Why do so many people NEED to believe in a greater purpose? (page 9)

anewme

Wow! What a powerful open honest conversation with all the important heavies on this forum! ((((( all of you!))))))

Nate,thanks for the welcome
Sorry, but young is a relative term ot me. I'm 35, but to me old is say 90,100 years old. But what does age have to do with freewill?
If it takes you "back", you've just proved my point.You've chosen to disattach yourself from the "idealism" of your past.If you really planned to adhere to it, then what's stopping you from going back and affirming it now? it's certainly not me. It's actually you and your freedom.You made the decision to disconnect from it, but you still used freewill. It's inescapable.
And what is it exactly that I "don't know"? That one has to give up their "idealism?" (I call it realism myself) but that, again, is more like a decision,not so much knowledge. Getting odler doesn't necessarlity entail "getting real" or "settling down." There's rock stars bodering on 60 that are still touring. There's even eldery porn actors. Certain people don't always adhere to another's quality, becasue otherwise we'd all move around like a school of fish.
In Existential excitement from motion,
"Freedom is another word for human REALITY."
Nihislism is not the philisophical boogeyman,becasue it's an obvious delusion since s/he makes something out of "nothing." Read my posts above
"Hell is other people"

AuldSoul

Exi: 90,100 years old.

Welcome to the fray! I just noticed your low post total.

I agree that ninety-thousand one-hundred years old qualifies as old for most purposes except for geological ages.

AuldSoul

existentialist

I meant 90 or 100 years old.

Narkissos

existentialist,

Apparently you didn't get my point. I called nihilism a bogeyman because it has not been the self-definition of any sizeable philosophical school since the historical Russian nihilist movement in the 19th century. Ever since, "nihilist" has been used (1) as a derogatory label pinned on a lot of critical shools of thought by their (usually conservative) opponents, or (2) as a postulated Zeitgeist depicted as a diffuse danger to be dealt with and overcome (so Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Camus or Simone Weil, which I very much enjoy btw). Both those rhetorical uses suit the definition of a bogeyman imo. Where were the actual nihilist opponents? Nowhere and everywhere. Most of the time the tenants of postures # 1 and 2 just flung back the "nihilist" epithet at each other, and eventually agreed to pin it on those who would dare to step out of this worn-out game (especially the structuralist and post-structuralist).

existentialist

I was using it in the context that tetrapod was using it in. The attempt to negate or annihilate everything.

tetrapod.sapien

I was using it in the context that tetrapod was using it in. The attempt to negate or annihilate everything.

i was using the term loosely, of course, like all my terms; loose. ;) i was talking about a nihilistic attitude/behavour, not ultimate nihilsm. obviously a paradox arises when one uses the term "everything", and i am probably guilty of such expletives. you'll find that i revel in the paradox. {hiccup!} but exi (and auldsoul and others), you are right, in that there are things i do believe in, even if it's "nothing", or purposelessness, or evolution. and yes i choose these things. it would be impossible to believe in nothing, in the real sense of the word nothing. if i truly believed in nothing, i wouldn't be here chatting. or if i was, i would have to say that i am as much a xian as i am an atheist, because i believe in nothing, which isn't the case, not that it matters...LOL. i was just sort of pointing out that i hardly believe in anything anymore, in relation to others i know of. but you are wrong in saying that i don't search for meaning, but rather wait on it to fall in my lap a la wts. because that is not true. i search, and i wait, at the same time. how do you think i got to the point i am at now, if i hadn't already been searching high and low...? not that it matters, LOL. i guess, it's not that i am trying to beleive in nothing, but it's that i want to shed everything. of course, i can't exist if i shed everything. it's more of a poetic desire to transcend. which is a funny/ironic thought coming from a materialist. but it's true, i'll admit it. it's a desire, a feeling, an emotion. that shedding everything will give me something. and here we find more paradox and irony. the very method to the maddness explains that at the end of the road there will be nothing to obtain from the "nothingness", and that's why it's "nothing". but i still try, i still hope. it's just a very twisted and sadistic version of hope i suppose. logic tells me that it will never happen, a transcendence. and my mind trusts my logic more than it does emotion. but my mind also craves magic. i can't help it. my species has a long history of this behavour. and that's where drugs come in. and more paradox. my mind is my brain, but try telling him that. TS

existentialist

I see. So you're not even in that league of true,hardcore nihilism. Forgive my errors.I guess you can say you exhibit a great deal of apathy. But then again, Zen Buddhists do so as well, or at least as a sort of "healthy" apathy.

tetrapod.sapien

ya, that's about right... oh, and hey exi, i didn't get a chance to welcome you to the board proper. welcome.

and ya, don't worry about me and words. sometimes i forget they how work... you know...

man, who the f*ck wrote the dictionary anyways?

marsh

Hi Nate Merit,

The Hymn was sung in a Non RC Church. I thought it was lovely.

I was at a funeral for a young child who died tragically ...........

The other hymns were Jesus,Friend of little children.

Lord of all hopefulness,Lord of all joy.

Jesus loves me !this I know.

and also Footprints was read out......

TS sounded so 'down' just trying to help that's all.There are so many who have lost their way in life.because of the WT.but there is always hope and it is never too late to be saved.I thought Nicky's site would also have helped.

Why do so many people NEED to believe in a greater purpose?

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