Would you rather have never existed at all?

[Velaniz]

Is that a strange question? It came up earlier in the day for me, and I think I inadvertently hurt a loved one with how curt my answer was. Basically my answer, predicated on simple, cold logic, was no, I would rather not have, given the choice.

Funny thing is I'm quite possibly one of the furthest things from a nihilist you can imagine. I think life is beautiful. I'm certainly more than satisfied with my lot in life. Sure, I've had my ups and downs, but the good, precious things I've come to acquire far outweigh any of that; I'm definitely someone who thinks life is very much worth living.

Yet, when I confront that question with nothing but cold logic, I'm forced to concede that if I had never existed at all, I wouldn't know what it was that I was missing out on, so from that perspective, the beauty of being alive is invalidated, because that is lost on someone who doesn't exist. Then there is also the simple fact that it would have been much less of a bother. Existence, for all its splendor, can be rather... cumbersome. That alone is the deal-breaker for me when I approach this question as rationally as humanly possible.

Is it truly so oxymoronic that I both relish life and at the same time rather I had never been here to relish it? I don't know, I can kinda see how it might be, but it doesn't seem that way to me. I suppose I might be bothered greatly if someone I loved deeply and invested a large portion of my life into came and told me they'd rather never have existed at all. =/

[Velaniz]

Apart from that I have no reason to live.

I don't think it's entirely necessary to have one. Your reason to live can be something as simple as your base instinct not to die. I don't see the point finding some bullshit philosophical justification for being alive. Just take the ride while you're here and imbue meaning into whatever you find worth doing so for.

[Adam Jensen]

Apart from that I have no reason to live.

To paraphrase Doctor Tyson, the atoms that make your body were forged in the cores of the stars in our galaxies and ultimately you are the universe, experiencing itself. We all are. Therefore our reason to live is to experience everything we can about the universe in the time we are given.

Or waste time on internet forums.

One of the two.

[-aiko-]

I love that I exist, and I would have it no other way. Actually, I am somewhat jealous of religious folk. Were it possible I'd love to live another existence after my death.

I just don't believe it's possible.

[Deleted]

Since it is the actual only thing I have ever experienced, I don't see any reason why anyone would want not to exist.

[Velaniz]

Since it is the actual only thing I have ever experienced, I don't see any reason why anyone would want not to exist.

Non-existence is literally out of the realm of experiences, so you couldn't experience it, could you? :P

[Tommy T]

I use the same mentality about death.

When I'm dead I won't regret anything. Simply because I won't exist anymore. Do I wish I never existed in the first place? No, because I enjoy living and non existence is just that. It's nothing.

[Wynnyelle]

I'm conflicted.
I love my life and I love the people who I've included in it, but there are so many things in this world that upset me and just make me wish that none of us existed. I really don't know how to answer that, honestly.

[Tradewind]

I vote option 4 "I wish some other people never existed."

[Stir]

I voted '3,' but I'd rather answer with certainty: The answer is unknowable, because if it is an option to consider, then one must exist in order to consider the option in the first place. The answer cannot be 'no,' because in the hypothetical result of 'no,' there is no you that can answer. Furthermore, it would indicate that you'd rather not be able to answer the question, since your non-existence renders an answer impossible to give. There would not be a you to reflect upon in order to consider the validity or 'fun-ness' of your existence in the first place, which would effectively render your analysis of the quality of your existence into the field of potentia, and therefore, the possibilities of your existence are pretty much endless, and need not comply with your past experiences. Your past experiences may be drastically different in potentia because 'the past' becomes a potential 'future' that can act entirely different than the past that you know.

Therefore, the question itself cannot be answered anything other than 'I don't care' or 'Yes.' Which makes a zero-stance or counter-stance simply impossible, and therefore, there is no right answer.

Did that help? :P

[Deleted]

I feel we're given this chance, so why waste it? I'm that kind of guy. I'm not saying I never think about this concept, I sometimes do. But ultimately, I feel to be able to experience love, happiness, friendship, and all of the other beautiful things about life, is well worth the downtimes we have. If we didn't have sadness and negative experiences, we couldn't appreciate the good stuff. I believe experiencing what it is to live, even if it isn't always good, is better than having simply never existed at all.

I'm agnostic. I'm not sure if we'll experience something different to life after death or not. But what I believe we should do is focus on enjoying the gift we have - living.

[schwarzkopf]

I have no life, and no prospect of one - if it were not for the discomfort of dying, I'd already be dead. Seems as if millions of years of evolution win over decades of pain and misery. So yeah - I wish I'd never existed.

[Mifuyne]

I have no life, and no prospect of one - if it were not for the discomfort of dying, I'd already be dead. Seems as if millions of years of evolution win over decades of pain and misery. So yeah - I wish I'd never existed.

Pretty much how I feel as well.

[Todgruppe]

Signature. Good ol' Oedipus.

[Deleted]

I love that I exist, and I would have it no other way. Actually, I am somewhat jealous of religious folk. Were it possible I'd love to live another existence after my death.

I just don't believe it's possible.

What if it is and we're all wrong?

Ot: nah. Life is precious. And we're extremely lucky to have been born in a place like ours in a time like ours. Wouldn't want to make all that luck to to waste.

- - - Updated - - -

I have no life, and no prospect of one - if it were not for the discomfort of dying, I'd already be dead. Seems as if millions of years of evolution win over decades of pain and misery. So yeah - I wish I'd never existed.

Is it bad that I see your avatar saying that with a very cranky voice?

[schwarzkopf]

Is it bad that I see your avatar saying that with a very cranky voice?

Intentional - created that character in WoW 8 years ago as a reflection of my so called 'life'.

[Tradewind]

I have no life, and no prospect of one - if it were not for the discomfort of dying, I'd already be dead. Seems as if millions of years of evolution win over decades of pain and misery. So yeah - I wish I'd never existed.

Someone's always gotta be the proverbial fart in the elevator...

[Deleted]

Intentional - created that character in WoW 8 years ago as a reflection of my so called 'life'.

What can I tell you brother... Find peace somehow.

[Simulacrum]

Of course, if you never existed you wouldn't want to exist, but that's a different question. That question is "if you never existed, would you want to exist?", a meaningless question, since you would have no opinion on anything in that case, lacking the requirements to be able to do so - ie. existence.

But since you do exist, the answer to "would you rather have never existed at all" is "no", because otherwise you would kill yourself to achieve this perceived ideal state of being.

To claim otherwise is not to be "coldly logical", but rather to abandon logic entirely by answering a different question than the one that was asked and asserting that you have responded to the actual question.

[Simulacrum]

Anyone who believes in an afterlife or reincarnation would disagree.

Crazy people believe all sorts of stupid things. It's best to ignore them and their beliefs, otherwise you'll get trapped in their philosophical black hole along with them.