Life is Precious

[Atheon]

While your assertion is correct, it is not in my life.  My mother, father, grandfather and grandmother all chose to die when faced with imminent death.  My dad had to commit suicide because he was in the last stages of copd and felt he had no choice.  My mom died of ovarian cancer and begged to have it ended in the end.  My grandmother refused to take any medication with her advanced diabetes and my grandfather fought off the ambulance personal who were trying to transport him to a hospital.  All of them, when faced with imminent death chose death--and if we had a merciful system would have chosen it sooner.  And I assure you that all of them loved life.  Life is very precious, but at a certain point death can be preferred.   

Or course, which is why I used the word "most". Quality of life is also an important consideration, and there is a point where death is preferable to continued suffering. The wishes of the sufferer are paramount, however: if I were suffering from Stephen Hawking's illness, I would have wanted to die long ago, but Hawking chose to remain alive, and we are all the richer for it.

This issue can get into some very tricky territory when the sufferer cannot communicate or has diminished mental capacity, and I'm no expert in the nuances of this murky area. In general, I support the concept of death with dignity.

[Givemeareason]

So do empty heads when the win blows. Will you quit whistling! Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the largest experiences of life. Too many of us divide and dissipate our energies in debating actions which should be taken for granted. I wanted to insult you, but I knew you wouldn't understand. Solitary

An insult would have been just fine if I could have gained something constructive from it.  Otherwise you would have become the empty barrel from my point of view.  I am here to interract.  So please feel free to insult me and I will trust you to make certain I understand.

[Givemeareason]

Can you support these claims?

No.  Do you have reason to not support them.

[Givemeareason]

I couldn't disagree more.  Look at the problems we have even convincing a significant portion of the population that anthropogenic climate change even exists, much less a concerted effort of applied research to remediate the damage.

Is it in principle possible to apply technology to solve a number of our ongoing issues on this planet?  Yes.  Is it likely under current social circumstances?  Quite frankly, no.  Given the behavior of humans as masses, I expect that once we reach the stage that only the clinically delusional could deny climate change is happening, we will miss our opportunity to repair the damage because the same sort of people who currently deny change will be wasting our time trying to affix (avoid) blame rather than trying to resolve the problem.

And I couldn't agree more.  But that is only in the short term.  We are also becoming more aware as a species.  And while we are squabbling amongst ourselves which is a good thing in my view we ultimately will come to the correct decisions even though we will never agree on them.

[Givemeareason]

The definition of nihilism is:   The rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless. This is why the reference was made.

True, nobody can quantify the amount of sentience in the universe, but we can be reasonably certain that it exists (elsewhere).

I would imagine that (intelligent) alien beings get their information the same way we do;  scientific method; i.e., systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.  This process functions on the planet Remulac (480,000 L.Y.s from Earth) as well as it does here.   I would be very surprised to learn that they believe in gods.   ha hah...  Hey that might be an interesting topic for a thread....  Could aliens believe in gods?  Nahh,,  aliens would be smarter than that.

I would never suggest the universe itself is sentient.  Agreed, that would be a spiritual and religious belief.

I view nihilism on a scale and existing with no purpose.  One is purpose.   Zero is no purpose.  Myself and most people here probably exist as a fraction.   The religious exist ssomewhere one or below zero depending on what they believe in.  I guess we will have just till we encounter aliens before we can know they believe in.

[SGOS]

Can you support these claims?

No.  Do you have reason to not support them.

Not at all.  The problem is that I can't find anything that actually supports their validity.

[Givemeareason]

Not at all.  The problem is that I can't find anything that actually supports their validity.

Well let me know if you find something

[Unbeliever]

"The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless." - Steven Weinberg

I think life is, in general, completely meaningless. From the perspective of that life, though, it is perceived as precious. Each of us considers our own puny lives to be full of meaning, and precious, but nature couldn't care less whether we exist, or are suffering excruciating pain, or even if the planet Earth even exists.

We can each try to make some sort of meaning in our lives, but it's only our meaning, and our lives. Outside of our local circle of people, no one cares about us, personally, anyway. We're just consumers who consume in order to further enrich the already wealthy.

[Unbeliever]

I tend to think we will not go extinct but  we may drive everything else extinct.

I'm pretty sure we could not survive the extinction of everything else. We need oxygen, which we get from many of the other species, like plants and phytoplankton. If they go, we go.

[Munch]

I just absolve to the fact that one day the sun will go supernova and wipe out this planet along with every other one. Of course by then I'll be long dead and turned to ashes scattered somewhere, so I'll not really care.

[Unbeliever]

Theres a formula postulated which roughly calculates the number of planets which would be home to (intelligent) sentient beings capable of radio communication:

Yeah, very roughly! All anyone can do with most of those terms is pure guesswork and wishful thinking, especially those toward the right side of the equation. We're just beginning to get a handle on a the number of habitable planets in the galaxy, but only just.

Here's a Drake equation calculator:
http://www.as.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/drake.pl

[SGOS]

I just absolve to the fact that one day the sun will go supernova and wipe out this planet along with every other one. Of course by then I'll be long dead and turned to ashes scattered somewhere, so I'll not really care.

Well, the good news is that our Sun won't be going supernova, which would require a much bigger Sun.  That bad news is it will become a red dwarf (the fate of the smaller stars), which will ultimately have the same effect as the sun expands to the edge of the solar system and fries everything in-between.

[aitm]

Humans are wonderfully ignorant and arrogant. The few that study the sciences and understand the frailty have already sounded the horn but the masses will have none of it, believing quite comfortably that either they or their god will come to the rescue. But as we have seen, even the humble bee, natures pollinator is at risk to our daily ignorances and we will suffer that consequence soon enough. The idea that humans are special is proof of a religious foundation, that anyone not religious believes such stupidity is proof the humans may not indeed, be the most intelligent animals on this earth.

[DeathandGrim]

I'm pro choice and I still think life is precious. Why would life not be precious?

[Givemeareason]

I'm pro choice and I still think life is precious. Why would life not be precious?

We should consider it precious amongst ourselves anytime self awareness is involved.  But on a cosmic scale individuals certainly don't appear important but I am wondering about the importance of our species.