Lydy Nickerson (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} lydy) wrote, |
Yeah. We're here and there's nothing to do but cope with it. In the end, whether we have free will or not (and having a wonky brain makes you really doubt that we do) is immaterial. Whatever it is, we're stuck with it.
Actually, I think you're addressing a different issue. I agree with you, but whether or not we have free will is not the same question as whether or not it means anything.
Game pieces on a board have no free will, but they mean things within the context of the game, so even if we as individuals have no true ability to choose, nevertheless there could be ontological meaning in our lives and deaths. As people like to remind me constantly, God is very obscure and our suffering may serve purposes beyond our understanding. Personally, I think that explanation knocks a huge whole in the theory of a loving god, but many people have been known to disagree. Some at the point of a sword, in fact.
If, as seems likely to me, the universe came about at a random moment creating time and space, and largely random forces functioning within the framework of the material world bring us to this point, then our lives have no ontological meaning. Lacking validation from outside the mechanistic, vast, uncaring universe, are we meaningful? The question of who I am and what I am, is an iteration of that same question. Why am I born, why will I die, and why did I spend any of the intervening time wearing a digital watch?
It's true, whatever it is, we are stuck with it. But that's partly a depressive viewpoint. The slow, painful plodding of life isn't what life is about, but it sure constitutes the majority of my waking life. We do it because it's how we get to the next bit, and the bit after that. Whether or not it's worth the journey, well, I'm often of mixed minds myself. I don't make a very good fatalist, though.
Did I ever tell you that I figured out a good answer to the question, "Why don't I just kill myself?" It's a perfectly valid question, and there are days when it's very hard to think of a good reason not to. My answer, though, is, "Next year, the medtech will be better." Life may not mean anything, but eventually it might stop hurting, and that would be an awfully nice thing.
Actually, I think you're addressing a different issue. I agree with you, but whether or not we have free will is not the same question as whether or not it means anything.
Game pieces on a board have no free will, but they mean things within the context of the game, so even if we as individuals have no true ability to choose, nevertheless there could be ontological meaning in our lives and deaths. As people like to remind me constantly, God is very obscure and our suffering may serve purposes beyond our understanding. Personally, I think that explanation knocks a huge whole in the theory of a loving god, but many people have been known to disagree. Some at the point of a sword, in fact.
If, as seems likely to me, the universe came about at a random moment creating time and space, and largely random forces functioning within the framework of the material world bring us to this point, then our lives have no ontological meaning. Lacking validation from outside the mechanistic, vast, uncaring universe, are we meaningful? The question of who I am and what I am, is an iteration of that same question. Why am I born, why will I die, and why did I spend any of the intervening time wearing a digital watch?
It's true, whatever it is, we are stuck with it. But that's partly a depressive viewpoint. The slow, painful plodding of life isn't what life is about, but it sure constitutes the majority of my waking life. We do it because it's how we get to the next bit, and the bit after that. Whether or not it's worth the journey, well, I'm often of mixed minds myself. I don't make a very good fatalist, though.
Did I ever tell you that I figured out a good answer to the question, "Why don't I just kill myself?" It's a perfectly valid question, and there are days when it's very hard to think of a good reason not to. My answer, though, is, "Next year, the medtech will be better." Life may not mean anything, but eventually it might stop hurting, and that would be an awfully nice thing.
