I think this is an important point. As a person with foresight such as yourself it is very hard to simply ignore your natural self. Some people can “believe” in a method that allows them to only focus on the present or feel content that a superior entity is in control. I wish I could trick myself in to believing in one of these systems as people who do in fact seem content.

I have however arrived at what I believe to be a meaning of life. I think it may appeal to other science types. The main purpose of human life simply seems to be able to persist and gain complexity. You can play a small role in either part. Help life persist or help build complexity. Right now in this time, we simply don’t have enough complexity to even take a stab at the overall meaning. So saying you have the definitive answer is akin to giving up. Thank you for your contribution to the persisting camp though. Your offspring may help us build some complexity.

But, you can believe that one day we ( mankind, machine kind) will know the answer. So why can’t your belief simply be faith in that one day we will find answers and right now you simply don’t know. Help put the next piece in the puzzle while you are here so the next person has a shot .

E.G. help us get off this freaken Rock! :)

This is the kind of thinking that has, in the past, led me to being depressed. It promotes an unhealthy fixation with the future that sends me into a nihilistic, self-perpetuating spiral of inaction.

My answer has been something closer to Buddhist thinking than western religions. It's an intense effort to focus on the current moment. The past is done and cannot be changed. The future will happen, but it's largely beyond our control. It's much more productive and fulfilling to devote all of one's energy and attention to the present. Out of the past, present and future, only the present is real and open to unbiased observation. And practicing removing one's own bias when observing the present moment feels, to me, like the point of life.

Depression is a chemical or structural issue in the brain. Having existential thoughts did not change the structure of your brain or alter its chemistry.

Suggesting you can "lead yourself" to depression by simply thinking is just as wrong as suggesting those with real depression can just "snap out of it."

I've had a diagnosed depression that I treated for many years with medication. And that course of treatment prolonged my illness and didn't ultimately work. What did work was to alter the way that I thought in the way I described above. And I'm not alone...research has shown that CBT and mindfulness training can be more effective than medication in treating depression.

The view that depression has only biological causes is dangerously naive, if not flat out wrong. Depression absolutely can be caused by unhealthy thought patterns.

> Having existential thoughts did not change the structure of your brain or alter its chemistry.

Of course it did - that's what thoughts are.

> Having existential thoughts did not change the structure of your brain or alter its chemistry.

This seems like a really strong statement that can't possibly be absolutely true. Isn't there some literature on this?

I remember seeing some "self care twitter" posts with lists of things that "don't cure depression" (thinking happy thoughts, sunshine, Vitamin D) but obviously some of those do send it into remission in many people. Isn't that enough?

I don't really see what's controversial about saying that thinking can lead you to real clinical depression.

It's something that happens over time it's not like a switch.

This is called "existential angst", and it comes up on HN every year or so. The best treatment is fill your life with distracting obligations.

I had this realization years ago. Yet somehow, I was fine with it - my mentality was, "When I'm dead I'll be too busy being dead to care that I'm dead."

Then six or so months ago this realization struck me again. Every day since, I wrestle through the same exact thoughts that you posted.

I just want to be content.

There is no point to any of it, and its beautiful. I'm thankful that I'm going to eventually turn to dust and be forgotten. It's such a relief.

There is something very Douglas Adams about your response and I absolutely love it.

I mean, sure, for a religious person touching base with God or exploring existential questions might be fruitful but for a non-believer, focusing on these large questions while being in a depression is not your way out of it, because those questions are too grand. A quite healthy person might end up in a depression dwelling on unsolvable mysteries for too long.

If you find yourself in a depression, your thoughts constantly searching for answers to questions about the universe and why we are here, try to do something more akin to what the person in TFA tell about: create. Your real problem is certainly not that you don't have those answers, it's something else.

Look I create all the time. I don't think I have symptoms of depression at all.

However I am saying that what's happening is similar to depression.

I work hard on building something and scaled back on social hangouts all the time, so I can finish it. But it has been years.

I am dating but never sure if I should settle down with this one, or that one.

I think deeply about what is the meaning of it all, and I see that most people are just trying to distract themselves with work or drinks or whatever else. But ultimately I see everything as being very limited. I guess people with depression feel similar things but far more acutely.

Creating stuff doesn't turn off that thought process. Any more than a videogame character adding currency and amassing items means that the video game won't end. What good are all your virtual points then?

There is also the business of just living, accepting reality and the struggle to make things better... for me when I had kids did that sink in. So you can put "hope" in that context. Some find existential relief in altruism in the sense that helping others makes us feel better. Then there is the discovery process itself that can be rewarding. I think we evolved to be curious and seek intellectual stimulation so those are the activities we seek out. Knowledge itself transcends the generations.

> What do you guys think is the point of all our activities if people eventually die?

For me it's to spend your time being happy. Nothing else really matters. If you spend your life being unhappy and feeling bad, remember that you will die and that will be it.

"Most mainstream Judaeo-Christian postulates the immortality of the soul. But it seems to come up against mainstream history and science."

Does it? Science does not answer questions that defy empirical inquiry.

I have been told that we are spirits first and that we are having a temporary in-body experience. We don't currently remember our time before because this period of our eternal existence is a special test. It's a time of development and preparation. After death we will resume our real lives and eventually get our bodies back, permanently, thanks to Jesus Christ.

My whole life I've been considering ways to either prove or disprove that narrative, but it turns out to be strictly unfalsifiable thanks to the part about forgetting our previous experiences. Does that mean the narrative is false? Certainly not. Does that mean it's true? Again, certainly not.

Should I discard that narrative because it's unfalsifiable? Well, I can't prove empirically that my mother loves me, but I hold on to that belief anyway because I think it's right.

It's wrong to burden science with every important question. When we torture science into answering unfalsifiable questions, we change its definition and confuse everyone. I love that the domain of science is constantly expanding and more questions are becoming empirically answerable every day, but we need to maintain our humility and recognize that science still has little to say about the basic questions of our existence.

I wholeheartedly agree that if this life is all there is, there's something seriously wrong. My wife, my children, my parents, my family, and my friends deserve more than just this. I see evidence of their infinite potential. What can I do to help them reach their true, immortal potential?

I don't think I'm the first person to recognize the infinite potential of others. I think more intelligent people figured this stuff out long before I did. I think some of those smart people decided to do something about all the wasted potential in the universe. I think we are all beneficiaries of those smart people and that life isn't anywhere near as bleak as it seems.

If not, someone somewhere is eventually going to be in the right place at the right time and they will set things in motion so that future people will have eternal lives. They will probably decide that eternal beings should have extraordinary experiences such as 100 year long blind tests in planet-sized classrooms. Oh wait. :-)

Anyway, forgive my ramble. Life is extraordinary and hard to pin down.

I mean like for example the archaeology and genetic tracing of native americans building cities 5000 years ago, Egyptian pyramids built 4500 years ago, vs the story that everything on earth got wiped out by a giant flood 4100 years ago. They can't both be true.

Similarly if the Exodus happened Egypt would have been devastated and overrun by Hittites etc.

Or Herod's killing of all the children. Or the mass resurrection of the saints in Matthew. It would have left behind some independent accounts.

Where is all the evidence? That's what I mean.

It can all still be true theologically. But who wrote these books and if it happens that at least some of stories are embellished then doesn't that kind of throw a monkey wrench into it? On what basis are you sure about what to believe?

I think it's more productive to look at the question of consciousness and immortality outside the context of religious doctrines and narratives. Religion provides answers to this question, as does Science, but they don't exhaust all of the possibilities. There's a deeper epistemological issue here about what we know about consciousness and what we can say with certainty about first-person experience.

If this life is a classroom, as I have been told, then there are teachers and test administrators. The administrators withhold certain evidence of the past in order to help us focus on more important things. They want to help us grow in faith, charity, and other values, not just analytical ability.

People are not perfect and prophets are people. I know of a prophet who said Jesus was born in Jerusalem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem. Does that invalidate that prophet? No, he was addressing a people who didn't know the eastern lands very well and he was simplifying. Context is everything, even though we don't always know the full context.

If I were sure about what to believe, it wouldn't be belief anymore; it would be knowledge. If I only acted on things I am certain about, I would do almost nothing, since there is very little I am absolutely certain about. Life became more fulfilling and interesting when I learned to act on not only things I know, but also things I believe. Acting on belief leads to growth and ever increasing certainty that I am making choices that benefit me and my family.