Life is a Distraction

[Phr3121]

I am reading up on Pluto now and I dont understand nothing he talking bout. He seem to just be talking. Socorites die for what he belived in.

Ok dude, it is Plato and Socrates...
Pluto is the dog from Disney and the planet. Yes, Pluto is back on the list of planets again.

 

[Amerikuracana]

Like many in this forum, I have battled depression for a big part of my life. And except for a few major setbacks, it's a battle I have been mostly winning for the past several years. In my everyday life, moment to moment, I feel great. I feel excited to do things and I try to feel the moments. I expose myself to positive stimuli and I don't let negative experiences bring me down. I am always trying to do new things and be active. To other people, I look like I'm really living my life.

Yet, there is always this nagging sense in the back of my mind that one day, depression will catch back up to me. It'll be more accurate to say my fight with depression is a race. It's a race I am currently winning with depression lagging behind, but I worry that one day I will tire out and it will overtake me.

All of the things I do seem like a distraction. I'm distracting myself from the ultimate truth that life is pointless. I cannot find a logical reason to be alive. But I'm giving myself excuses to live by taking on projects or planning trips. If I were to find out tomorrow that I have a fatal disease, I'm not sure if I'd feel that sad about it. I'm going to die anyway so whatever. I guess in that same sense, I'm not killing myself because there is no point in that as well. And as a living organism, I am programmed to want to survive.

Since I am currently alive, I might as well enjoy it as much as I can. I am designing my life around enjoyment with the caveat that I won't fall into destructive hedonism because I don't get enjoyment out of that. I see people who don't seem to be enjoying their lives at all; they're stuck at a boring job they hate and don't really do anything else...for what? I don't get it.

I think I need to ultimately start my own business or something to give me another distraction. I wonder if anybody else feels the same way.

TLDR
Is life just a distraction until we die?

Your selfish childhood joy is over.. Have kids and let them experience it.

 

[Smokes]

Ok dude, it is Plato and Socrates...
Pluto is the dog from Disney and the planet. Yes, Pluto is back on the list of planets again.

my bad

 

[Tycho- Taylor's Version]

I feel the same way re: outpacing depression.

One aspect of religious thought I like to co-opt is the idea of using this life to prepare for something bigger. Since I'm pretty damn confident this is the only life, I imagine myself preparing for some trial later in life when things are good and stable in the present. Keeps me on my toes and away from the apathy of the dull society around me.

 

[Tycho- Taylor's Version]

Also, the positioning of the suicide choice as the logical one that people need to be distracted from is nonsense.

Let's say you decide that everything is shit and you're just going to lie in bed and fade away until you die. Every second that you lie there self-consciously in your own filth, you again and again make the choice to let your life end. It's a passive process only in terms of physical behaviour - mentally the decision to make the commitment and stick to it is the same as any other one you might make.

With that in mind, you might as well commit to an outcome that doesn't completely suck. That's not somehow less logical just because you have to get up and move.

 

[Pugilistic]

"I feel sad, I don't feel like doing anything, I must have depression...."

It's interesting how people much projecting people do. I never said that.

What if you can't do the things you enjoy doing? You can't be happy 100% of the time, than what? How do you deal with unhappiness? You have to know and experience both to know the difference. Have you experienced pain and suffering? How did that feel? How can you not achieve logic and reasoning from that?

Don't you enjoy the things you said you like? I'm not getting what you're saying.
Enjoyment is different from happiness for me. Happiness is too abstract of a concept that I don't really bother with it. I sometimes feel what can be called "happy" and sometimes I don't. That's that.

Anyway my logic goes:
There seems to be no ostensible purpose to be alive.
But I am alive so I must enjoy my life because why should I put myself through misery if there is no purpose to it (Unless that misery can lead to a greater reward)?
If I can't do some of the things I enjoy, I will do other things.
If I'm in a situation where I can't actively do anything I enjoy, I will try to find something I enjoy out of the situation I am in. I try to be in the moment or at least learn from a situation I don't enjoy so I can get further enjoyment later.
Continue until I die.

To me it seems I'm not doing anything that different from what you're proposing other than that you add your own meaning to it. I just think none of this has a point.

The caveat I would add is that for me, there is the element of depression. Depression is just misery created inside one's own head. My battle involves doing things that circumvent depression. I would like to actively face my depression and destroy it rather than outrun it. I am doing a bit of both and but I am wondering if I can ever truly defeat depression where it wouldn't come back in circumstance. If you put in the most extreme of circumstances, would I find an excuse to live and fight for it? Let's say all of my limbs were amputated or something. I am not sure if I would want to live. But then again, I'm not sure if most people would except for a few extraordinary individuals.

Perhaps I'm actually normal and this thread was pointless.

 

[Pugilistic]

Your selfish childhood joy is over.. Have kids and let them experience it.

Why?

Also, the positioning of the suicide choice as the logical one that people need to be distracted from is nonsense.

Let's say you decide that everything is shit and you're just going to lie in bed and fade away until you die. Every second that you lie there self-consciously in your own filth, you again and again make the choice to let your life end. It's a passive process only in terms of physical behaviour - mentally the decision to make the commitment and stick to it is the same as any other one you might make.

With that in mind, you might as well commit to an outcome that doesn't completely suck. That's not somehow less logical just because you have to get up and move.

Well that's that logical conclusion I reached. It's pointless to live. But it's also pointless to kill myself. Since I am already alive anyway, might as well have fun with it. I guess the good thing about this is that I have also become less fearful of doing things. I would have wary I don't cross into self-destruction.

 

[Robocok]

I understand the nihilistic, we're all meat puppets moving ever closer to our expiration date viewpoint but it assumes a lot about this life that we don't know for sure. To me, evidence of a creator is all around us. No one knows that we cease to exist after our physical bodies die. I have faith that we don't. The 'scientific' view that happiness is nothing more than an appropriate balance of chemicals in our brain is true to an extent but also very short sighted.

We're all sharing this life experience together and should look out for one another. I would encourage you to read the gospels and carefully consider the Words of Jesus. Not through the lens of misappropriated moral outrage over wicked self proclaimed followers of Him like the westboro baptists and catholic church but listening to the man Himself, Jesus Christ. His teaching is truth. Check out Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

One thing is for certain, our physical bodies are all going to fail eventually. Sometimes I wonder if I'll make it to an old age and what my quality of life will be like. Will I be drooling in some smelly place for old people being treated with low level contempt by some young person who dislikes their job and me unable to remember who I am or was before when I was young?



I like these old pictures and feel funny thinking about how all of these people are dead now or very close to it. Someday my time will come and I'll be like them. We all will



https://www.openbible.info/topics/death

I miss him.

 

[Robocok]

You're quoting Ecclesiastes.... everything is Vanity.... everything is Meaningless.

Check out Chuck's message

 

[Phlog]

Like many in this forum, I have battled depression for a big part of my life. And except for a few major setbacks, it's a battle I have been mostly winning for the past several years. In my everyday life, moment to moment, I feel great. I feel excited to do things and I try to feel the moments. I expose myself to positive stimuli and I don't let negative experiences bring me down. I am always trying to do new things and be active. To other people, I look like I'm really living my life.

Yet, there is always this nagging sense in the back of my mind that one day, depression will catch back up to me. It'll be more accurate to say my fight with depression is a race. It's a race I am currently winning with depression lagging behind, but I worry that one day I will tire out and it will overtake me.

All of the things I do seem like a distraction. I'm distracting myself from the ultimate truth that life is pointless. I cannot find a logical reason to be alive. But I'm giving myself excuses to live by taking on projects or planning trips. If I were to find out tomorrow that I have a fatal disease, I'm not sure if I'd feel that sad about it. I'm going to die anyway so whatever. I guess in that same sense, I'm not killing myself because there is no point in that as well. And as a living organism, I am programmed to want to survive.

Since I am currently alive, I might as well enjoy it as much as I can. I am designing my life around enjoyment with the caveat that I won't fall into destructive hedonism because I don't get enjoyment out of that. I see people who don't seem to be enjoying their lives at all; they're stuck at a boring job they hate and don't really do anything else...for what? I don't get it.

I think I need to ultimately start my own business or something to give me another distraction. I wonder if anybody else feels the same way.

TLDR
Is life just a distraction until we die?

I agree with you and experience the same, except I like to think of the black dog as my pet, my companion. I have spent so long in his company that I can feel him cocking his head with a grin at things that seem bullshit, nudging my hand to help someone who also hurts, or whimpering at the prospect of social occasions. We know exch other inside and out and it's a loving relationship.

But he's a dog and gets shit wrong, so I gotta be the Alpha and lead us. I'll never let him lead, he wouldn't be comfortable, we'd end up chasing the squirrels of self destruction (drugs, behavior etc)

Life is fighting, every step of the way, ya just gotta find what you want to fight for.

For me it's the good life, family, friends, lifting to be a beast and playing America football. Wife, then kids gave me all the strength I'd ever need, they don't have to be all of it, I'd do without but they've helped me a lot. When I can't play anymore I'll try coaching O or D line. Probably D line, the Dog likes that a lot.

 

[genecop]

Wife and I have an expression, whatever it is that people are doing Is a distraction from the inevitable....WAITING TO DIE....this doesn’t have to be a depressing pointless thing, life is an experience that we have been gifted....it’s not a curse, it’s knowledge, it’s kindness, it’s love...

You will get the answers, but for now, try to enjoy the ride...yes people feel like you, but generally speaking most people are asleep at the wheel...your insight that feels like depression is a gift, use it as such..

 

[Phlog]

Check out Chuck's message

At 9min in he states that psychologists do not account for man's desire for God.

This is nonsense that he says because that gives him reason to exist as a preacher. He's almost there, but he assumes because scientific method has not yet adequately described religiosity, it won't.

The truth is that it describes it some, and describes it more as time passes a nd work is done.

Imagine if such a view was taken in other areas: "we understand walking and running, but flight? Nah, flight is unknowable because God."

God has bestowed us with the power to learn all things, we were born of his image, that's not just a physical metaphor but a mental and spiritual one also. It is through this that we can know God.

 

[Robocok]

At 9min in he states that psychologists do not account for man's desire for God.

This is nonsense that he says because that gives him reason to exist as a preacher. He's almost there, but he assumes because scientific method has not yet adequately described religiosity, it won't.

The truth is that it describes it some, and describes it more as time passes a nd work is done.

Imagine if such a view was taken in other areas: "we understand walking and running, but flight? Nah, flight is unknowable because God."

God has bestowed us with the power to learn all things, we were born of his image, that's not just a physical metaphor but a mental and spiritual one also. It is through this that we can know God.

I think he's referring to science viewed through a secular lens being unable to account for man's desire to know God. Why do you think his job as a preacher to spread the word of God invalidates this statement?

I think I understand what you're talking about as far as his motive for making that statement.. that is, science can't explain this inner yearning inside us to know and understand our Creator, but why would Chuck's contention that the Bible provides this answer mean what he's saying is false?

 

[mushishi]

You need Jesus. Or watch Rick and Morty.

 

[AgentSmecker]

You can't outrun depression. You can keep running, but when it catches you... and it will, its going to be devastating. long

 

[Phlog]

I think he's referring to science viewed through a secular lens being unable to account for man's desire to know God. Why do you think his job as a preacher to spread the word of God invalidates this statement?

I think I understand what you're talking about as far as his motive for making that statement.. that is, science can't explain this inner yearning inside us to know and understand our Creator, but why would Chuck's contention that the Bible provides this answer mean what he's saying is false?

I think it's because he suggests that it is unknowable through science, knowable only through the Bible.

The answer must lie where both meet. The Bible is subject to man's free will in writing, translation and interpretation. Man's free will is inviolable, such is Gods will. Thus our understanding of Gods will is gained through all of nature, specifically ourselves (his image), his creation and his word.

 

[DC23]

Find a reasonably hot woman you wouldn't be ashamed to be seen outside with and have a baby with her.

Problem sorted.

 

[ganjou234]

a living organism

I find logic in that. If that is what we are then I think we should live, that is the purpose.

The essence of life is in the being that bears it.

depression is a race.

IMHO it's like a fight on a cage/ring with no exit but it does have moments of respite between each round. Life is the ring and depression is the other guy on the other corner, sometimes he taps and swaps with another guy. I just gotta stay pissed...

At least that's how I've seen it as...

 

[moreorless87]

At 9min in he states that psychologists do not account for man's desire for God.

This is nonsense that he says because that gives him reason to exist as a preacher. He's almost there, but he assumes because scientific method has not yet adequately described religiosity, it won't.

The truth is that it describes it some, and describes it more as time passes a nd work is done.

Imagine if such a view was taken in other areas: "we understand walking and running, but flight? Nah, flight is unknowable because God.".

I admit I can't be bothered to watch a 90 min clip but in general a lot of such arguments seem to confuse evolutionary theory with social Darwinism, the latter being much more a political movement based on highly questionable readings of scientific research. Basically the desire to justify an unequal social order via "survival of the fittest" yet Darwin himself was claiming "the greater strength of the social or maternal instincts than that of any other instinct or motive" in humans, basically "survival of the kindest".

 

[Robocok]

I think it's because he suggests that it is unknowable through science, knowable only through the Bible.

The answer must lie where both meet. The Bible is subject to man's free will in writing, translation and interpretation. Man's free will is inviolable, such is Gods will. Thus our understanding of Gods will is gained through all of nature, specifically ourselves (his image), his creation and his word.

Again, I would say that he's referring to science viewed through a secular lens. Sometimes it can be helpful to put some definitions out there to ensure we are talking about the same thing.

Science is defined as: the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

If I recall correctly, God and man's desire to know Him relates to what Chuck referred to as the 3rd dimension or the spiritual realm. This is not a bash against science, but an acknowledgement that some human desires and experience fall outside the realm of those that can be explained by normal mechanisms of our body and mind such as a desire for water, food, shelter, companionship, social achievement, etc.

Regarding your comment that the answer must lie where science and the Bible meet, I contend that it does. Science can answer the what and the how of the universe but not the why. Why do we, inhabitants of the world seek after these things? What is the point of life? We're going to die anyway. The Bible answers the question of why.

Your last paragraph states that the Bible is subject to man's free will in writing, translation, and interpretation but in 2 Peter ch. 1 it's written: [20] knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, [21] for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

And in 2 Timothy ch. 3: [16] All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Another topic to explore is why these books are counted as scripture in the 66 total that make up the old and new testament, but it's clear in those 2 verses that it says 1. The Bible is not subject to private interpretation but can be read as a whole contextually to give us a single living truth, and 2. The Bible is the infallible Word of God written through men inspired by the Holy Spirit.

It's true that we're made in God's image, but the Bible also tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The fact that we we are creations of God made in his image does not make us inviolable.

We're even warned about this in 2 Timothy ch. 4: [3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; [4] and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

There are more verses I want to share but I will leave it here for now. I can direct you to some resources and people who can answer some questions better than I can. Getting sleepy