Do you agree with me?

[Avocado]

Premises:

1) There are both good and bad times in life, but both extremes are fleeting.
2) There is beauty in the highs and lows of life.
3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.
4) Existence is temporary.
5) The temporary nature of existence makes the present especially precious.

Discuss.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

1-3, more or less, yes.

not so sure about 4-5, depends on how you're defining existence.

 

[Avocado]

1-3, more or less, yes.

not so sure about 4-5, depends on how you're defining existence.

What I mean is we are alive a short time. If we are destined to die, every moment is infinitely more precious than if we lived eternally. I suppose this is applies elsewhere, as well, since it makes since to appreciate a glass of water before it's gone, either due to the glass being broken, or the water runs out. The good life is nowhere else but the here and now.

Edit:

I was probably a bit vague defining existence earlier, since I know our physical bodies were technically created along with all other matter in the cosmos. The heavier elements in our body were formed when lighter atoms fused in stars and during supernovae. We are all star stuff, each and everyone.

 

[Evee]

3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.

Is it not the other way around?

 

[á´…eparted]

1. Yes
2. Kinda
3. No
4. Yes
5. Kinda

 

[TopCatLSD]

I don't agree with 4 or 5, since I'm a badass mother fucker who's spirit will live long after I'm dead.

The current moment is important, and because of that I strive for greatness and nothing short of it. However, after I'm dead I'm gonna hang out with my #1 home boy Jesus Christ himself and it will be sick af!

 

[tinker683]

Premises:

1) There are both good and bad times in life, but both extremes are fleeting.
2) There is beauty in the highs and lows of life.
3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.
4) Existence is temporary.
5) The temporary nature of existence makes the present especially precious.

Discuss.

SJ mode, ACTIVATE!

1) Ok. I can't help but feel like this is oversimplifying it but ok, that works
2) I can agree with this
3) "Spiritual Growth" is a really nebulous term to me because it has RADICALLY different meanings depending on what religious faith they may ascribe too. But I will say that understanding life's high and lows does lead to growth so that nitpick aside...sure
4) This requires some clarification: Existence for us individually is a temporary, sure, but the universe is going to be around and kicking for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time
5) This I would agree with, and in fact this is one of the cornerstones of secular humanism: This life is the only one we've got so we should make the best of it.

So aside from my aspergian nitpicks, I would agree with all of this.

 

[Frosty]

Premises:

1) There are both good and bad times in life, but both extremes are fleeting.
2) There is beauty in the highs and lows of life.
3) Appreciation of the beauty found in life's highs and lows leads to spiritual growth.
4) Existence is temporary.
5) The temporary nature of existence makes the present especially precious.

Discuss.

I would say that there is definately beauty that can be derived from lifes highs and lows. You would probably be able to really gain a larger range of understanding then if you continually deny your emotions or try to shut away your experience. And I would guess, that through that furthered understanding, you would eventually grow to appreciate your current and temporary existance by becoming more appreciative and accepting of uncertainty.

 

[Tellenbach]

1) Yes, since existence itself is fleeting, everything having to do with existence is fleeting as well

2) Beauty is subjective as are the "highs" and "lows"; I'm not sure that one follows the other.

3) Perhaps. Here's another perspective:

“For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that Love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

4) Yes, unless we're talking about spiritual existence.

5) The worth of something is again, subjective but it is true that the nudging of time changes our perspectives and judgements.

 

[fetus]

I agree.

 

[Avocado]

The way I see it, the world around us and the appreciation of said world is the ultimate reward. There probably isn't an afterlife, so each and every moment is beautiful in its own way. Even "bad" days form a contrast with "good" days, much like how the best televisions have dark blacks to contrast brilliant whites. Life is a beautiful thing and the best time is right now.

 

[Avocado]

SJ mode, ACTIVATE!

1) Ok. I can't help but feel like this is oversimplifying it but ok, that works
2) I can agree with this
3) "Spiritual Growth" is a really nebulous term to me because it has RADICALLY different meanings depending on what religious faith they may ascribe too. But I will say that understanding life's high and lows does lead to growth so that nitpick aside...sure
4) This requires some clarification: Existence for us individually is a temporary, sure, but the universe is going to be around and kicking for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time
5) This I would agree with, and in fact this is one of the cornerstones of secular humanism: This life is the only one we've got so we should make the best of it.

So aside from my aspergian nitpicks, I would agree with all of this.

I don't understand why secular humanism is so vilified where I live. It makes no sense.

 

[ceecee]

I don't understand why secular humanism is so vilified where I live. It makes no sense.

Have you ever been out of the south?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Yes.

We only have one chance to get everything right, and if we're lucky, we might.

 

[Evee]

Yes.

We only have one chance to get everything right, and if we're lucky, we might.

To get what right?

Says who?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

To get what right?

Says who?

Life.

The words themselves are not my own, I confess. I considered them applicable, though.

 

[sprinkles]

Yes because the meaningful existence is now and now is always temporary.

 

[Avocado]

Have you ever been out of the south?

I was invited on an all-expenses paid trip to Cornell university in upstate New York about 2 years ago, but otherwise, no. I've vacationed all over the south with my family, though.

 

[Betty Blue]

1) I can't really agree with... there is a lot of good and bad going on in the world simultaneously. Personally in my life I am lucky enough to have more good affect me. I am aware that I am of the 3-5% that live in a bubble while others suffer... though part of that also causes some (inner) suffering for me.

Idk about the others... may come back to answer another one later.

 

[Avocado]

1) I can't really agree with... there is a lot of good and bad going on in the world simultaneously. Personally in my life I am lucky enough to have more good affect me. I am aware that I am of the 3-5% that live in a bubble while others suffer... though part of that also causes some (inner) suffering for me.

Idk about the others... may come back to answer another one later.

I feel it too, but I need to focus on and grow myself now in the name of balance.