On myself =)if god offers us a choice, why it forces us to chose good by menacing us with eternal punishment? It would be better off figuring who is good and who is bad by saying nothing. Also, if god is omniscient, as catholicism claims, why it even bothers to make the test if it knows the result? It could skip straigh to the rewards and punishments part. Finally, if our motivation to be good is heaven and the avoidance of hell, doesnt that means we are doing good out of self-interest, and not trully because we care for others?

That depends on your philosophy of religion. I don't believe that God 'menaces' anybody although it would seem that way from the Old Testament. And I really don't think it is about reward-and-punishment. I understand why it seems that way but it is very basic thinking, if you excuse me for so say. Good=heaven, bad=hell, it is all worked out in advance, go directly to jail. Some might believe that but I really don't think it is what it means.

I think this is a very important question.

Lots of people are negative about life not having any inerrant purpose. But I think it would suck if it did. Imagine if you existed and started out with a book of rules written by god telling us that we are here too... erm... create a soul for ourselves? And we keep living lives untill we get to the point of being a all loving perfect soul.... Something like that.
Im much happier with the idea that we can create (recognize our) purpose ourselves. It gives us alot more freedom.

Lots of people are also negative about the fact we are going to die anyway so whats the point? Thats an ego perspective. Its just your ego's natural reaction. People that think that arent looking hard enough. Life is a series of moments that are consciousness experiences. Some of these moments put in order give us the illusion that they are going in the direction of them coming to a stop (end). Time and memories create this delusional state. I think its very interesting our consciousness can experience things like being separate from other parts of it and how we would react with the illusion that it is going to stop one day.

This is my positive take on the main things that give people depression about existence. However I do often feel depressed and negative. But I use this as a sign i need to grow in that area. There are still fears and things i havnt faced at the back of my mind that I need to face so i can atleaset rationalise (understand) it.

My question to you is. Are you negative or positive about this figment we call existence?

It is hard watching people go through the motions of their lives not fulling understanding or wanting to understand their own existence.

humans may be the only animal that understands there is an end and that some how makes us more romantic.

I think neutrally about this thought, not positive nor negative. I believe that's the way it should be. Negatively thinking about our existence, always trying to find a purpose is unhealthy and is a waste of your time because it's not a question with an answer.

Thinking too positively about our existence doesn't make much sense to me because it seems like we're avoiding the truth which is we will live our lives and that will be it.

In my opinion, there are two legacies people leave behind and that is what they contribute to mankind and how they affected others directly or indirectly.

Really what any one person is in this vast ocean of chaos.......

......is what they have left behind in either contributions and the impact on others. My take on this question is don't be too negative yet being too positive may leave you following a false sense of purpose and therefore eventually leading you nowhere. Neutrally, your not thinking much about existence but simply living your living and getting the best out of it.

In all due respect, to consciously "think" about what is positive is the problem and it comes from a personal perspective. In my opinion "positive" is a "natural" state, only influenced by the negatives it is exposed to if one listens to it. As you state, "...that will be it" is an assumption and it is a personal one for all do not assume as such. As the OP is efforting to determine, is that a positive notion or a negative one in that we have not established that as a truth. Very many believe we live our lives and that is "not it".

Might I suggest you alter the term "mankind" to "humankind" for one is a bit "lopsided", one is not. As far as he rest, I do agree except there is something to be said as to what that is "we carried forward" if you believe "that sort of thing"? I am of the belief what we carry forward is our "positive, natural, pure" mind and it depends on that temper of the collective state we arrive in and the influence is has over that collective that represents "all of us". If that overall collective is "negative", we are essentially in deep do do, so to speak or what you might call our wasted nature as we are not living up to our potential and burning it up such as can be witnessed in "our death". A very negative outcome if you only consider that you "left behind". That, too, is a bit lopsided, IMO.

Yes, yogi, it appears to be chaotic, when it is, IMO, not at all. It is very simple, if fact. We only "think" it chaotic because we are subject to listening to so many "personal perceptions" that disturb that "natural state" in us, or that 'positive' state or that quiet state free of that "noise" that is indeed those personal perceptions of others that are imposed on us, IMO.

Yes, yogi, one can't be too much of either as Goldilocks said, it needs to be "just right" or it's "natural state". Please consider "just right" has no meaning when there is a "best and worst" as you say "make the best of it". That immediately indicates someone must suffer the worst of it, right? For instance take the word "wealth". The antonym of it is "poverty". IMO, to reach that just right and natural state, we must do all we can to eliminate that antonym. If we consider them equal but separate dualities it creates a circular effect that is represent in the term stagnant and what goes around comes around and history does indeed repeat itself and that is what drove Nietzsche insane, among other things and also IMO.

If I might offer some food for thought we can all chew on. As we discuss positive/negative; isn't that the same thing as light/dark?

The quiet mind, IMO, is the positive mind and the busy mind is the negative one for it is thinking when it shouldn't be. As I have said so many times, "just leave it alone" for it will respond on it's own if we don't mess with it, extemporaneously. Call it impromptu, ad-libing, spur of the moment, off the cuff, to illustrate what I mean. It is truly one mind communicating with another in "harmony". Now if anyone we are engaged with says something we do not understand, or is contrary to what the other perceives, the negative mind and the senses lose "contact" and focus and subsequently stops hearing and starts thinking. We are so accustomed to looking for what is wrong, we can't hear the "right" they might be offered. It is the ego protecting itself against something it cannot hear for it has become accustom to what "it" knows within it own protective sphere.

Thinking too positively about our existence doesn't make much sense to me because it seems like we're avoiding the truth which is we will live our lives and that will be it.

I prefer to not consider light positive and darkness negative, nor the other way around, because sometimes I want to move out of the light and in the dark, and sometimes I want to move out of the dark and in the light =)

I dont get it, without thinking, how can communication even happen? It would be as talking into the microphone of a crashed computer: Being crashed, it will not process and record anything.

I think this is a very important question.

Lots of people are negative about life not having any inerrant purpose. But I think it would suck if it did. Imagine if you existed and started out with a book of rules written by god telling us that we are here too... erm... create a soul for ourselves? And we keep living lives untill we get to the point of being a all loving perfect soul.... Something like that.
Im much happier with the idea that we can create (recognize our) purpose ourselves. It gives us alot more freedom.

Lots of people are also negative about the fact we are going to die anyway so whats the point? Thats an ego perspective. Its just your ego's natural reaction. People that think that arent looking hard enough. Life is a series of moments that are consciousness experiences. Some of these moments put in order give us the illusion that they are going in the direction of them coming to a stop (end). Time and memories create this delusional state. I think its very interesting our consciousness can experience things like being separate from other parts of it and how we would react with the illusion that it is going to stop one day.

This is my positive take on the main things that give people depression about existence. However I do often feel depressed and negative. But I use this as a sign i need to grow in that area. There are still fears and things i havnt faced at the back of my mind that I need to face so i can atleaset rationalise (understand) it.


My question to you is. Are you negative or positive about this figment we call existence?

But, how to know if the positive view is not the truth, and that your neutral view is not actually negative? =)

Thanks manored Let me see if I can relate what I meant better. I was using "light and dark" as metaphors for right and wrong as it is presumed we naturally know the difference as it relates to the choices we make. IMO, if we are left alone without "negative" inertia" being imposed on us from outside stimulus other than what we experience "naturally", we will always do the right thing, and that is what I call "god in motion" or being "tuned in" with that "universal collective consciousness" not only being protected from any "negativity" but also guided in it, "when needed". Without going into more detail, does that help?

Very easily and spontaneously. You will be absolutely amazed at what you say, as am I so very, very often at what I communicate without giving it a second thought. Have you ever been engaged in an activity and all of a sudden you thought of something and you screwed up what you were doing? Ha! You know the old saying, "think long, think wrong"; IMO, there is a truth there. As far as the computer, think of another person you are speaking to and they only look as thought they are listening, when actually they are not hearing a word you have to say. Ha! Somehow we know they are not listening because we instinctively follow up a statement with "do you know what I mean", "understand", "here what I saying", "get it". Ha! Usually those statements begin with "Let me tell you something", at which time they begin to "crash". I can really get into this in much more detail. I hope this better explains what I mean. Instead to "talking at a person" you "communicate with a person".

Well that all depends on what your perception of reality and existence is. I believe neutral thought is when you really don't generate too much opinion or thought on a particular matter. You're just uninvolved. Not to say that's negative but really just the lack of opinion. Negative and positive views on existence as we know it, could be up for debate even though it seems like there would be a common understanding of each.

What you are telling me is what I call "listening", while you seem to give the word an opposite meaning.