GENIUS FORUMS

There is only one degree to which one dies: dead. But can there be degrees to which one lives their life. Is there a better life, a more depressing life, a less important life? If the answer is no to all as if to apply the idea that life must follow death and have only one degree, then what is the point of living? I could die early and still be equal to the person who lived a century of a virtuous, joyful life in terms of life's measure. If life has only one degree: living, then why is it human nature to desire.

Gurrb wrote: If life has only one degree: living, then why is it human nature to desire.

Because humans are chemically programmed that way. It gives them the longest possible chance to get it.

Gurrb wrote:There is only one degree to which one dies: dead. But can there be degrees to which one lives their life. Is there a better life, a more depressing life, a less important life?

There are different degrees of dead, too. There's clinically dead, brain dead,emotionally dead, gangrene or severe frostbite can make a body partially dead...

Gurrb wrote:Is there a better life

If you choose to value one type of life over another, the closer a life is to that which you choose to value is a "better" life.

Gurrb wrote:a more depressing life

"Depressing" is a subjective value.

Gurrb wrote:a less important life?

If you choose to value one type of life over another, a life that is further from that which you choose to value is a less important life, to you anyway.

Gurrb wrote:If the answer is no to all as if to apply the idea that life must follow death and have only one degree, then what is the point of living?

I'm not sure what you are getting at here.

Gurrb wrote:I could die early and still be equal to the person who lived a century of a virtuous, joyful life in terms of life's measure.

Yes, if you choose to assign value to life in such a way.

Gurrb wrote:If life has only one degree: living, then why is it human nature to desire.

Prince is right that humans are programmed that way. Other animals have desire, too. A dog may desire to play with a toy or dig a hole. A wolf may desire to be leader of the pack. A cat may desire to lay on one person's lap over another - or prefer to nap in the window. A squirrel may desire a nut. Animals may have other desires that we might think of as purely human desires as well - we are not privy to all of the thoughts of every animal.

prince wrote:It gives them the longest possible chance to get it.

What do you mean by this?

Elizabeth Isabelle wrote: What do you mean by this?

Isn't it obvious? The human life is a maximization of all experience and intensity possible in this realm.

To think that this is it, that there is no superior designer behind it is just being ridiculously obtuse.

prince wrote:The human life is a maximization of all experience and intensity possible in this realm.

So by longest, your emphasis, you mean most emotional? No, that wasn't obvious. I suspected that you meant longest lifespan - and some types of trees live longer than humans. Also lobsters, when not caught, commonly live over a hundred years. Although humans can get over 100, the common lifespan is much shorter.

prince wrote:To think that this is it, that there is no superior designer behind it is just being ridiculously obtuse.

Wow, what a perfect example of the poisoning the well fallacy.

prince wrote:... human life is a maximization of all experience and intensity possible ...

Well said.

Just dump the "in this realm" at the end as your only realm is the very life you're conceiving of.

Any notions about designers can be, fundamentally, nothing more but fractions seen through veils and mirrors. In the highest form of philosophy it can not be a matter of concern. But in living life one could easily sense it this way and give it names, metaphorically, as all names are. This divide should be understood.

Diebert van Rhijn wrote:Just dump the "in this realm" at the end as your only realm is the very life you're conceiving of.

The OP seemed to also refer to the afterlife. I suspect that prince was trying to reference that.

Humans are 'programmed' to desire... to desire a 'complete' and a life worthy of 'heaven'. Heaven being simply a symbol of leaving this world more pure than your have entered it (existence as a human being). If there is no difference in the purity of humans, no difference in the quality to which one has lived their life, then why are we 'programmed' to desire this life, one in which we attempt to do that which is good, and, for the most part, avoid that which is conceivably evil (by humankind's standards)?

The apple is a glow with neon, but only with the correct bob dylan glasses.

lol! I liked that one Steven.., I have an old pair of sunglasses with purple lenses, like John Lennon used to wear. They do paint the world with a surreal glow...but, one really doesn't need glasses to achieve this effect. :)

to respond, late. those are just different terms with the word 'dead' in them, they are not truly the act of being dead.

if a child dies before being baptised, is he going to hell?