The Sisyphean Race

[Miss Anthrope]

Otherwise known as the human race. For those who don't know, Sisyphus is a character from Greek mythology who was cursed to roll a boulder
up a hill only to watch it roll down and keep repeating the process for eternity. Hence, "sisyphean" can be used to describe something which is futile.

In a universal sense, I don't think anyone can argue that the human race is pointless unless they believe in a god. Psychologically, it makes sense that so
many people want to be believers. I take small issue when some atheists claim that their beliefs are necessarily a better alternative. In many ways I agree with them, and my beliefs (not the best word, I don't really have any "beliefs", per se; I'm not a Solipsist, but I do think solipsism falls right in line with Occam's Razor) are closer to an atheist's than a theist's. I'll put forth a little thought experiment to illustrate more clearly what I'm trying to get at, because it isn't my
intention to knock atheism, just living up to my namesake, ha ha.

Imagine if we actually "killed" god and religion. A world where everybody just beleives in what science tells us about ourselves. We're biological robots who's internal reality is meaningless to "real" reality. Even free-will is an illusion and we're slaves to time, following a predetermined path (perhaps, the jury is still out on this scientifically). Suddenly, it becomes illogical to place any subjective meaning on even the worst attrocities. If a maniac blows up a bus load of children, the anger and horror we would feel is just a human reaction, and our belief that we are "above" that kind of behavior is not true, we are merely a different product of biology and environment, "superior" only by our own standards. A parent of one of those children, no matter how scientifically hip, is not going to just write it off on the basis that the man, from a scientific perspective, cannot be held accountable for his actions. Emotions and feelings don't really line up with "reality", and so we are all doomed to be hypocrites and salves to cognitive dissonance in some way or another.  A person with a fully idealized "rational mind" would probably go "insane" and commit suicide if they actually separated their subjective reality from objective reality. How would such a person derive "pride" from anything if they have to concede that all of their accomplishments are just the result of cause and effect. Personally, I've never really understood being complimented about my looks (can't really tell in my freakish pic, but according to some I possess a modest level of handsomeness). I'll say "thank you" and appear prideful, but mentally I just can't FEEL the pride because I had no hand in creating my physical appearance; I can feel some pride when i'm complimented for something I put effort and skill into, but even then I have to look at my past objectively and all of the factors that led up to my work and talent, and "I" can't really take any credit. Things just "are." Cause and effect. It's so wild, thank "god" I find it all so interesting otherwise I probably would lose my will to live, because even the areas of my life which still have emotional substance have a dark side, i.e. the people I love will die eventually, something I've had to face in the past year more than ever since my step-sister was stabbed almost to the point of death, my mom went into a depression and became extremely ill for a while, and for two weeks doctor's thought that my dad had liver cancer (I actually found myself kind of "praying" on some almost unconscious level, and when he found out he didn't have cancer I actually silently said "thank you" to some unknown deity; very surreal to do that and then immediately ask yourself "what the hell? who am I talking to?". It just "happened".)

Moving off of that tangent (sorry, this is not one of my better writings), my propensity towards atheistic thought has caused me to make some changes in my life plans. For one, I really don't think I'm going to have children (to be fair, traditional religions don't make the case for having children any better, since I'd be risking their eternal damnation). I can't think of any reason to so so which isn't some selfish need to fulfill biological function (and at least 50 percent of children are "accidents" according to statistics, And I would say it's closer to something like 80% if you factor in how many people probably "lied" (not so much lied as deluded by confirmation bias) and make more people to love, who will eventually lose me, or I'll lose them, etc. I often hear people tell me it's my obligation to humanity to bear children, or something along those lines, and I ask those same people how willing they would be to let their child die in place of a larger amount of strangers. I hate even having to get into such discussions, I never tell people that they're wrong for having children, but when they try to slight me for my potential decisions, I let them have it. It's actually really odd, the bloated sense of importance and altruism people will put on their decisions. More mind boggling when those same people are highly educated and will go on about how we don't have free-will anyway, just hormone driven "decisions". Cognitive dissonance, my favorite term.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that a full understanding of reality is not necessarily a good thing. Not to apply "consciousness" on evolution, but it didn't intend for us to figure things out the way we have, hence the huge gap between scientific reality and human reality. If we can be broken down to simple spawning machines, then its funny that we can attain knowledge that can make us question the very ethics of reproduction. I'm opposed to slavery, yet the very act of "creating life" is relegating a future human being to a life of biological and "time" slavery, and its also a big gamble with a human life (oh god, I love when people say to that "It's a chance you have to take." Um, WHY?)

So, my philosophy: A scientifically enlightened species would make the rational decision to stop propogating horror on the basis of a pipe dream, namely that maybe in the far future humanity will become "perfect" and end all suffering. We could do it a lot faster if everyone just stopped reproducing, and none of our hypothetical children would have to serve as stepping stones toward a crackpot goal (I mean really, how many parents would take their child's college fund and invest it towards something that will benefit OTHER kids 500 years from now?)