Finally i have the perfect quotes to show my outlook on life

i wonder if anyone knows where they are from, you can probably guess from reading the quotes.

how depressing...although sometimes I do think like that.

I don't know where they're from though.

I make life worthwhile by doing my art and making people laugh ^_^

The Bible.

You can find anything in there if you look hard enough.

it is indeed from the bible, ecclesiastes to be more precise. It does describe how i feel about life quite well though.

You're both right and very very wrong.....

The past is dead, dust in the wind, the future unwritten and uncertain, all we can control is now, because that is all we have and if that is true then nothing matters. If nothing matters then everything you do matters because all we can do is live moment to moment without thought of repucussion and anger because in the end they are useless anyway and like the past dust to the wind. Our only immortality stems from our genes being past onto our children and our only legecy is derived from the memories of others and if you see the point behind my words then you will understand that all we have is now and by rights, if we ever want any lasting impression of ourselves we should do the best we can. What does it matter 100 or even 1000 years down the road if we are remembered, in our own way,it could be said, we would be remembered by the family that once was a beggars you gave money for food because it helped him/her live to find and feed their own family and the only memorial we have is the only one any cdecent human being would need, the plesaure of a child or a family content with their stomachs full.

so there.

yet in the end they are either content or not and ther is nothing you can do to guarantee anything, the future is always uncertain and anything can happen to them or you. You could try really hard for them and still not have anything for them or have a lot to give through no real effort. Also there is no real purpose in being remembered by anyone, what good does it do you. You can help lots of people in your life but ultimatly there are tens of thousands more that you can do nothing about. Or you can do what you think is helpful but will make matters worse for them. There will always be people that need help, Always be people that will suffer and there is nothing that can be done about it.

that is the point my dense friend. Nothing is certain, save for the fact that nothing is certain. I had some problem with this as well as my ex teacher told it to me before I left my order. (I left for personal reasons, but the lessons still vibrate in my soul)...here follows my conversation as far as I can remember it.....

"Why do we try? Our order is shunned by the others for our long views and we try to be the best possible people in a world full of hatred and dispair, that I understand, but why?"
"What are good and evil in their basest terms?"
"Warring concepts, ideals eternally oppossed to each other, each trying to out do and master the other. That is the essence of the balance
"And the balance is eternal?"
"Yes"
"then why do we try? Why join something that could, at this percise moment and in this simple sense at least, be currently losing?"
"Because it's not about wether we win or lose but the trying that counts"
"Exactly, how much would you give for that"
"Everything, even my life that is my-our-faith"
"Imagine you have no faith why fight?"
"......because everyone has a conscience, wether it is from your deity or yourself is uncertain, but conscience compells, in the main body of humans, to do what is right"
"and this enhances your life and that of others even if you have no knowlege what will happen in the future?"
"Yes"
"Do you understand the lesson"
"We struggle to win knowign we never will completely, because it is not realistic to think that the concept of total war can be applied to acts of kindness--or the absence of them, but because it is about the journey, about doing what is right regardless of the future because, God or no, it will improve lives in the short term and if the Gods, and of course free will coincide, then the people that we help will have the chance to improve, it is the idea that they can that we must keep formost, like the journey. When you get right down to it winning is never the issue"
"Well Done"
"thank you"

so your saying that trying to do something enhances your life even if your not really changing anything. by that line of thought it doesn't really matter what you do, as long as you do something and no matter what you do you can't really achieve anything of worth. There is also the problem that trying to enhance your life takes a lot of time and effort that doesn't really get you anywhere in the end, Your trying to tell me that the time and effort put in is what enhances your life but for a lot of people it doesn't. They get stuck doing something that they don't like doing for a job and then come home and do the same thing over and over again.

No ones life is thats simple and it does change things, it changes you and gives others the CHANCE to change, wether they do or not is their own business. Its not about succeeeding, but about trying to. sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. Thats all part of being human. Nothing is simple about humans and neither are you actions, but at least you can try and make them so.

thats one of my problems with life, its so boring, you can get a job that interests you but after a while it is only really doing the same sort of thing over and over again. You cant go and do lots of different stuff because you need a steady income but to get a steady income you need to stick in one job. The exact detail might change but it is essencially the same thing as before.

So get hobbies.

not just collecting things, but one where your skill can grow and evolve.

problem is that nothing holds my interest for long, I am currently bored of all my computer games and i've not got any new books to read. I'm not very sporty musical or artistic. The occasional thing that i do like nobody else does and thus i can't play it. It's probably only me that is like that but it is what i am like, Im really not exagerating

why do you need a steady income? life seems to be judged by the material, yet the wealther erson could be seen as the one that helps the most ppl in whichever capity, money wise or anyother, in which they see fit. As long as you have a place to live and food to eat, who cares if its steady, as long as your not starving.

It depends on what your values are. To some people having money and security is very important to them. I don't think needing security though financial gain is nessicarily wrong, but just means that you hve to give up other things, like a job that you really like etc, if that makes any sense.

yet having a place to live and food to eat costs quite a bit, It takes money to do anything now and what is the point of living if your not going to do anything with your life?

hmm thats the prob i'm having... no money to get on and do things like get own place and food and stuff like that! the world seems to revolve around it.

whether you like it or not the world DOES revolve around money and there is nothing that can be done about it.

Like creative writing? ;)

compared to you lot i'm not very creative. I just can't think of the detail for the stroy i am writing, which is why i haven't done anything too it for a long time

define doinf nothing? you could, for example decide to work in africa, where you dont get paid or have any financial future, you simply hlp those that need it. transposed to the "civilised" world, that could mean soup kitchen work ect. where you are not paid ecept in kind, you work, BY CHOICE for food and a place to sleep ibstead of money and you help people and is helping ppl really doing nothing with your life?

hmm.... gd idea GC.

Ermm Kai- thats my prob i'm writing a story but not got much detail or conversation in it... :(

Helping people in such a way doesn't actually achieve anything. Actually if you think about it you'll realize that it makes things worse for them because they would benefit more if one of them did that instead of you. This is a perfectly feasable (sp) thing until someone comes along from a place like here to take that role stopping one of them from getting it as they only need so many peopoe to do it.

What they really need over there is Employment and a release from corrupt governments. Not free food. Neither of the things i have mentioned will happen though (atleast not for a very long time) because whilst the governments are corrupt they aren't building (nor can they concieved to be building) weapons of mass destruction and thus no other countries will do anything about these governments. Employment has to be fair trade for it to help and companies can operate more successfully elsewhere where the people have had better education.

nothing is that simple kai, money is not the supreme force of the universe. Even if you in a 9-5 job you can still help ppl, financial help is not the only avenue and as to your argument that they would benifit more...their are too many variables in someones life for you to actively draw that conclusion.

The thing that really bugs me kai is that by your obstanate definition, my life, as well as everyone elses has been a waste. I will not have that dammit. I have loved and been loved more completely than I can ever describe, I have taken beating, cuts bruises and mental agonies for what I know is right, I have been to the wall for those that I love sometimes even putting my own health at risk to do so and you tell me that it is worth nothing? I am offended by your shortsighted view and I WILL NOT ever believe that you are right, because if you are then the person I loved more than my own life never mattered and verything I do is waste. She mattered to me and I mattered to her. that is my point. We were painfully aware that she diid not have a lot of time, that she was ill and that it would be senseless to be together, but thats how it made the most sense. Do I regret it? no she was the person I loved. The point is that as long as it matters to you it has a point and as long as it has a point it has a meaning. So stop moping about not being able to understand the point of the world and find your own bloody point by living in the God damned thing!

Hmm not sure how i can follow that...
But i think that every person in the world has a place in the world and matter to at least one person. Each person has a purpose in the world... what is it no one knows... but one person can make a difference...

*huggles to GC*

there is a point, we just don't know it. If you're religious it would be heaven (or similar)

yet by that logic the greatest gift you could give to any religious person would be to kill them.

It seems to me that life is a search for its meaning. People will do lots of different things to give their life perpose but if there is a meaning no-one has worked it out yet.

you are a knob (no offence), how can you generlise religion so? take my example, the greatest gift for my kind is not to die, but to help one another and is it really helping the murder to kill someone else? the muder ends up in all kinds of crap. Do not generalise when you do not know or i might just start getting really annoyed.

I guess that whether or not we as individuals are important depends on what scale you're looking at it. On a large scale I guess we're not very important at all, unless we somehow become Prime Minister or something. We can all probably walk through life without making much of a mark on it. But then if you look on a smaller scale, with the people around you, your friends, family and community, then you can be very important.

For example if you give blood. You could either look at it that millions of people give blood every year, so your measly pint wouldn't really be missed, or you could look at it and say your pint could save two adults' lives.

And with the religious bit, well I can't really speak for other religions, but I know that in Christianity its how we live our lives in terms of helping others etc that allows us to go to heaven, so just being killed staight off is not really very helpful.

for a start, sorry. It was a poor choice of words in my previous post.
However for christians (and any other religions that believe in heaven (or something similar) It would work by killing them straight of because if they are christians (properly, i.e live like they are) then there sins will be forgiven and you will get into heaven. Therefore for those sorts of religions death is the greatest gift you can give them.

Not true, my religion belives in an afterlife and yes, some would be willing to die for it, but it revolves around helping people here and now, not about the reward you might recive. Do you really think that if God is all knowing that he wouldn't know the difference between dying to get into heaven and dying for you faith?
aleana seems to be getting it, but lets take the logic one step further. It is a rarity for things to be started by one big event, they start rather by lots of little one and that is my point, no matter what you do it does matter because that could be the first, second third ect event in a chain of events that lead to a very good thing.

Hmm- Is there not a view that if you do good i.e. help others etc in your life then you're working towards what god has waiting for you as a kind of 'reward.'. Not sure i worded that right.. guess what i'm trying to say- its what you do in your life that counts. But none of us can be perfect how ever hard we try.
I kinda see Kai's thought but don't think thats the way to look at it- theres alot more to think of than the bare minimum. (May have written that wrong too!).

from a christian perspective everybody sins, It doesn't matter how much good (from a christian perspective) you do, it doesn't cancel out the bad. If you belive in god and live your life like you do then your sins will be forgiven and you will get into heaven, no matter how much good you do.
Whilst it seems an over simplification of life no amount of detail really changes it and it fits in perfectly with how i look at life.

Hmmm... maybe the point of life to find out the point of life. Maybe the point of ppl is to keeping species going in order for them to produce offspring that will help or will make a difference to the world. I would hope that in some way we all make a difference in the world- however small it be.
I've always wondered the answer to the question and can't figure it out. Will any of us figure it out? Y we're here? Who am i? What am i doing here? Why do i feel as though i've been asleep and woken up in this world?
Am i the only one who thinks these things?
I'm afraid that i find it hard to have a solid point of view because i never can think of all the views and therefore make a decision by weighing them up. I'm soo not good at this so i'm going to shut up. Not even sure if any of this makes sense... :unsure:

p.s. re sins... i'm thinking that we all sin (talking about small ways.) because that way we learn from our mistakes? or have i got sinning defination wrong? :unsure:

well sins and mistakes aren't really the same thing. A sin is where you do something against god or gods wishes.

Life does seem to be an impossible search for its purpose. I don't think anyone will ever get an answer as to why we are here (unless they belive it was all by chance), but everyone will keep on searching anyway.

you are confusing sins and mortal sins. sins can be absolved, mortal ones cannot. And yes, Stressica, it is a kind of reward I suppose but, even if you take out faith would you rather do the good thing because it is the good thing when you can anyway reward or no?

What are mortal sins and other sins then? could you say some examples please?
I think doing the good thing enables the person doing the good thing and the person or persons on the end of the good thing, to feel good and happy. When you do a bad thing- you're plagued by your conscience etc. In a way maybe you reward yourself by doing a good thing to help others etc?! That sounds selfish put like that... :unsure:
I presume that gods wishes are in the'bible'? I use the word 'bible' losely because there are soo many different versions for different religions, i.e kuran etc.

yes, the main ones are often clear but in the bible at least some bits our interpreted in different ways which is why you have so many different denominations

mortal sins are often called Cardinal ones, like taking a life for example or suicide, if you do these things, acording to the christian ethos you will go straight to hell no matter what else you do. Every Religion is fragmented, which is why you can get forms of unstructored religion, I forget the Christian one, which basically denies that the chruch and faith are one and the same. They argue what does a religious heiracy have to do with faith? My religion is similar due to the fact that there are no temples, because the world is our temple, the natural one anyway, and the religious writings that we have are a guide not a rulebook, they are open to much more interpretation than any other religion that I have seen.

i think that cardinal sins are primarily a catholic thing (for christians). I've not heard anything like that at the church i go to. It seems odd though to say that if you kill someone you go straight to hell when the bible is full killing (in the old testament mainly). For example Moses, Joshua, David, Elijha (sp?) (he didn't kill anyone himself, although he certainly orded lots of people killed). You'll notice all these people followed their god.

I've just read this thread, and now my head hurts :S