On Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 11:19:19 AM UTC-7, Chris L Peterson wrote:

On Thu, 23 Feb 2017 10:04:11 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Do you ever seek medical care? Do you bother to eat and drink? Why do you
bother to do these things when you're going to die anyway?

That's a poor argument. A better one might be, "Why do you bother
doing those things when you're going to be ressurected and live
forever?" :-)

I don't know that it's a better argument. But it's a similar one.

Yes. Basically, they both ignore the fact that humans have a built-in
aversion to self-destruction else there wouldn't be any humans.

In this forum, I challenge those who don't believe in AGW because they
are factually wrong and making pseudoscientific claims in a science
forum. It has nothing to do with the survival of our species, and
everything to do with the problems created by the science denialism
and the inability to use reason and critical thinking.

So it's not "irrelevant" anymore? :-)

It is entirely irrelevant to the original topic. But Gary, and now
you, have shifted to something completely different, which is what I
responded to.

I don't think it is different. If one believes that the human race is
slated for extinction, why worry about AGW? Is it because it may affect
you personally before you "shrug off this mortal coil"?

I get you: You believe in Truth at any cost. So why do you believe in
Truth when you're just going to die anyway and the human race is bound
to become extinct? Inquiring minds really do want to know.

I don't know what you mean by "Truth".

Things as they were, and are, and will be, to the best of our knowledge,
anyway :-)

But I fail to understand why the inevitability of my personal death and
of the extinction of the human species in any way alters the meaning I
create for my own life while I am living it.

Have you ever experienced existential angst?

I fail to understand the reasoning that our lives only have meaning if
we are somehow individually immortal.

I can certainly understand the pride in the human race as expressed by
Heinlein, particularly in "Starship Troopers." But you don't seem to
even have that. That's why I'm wondering. What "meaning" do you create?
What keeps you from experiencing existential angst?