This thread reminds me of the “Myth of Syphius” by Albert Camus. Syphius is condemned to roll a rock up a hill for all of eternity. As soon as he reaches the top, the rock rolls down and he starts over again.
“And we must imagine Syphius as being happy”…
Why does it matter that a thing life lacks is a point? And what exactly is a point, and what, if anything, does the lack of this thing means for life? I ask this last question because if you don’t think the lack of a point means anything for life, then it’s not even worth mentioning that life lacks a point. It may be true, but so is the fact that life lacks a color or shape.
Being pointless isn’t a fact or a truth, it’s merely a facet of your perspective. An erroneous perspective maybe. You need to question where your head is at when you’re perceiving the world in such a way. Or maybe, if you really need your absolutes, you should turn to God.
Itlog made a remark in the op about tearing this game [life] apart, in what position would one have to be in to be able to do so?
Would a 2d stick figure drawn on a piece of paper be able to tear the paper apart?
…isn’t that called setting yourself up for a fall? 
Missed that, one person somehow means everyone?
I’ve got a a caring and lovely wife, the greatest son to ever walk the Earth, a decent job and decent money.
If life is pointless, I’m loving pointlessness.
Go eat a really good meal, I mean a damn good one, and try to tell me life is pointless after that.
All we are is thought.
The heart of all self-understanding
is in the actual realization there is
no thinker, there is only thought.
Only thought - there is no observer,
there is no seer. Many minds see
itself as a real physical entity.
existence is an information
-theoretic entity- John Wheeler
existence is an idea
Already there is nothing living and
there is nothing dead.
All you are is thought, your are not
a living thing.
Good point.
Where is the ‘heart of all self-understanding?’ If it is not in thought, where is it?
What is doing the realizing wherein self-understanding is? Do you have to get thought out of the way to realize?
This instrument, thought, which we have been using to understand has not helped us to understand anything except that every time we are using it we are sharpening it. Someone may ask, ‘What is Philosophy? How does it help me in my day-to-day existence?’ It doesn’t help you in any way except that it sharpens the intellect. It doesn’t in any way help you to understand life. If thought is not the instrument and if there is no other instrument then is there anything to understand?
How does having a good meal give life a point? You’re hungry a few hours later 
I don’t see how giving oneself pleasure gives life a point.
Animal satisfaction, FS.
Without god people are generally reduced to this, like WWIII said.
all satisfactions are animal satisfactions - human beings are animals - some of our satisfactions are more complex than those of the lower animals - but they’re animal even when they are spiritual - the only real “point” to life is that we live in pursuit of these satisfactions just like all other animals, and, again like all other animals, we eventually die - meanwhile, we’ve contributed our own infinitesimal little part to the continuation of the ongoing cosmic cycle / system, which may or may not have a purpose (probably not, since “purpose” is really a human concept designed to mask these other realities and keep us moving forward in spite of them).
All this can be depressing or it can be liberating. More often than not, it’s depressing, because we are socially conditioned to believe in our own overwhelming significance as individuals and our specialness as higher animals, so it’s a dissapointment to realize just how little we really mean to the universe, and then how little the universe itself ultimately means - but it CAN be freeing, depending on how you look at it. Usually it’s both, at least for me.
Are there any boots to walk on thorns?
There are no thorns.
The thorns are very much there for me!
Stop looking for roses and there will be no thorns.
What about the mysteries of the mind, is it not possible to control the thought process?
All that kind of thing is bogus. There is no mind, nothing there to control.
Can reading, study, and trying to understand help me?
These things cannot help you in any way because they are only forms of entertainment for you.
That’s it! You’ve got it.
I tend to agree with everything you have to say here. I just do not feel any kind of pleasure of pride for being just an animal. But as I said before, everybody knows what their happiness consist of…
Fabi,
You are just an animal…well, then, you better not saunter over to that thread “The Significance of Being a Human”. See ya later alligator.
Arcturus, if humans are animals (they are) then being an animal is all part of the significance of being human.
You work hard to achieve your goal, and once you achieve the goal you are exhausted, you are finished, the charm is lost for you. Working for it, building up all these tensions – that is all that you are interested in. When once you are there, it’s finished for you. You have lost it. So you start all over again.
You don’t want to be without any problems. You are yourself the problem. If you don’t have any problems, you create problems. The end of the problem is the end of you. So these problems will remain until the end. You go, then the problems go. Seventy, eighty, ninety, a hundred years – it depends upon how long you are going to live – so long the hope remains. It’s not a pessimistic situation, it is a realistic situation. I am not giving you any solutions. Look at your problem, if you can. You can’t separate yourself from the problem. The problem is created by the opposite of it.
Why do you feel unhappy, first of all? Why do you feel this feeling of unkindness in you? Because of the goal. It is that which creates the opposite. You can see for yourself, I don’t have to tell you. You are always thinking, “I should be like that, I ought to be that, I must be like that, and I am not that.” It is that thought that has created the opposite of it. If that is gone, this also is gone.
As long as you are pursuing those ideals that the society or the culture has placed before you, you will remain the opposite of it. And you hope that one day, through some miracle or through the help of somebody, some god, some guru, you will be able to resolve the problem – NOT A CHANCE!
You will look around and you will find that whatever is offered to you is not satisfying. If you are satisfied with the crumbs, all right. That’s what the gurus are doing, throwing some crumbs at you, like a dog on a leash. Humans are like animals, no different. If we accept the fact that we are not different, then there is a better chance that we will act as humans.
Man will act human when man ceases to pursue the goal of a perfect man.
Thought- there is no other
instrument. Thought can and should
be made to turn around and ponder
itself.
Existence and truth should be
contemplated.
Thought can create fear or it can
liberate. Emotions are based on
thought. Change the thought and the
emotions will to. Thought creates
happiness and sadness.
Capslock, did you take magnetman’s poetry course?