Suppose you’re standing at the beginning of the universe (presuming the universe had a beginning), and you have the choice of whether or not to flip the switch to make it all happen. Do you do it? Should you do it?
What I’m trying to get at is: is the existence of this world a good thing? Is it good that humans exist on this ball of rock swinging through space? Does all the love, joy, & beauty justify all the pain, loss, and frustration?
I often wonder. Is life worth living? For anybody? Would it be better to just write the whole thing off as an experiment gone wrong? Or are most people’s lives worth living? Do relationships, friendships, families, and carefree moments outweigh all the other crap? Maybe it’s just me whose life isn’t worth living, being so lacking in those aspects. Maybe the world’s fine, and the problem’s just with me. I feel like it would be good to get it in perspective. Does life just suck in general? (in which case I guess all you can do is try to limit the suffering involved.) Or is there something precious in human existence that’s worth preserving? (in which case I suppose I need to resolve whether that’s something I’ve permanently excluded myself from.)
31 comments
If I were God, I wouldn’t flip the switch. As for all your other questions, I don’t think I can answer them.
That’s interesting. Is that because you don’t think the switch should’ve been flipped ? (assuming there was someone to do so.) Or just that you wouldn’t do it yourself for personal reasons?
Well, that’s a tricky question. You know of my religious persuasions. My own personal worldview is that God is never wrong. He does what He wills for His own reasons that only He understands fully. And I trust that His judgments are better than mine.
But my own small, flawed self would not create the universe if I were given the choice. Partly for selfish reasons, partly for selfless ones. All of those reasons personal.
Not sure I could get my mind round that – simultaneously believing that it’s good and right that the world exists, and also that I would have prevented it if given the choice. Sounds like a tough place to be in.
It really is. I am just a mess of cognitive dissonance and half-aware doublethink. Not very fun at all but nothing can be done about it.
That sucks. Hugs.
Thanks, husk. Hugs reciprocated.
I’ve been thinking a lot on the same topic recently and I don’t have an answer either.
I wish that humans knew how or why the Universe and its planets, other celestial objects, and living inhabitants came into existence.
Yeah…I guess I’m assuming that human life is all there is. But if we discovered that there was some ultimate cosmic purpose to this world, which led to some other kind of existence, I guess that would change the perspective.
I ponder the questions posted by OP. However, I think if we all knew how we truly came into existence then faith wouldn’t exist. From that it’s obvious my lack of belief in a higher being. To each its own, nobody can prove or disprove a higher being. But, if faith was gone, a lot of societal order would disappear
This was something I wrote for a research article a couple years ago:
“According to the theory of Evolution, the Earth was not designed exclusively for the benefit of mankind. On the contrary, Homo sapiens are thought to be merely an inconsequential byproduct of the organic matter which superimposed the Earth’s surface. The intricate specifics of human evolution would not, therefore, equate to a cosmic uniqueness, but would simply be a result of cell mutations, and the continued reproduction of ever-stronger and more complex genes over time. Thus, it would follow that on any other planet which had a different atmosphere and alternate resources, the most advanced life forms would naturally have evolved distinctly to human beings.”
That is, unless humans were created in a lab by sentient extra- terrestrials, and were planted on the Earth as part of an experiment.
That’s interesting nepheliad, but I’m not sure I understand the logic. I don’t see how it follows from evolution by genetic mutation and selection on this planet leading to humans that you’d get the same on other planets. Couldn’t the history of mutation and the traits selected for be very different?
Yes, that’s what I said. “Distinct: recognisably different in nature from something else of a similar type.”
My point was that I didn’t think humans were all that special; if what we consider homo sapiens had evolved on another planet, we would look, talk, and think differently.
Ah, sorry, misinterpreted your use of language.
Yes, that’s a good point, and I suppose a significant part of why I tend to assume there’s no ‘cosmic purpose’ for humanity. Although I suppose you can always speculate that such a purpose might be wide enough to include all the possible outcomes of evolution on different planets.
Given a choice, I would flip the switch on.
Woo, that’s one vote for continuing human existence! Can I ask your reasons?
I love humanity in all its forms. The filth, the beauty. The crazy and the brilliant. Mankind never ceases to amaze me on every level. Daily I meet some new person who’s view of things is just different enough from mine to make the think there will continually be something new around each corner.
But is that worth all the physical pain? The disease, loss, abuse, fear, & horror. The loneliness, sadness, regret, & despair. If you had to make that choice, would you feel justified in allowing those things for the greater good?
yes.
Oh, good! That’s settled then!
I daresay you have a more balanced view of it all than I do. I just wish I could maintain that kind of belief. All it takes is a reminder of the extremes of human suffering or a bad encounter with a neighbor and I start doubting the whole thing.
as for the switch question – i don’t have an answer. that’s beyond little me. even if this question is hypothetical, i can’t say.
what i can say is that i don’t like most people. in fact, i despise most people. i look outside my window and watch all these small people leading their small existence, and i hate them for that. i hate them for raising the standards. for existing over me. for crippling me, in a way. even though they didn’t do anything personal to me. they don’t even know of my existence.
that’s funny, because afterwards i go on about my day listening to music, reading, writing – and all of these are inventions of mankind. the most noble ones even, among a few others. and that makes me love the artists who invented these products, merely because they help me get along in this life. as i see it, society is the black sky i live under, and the artists are the stars in it.
I think I kind of know that feeling, although I guess it’s more a judgement on me than it is other people. There are times when I really resent others just for being able to exist happily.
Couldnt had said it better myself…
@thehusk: Same here. People suffer needlessly too often. If only the worst suffering people could have would be just the simple little annoying things.
Like:
“OmG!!! That truck driver is going so slow and I have to get to my appointment with the specialist on time!”
“There’s too much cheese in this Mexican food. I’ll eat the shrimp but I won’t be returning to this restaurant.”
“AGHH! My TV is broken, I’m out of chocolate, and the liquor store is closed!!! How am I gonna cry over the romance scenes in foreign fantasy dramas now?”
“Wow, why won’t my co-worker shut up? I REALLY don’t want to hear about her niece’s baby shower.”
“Ugh. My brother signed me up to some website as a joke and now I have 200 spam messages in my inbox.”
Not, you know… the kinds of things people write about in the most sad stories on SP. Or the lack of clean water, safe housing, clothing, food, medical care, gangs, violence, etc.
Yes. Although I think with even a lot of that insignificant stuff, the reason it gets to people is because they’re trying to suppress how freaked out they are by the bigger stuff. It’s easier somehow to rage about the tiny things than the big systemic stuff you can’t easily change.
“To be or not to be, that is the question”. (Long dead English guy).
“Should I stay or should I go”? (20th century English guy).
“I wonder if God has a British accent”? (American film-makers)
It is fun asking questions we cannot answer, even though doing so is an exercise in futility. We’re here now, eventually we’ll be gone, so be it.
I would flip the switch on because it must be flipped. There must exist an existence. I would feel like it wasn’t my choice, I would have to let everyone have their chance of existing.
But what about this… can the switch be flipped off at any given time? Can everything just cease from existing on a simple flip of the switch? That would be interesting………………..
You can do a little excersise, but the question has no real meaning and thus no answer. Universe in not good or bad, life is not worthy or unworthy, there are no world problems or anything else. Its just rambling inside your brain – pure electricity (or whatever). Its just a feeling – based on some objective realities – some of them we understand and some of them we don’t.
If you would ask a plant or a tree this question, I think they would came to a same conclusion. They just grow because there is nothing else to be. Just like humans – we just live, there is no switch.
Good and bad are just judgments in the human brain, rather than objective qualities of the universe. This is true. But that’s how we structure our lives. Either something is judged desirable, or undesirable (or a mix of the two.). It’s how we make choices. It’s what human life is. We can decide not to live. A plant makes no decisions.
“you, seed of an evil genius and precarious offspring of hard fortune, whose life is but for a day, why do you compel me to tell you those things of which it is better you should remain ignorant? For he lives with the least worry who knows not his misfortune; but for humans, the best for them is not to be born at all, not to partake of nature’s excellence; not to be is best, for both sexes. This should our choice, if choice we have; and the next to this is, when we are born, to die as soon as we can.’ It is plain therefore, that he declared the condition of the dead to be better than that of the living.”
I wish I knew enough about Greek philosophy/mythology to understand the reasoning behind that quote.