Do any of us have a reason for existing?

[coloradodem2005]

What do you think?

[enigmatic]

1. My Wife, Kitty, and my Radio Station...

For me, that's reason enough..

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. To torture my children

And to make sure I live long enough to use up all the $$$.

[progmom]

3. Yes, I think we do.

Whether it's a big reason or a small one, we all do.

This may sound really corny, but if I can make one positive difference in one person's life, then I have existed for a reason.



(edited because my first answer was sarcastic and snarky, and I didn't like it once I hit post.)

[coloradodem2005]

6. Well. You just established that there is no reason for me to exist.

[progmom]

7. I Just edited my answer.

I'm sorry I was such a flippant jerk in my first response. As soon as I hit "post message" I regretted it.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

19. Wow! no one ever told the truth about an edit before!

I think we should have this feature in life. Sort of like a "life mulligan".

Good on you mate!

[VioletLake]

4. As long as someone does,

we all do. ;)

[mark414]

5. didn't you say you're trying to reconnect with god?

i'm having the same problem

and it doesn't help that i'm taking a couple of philosophy classes either...geez i think way too much haha

there's always that eternal question...why is there something rather than nothing?

i find myself always asking questions...is there a god? if so why does he exist? what came before god?

but mostly i ask myself, god or not, what the fuck am I doing here?

[coloradodem2005]

8. The thing is, God doesn't give a shit about me.

[progmom]

10. I personally don't believe this is true.

But there are times when that is easier to believe.

:hug:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

21. Who cares

The Buddha says "be here now". Just enjoy and stop stressing about a reason, you don't need no stinkin reason to enjoy a sunrise.

[susanna]

9. Have you been watching "The Matrix"?

It's all over HBO tonight. :-)

[Sporadicus]

11. Deteriorata

Go placidly amid the noise & waste, & remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.

Avoid quiet & passive persons unless you are in need of sleep.

Rotate your tires.

Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself and heed well their advice even though they be turkeys; know what to kiss and when.

Consider that two wrongs never make a right but that three do.

Wherever possible, put people on hold.

Be comforted that in the face of all aridity & disillusionment and despite the changing fortunes of time, there will always be a big future in computer maintenance.

Remember the Pueblo.

Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, & mutilate.

Know yourself; if you need help, call the FBI.

Exercise caution in your daily affairs, especially with those persons closest to you. That lemon on your left, for instance.

Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet.

Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face.

Gracefully surrender the things of youth, birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan; and let not the sands of time get in your lunch.

Hire people with hooks.

For a good time, call 606-4311; ask for Ken.

Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting enough cheese; and reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee.

You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back.

Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive Him to be: Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin.

With all its hopes, dreams, promises & urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate.

Give up.

http://www.nationallampoon.com/flashbacks/deteriorata/default2.asp

[OffWithTheirHeads]

22. Oh dear Buddha, that's great!

Can I borrow it to send to some friends?

Promise I will return it in tact!

[Neoma]

12. No, thats why we have a never ending nerve to make a reason to exist.

[Historic NY]

13. I think so.....sometimes....

right now I'm home bound with a broken leg & ankle and getting paid w/o taxes.....I think that kinda makes my co-workers mad, especially since I was supposed to retire on 3/30/05. I am now getting paid to sit home.

Then again I do things that people always tell me they are grateful for. I don't know if that counts.

The last few months have been sucky for me and people I really never counted as friends have called or offered to help, some even come to checkup on me. I guess I'm lucky to exist.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Beats me...

and after 5,000 years of people asking that question, no one knows yet.

Los of interesting possibilities, though.

[kodi]

15. Don't know about anyone else, but I am my own reason for existing

tut tvam asi.

[qnr]

16. Yes. My neighborhood plants depend on me for carbon dioxide

generation.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

17. I, personally, bring sunshine

to the planet. Seems like as good a reason as any to exist.

[AVID]

18. for sex (no fun intended)

[coloradodem2005]

20. Like I said earlier.

With what you just said, you have defeated any reason for me to exist. Thank you so much.

[AVID]

23. your welcome nt

[coloradodem2005]

24. Glad you feel that way.

It's nice to know that you like making someone feel like they may as well not exist.

[AVID]

26. That happens sometimes

I never try to make someone feel that way - but it happens occasionally

[Name removed]

27. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[auntAgonist]

25. I think we do more than just exist...

We are here for myriad reasons. the fact that we wake up in the morning is indicative that we are needed here on this plain .. to be a comfort, an inspiration, a shoulder, a friend .. a smile on the street.

many good reasons to exist.

and yanno what, I don't think 'sex' is high on the priority lists of reasons to exist.


chin up :)

[neebob]

28. Are you looking for your own reason to exist?

It kinda seems that way, from some of your responses. You ask one question and then jump on people for not answering the other one.

For me, personally, the fact that I'm here is enough of a reason to exist - and then I have my son, for now, and I'm always looking for ways to add value and do some good while I'm here. You have to find your own reasons or make some.

[hfojvt]

29. well, Snoopy said:

I am here to keep the world from being over-run by cookies.

[msgadget]

30. I wasn't born with one

but I find them regularly.

[alittlelark]

31. I exist to care for the beings i brought into this hellhole

...not knowing (Clinton era) what a hellhole it would be.


Other that that, to be honest - I understand the existential dilemma.

[hfojvt]

32. Read the book Watchers by Dean Koontz

It says: "We have a responsibility to stand watch over one another, we are watchers, all of us, watchers, guarding against the darkness. You've taught me that we're all needed, even those who sometimes think we're worthless, plain, and dull. If we love and allow ourselves to be loved ... well, a person who loves is the most precious thing in the world..."

[forgethell]

33. While I agree with the

sentiment, I can't take Dean Koontz seriously as a philosopher. And I have read him for a long time.

Did you know he wrote science fiction before he got into horror? Somewhere in my library lies a book he wrote about a family that had captured God and held Him prisoner in a glass cage for generations. In the end, God escapes the cage and they stomp Him flat like a cockroach. I'll have to look for that book, it was, I believe, an Ace-double.

But the question remains: Why? why do we have such a responsibility? why not just cut and run when the going gets tough?

[hfojvt]

38. is that supposed to be an insult?

To put Koontz into the same category as Asimov, Simak, Brunner and Poul Anderson? I still think of Koontz as a science fiction writer, books like Lightning, Watchers, Shadowfires, Phantoms, Strangers, Twilight Eyes, Winter Moon, in fact, almost all of his books, are as much sci-fi as they are horror.

The answer to "why" is that "should you accept this mission" you can find a purpose for living and perhaps even a certain amount of happiness. As for the "why not cut and run?" because as Bender says pointedly in "The Breakfast Club" "because you know how shitty that is to do to someone."

[forgethell]

41. No, not an insult, just a comment.

Actually, I read a lot more science-fiction than I do horror, which basically I don't like, except for Koontz.

The answer, though, is unsatisfactory. Why do you find a purpose in "accepting the mission"? I find happiness in lot's of ways that do not involve interaction with other human beings at all. Why should I waste my resources on other human beings who are nothing to me? ( I speak hypothetically, of course). Lots of people are basically selfish. Why should they help if they don't want to? Do we have the right to force them to? WHY?

In other words, how do we justify our existence at all. What separates us from the wolves, another social species? They help and protect their own pack, and fight with, or drive off other packs. Same with chimpanzees, our closest cousins in the animal world.

In a world of relative of relative morality, Hitler is as moral, as right, as Jesus, Buddha, or Mohamed. So what makes one right and the other wrong?

[Wat_Tyler]

34. To seek truth and create beauty.

What else is there?

[progmom]

44. Oh - I like that.

I like that a lot.

[Wat_Tyler]

47. It's simple enough, I reckon.

[snoochie]

35. Yes, I think we all do.

IMO we all have a part to play in life. And no matter how insignificant you think your part may be, you must admit you have no way of knowing how you may affect someone else's life, or how someone else may affect yours.

Isn't it fascinating to ponder what the future has in store?

[coloradodem2005]

37. I'm afraid of what the future has in store.

If the last two years of my life are any indication, I don't want to find out the future.

[kick-ass-bob]

45. The past is not an indication of the future unless

you let it be one.

I just listened in church to a woman who marched with Martin Luther King, and if she (and the others) had let the 2 years prior to her marching define the rest of her life, then black people may still be drinking out of different water fountains.

The best thing about a new day is that you can start over.

All over.

[The empressof all]

36. No

It's all a big cosmic accident. So enjoy the ride and try not to do any harm.

[RandomKoolzip]

39. Yeah: work.

[nuxvomica]

40. Existence is beyond such questions

This need to discover a reason for something is very limiting and we are equipped with these questions because they are useful in solving mundane problems. But the value of a person is not his reason for existing, it's the fact of his existence itself. Stand back in awe at your own existence. It's a remarkable, wonderful thing.

[FarLeftRage]

42. What you said and then some!

We are all here for a reason or reasons.

It may not become clear to us now, but maybe later.

We all go through periods of highs and lows, after all you can't experience the highs without the lows...

[Rex]

43. We are born to eventually die.

Paradox? Procreation, stupid blue-finger Republicans. Some animals are devolving. No doubt.

[DelawareValleyDem]

46. I don't

I haven't let that stop me yet, though

[Dastard Stepchild]

48. I exist to contribute to the carbon cycle

[NightTrain]

49. I do, I do, I do!

I exist to piss off the humorless--be they right-wing, left-wing, or in between. And judging from some of the replies I get both here and on other boards, I'm quite good at what I do! :bounce: