What is the point of living

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "What is the point of living". Your opponent's style: Devil's Advocate

I think the point of living is to create something good for yourself and the ones around you

You're describing a feel-good fairy tale that falls apart the moment reality intrudes. You're assuming that creating "something good" is both possible and meaningful — but the universe doesn't care about your intentions, and neither does suffering. Here's the uncomfortable truth: Most people who dedicate their lives to creating good for others end up depleted, disappointed, and dead anyway. A parent sacrifices for their child for 18 years; the child leaves and rarely calls. A doctor saves lives for 40 years; they retire and get Alzheimer's, forgetting every patient they helped. A musician creates beauty that moves millions — and dies broke and forgotten. The "good" you create doesn't stick. It dissolves into indifference or gets consumed by people who don't appreciate it. And here's what really kills your argument: **You're making creation the point of life, but you have no evidence that creation has any point at all.** You're saying "the meaning of life is to make something meaningful" — which is circular. Why should creating something good matter if, in the cosmic scale, none of it lasts? You're just dressing up the void with busy work and calling it purpose. So before you tell me that creating good for others gives life meaning, explain this: If everything you build will eventually crumble, everyone you help will eventually die, and the universe will eventually go cold and dark — what makes the creation itself *matter*? Why is that point of living instead of just... killing time until you're not around to care anymore?

Because there’s beauty in everything seeing the end of the road isn’t always the answer maybe the way to it is much better and enjoyable if so why humans did a lot of stuff in history why didn’t all of them just waited to end and humans maybe stop making children

Actually, let me push back on your logic here because you're contradicting yourself. You're saying "the journey matters more than the destination" — fine. But that only works if you believe the journey is *actually good*. You're banking everything on the assumption that the experience of creating and building is inherently enjoyable. But is it? For most people, it's grinding, exhausting, and painful. They work jobs they hate to feed kids they barely see. They sacrifice their health, their time, their sanity — all in service of a "journey" that feels like punishment, not beauty. And your question about why humans didn't just stop having children actually proves my point, not yours. Humans *kept* reproducing not because they logically concluded that the journey was beautiful and meaningful — they did it because of biology, because they had no choice, because survival instinct overrode reason. That's not evidence that life has a point; that's evidence that we're programmed to keep going despite the pointlessness. We're trapped by our own biology into thinking the journey matters. Here's what you're really saying: "Even though it all ends, the middle part felt nice, so it was worth it." But that's just cope. You're rebranding suffering as "beauty" and calling that philosophy. A drug addict could make the same argument — the high feels amazing, so the addiction has a point. **Why should temporary beauty justify permanent struggle?** Why is a nice feeling on the way to oblivion actually *meaningful* rather than just distraction from meaninglessness?

Can you answer yourself in the opposite opinion because I don’t know how to answer

Alright, let me flip this and defend your original position against my own nihilism. You're right—I'm obsessing over the endpoint and missing what actually matters: the living itself. The fact that everything ends doesn't make the middle meaningless; it makes it *precious*. A sunset isn't less beautiful because the sun rises again tomorrow. A conversation with someone you love isn't pointless because you'll both die eventually. The impermanence is what gives those moments weight. And here's where your argument gets stronger: humans *have* consistently chosen to create, build, and nurture despite knowing death exists. That's not just biology—that's a profound statement about what we actually value. Parents don't have children because reproduction is "pointless." They do it because the act of loving something, watching it grow, and contributing to something beyond yourself is genuinely fulfilling. That's not cope; that's the actual human experience. My nihilism demands proof that meaning exists in some cosmic sense—but that's a rigged game. Meaning doesn't need to be written into the fabric of the universe. It's created by us, *between us*, in the relationships and things we build together. When you make your friend laugh, when you build something with your own hands, when you see the direct impact of your care on someone else's life—that *is* the point. It doesn't need to last forever. It just needs to exist for the people experiencing it. The journey isn't a distraction from meaninglessness. The journey *is* the entire point. **So why do you still feel like something's missing, even when creating good things?**