Glenn47 wrote:With two atheist friends, I basically have to take either fucking or children as the meaning of life. Raw sex won't satisfy me forever, I'll have kids someday.
Wow, no offense, but you have a very narrow range of things that make your life meaningful. Why are people so obsessed with finding a meaning of life anyway? There doesn't have to be, and reasons and meanings aren't raw physical forces as far as I know. Last I checked there is no omnipotent rulebook that states there's a meaning of life, and you have to have a reason to live. It's fine and dandy if you do, and if you do happen to have a reason, and again no offense, but in my opinion sex and children are awfully depressing reasons to live.
Children especially, I don't see what the big deal is, other than having a remotely potential chance of having someone to parasite off of in your old age. I'm damn well sure I'm an accident, and I can't help but wonder what my parents' lives would be like if they had never had children. They'd probably be more wealthy, more free, and probably a lot younger inside. The happiness a successor and children bring are just as transient as any other kind of happiness, it's the same chemicals stirring up. I think it's historical and societal pressures that tell us our lives are meaningless unless we have children. Yes, it's the biological program of all animals, but as humans with advanced consciousnesses, we have the power to defy nature and pursue our own desires through willpower. If you want to procreate because it's a biological program, that's probably a better reason than most, but I'd prefer to utilize as much of the human advantages as I can for the time I'm here. And that's reason enough, without even touching on the much more practical fiscal and chronological drain offspring can inflict.