So what exactly is the point of it all then?

[Thinkingthesethoughts]

Life? What are we here for?

I’m not depressed, just having a midweek musing while ill at home on the sofa.
If it’s just to reproduce and pass our genes on, how does that explain infertility?
Unless we have occupations that make a huge difference in people’s lives, or change the course of history somehow, how are we making any difference?

Why do you feel we’re here?

Not sure the children in Gaza/Ukraine agree with you.

I’m not sure I understand your point.
Do you mean that people who are in situations of extreme danger, suffering etc are somehow disqualified from having a relationship with God?

Absolutely not. But it's hard to believe in a God who is good when children suffer every day.

I think it is connection. We are all linked in some way to everything around us. If we live considerately, with open hearts and minds we help bring light into the world, and reduce suffering. Even if on a small scale, for a small time.

For example, driving to work on the motorway. If we all viewed ourselves as part of one big team, working together, things would probably be a lot safer, than if we only looked out for or prioritised ourselves.

Life can be tough, few of us escape some level of suffering. A decade on I still grieve for my child, but the kind hearts of others got me through. Woolly hugs people included! Now I’m determined to do the same.

Without wishing to get into a theological debate here (we can agree to disagree!), it's interesting that what you've said is exactly why I believe in God. It's all so amazing and full of patterns and intricacies that I feel it can only have been created by an intelligent being. As well as the vastness of the universe, there are also microscopic organisms and atoms. Amazing! I just don't believe it's all sheer randomness and chance. It's possible to believe in both evolution and God.

I get you.

Suffering, calamity, disasters, disease, wars etc are all part of life in a fallen world where all of creation is in a kind of groaning anguish, longing for this age to be over and for “the age to come” to finally arrive. Children aren’t exempt from any of that and their plight is often exacerbated by their powerlessness and dependence on adults.

God is bringing everything to its culmination, and subsequent re-creation, when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21.

We’re just not there yet.

Why should she have a reason, and does it matter?

Why are some people infertile?

It's because the continuation of the species is not dependent on individuals. As long as enough reproduce for the species to continue, it doesn't matter (to the species) if not everyone does.

In many species only certain individuals breed and those that don't, often help care for the young in their group.

My favourite quote by Henry Miller is:

“The aim of life is to live and to live is to be aware; joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware”

that’s how I feel about being alive.

Buy a goat. It will all make sense then.

Chickens are better

In short: enjoy your life, be kind, get meaning from the small things, love deeply, and live mindfully ❤️
@ForeverDelayedEpiphany

Great advice for us all to keep in mind as we go about our daily lives❤
It's so easy to forget to enjoy the simple pleasures and who and what really matters to us.

I am absolutely horrified @Wellingtonspie

"Infertility as harsh as it sounds is nature weeding out those who should not reproduce"

Shame on you

Exactly…interesting point

Agreed

Shame on me for pointing out a biological fact? If you cannot reproduce naturally that is natures way is pretty simple.

Same as animals that go extinct because they refuse to breed. Dogs that cannot breed and give birth naturally because their bodies are these days so mis figured they cannot safely.

From a purely scientific way if you cannot breed and give birth that is natures ways of stopping your genes. Nature or biology gives no fucks to your feelings or mine it cares about survival the same as viruses.

A successful virus or disease does not kill all its hosts. It kills enough but keeps enough to spread. If not killed too fast it would die out due to lack of hosts. Fertility is the same be it animal or human it wants the best to survive the faults live but not enough to end the species otherwise it all dies and fails anyway.

The HIV virus as horrific as it is, is a bloody magnificent virus to view from a scientific point of view the way it takes over an evolves.

Like the Hamlet thing: "there's nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so".

I don't think that hedonism and caring about others are necessarily mutually exclusive - I think many moral relativists who don't believe in a divine creator enjoy being kind to others, so that can be their version of hedonism.

There are lots of kind people who don't believe in a divine creator and who can justify their actions without referring to God. Also, even if they were being totally selfish, it's good for social cohesion and one's own emotional wellbeing to be kind to others, so it's an evolutionary survival strategy if nothing else.

I don't personally think there are adequate logical arguments for the existence of a creator, because that's not really how faith works. The notion that one's inner thoughts are proof that there are outer thoughts (i.e. from a creator) is only convincing to people who already believe there are outer thoughts. I get how people with faith get there, but it can feel like a bit of a leap to non-believers.

YANBU. We're life. We will procreate, we will die. Not much more. Just a blip in time. Irrelevant really. Enjoy it while it lasts

@Wellingtonspie Did you read the other thread about you?

A whole thread about me? I highly doubt it.

Shame on me for pointing out a biological fact? If you cannot reproduce naturally that is natures way is pretty simple.

You didn't say that, though - you said

Infertility as harsh as it sounds is nature weeding out those who should not reproduce, this can also be evidenced partly in the huge increase in sen since things like IVF and being able to keep 24weekers alive.
...
Yes I get the argument but broken bones, but antibiotics, but they just keep someone alive they don’t create people that nature never wanted to exist.

Are you seriously saying that it's a biological fact that nature has its own will and that it actually wants things and makes moral judgements about who should and shouldn't reproduce?

That description of what nature is and how it works about as far from biological fact as I've ever read.

It sounds more like the way someone might describe a deity, but it doesn't sound like science at all.

@Wellingtonspie There was…

It had to be taken down though as it was sort of a thread about a thread.

It was about the comments you made about infertility…

We aren't alive. We are computer generated programmes who think life is real.