life is a gift

[Darkover]

There's as much cultural nonsense surrounding the idea that life is a gift as any other uncomfortable topic that human's try to explain away in order to feel secure. After all, we came into this world without our consent and certainly weren't handed a road map. From the first traumatic push through the birth canal, we landed in a situation not of our choosing. I contend that everyone is suffering from some form of PTSD due to the birth process alone, but when you factor in the total randomness of the lottery of birth, the deck really is stacked against many of us.

For those of us who lucked out when it came to the circumstances we fell into on the day we were born, well, let's just say, don't get overconfident.
Life is such that everything is hanging in a precarious balance and the tiniest breeze at the wrong moment can send any lucky lottery winner into a tailspin from which they may never recover. And, whether we want to admit it or not, the grim possibilities appear to be limitless. From a microscopic brain-eating amoeba up our nose to enduring the death of a child to being bludgeoned by another crazed human being, we are under threat every moment of every day of our short lives in a million different ways.
Is the fact that a single sperm managed to find my mother's egg thus forming a new life which turned out to be me all the proof I need that an all-powerful, loving God gave me this life?
Seriously! Am I unique and there's a plan for my life? Was there, in fact, a personal plan for all humans? By 2050, there will have been 113 billion human beings that have lived, suffered and died on this planet. All with a personal plan? All enjoying this marvelous gift called life?
I'm not surprised that religious folklore has tried to deal with the questions surrounding the mystery of life?
Yet, like so many things that they've insisted on explaining away by oversimplification, the contradictions in their stories stand out like a sore thumb to a cultural myth buster like myself. Life certainly is a mystery. The very fact that the planet is absolutely teeming with life from the tiniest amoeba to the tallest tree and everything in between does boggle the mind. That the instinct to survive and procreate has kept many species from going extinct is also something at which to marvel.
But in all of that mystery and mayhem, there is nothing that implies that the universe has our happiness in mind.
Nor does there appear to be any guardian angels standing by to direct our footsteps and protect us from pain and suffering or horrors and atrocities. That seems to be left up to some kind of random luck of the draw where the nastiest of the lot can win big while a little baby gets stepped on and squished into the pavement.
No rhyme or reason to the system at all, if it can even be called a system.
There's a weakness in human beings called denial. It is a defense mechanism that keeps us from searching for viable options. Religion preys upon that weakness. Our cultural drive to explain life through story telling was once the only way to make meaning of the world. Religion used our perpetual state of fear and denial to step in and take control of societies at large and persist in doing so to this day. However, we have gathered an enormous amount of knowledge since our early tribal days. For storytelling to be the way we explain life to our offspring insures that ignorance will continue to influence social outcomes. What a waste of human ingenuity and curiosity, scientific endeavors and altruism.
Another long held cultural belief that continues to support and promote intentional stupidity is the whole idea that life is a gift because god is good for us and to us.
Obviously, there is never a good explanation offered by the devout when random humans are selected to suffer untold anguish. Why them and not me? There is no answer that satisfies. To say there is no plan or no god watching over us, however, is something that the religious simply can't face. Their stories give them comfort perhaps but at the expense of delayed problem solving and creative solutions? And, if they're right, how is it even possible to consider the gods they have concocted to be loving or caring? I wouldn't treat a dog the way some humans are forced to live.
The truth is that life is actually horrible most of the time for some people and grim some of the time for the rest.
There is no one that doesn't experience suffering, however. That's life. It's a series of problems that requires solving and in between the problems are some feel good moments if we're lucky. Life isn't designed to be nice or good. Happiness wasn't factored into the equation. That doesn't mean we won't ever experience joy, but it's not promised and it's often fleeting.
The ONLY thing that makes a difference in the quality of life is how we treat each other.
If we aren't interested in the good of mankind as a whole, something more than just our own well-being, then life will become even grimmer. Without human compassion, ingenuity and creativity, we must face whatever nature unrelentingly doles out as well as what other humans perpetrate without much hope of things getting better.
I happen to believe that it's our job to do what we can to make the world a better place for the children we insist on having.
Every good thing that has happened in the world was because a human lifted a hand to help. No god ever fed a hungry child. It's always been humans who make the difference. Making up stories won't change anything. Praying to a god doesn't work. Believing that we're unique and that god has a plan for our lives is at the very least deluded and the very worst arrogant. Life isn't good or bad. It just is. How we cope with and how we help others cope with life is all that we've got. Our progress as a species depends on our willingness to find ways to make it possible for more and more people to live better and safer lives.
That's as GOOD as it gets, my friends.
It's up to us. If we stand around waiting for a god to lift so much as a little finger to help out, nothing will get done. NOTHING. And, although the world will always be riddled with problems to solve, we can find solutions to many of our problems through cooperation and the willingness to bravely face the realities of life together.
More than ever before in the history of humankind, our cultural fairy tales are not only useless to society but harmful to our progress.

 

[HermitLonerGuy]

majority of people are deluded cowards who need to trick themselves into thinking life means anything and that they are important, they go on making up fake stories about magical all powerful beings that live in the sky and will take them into a rainbow filled paradise land after they die just because they are too afraid to admit their own mortality . yet they call us suicidal people the coward ones.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Life is random. You certainly can't expect it to treat you fairly. Maybe you'll get lucky, maybe you won't. It's true- I don't think life cares about our happiness.

I have known people who valued their lives though. They WOULD say things like- 'life is precious' which is pretty much the same as saying it's a gift I would say. Interestingly though- their lives weren't ALL easy or happy. They had tragedies and illnesses- just like most. They weren't religious either. They were just VERY good at enjoying things and making the most of the good times. They loved their friends, they loved one another- they were a couple. They loved going to the theatre and enjoying nice food. As they aged and couldn't do as much, they loved their TV and films. They were VERY good at being grateful for what people did for them and they lavished love and generosity on others. I don't think people who experience real joy in life simply do it because they're told to. I think for some- it is genuine. But like you mentioned- the happiest people I know have people around them. I think that's a major difference between them and us. An awful lot of people here are isolated. Even if they do have people around them, many feel alone. Many also have been let down badly by people- which makes it hard for them to trust again. I agree though- kindness is so important.

 

[Eternal🌈Rainbow]

Your whole post was brilliant, @Darkover . I really liked it.

The ONLY thing that makes a difference in the quality of life is how we treat each other

This line stands out for me and sums up everything else.

I have known people who valued their lives though. They WOULD say things like- 'life is precious' [...]. They had tragedies and illnesses- just like most. They weren't religious either. They were just VERY good at enjoying things and making the most of the good times. [...] They were VERY good at being grateful for what people did for them and they lavished love and generosity on others.

I am one of those people. However, the following is true as well:

the happiest people I know have people around them. [...] Kindness is so important.

That's why despite having the capacity to feel pure joy and bliss just by feeling the sunshine on my skin (and I'm not exaggerating), I can't keep living. I'm in excruciating pain every day due to heartbreak, grief and loneliness.
We humans have the capacity to make each other's life a heavenly or a hellish experience. I wish more people realised that and decided to act on it. It doesn't take much to be kind and offer a helping and loving hand to each other.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

"life is a gift" is simply a subjective feeling within our society.

 

[leavingsoon99]

From my perspective, I don't know what life is. I know that humans don't know what its meaning is. They can't know. They have the ability to impose what they want life to be onto existence. As for looking out for the good of others, I do and don't agree with this. Humans are selfish. Machiavelli taught me that. Furthermore, they only like things that seem to work in their favor. Anything that actually works in their best interests are usually abhorred because with that knowledge comes responsibility on each individual to uphold that value or thing that would make life good for everyone else. This is why a few can rule a many. The few can make their lives easy at the expense of others, then convince the others that life is supposed to be hard. I don't know, there are many layers to that.

Life is not a gift. I think it's just an experience.

 

[todiefor]

There's as much cultural nonsense surrounding the idea that life is a gift as any other uncomfortable topic that human's try to explain away in order to feel secure. After all, we came into this world without our consent and certainly weren't handed a road map. From the first traumatic push through the birth canal, we landed in a situation not of our choosing. I contend that everyone is suffering from some form of PTSD due to the birth process alone, but when you factor in the total randomness of the lottery of birth, the deck really is stacked against many of us.

For those of us who lucked out when it came to the circumstances we fell into on the day we were born, well, let's just say, don't get overconfident.
Life is such that everything is hanging in a precarious balance and the tiniest breeze at the wrong moment can send any lucky lottery winner into a tailspin from which they may never recover. And, whether we want to admit it or not, the grim possibilities appear to be limitless. From a microscopic brain-eating amoeba up our nose to enduring the death of a child to being bludgeoned by another crazed human being, we are under threat every moment of every day of our short lives in a million different ways.
Is the fact that a single sperm managed to find my mother's egg thus forming a new life which turned out to be me all the proof I need that an all-powerful, loving God gave me this life?
Seriously! Am I unique and there's a plan for my life? Was there, in fact, a personal plan for all humans? By 2050, there will have been 113 billion human beings that have lived, suffered and died on this planet. All with a personal plan? All enjoying this marvelous gift called life?
I'm not surprised that religious folklore has tried to deal with the questions surrounding the mystery of life?
Yet, like so many things that they've insisted on explaining away by oversimplification, the contradictions in their stories stand out like a sore thumb to a cultural myth buster like myself. Life certainly is a mystery. The very fact that the planet is absolutely teeming with life from the tiniest amoeba to the tallest tree and everything in between does boggle the mind. That the instinct to survive and procreate has kept many species from going extinct is also something at which to marvel.
But in all of that mystery and mayhem, there is nothing that implies that the universe has our happiness in mind.
Nor does there appear to be any guardian angels standing by to direct our footsteps and protect us from pain and suffering or horrors and atrocities. That seems to be left up to some kind of random luck of the draw where the nastiest of the lot can win big while a little baby gets stepped on and squished into the pavement.
No rhyme or reason to the system at all, if it can even be called a system.
There's a weakness in human beings called denial. It is a defense mechanism that keeps us from searching for viable options. Religion preys upon that weakness. Our cultural drive to explain life through story telling was once the only way to make meaning of the world. Religion used our perpetual state of fear and denial to step in and take control of societies at large and persist in doing so to this day. However, we have gathered an enormous amount of knowledge since our early tribal days. For storytelling to be the way we explain life to our offspring insures that ignorance will continue to influence social outcomes. What a waste of human ingenuity and curiosity, scientific endeavors and altruism.
Another long held cultural belief that continues to support and promote intentional stupidity is the whole idea that life is a gift because god is good for us and to us.
Obviously, there is never a good explanation offered by the devout when random humans are selected to suffer untold anguish. Why them and not me? There is no answer that satisfies. To say there is no plan or no god watching over us, however, is something that the religious simply can't face. Their stories give them comfort perhaps but at the expense of delayed problem solving and creative solutions? And, if they're right, how is it even possible to consider the gods they have concocted to be loving or caring? I wouldn't treat a dog the way some humans are forced to live.
The truth is that life is actually horrible most of the time for some people and grim some of the time for the rest.
There is no one that doesn't experience suffering, however. That's life. It's a series of problems that requires solving and in between the problems are some feel good moments if we're lucky. Life isn't designed to be nice or good. Happiness wasn't factored into the equation. That doesn't mean we won't ever experience joy, but it's not promised and it's often fleeting.
The ONLY thing that makes a difference in the quality of life is how we treat each other.
If we aren't interested in the good of mankind as a whole, something more than just our own well-being, then life will become even grimmer. Without human compassion, ingenuity and creativity, we must face whatever nature unrelentingly doles out as well as what other humans perpetrate without much hope of things getting better.
I happen to believe that it's our job to do what we can to make the world a better place for the children we insist on having.
Every good thing that has happened in the world was because a human lifted a hand to help. No god ever fed a hungry child. It's always been humans who make the difference. Making up stories won't change anything. Praying to a god doesn't work. Believing that we're unique and that god has a plan for our lives is at the very least deluded and the very worst arrogant. Life isn't good or bad. It just is. How we cope with and how we help others cope with life is all that we've got. Our progress as a species depends on our willingness to find ways to make it possible for more and more people to live better and safer lives.
That's as GOOD as it gets, my friends.
It's up to us. If we stand around waiting for a god to lift so much as a little finger to help out, nothing will get done. NOTHING. And, although the world will always be riddled with problems to solve, we can find solutions to many of our problems through cooperation and the willingness to bravely face the realities of life together.
More than ever before in the history of humankind, our cultural fairy tales are not only useless to society but harmful to our progress.

Thank you @Darkover, I really like your sentiment. You have my vote on kindness and empathy in the way we treat each other, that's all we can do to make the world a better place. I will uphold that until the end, even if it was human cruelty and betrayal and breach of trust by those closest to me that brought me to ctb, I will not let that pain and darkness change how I want to treat the world and others, and even those that betrayed me. This made me feel better thank you.

 

[Eternal🌈Rainbow]

I will not let that pain and darkness change how I want to treat the world and others, and even those that betrayed me.

This is beautiful, and I thank you for it, for not letting cruelty ruin your spirit. This world needs more people like you. Thank you for existing

 

[FuneralCry]

I just see existence as being a harmful way to cause one to suffer so unnecessarily all for the sake of it when previously there was ideal, peaceful non-existence, the absence of everything. To me this could never be a "gift", existence is burdensome and I wish I never existed at all, there's no benefit to being conscious and aware, I see nothing desirable about having the ability to suffer so extremely all while being destined to decay.

 

[Goku Black]

There's as much cultural nonsense surrounding the idea that life is a gift as any other uncomfortable topic that human's try to explain away in order to feel secure. After all, we came into this world without our consent and certainly weren't handed a road map. From the first traumatic push through the birth canal, we landed in a situation not of our choosing. I contend that everyone is suffering from some form of PTSD due to the birth process alone, but when you factor in the total randomness of the lottery of birth, the deck really is stacked against many of us.

For those of us who lucked out when it came to the circumstances we fell into on the day we were born, well, let's just say, don't get overconfident.
Life is such that everything is hanging in a precarious balance and the tiniest breeze at the wrong moment can send any lucky lottery winner into a tailspin from which they may never recover. And, whether we want to admit it or not, the grim possibilities appear to be limitless. From a microscopic brain-eating amoeba up our nose to enduring the death of a child to being bludgeoned by another crazed human being, we are under threat every moment of every day of our short lives in a million different ways.
Is the fact that a single sperm managed to find my mother's egg thus forming a new life which turned out to be me all the proof I need that an all-powerful, loving God gave me this life?
Seriously! Am I unique and there's a plan for my life? Was there, in fact, a personal plan for all humans? By 2050, there will have been 113 billion human beings that have lived, suffered and died on this planet. All with a personal plan? All enjoying this marvelous gift called life?
I'm not surprised that religious folklore has tried to deal with the questions surrounding the mystery of life?
Yet, like so many things that they've insisted on explaining away by oversimplification, the contradictions in their stories stand out like a sore thumb to a cultural myth buster like myself. Life certainly is a mystery. The very fact that the planet is absolutely teeming with life from the tiniest amoeba to the tallest tree and everything in between does boggle the mind. That the instinct to survive and procreate has kept many species from going extinct is also something at which to marvel.
But in all of that mystery and mayhem, there is nothing that implies that the universe has our happiness in mind.
Nor does there appear to be any guardian angels standing by to direct our footsteps and protect us from pain and suffering or horrors and atrocities. That seems to be left up to some kind of random luck of the draw where the nastiest of the lot can win big while a little baby gets stepped on and squished into the pavement.
No rhyme or reason to the system at all, if it can even be called a system.
There's a weakness in human beings called denial. It is a defense mechanism that keeps us from searching for viable options. Religion preys upon that weakness. Our cultural drive to explain life through story telling was once the only way to make meaning of the world. Religion used our perpetual state of fear and denial to step in and take control of societies at large and persist in doing so to this day. However, we have gathered an enormous amount of knowledge since our early tribal days. For storytelling to be the way we explain life to our offspring insures that ignorance will continue to influence social outcomes. What a waste of human ingenuity and curiosity, scientific endeavors and altruism.
Another long held cultural belief that continues to support and promote intentional stupidity is the whole idea that life is a gift because god is good for us and to us.
Obviously, there is never a good explanation offered by the devout when random humans are selected to suffer untold anguish. Why them and not me? There is no answer that satisfies. To say there is no plan or no god watching over us, however, is something that the religious simply can't face. Their stories give them comfort perhaps but at the expense of delayed problem solving and creative solutions? And, if they're right, how is it even possible to consider the gods they have concocted to be loving or caring? I wouldn't treat a dog the way some humans are forced to live.
The truth is that life is actually horrible most of the time for some people and grim some of the time for the rest.
There is no one that doesn't experience suffering, however. That's life. It's a series of problems that requires solving and in between the problems are some feel good moments if we're lucky. Life isn't designed to be nice or good. Happiness wasn't factored into the equation. That doesn't mean we won't ever experience joy, but it's not promised and it's often fleeting.
The ONLY thing that makes a difference in the quality of life is how we treat each other.
If we aren't interested in the good of mankind as a whole, something more than just our own well-being, then life will become even grimmer. Without human compassion, ingenuity and creativity, we must face whatever nature unrelentingly doles out as well as what other humans perpetrate without much hope of things getting better.
I happen to believe that it's our job to do what we can to make the world a better place for the children we insist on having.
Every good thing that has happened in the world was because a human lifted a hand to help. No god ever fed a hungry child. It's always been humans who make the difference. Making up stories won't change anything. Praying to a god doesn't work. Believing that we're unique and that god has a plan for our lives is at the very least deluded and the very worst arrogant. Life isn't good or bad. It just is. How we cope with and how we help others cope with life is all that we've got. Our progress as a species depends on our willingness to find ways to make it possible for more and more people to live better and safer lives.
That's as GOOD as it gets, my friends.
It's up to us. If we stand around waiting for a god to lift so much as a little finger to help out, nothing will get done. NOTHING. And, although the world will always be riddled with problems to solve, we can find solutions to many of our problems through cooperation and the willingness to bravely face the realities of life together.
More than ever before in the history of humankind, our cultural fairy tales are not only useless to society but harmful to our progress.

I seriously couldn't have said it better than this but yes, never ever in the history of humankind, our cultural fairy tales are not only useless to society but harmful to our progress.

Religions have held back society, preying on the weaknesses of the human mind, using that to take root. No God has or likely ever will rush to the distressed, lost and hurting, it always takes human effort to do that but with the history of how humans inevitably treat each other, it doesn't end well most of the time.

 

[aGoodDayToDie]

Fuck people, fuck life, fuck religion