Doctor Steuss wrote:<--- Musing (rather clumsily) on the converse.
If there’s no existence beyond this one, then wouldn’t it also be cruel to extinguish something’s only chance of existing within this crazy quantum crap-shoot we were lucky enough to be dealt into? Essentially, is facilitating non-existence less cruel than allowing existence (however un-pleasurable said existence may be)?
I've had a few discussions with fellow reprobates over this issue. I think the key to thinking like you do is assigning a value of meaning to existence. I think most people think existence is a wonderful gift, and ought to be cherished. I personally don't think existence has any intrinsic value or worth beyond what it is, which is existing. The tragedy that a person who loves life and lives every day with a can-do postive mental attitude, but is snuffed out by some random act at an early age while some dour hateful person who barely clings to living as an instinct rather than a desire is a good example of the arbitrary nature of the universe (and for some, God).
This is where my nihilism kicks in, and I don't expect others to join me in my worldview (but I'll still argue with someone for the sake of arguing). I think the only value we as human beings truly value is pleasure. We seek it. We want it. We crave it. Why? Because existing sucks ass. It's hard. There's a host of ills that humans endure during a lifetime that, if we don't balance it out with the pursuit of pleasure, would make existence hell on earth. If someone's life can't produce pleasure, a respite from the unrelenting predatory nature of life, then I think it's the humane thing to do to help them leave this existence in a respectful manner. A chronically ill man, a terminal woman, a starving child that no one will ever care for... Etc... Deserve the respect to either kill themselves or be killed in a humane manner, rather than leaving the death to the ravages of parasitic organisms, starvation, other animals, cancerous cells, etc...
So, it is just as immoral to me to sustain suffering because there's some myth that says an invisible deity won't let you in his gated community if you kill yourself or practice euthanasia or abort a crack baby or sterilize an irresponsible human. Funny how we understand the need to do that with pets; can't have our animals running around damned and fighting and getting diseased and reproducing, but hell yes we ought to let ourselves do it because WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!! We're such assholes to think that we aren't subject to the same results every other living organism experiences if populations aren't managed. A collapse is inevitable...
You can’t trust adults to tell you the truth.
Scream the lie, whisper the retraction.- The Left
