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Comment by munksbeer | Hacker News Reader

Sorry to be nihilist, but you never had any objective value if you're thinking in these terms.

As far as we know, the universe "just is". There is no universal objective value of human beings, at all, any one of us.

You have to make or find your own value in the universe. I try not to think too hard about the nihilist side and try to appreciate that for some unfathomable reason, I seem to have what I call consciousness - the ability to observe the present and have it superimposed on the past, and what may be the future, leading me to "experience" things. I don't understand it, no-one does (some people suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect think they do, but they don't), and yet, here we are.

So it doesn't matter to me if machines perform better than I do, because already lots of other people do. Just try to find your own joy or meaning, somehow.

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> As far as we know, the universe "just is".

I don't know this. In fact, billions of people around the world don't know this. In fact, all evidence points to the contrary.

You have objective value being made in the image of a personal God. Denying that leads to a lot of pain, namely nihilistic suffering because it's on you to "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" in any endeavor involving your own self-worth.

To cite the famed Russian philosopher Norm Macdonald; "Scripture. Faith. Grace. Christ, Glory of God. Smart man says nothing is a miracle. I say everything is."

This is one reason why I can't stand hn. Edgelord nihilistic comments that say nothing matters and take everything for granted get up-voted while credible and rational statements about God get down-voted.

What? What is rational about faith-based comments?

Literally nothing is rational about that. It's also just flat out off-topic.

That is an incredibly insulting comment. I am married, two children, have lead a fantastic fulfilling life. Just because I don't believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe doesn't mean I am an "Edgelord".

Remember the phrase, you also don't believe in God. There are hundreds of gods you don't believe in.

Bringing up the Flying Spaghetti Monster does make you an edgelord though.

Because it reminds you that your specific deity is just as ridiculous?

Which deities don't you believe in? I don't believe in all of them. Presumably you don't believe in almost all of them?

"In fact, all evidence points to the contrary."

Um. No? I'd like to see how you conjured up that one. Because evidence does indeed point exactly to things just being as they are.

"You have objective value being made in the image of a personal God."

Conjecture. Unsubstantiated.

"Denying that leads to a lot of pain, namely nihilistic suffering because it's on you to "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" in any endeavor involving your own self-worth."

No? Sounds like you're projecting your own belief here. "If I didn't believe in God, then what purpose is there to anything?" It's very small of a belief.

Even Neanderthals? Were they also made in his image? We interbred with them. We can go all the way down the evolutionary tree here just say when to stop.

> made in the image of a personal God

How does that work? The physical image? Or the mental image? Either has big problems. An omniscient god is so cognitively beyond a mere "7+-2" human that the latter claim makes no sense at all.

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