What do you believe in

[billy]

even though you can't prove it?

i believe that if it's to their advantage, most people will hurt you.

[rayheinrich]

even though you can't prove it?

i believe that if it's to their advantage, most people will hurt you.

I believe in the roundness of all root vegetables.

[srijantje]

I believe in the beauty of nature[or what's left of it]

[billy]

i believe we will reach the stars...and possibly be very disappointed.

[srijantje]

i reach the stars almost every night,mostly very exciting

[Leanne]

I believe in the roundness of all root vegetables.

the roundness as in sphere, cylinder or cone?

or buttocks?

---

I believe in the basic decency of all people, even though my theory is constantly being disproved. One day all the elements will align properly and all people will realise that they're not all that important so it's not going to hurt to be decent to one another.

I also believe that God ate the Easter Bunny.

[rayheinrich]

Roundness as in 'suitability'.

God eats himself, for the Easter Bunny IS God.

[billy]

no one will ever meet a real god.

[srijantje]

I believe in the basic decency of all people, even though my theory is constantly being disproved. One day all the elements will align properly and all people will realise that they're not all that important so it's not going to hurt to be decent to one another.

i don't believe in the basic decency of people,but think it's good thing to be able to,

[rayheinrich]

.
"no one will ever meet a real god."

I met Steve Wozniak once.


I believe in the basic decency 97.5% of all people.
Sure, sometimes it's possible to run across a
Charles Manson or a Liz Thatcher, but 97.5 to 2.5
are damn good odds.

[addy]

I believe we have souls. Not that I necessarily think we become ghosts that live on after we die or anything, but believing that people have souls or something akin to it is the only thing keeping me from being an existential nihilist.

[popeye]

Gotta go along with that addy, how else would we have our music, poetry and art!

[rayheinrich]

People are always getting us existential nihilists all wrong.
Neither pessimism nor optimism is required. It's perfectly
possible for me to believe in the basic decency of 97.5%
of all people (or, for that matter, enjoy a good dinner with
a friend) without there being some grand meaning or purpose
to existence. Shear hubris!

P.S. "Meaning" is typically a ruse used to persuade one to
take up some form of predatory religion.

P.P.S. Not that there aren't meanings. 167 people die in an
airplane crash on Valentine's Day: Flying into the ground at
500 miles-per-hour is often fatal.

[billy]

i can go along with the soul thing as long as it's a physical one that dies when we do.

i think a lot of people are basically decent but those basically decent people will still rob you if they had the chance and knew they wouldn't get caught, i sure lots of rapists opened doors fro old people and the like.

you outlook and humour stop you from being a nihilist, and your ability to type with more than one finger

[rayheinrich]

i think a lot of people are basically decent but those basically decent people will still rob you if they had the chance and knew they wouldn't get caught, i sure lots of rapists opened doors fro old people and the like.

Ha! Yes! My dad used to put these tiny locks on things.
He knew that any real thief would find them easy to get around,
but he said their value was in keeping honest people out.

I don't expect people to be saints (I certainly ain't.) I just assume
innocence until proven guilty. Playing the odds saves time and worry.

It's NOT some Pollyanna notion, it's very practical (and self-serving).

your outlook and humour stop you from being a nihilist, and your ability to type with more than one finger

I'm an *existential nihilist*, that's a very specific type of nihilist
who mainly doubts that life has any pre-assigned meaning or value (like
the kind that a god provides). Existential nihilism requires people to
create their own meaning (it goes hand-in-hand with atheism). I'm a
moral nihilist as well. But that doesn't mean I think it's ok to kill people.
Society should still try to prevent and punish the act; not because it's
immoral, but because it increases the likelihood that the rest of us can
pursue life, liberty and happiness.

There are many other types of nihilists, some of them MUCH more severe.
BUT... nihilists in general are known for their humor. Humor is based
on fear and anxiety. The most famous humorists (literary and otherwise)
are quite nihilistic.

And yes, more than 1 finger (2 thumbs and 4 fingers to be exact).
Lets me type more and think less.

[srijantje]

Gotta go along with that addy, how else would we have our music, poetry and art!

if that's true,then everything has a soul,so it becomes meaningless,or only humans have souls?god's chosen?
ever listen to whale songs?or the wind in the forest?

[addy]

Seems I was mistaken... I always assumed existential nihilism meant that life is futile, and even trying to ascribe meaning is an exercise in futility. Not very cheery, I thought. I agree, though, that comedy is best served with generous dollops of pessimism

If there was a heaven (and to be frank I never really subscribed to the idea of angels in clouds and stuff), I'd never believe it was only for humans by virtue of us being god's super-special chosen ones amongst all creation; not that we don't have our good points.

[Leanne]

My understanding of existential nihilism is pretty much that there's no greater meaning to life, we're the result of choices made by those who've gone before and our own choices influence the direction of other lives, but at the end of the day we're pretty much subject to the whims of circumstance. We can choose to fight against this and feel hopelessly miserable and pessimistic, but I don't really consider there's much point to being pessimistic or optimistic when the outcome is partly in our hands but largely in the hands of random strangers. Far better to suck it up and poke fun at the world in general, and politicians specifically because they're the ones who provide the most fodder for ridicule.

Not that I consider myself an existential nihilist, but existentialist to a fairly large degree. On my less cynical days, I'd like to imagine myself a Pantheist, but I think mostly that's just the same as wishing I owned a unicorn.

[billy]

humour; i see humour as something i can laugh at, many comedian's see humour as something to make a living with. they often (the depressed one) don't laugh at their own stuff. they also often have a lot of people writing for them. when i say humour i mean the ability to laugh at life, not the ability to see irony but the ability to laugh at irony. as well as death and other shit.
(or so i thought)

[srijantje]

that pretty much sums it up