Why do we strive for survival?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Jewwy, May 19, 2011.

  1. Jewwy Registered Member

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    I'm not sure where this topic goes, so I'm gonna go ahead and stick it into Free Thoughts.

    Why do we, human beings (or any other living thing on Earth, really) try to survive for as long as we possibly can? Is it something in our genes, something in our brains or just totally unknown? I mean, it doesn't exactly matter when you die for death arises upon everyone anyway. So why, why do we try NOT to die? Is it the fear of death?

    I just want to know, what is it that makes you people, die to survive.
    (See what I did there? ;P)
     
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  3. Bebelina kospla.com Valued Senior Member

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    I often wondered the same thing. It must be a genetically programmed instinct or that we really enjoy living and don't want it to end, or just stay alive to not hurt our parents feelings, since they went through the trouble of bringing us here.
     
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  5. Search & Destroy Take one bite at a time Moderator

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    While I can't point to a specific gene, I'm fairly certain it's genetic. The fear of death is due to some special genes. Evidence of this is that nearly all people, in all cultures, throughout history have this in common.
     
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  7. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I'd think that each person has their own "insights" as to why they are living and trying to live as long as they can. In my case I'd think that I might be able to help more people with an invention or new way to do something that could help others in their lives as well as my own. When I try to come up with new ideas I always think of others first but in reality I know that I will be helping myself as well. To see if any of my ideas come to fruition or become part of everyday society is something I want to enjoy, if possible, for it gives me a sense of achievement. Just to help someone that needs a hand to save them from suicide or an accident is also something I enjoy being around to do. If I'm not here than I cannot help any longer but only hope others will take my place to insure that many will survive to keep humanity on the right track helping each other along life's highway.

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  8. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    I'm moving this to Human Science.

    Welcome to SciForums, Jewwy.
     
  9. scheherazade Northern Horse Whisperer Valued Senior Member

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    An excellent question. Life seems programed to utilize and optimize every resource available before yielding to death, the eventual outcome. In observing our own species and others, once the outcome of death is accepted, there seems not to be a fear of death itself, though there is fear where considerable pain may be involved, and it is the pain giving rise to this fear, less than death, IMO.

    Life has it's own purpose, and that would be continuance of self and the collective life-force. All life energy strives toward this goal subconsciously, perhaps, and not all are required for procreation, yet all life is dependent on all other life in a marvel of intricate co-dependency.

    'Life' is the ultimate dedicated program, :cheers:, and we are all in this thing together. Awesome choreography!
     
  10. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    Evolution only works with survivors. But as to why any individual wants to survive and procreate is beyond me. Speaking for myself I'm not ready to die yet, but I don't fear death either. I see it as natural, something all living creatures will experience. One tends to think about dying more as one get older, because the longer you live the more of your friends and family members will die leaving you to think about it.
     
  11. chimpkin C'mon, get happy! Registered Senior Member

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    Suspect it's genetic.
    Intellectually I'm blase' about it.
    Physiologically, if I feel under threat, my body revs up tremendously. I get physiologically ready to fight like a cornered bear.
     
  12. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    Because as Schweitzer put it "The meaning of life, is simply more life."

    The OMEGA point of the universe is life EVERYWHERE. Currently it is almost nowhere(as far as pessimistic scientists think).
     
  13. Wisdom_Seeker Speaker of my truth Valued Senior Member

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    I think is simple yet complex: without survival instinct, there would be no life at all. Self preservation is a common denominator to virtually everything that has life in it.

    So the root question is: why life exists?
     
  14. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    Life exists because it is more advanced matter.

    Matter gets increasingly more complicated as the universe ages.
     
  15. Ophiolite Valued Senior Member

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    If your ancestors did not have the will to survive and procreate, whether they were prokaryotes in the Archaen seas, or diminutive mammals in the aftermath of the KT impact, then there would have been little chance of evolution producing you. There are more survivors among those who want to survive than among those who are indifferent.
     
  16. Wisdom_Seeker Speaker of my truth Valued Senior Member

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    Although your argument may seem logical, no life has ever been seen to evolve from matter (abiogenesis). Ironically, as Darwin exposed in his theories, in order to prove the evolution of life from matter, we would need conditions that are not achievable in an environment where life already exists. This is because at the present day, that kind of “matter in the process of evolving” would be instantly devoured or absorbed.
     
  17. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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  18. Wisdom_Seeker Speaker of my truth Valued Senior Member

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    So it is not a fact
     
  19. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    Exactly right.
    Yes, but it has been shown that if you recreate the conditions that we believe existed on earth before the existence of life, It is not difficult to produce all the building blocks of life up to and including RNA.

    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/05/ribonucleotides/
     
  20. Wisdom_Seeker Speaker of my truth Valued Senior Member

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    Ok so our strive for survival comes from the evolutionary quality of life; and life comes from matter. Where does matter come from and why does it evolve into life, without an intelligence factor?
    In other words: we know that the evolution of the forms of life comes from natural selection. But for natural selection to take place life is a prerequisite no?
    Without an intelligent design, it would be extremely unlikely for matter to evolve into life, or am I shooting blanks here?
     
  21. nietzschefan Thread Killer Valued Senior Member

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    Which is even what Wisdom seeker himself said...is he arguing with himself? :shrug:
     
  22. Gustav Banned Banned

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    life is about finding the perfect orgasm and then repeating it again and again and again....

    the perfect bribe
    resistance is futile
     
  23. madanthonywayne Morning in America Registered Senior Member

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    The universe is "designed" in a way that makes life very likely and it would seem that the chance of such occurring via a completely random process would be small.

    But, one must consider a few things before seeing that as "Proof" of intelligent design. For one, a universe not hospitable to live would never give rise to beings such as ourselves who might ponder such questions.

    For another, although the term "universe" refers to a realm infinite in size, this may well not be the first or the only universe to exist or to have existed.

    There may well have been countless universes before this one and many or even all of them may well have been completely devoid of life. There may even be an infinite number of universes in existence right now with only a small fraction of them producing life.

    So, while the odds of our particular universe being hospitable to life may be low, the odds of one universe among many being hospitable to life are much higher and may approach 100% (if we are truly dealing with an infinite number of universes).Q
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2011

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