[Combine 017]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

I actually don't have "faith" that science will uncover the beginnings of the universe. I'm OK with the idea that we may never know - I'm simply saying that if we ever DO discover how the universe was created, the answer will be scientific in nature. I'm basing this on the fact that every other event in nature can be explained scientifically. Perhaps the Universe has just always existed, as you believe God has always existed? Maybe it was not formed by any one or any event - it just Is.

I actually consider myself an absurdist, if I had to label my life philosophy. I think that life is ultimately meaningless. We live for about 80 years and die. In the infinity of the Universe, where all time exists and all space exists, these 80 years are almost nothing. Your relatives may remember you for a while after you die, but eventually everyone and everything will be forgotten, forever.

This isn't an easy thing to deal with. Everyone must realize their own meaninglessness and accept it in some way. I think there are three options. One is suicide. However, I don't believe this is an acceptable option - to merely end one's own existence is even more absurd than continue a meaningless life. It is an easy out that does not seek to solve the problem.

The second option is religion. To believe in an afterlife of some sort. You realize that this life is absurd, so you look for a life beyond this one - a life that does have meaning and is not absurd. This is just another form of suicide - it is philosophical suicide. You abandon reason for an answer based on no facts, and refuse to actually solve the problem at hand. You choose ignorant bliss, a security blanket, an opiate, over the hard answer, which leads to the third and only solution:

Acceptance of the absurd. You accept the difficult answer - life really is meaningless. But you rebel against that meaninglessness - you carve out your own purpose and meaning in life. You decide what meaning your life will have, and you work towards that, while accepting that ultimately it will not matter.

And I'm still working on it. I still don't like the idea of death. I haven't completely accepted it's unstoppable nature, and it does scare me at times. When my plane takes off or lands, I worry it will extend beyond the runway and into fire - and I worry that I haven't done enough.

Nailed it.