Thoughts on life

[virgilsego]

A friend of mine recently posted about a recent suicide attempt. I'm not going to tell you that I've never entertained such thoughts myself, but I have a philosophy which has evolved over the years and serves me well. It is the reason you all know the happy guy that I am today.

You probably know that I'm a pretty vocal atheist. One of the

Comments

[transoptic]

Interestingly, Creationists use the same exact first half of that argument.

[shadowcircus]

Weaaall, the thing about the first half of that argument (and please don't think I'm tearing it down, virgilsego, because the sentiment of the post is, of course, admirable) is that when you consider the near-infinite size of the universe, life developing on a planet becomes nearly inevitable.

I mean, let's face it - one could say that the perfect environment for abiogenesis and evolution is a one in a billion chance... But we live in a universe with at least several trillion stars. Life was bound to happen somewhere.

Still, that doesn't negate the point of the post - the existence of life is still awe-inspiring, and our short time in the universe shouls still be cherished.

[transoptic]

Of course. I'm a huge fan (though not dedicated subscriber) of the Many Worlds Interpretation. It really bends my mind how each person's own existence is simultaneously infinitesimal and poignantly significant.

I'm just making a tongue-in-cheek observation that the first half of that argument doesn't really help either side.

[virgilsego]

I'm not trying to help either side.