"To every man upon this earth, death commeth soon or late
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods"

At the age of 12, Henley fell victim to tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 25. In 1867, he successfully passed the Oxford local examination as a senior student. In 1875, he wrote the "Invictus" poem from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53.

Life is futile, yet the biology of most individuals, myself included, prevents suicide. We are born with a set of adaptations that propel us to continue on in the face of suffering and futility. We have fears, desires, and instincts that guide our actions. Our consciousness seems trapped in a cause and effect world from which the only escape is death, yet that same cause and effect system contains many elements delaying death's arrival. Yet death itself is another facet of life that demonstrates futility.

A child does not have the freedom to choose to exist before he is born. When parents choose to have a child (or fail to plan not to) their selfish action forces existence on an individual. Some lives are more "good" than others, but many are full of suffering. Also, ultimately, it seems that life cannot escape the death of the universe itself.

All of the joys and pleasures that anyone has ever felt come at the price of all the sorrows and suffering that anyone has ever felt. By propogating a new generation, we ensure that there will be more suffering. To say that your joys are worth the price of the suffering of others is a poverty, an injustice, and entirely immoral.

However, killing only a portion of those living is also terribly unethical, as this only breeds more suffering in those that survive. Mass murder is not ethical. Extinction, however, is. There will never be peace without all life's end.

I say that if there existed a button that when pressed guaranteed that all life would end, not pressing that button would be an act of true evil. To think otherwise is to think that your joys are more important than the allieviation of the suffering of others.

Life is futile, yet the biology of most individuals, myself included, prevents suicide. We are born with a set of adaptations that propel us to continue on in the face of suffering and futility. We have fears, desires, and instincts that guide our actions. Our consciousness seems trapped in a cause and effect world from which the only escape is death, yet that same cause and effect system contains many elements delaying death's arrival. Yet death itself is another facet of life that demonstrates futility.

A child does not have the freedom to choose to exist before he is born. When parents choose to have a child (or fail to plan not to) their selfish action forces existence on an individual. Some lives are more "good" than others, but many are full of suffering. Also, ultimately, it seems that life cannot escape the death of the universe itself.

All of the joys and pleasures that anyone has ever felt come at the price of all the sorrows and suffering that anyone has ever felt. By propogating a new generation, we ensure that there will be more suffering. To say that your joys are worth the price of the suffering of others is a poverty, an injustice, and entirely immoral.

However, killing only a portion of those living is also terribly unethical, as this only breeds more suffering in those that survive. Mass murder is not ethical. Extinction, however, is. There will never be peace without all life's end.

I say that if there existed a button that when pressed guaranteed that all life would end, not pressing that button would be an act of true evil. To think otherwise is to think that your joys are more important than the allieviation of the suffering of others.

Its all down to perspective. Your sitting in that dark corner, we have all visited that cold and depressing corner. If you can just try moving out into the light and stop being so introvert, you might just see joy in the world and smell the roses. You will be extinct, its the nature of things. Enjoy the ride bros. there ain't another.

A noiseless patient spider, I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark'd how to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself. Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. And you O my soul where you stand, Surrounded, detatched, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them. Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile anchor hold, Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

I find it fascinating that the assumption is I am depressed an in anguish myself. I am an extremely boring individual in person, but I recongnize how "good' my life is by comparison to the majority of humans or animals that have ever lived. I don't wish for anyone to lose what they love, or to lose all that I love. I simply pose that, semantic statements that there are no such actual things as "good" or "evil" aside, the action taken for one's own joy at the cost of another's suffering is the hallmark of evil, the very definition of unethical. The loss of the good is a lesser evil than the continuation of the bad.

If life could be made such that one's joys did not come at the cost of other's suffering, then the argument would be flipped, and indeed it would be unethical to make the choice to take away that life.

Being alive is not unethical. Perpetuation of life is unethical. By breeding a new generation, we ensure that there will be suffering. We breed that generation out of our own desires and motivations to have family and see our work as biological and social creatures come to fruition. Perhaps some will be happy, perhaps your child will, but there will be many that will not. Producing new generations is quite literally staking the future suffering of some members of those generations against the value we place in the joy of others or ourselves.

I would also like to change one of my original statements from:

"I say that if there existed a button that when pressed guaranteed that all life would end, not pressing that button would be an act of true evil. To think otherwise is to think that your joys are more important than the allieviation of the suffering of others."

to:

"I say that if there existed a button that when pressed guaranteed that all life would cease to be able to reproduce, not pressing that button would be an act of true evil. To think otherwise is to think that your joys are more important than the allieviation of the suffering of others.

Life is futile, yet the biology of most individuals, myself included, prevents suicide. We are born with a set of adaptations that propel us to continue on in the face of suffering and futility. We have fears, desires, and instincts that guide our actions. Our consciousness seems trapped in a cause and effect world from which the only escape is death, yet that same cause and effect system contains many elements delaying death's arrival. Yet death itself is another facet of life that demonstrates futility.

A child does not have the freedom to choose to exist before he is born. When parents choose to have a child (or fail to plan not to) their selfish action forces existence on an individual. Some lives are more "good" than others, but many are full of suffering. Also, ultimately, it seems that life cannot escape the death of the universe itself.

All of the joys and pleasures that anyone has ever felt come at the price of all the sorrows and suffering that anyone has ever felt. By propogating a new generation, we ensure that there will be more suffering. To say that your joys are worth the price of the suffering of others is a poverty, an injustice, and entirely immoral.

However, killing only a portion of those living is also terribly unethical, as this only breeds more suffering in those that survive. Mass murder is not ethical. Extinction, however, is. There will never be peace without all life's end.

I say that if there existed a button that when pressed guaranteed that all life would end, not pressing that button would be an act of true evil. To think otherwise is to think that your joys are more important than the allieviation of the suffering of others.

But "your" children, maybe not yours specifically but your in the proverbial sense, are going to suffer. From our perspective it is also certain that preserving the future is futile. The livable universe itself will one day die. To say that it is a long way off is no better, as that in and of itself punctuates our limited being, makes clearer how pointless and futile our short lives are.

You are not the only one who bears the consequence of your decision. All of your decendents and many other's decendents bear the consequences as well.

The "that which does not kill me makes me stronger" argument..

By that definition, hardship in this case is not suffering, its enjoyable. .