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Existentialist Question

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upthebrackette
Posts: 162 - Karma: 12
So I haven't been able to make up my mind on some things, if anyone is able to help me out great, if not i'll figure it out sooner or later I just feel like I need a little direction if anyone has gotten this far themselves. I know it's a stretch looking for this on NS but I thought I'd give it a shot as it's been bothering me for a while.

Let's say everything's made up of particles. Different particles for different things. All these particles are touching each other as a result of airlike substances (gas and all that) so if you do anything (i.e. move) you'll affect the particles around you. However, since there are different types of particles in relation to different things (gas, skin, trees, anything) there must be some type of space in between to differentiate between each type of particle.

I think that we could either all be connected through these particles so that everything we do causes a reaction with another being OR our actions could fall between the cracks of everything so that what we do does not matter. So theoretically I could burn down a building and it will not effect me at all. Sure i'll be arrested and all that but it will have no effect on my being. It will have an effect on somebody else if they believe that it does. But if I believe that I am not connected to that person so therefore I will be able to go on living and will not care about it. I will not care about the issue morally because since we are not all connected it doesn't matter.

I would like to believe that we are all connected but I feel like if I do that I am putting my faith in something that I cannot see, which would make it plausible for me to believe in a higher being which I firmly do not.

How can I tell whether or not my actions are worthwhile when every person is destined to the same fate? Sway me in the direction of connections/a higher being or the belief that nothing we do matters and we all end up dead anyway so there is no point other than to satisfy my wants. Thanks for the help!
Mar 4 2008 10:56PM
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EastcoastAR5
Posts: 2721 - Karma: 15
Dude there is no point to life, Just enjoy it and make the most of it while you have it.

Mar 4 2008 10:58PM
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Tinga
Posts: 11349 - Karma: 2,333
well when you get down to it all humans are is a bunch of glorified chemicals and tissues. emotions and thoughts are just little particles floating around. so in the end it doesnt matter what you did but it may matter to someone else and then your impact will affect the course of history.
Mar 4 2008 11:00PM
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doublexl
Posts: 8407 - Karma: 27
your not gonna care that your dead once your dead so....go burn shit!!!!!
Mar 4 2008 11:13PM
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J_Walk
Posts: 1076 - Karma: 28
dude we don't know what thoughts and emotions are really made up of, i guess like technically they are contained within the head which is made up of chemicals but aside from that we don't know much about that at all. I don't think were very close at all to scientifically explaining how consciousness occurs.
Mar 4 2008 11:25PM
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Phantom
Posts: 908 - Karma: 180
Thinking about emotions as chemicals and particles and electricity is kind of like thinking that santa is really just your parents, and it just makes you realize how commercialized/lame it really is.

So just shut up and enjoy it. To an extent ignorance actually is bliss.
Mar 5 2008 12:21AM
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Leo.
Posts: 508 - Karma: 17
does this relate to existentialism at all?
Mar 5 2008 12:32AM
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BobYohan
Posts: 3001 - Karma: 375
yeah it kinda does, but much more directly to what people think existentialism means after having watched i heart huckabees. which im pretty sure this guy recently did. and probably while high. anyways...
what specifically do you mean when you say that your actions on something else have no impact on your 'being'?. and where did you get the assumption that you can only be effected by something if it can make physical contact with you? Your own mind does not have an identifiable physical location or contact with anything, but it exists and is real to you.  Even if the mind is physically supported, its operations are conceptual. So it isnt even necessary to have more than a conceptual connection to people and events for them to matter to your 'being', here taking being to mean your mind and what is real for you personally.  While watching certain movies may present ideas of interconnectedness that are comforting, there are plenty of other ways define interactions as meaningful.
Mar 5 2008 12:42AM
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upthebrackette
Posts: 162 - Karma: 12
I don't smoke. I don't see that being of any relevance. I don't tell others that they do drugs when I have no idea who they are. And I haven't seen I Heart Huckabee's I thought it was a chick flick?

When I said that actions have no impact on my being I meant my mind/thoughts. If my arm get's cut off my mind will still be able to function just as well as if it were there.

I feel that I can only be effected by what I choose to believe. If I choose to believe that everyone is connected I think that my actions will have an effect on other people so I will be concerned about my actions as they may make others lives either better or more difficult. The connection that I envison is all encompassing, not only physical but mental allowing for the belief in a higher being that guides us all which I think I said towards the end.
Mar 5 2008 1:43AM
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bikerocker
Posts: 1427 - Karma: 461
dude the answer is at the bottom of the bottle... when you get there there is nothing, that's the answer.  you can either work with it, or just keep emptying bottles.

that's the best advice possible.
Mar 5 2008 11:59AM
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upthebrackette
Posts: 162 - Karma: 12
It's not about the actions, it's about the beliefs behind the actions.

If I lost an arm it would change my view on experinces but not my outlook on what I believe happens after life, what the purpose of my life is, and what I believe will happen as a result of my actions. It has nothing to do with that whatsoever.

I'm not talking about literally burning down a house. If something drastic happens I'm talking about how one can cope with it. Either it effects you because you're caught up in this world or you don't care because you believe that nothing matters and you will  not go anywhere when you die anyway.

Yes human decisions are fallible. The beauty of it is using your mind to come up with your own theories to delve deeper and deeper into your beliefs. I keep trying because I believe that everyone's decision could have been wrong, and there is no way of proving that to myself unless I make the journey.
Mar 8 2008 3:26AM
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