Does it Really Matter?
I have nothing to say today and yet my mind is speaking to itself in volumes. There’s a line of frustration that is easy to step over and nearly impossible to step back upon. What the hell does that mean? It means that it seems as if the harder I try to make a go at making a success of this whole mess the harder it seems to achieve any greatness. This of course is probably as common an occurrence to me as it is the rest of the human population.
What I wonder, and what I nag at in my head the most is the eternal question: What is happiness? There only 2 distinct events that occur in my own life where I feel I can answer that very question. I’m not going to indulge into those 2 events because I’d like to keep them as pure as possible. And frankly does it really matter?
Does it really matter? Let’s get all Camus and try to put our fingers on that one. Does it really fucking matter? Yes, let’s throw the ‘F-word’ there to emphasize a point. The question itself says nothing and yet speaks in volumes to the masses. Honestly, I don’t think it does matter. It doesn’t. Not to me. I don’t have a God. I don’t believe in the Heaven thing. I don’t believe in Christ or Noah. So what’s the point? Does it really fucking matter? Honestly, can somebody please tell me that it matters and how or why it matters for you?
I’m eternally curious. Though I don’t believe in the eternity of mankind I am still eternally curious. Let me in to the mystic secret. Please, I gotta put my finger on something solid.
Get it. Got it. Out!
Latron,
Dee
What I wonder, and what I nag at in my head the most is the eternal question: What is happiness? There only 2 distinct events that occur in my own life where I feel I can answer that very question. I’m not going to indulge into those 2 events because I’d like to keep them as pure as possible. And frankly does it really matter?
Does it really matter? Let’s get all Camus and try to put our fingers on that one. Does it really fucking matter? Yes, let’s throw the ‘F-word’ there to emphasize a point. The question itself says nothing and yet speaks in volumes to the masses. Honestly, I don’t think it does matter. It doesn’t. Not to me. I don’t have a God. I don’t believe in the Heaven thing. I don’t believe in Christ or Noah. So what’s the point? Does it really fucking matter? Honestly, can somebody please tell me that it matters and how or why it matters for you?
I’m eternally curious. Though I don’t believe in the eternity of mankind I am still eternally curious. Let me in to the mystic secret. Please, I gotta put my finger on something solid.
Get it. Got it. Out!
Latron,
Dee
posted by DeesKnees at 1:33 PM
16 Comments:
You should look into ACT therapy (Acceptance and Commitment) therapy where their theory is "Happiness Isn't Normal." ACT teaches people to "just notice", accept, and embrace private events, especially previously unwanted ones. Even if you don't choose ACT, you sound like you need a little professional help before drugs and alcohol become your main coping mechanism. Trust me man, I've been there.
Hey Tony Robbins I appreciate all the kind words. And while some may have read my last statements as some what of a mental thing, I was not in fact going for that.
I was going for something a little deeper than the coping and putting blame upon substance abuse.
Cope is a word that was used when I was in middle school. Coping is what people do to settle their minds from the base and normal stresses of life.
I'm dealing with something great than something as simple as "cope". I'm literally looking for a meaning and a purpose. To try and make some kind of sense as to exactly this whole thing means. I've yet to find an answer.
That is what I seek.
Later,
Dee
Dee,
I believe you are asking why someone believes in something or has faith. Not necessarily in a God, or a deity. I believe you were basically leaning that way, so I will focus my discussion there.
Do I believe in God? Yes. Do I believe in the same deity that so many monotheistic religions refer to? I believe so. My faith in a greater being does not necessarily mean the same thing to me as any other person or specific organized group or religion. I would say my leanings are Christian, but I have struggled with my faith in the past. These struggles have lead me to choose what I believe in based on what makes sense to me. I believe you could call me a Heretic (has more meaning if you look it up in a dictionary). I don't like organized religion much because I don't like to be told what to believe, nor do I like to go through the motions of following the herd. I don't mind going to a Church service once in a while, but I feel I have gotten as much out of going as I am going to get in this life. I have heard all the same sermons over and over again. It starts to get old.
I have asked many questions, and do not blindly believe in anything. I have had long drawn out debates with people of many faiths. I don't need to go into detail about that. Just thought I'd mention it has been a long road and a metamorphosis of sorts to where I have arrived at my faith today.
I am not going to go into why I have chosen a particular faith (Christianity ect.) I would like to tell you why I believe in a God or a superior being. It mostly stems from me having a hard time believing that everything in this world and in this universe happened or happens by accident.
I tend to view the world and the universe in a state of consistency or a lack of chaos. Every time I drop something it falls. No matter how many times you mess with elements from the periodic table you always end up with what you expect. Every creature on earth reproduces, and most of them have two species. Why not three? Why only a mail and a female? Why not a mail a female and a whatever? It all just seems too structured to me.
Another reason for my faith is partly based in fear. I worry about our rights as humans. If there is no God then we do not have any innate rights. We are not “endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.” Without a God we have no rights. We can no longer say: “you have no right to do that.” The only rights we can ever have are the ones given to us by other humans. That is if they are gracious enough to give them to us. This is basically how the world works anyway, but I find comfort in believing that there is a higher power watching over us who is somehow influencing the outcome in some way.
Some people find it hard to believe in a loving God, because they see how much bad crap that there is in the world. They ask questions like: “if there is a loving God, why do they let so much pain and suffering occur on earth?” I myself have asked this question from time to time. My analysis of religion and philosophy has brought me to the belief that the reason so much bad crap happens has to do almost exclusively if not exclusively with the idea of “free will.” I personally believe that God has given us free will. I believe this is a gift. Without free will every thing is predetermined and nothing we do is by choice. I would not want to go through life like that. I personally would like to make my mistakes and take my defeats as well as relish my triumphs and successes. I find comfort in knowing I have someway influenced the results of my life by either the choices I have made or by the efforts I have put forth.
Free will also comes with a price however. We have the choice to fuck up our lives and the lives of others around us. We can ask why did God let the drunk driver kill our friend? Perhaps God had nothing to do with it other than giving humans choice. God gave the drunk driver the choice to drink and get in their car. Perhaps some people would rather have God control us like robots, but I would prefer to actually have a life that means something. If it does not mean anything to anyone else, at least it can mean something to me. With out free will we really don’t have a life worth living as far as I am concerned. Any thoughts on my rant? These are just my personal views and I thought I would share them with you. Thanks for starting the discussion. I wasn’t sure where you were going with your thoughts at first.
Dee,
As for your question as to whether or not happiness matters. In my opinion yes. Getting out of bed every day is hard enough if we have nothing to look forward to. I find the thought of happiness helps me get up each day. The question is do we really know what happiness is? Can we even define it? Is it a concept, or a feeling? Perhaps it is neither. Perhaps there is no such thing and we are just fooling ourselves. What if happiness is just a hormonal disorder?
I believe we are all trying to do the best we can in this world. We may not always do a very good job of living, but I believe most people want to be happy, even if they don't know how to be that way, or have made a choice to be miserable. I sometimes wonder why people choose to be miserable. Perhaps it is fear of happiness. Why would we be afraid of that?
Seriously you guys are just chicks pretending to be men right? This is too much. I have to show my friends this.
Anonymous,
Are you sure you are not a chick?
A typical trait of a chick is that they always have to immediately call their friends to share what they find to be interesting. I would check your shorts just to make sure.
To the bickering crew,
Listen I wasn't really sure what I was seeking. But it had nothign to do with ACT or substance abuse. Religion yes, sure. Let's have the talk. I have no problem with that.
Brad, what I do have a problem with is your statements about freewill. You say that freewill is a gift. By saying that sentence alone you are defeating the ideal of Freewill. How is something that is inheriantly free given to us? Who is giving it?
Freewill exists the moment we are born. People either choice to live by it or function by the meandering mores and folkways of society.
Regardless. Happiness, I think is more of a state than an actual feeling. I think we can chose to he happy or to be pissed off. It takes a lot of self control. When I wrote the post I was obviously questioning these very things and not feeling very happy. I still don't have an answer. That's cool. I may never find it.
But I love being patronized. That's my favorite. Keep it up.
Latron,
Dee
Dee,
Do you mean patronize or patronize? As in I am a patron, or I am being patronizing.
Thanks for finally getting back to the subject that you started. I have been checking for a response for days. You been busy?
As for free will, you are analyzing the subject based on the assumption that choice is inherently free. Who says it is? You may believe it is. That does not mean you are correct. I may believe that God gives it to us, but that does not mean that he has to.
I don't believe we are always free to choose. When I was only five there were many choices that I did not have. It didn't matter how much I begged to go to the park. My parents had complete control. Being as I was only a little kid I could not force them to let me go to the park, they were much stronger and faster than me. For that matter there is always someone else with more control that can take away your ability to make any choices.
It is not difficult for me to be under the assumption that if there is a God, that they would ultimately have the power to take away my choice. I say it is a gift because I believe God is choosing to let me have choices. I consider it a privilege.
If there is no God then the discussion is mute, but since we don’t know either way the discussion continues on as it has for at least a thousand years. Welcome to the discussion.
Brad,
I have been very busy.
As for Patronizing, I was talking about Anonymous. He likes to tell me the way it is. And the way it's supposed to be.
I love that.
If you say that freewill is a gift and a privliege than you are more of a holy-roller than I thought. I'm sorry I just don't buy into it.
Read some Ayn Rand. Free your mind of these chains. Otherwise you'll start saying things like, "George Bush is a moral man".
Latro,
Dee
Ok you got me started.
What is moral and who defines it, Ayn Rand?
Where does our concept of moral come from?
Dee,
I don't have any intentions of getting you to buy into religion or a concept of God. I just like discussing it. I could care less what you believe. Well I wouldn't say I completely don't care. I am interested in what you think.
I think morality can be defined by karma.
This goes back to something I truly feel is the code of the world order: Do onto others as you have them do upon yourself.
Ayn Rand does not define morality. But she does speak of the implications of world held back by greed and an ideal of collective collabaration. If we chose to follow the greatness of others and hang on to their coat tails we only end up being moochers basking in the gloy of others.
Basically do you own thing. Be your own person. Use the Freewill that you were born with to make your own path.
Latronic,
Dee
Let's discuss it then. Tell me about it. You say that you consider yourself a Christian, right?
So do a lot of people. Some people consider themselves Jewish or Muslim. Shinto, Buddha.
What's right, what's wrong. If Brad grew up in India would you not be a Christian? Isn't your sect defined by your upbringing?
I mean if your parents didn't have you go to church as a child. Would you have a different view?
I know I have my views because I was not subjected to religion as a child. I had to seek it out on my own. I did that, and I found that it didn't make any sense for me.
I realize it makes sense for a lot of people. Great for them. They can pray for me. I get that a lot, by the way. People tell me that they will pray for me becuase I'm agnostic. Gee thanks. Great. You know what you can do with your prayers? Save them for somebody that believes there is a diety in the almighty sky that will answer them.
Tell me how it all makes sense to you?
I am curious. I am seriously curious.
Dee
Dee,
I said "my leanings are Christian" not that I am a Christian. Although I grew up going to a Christian Church (you went with me a few times) I do not believe that this determines the out come of my faith. I will say that it definitely has a huge influence on most people though. It hasn’t had that big an influence on my beliefs though. I say this because in the not too distant past I had converted to Islam. Yes it is true. I prayed 5 times a day, fasted at Ramadan, and gave up a whole bunch of fun things. I won't go into why that happened or why I would not consider myself a Muslim anymore. You can ask me some time if you like.
This was a very interesting time in my life. September the 11th had just happened, and I was in grad school at the time living with three devout Christians. One was a devout Catholic who at least twice felt the lord calling him to become a priest. Another was an evangelical Christian (very devout) and the third was gradually becoming more and more evangelical. As a group we would stay up late and have quite interesting religious based philosophical discussions. Pretty much as in depth as you can get. The discussions never became heated and where quite educational.
From this experience I have learned that what is true for myself is not necessarily true for someone else, and that we may never know all the answers to the universe. I had a hard time explaining this to the evangelical because he would tell me that he knew that Christ was his lord and savior and that Christianity was the only way. He couldn’t explain in words why he knew, he just knew. I tried to explain to him that my beliefs or any one else’s could be based on just as much conviction as his and who is he to say that his beliefs are the correct ones. He struggled with his faith many times because of the many questions I had posed to him over two years. In the end this actually only strengthened his faith. I am very happy for him in this respect. It can be very comforting to believe in something like that, especially once your faith has been tested.
Brad,
Good points are being brought up. Nobody knows the truth. It's nice to be a truth-seeker, but it does end up being quite laborious.
What can we do but sit and wonder. Ponder the meaning. I'm not judging anybody for their faiths. I just want to know how and why it works for them.
I'm yet to find a solid answer.
Dee,
Are you looking for a solid answer to why a particular faith may work for us, or why it may work for you?
If it is about me, I am not sure it is possible to give an explanation that will suffice on a message board. I have already given you a few examples of reasons why I believe in God or a higher being. Answering why I may be a Christian or a Muslim is a bit more difficult. Since I am not really either, that makes it even more difficult. We will need to chat on the phone or in person about it some time.
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