, who are we to say that the elephant didn't put thought into it? Many animals have higher brain capacity; elephants, dolphins, monkeys....so I would say that its all variable in a sense.

What does matter in life?
We live, we die. End of story. Or is it?

What sets us apart from every other animal in the world?
The fact that we can think? The fact that we are much smarter than the rest of the animal kingdom?

We are man. We are the greatest there ever was and ever will be. What next?

I dont understand. I do not understand anything one bit. Maybe religion would make me understand, but do not care for a preacher.

Personally, I think, what makes us different what makes US matter above everything else is how we live our lives. Happiness, sadness. Its how we take what comes to us.

I sometimes think I do not know what I am talking about, and I probably dont. But this is what I hate to say:

I always thought that life was about principles. About doing the right thing at the right time.
I have always imagined life to be worth something.
I imagined sex to be something intimate.
I expected people to care about one another.
I expected promises to be kept.
I hoped that everyone does the right thing.
I expected reality to be accepted by everyone.

The long I live, the more I see. And I hate it all. It just seems everything that should mean something does not mean anything at all.
People dont care about one another or infact about themselves. The people who fuck others over are the ones who are always ontop. The "decent folk" are the ones who seems to finish last.

And there is nothing. Nothing at all. At the end of the day, we all just fucking die, and thats the end of it all. A few people cry/whine, but no one gives a fuck.

A good friend of mine died yesterday. I found out this morning. The person who told me that said it with a smile on her face. She was much closer to him than I. But its like she didnt give a fuck. It's almost like no one gave a fuck. Maybe no one did. How can we be like this?
Sure I am going to hear that quote of Stalin's "one death is a tragedy while a million deaths are a statistics" or something of that nature.
But it just scares me to hell to think that when I die, no one will think even think twice about me.
Sure maybe my parent would cry/whine about it.
But in the few weeks they would move on a few friend would be sad. But thats it. Nothing else.
Nothing at all.
The world would keep going, on and on and on...

I can't live life thinking this is all worthless.
Could someone just give me a nice easy answer that tell me what does matter in life. What makes it worth it living?
There are so many reasons to kill oneself, but so few to live.
Two reasons stop me from ending it once and for all...
My father, and the possibility of hell or something bad on the otherside. I have contemplated it so much for so long. But living nor dying makes any sense to me.

I asked "god" more than once to take me. Just becuase I cant justify suicide, since i think that would bring quite more pain to those around me. But a natural death would be so much easier for everyone to handle.

It just seems nothing is worth living for. The end is always the same. Death. I could live another 60 years, or another 60 minutes and it wouldnt make a difference to the world. I am horrified at the though.

If there's anything in here worth discussing please do so. Else leave it to die like everything else.

wow. i recently saw this movie with morgan freeman called 7 deadly sins. you sound just like the crazy psycho killer.

i hate depressed people. if it doesn't matter so much, how is being depressed going to greatly aspire you anywhere? just hold onto existence and accept the journey. dammit get your ass outdoors into the wild and find yourself, you're not appreciating life as much as you should. that, or your balls haven't dropped yet.

"Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy."
-The Books of Bokonon

Commenting on the idea of elephants painting and the notion of "observing human traits in the lower beasts", I wouldn't read too far into the paintings for proof of that...all the beast paintings I've seen were the probucts of shrill-voiced men with sticks....

Rather, I'd say go to youtube, try finding a video of some monkey screwing with a ferocious cat seemingly for the hell of it...can't find the one I'd seen...it looked like a single chimp swinging down from a tree branch and whacking a larger lion in the back of the head, watching it try to kill 'im, then returning for another go once the cat'd settled back down...
In lieu of that video, there's a bloody load of japanese videos with annoyingly contrasted border effects...

...OK, ten minutes of searching for the original video later...I beleive youtube operates on some form of grammar foreign to me...

Regardless, that video presented to me a much stonger case for animals enjoying the somewhat abstract things in life than any paintings.

hmm come to think of it.

The 'artistic' things that we see animals produce (whale's song, decorated nests, etc) are all methods of survival or mating (for communication with fellow whales, or attracting a female bird).

But what if the "art' that we as humans make are simply a remnant or highly developed version of such instincts?

we have a winner!

you know there are some people who say EVERYTHING a human does it for mating. makes sense if you think about it

Human beings are part of the natural world, and should not be separated from such.

So there shouldn't be any difference between painting done by elephants and painting done by humans.

But this is clearly false, as art created by human beings has a great deal of thought put into it, whereas a painting created by an elephant is just random brush strokes.


i dont know about you but the video i saw of the elephant, he/she clearly painted a (self)portrait of a elephant.

how naive of you to think that you are somehow better than an elephant. there is no competition in art.