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Old 01-26-2007, 09:51 AM   #10
Volo
Silver in My Silent Heart
 
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Sorry to keep you away from the topic...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba
To answer this, I can only quote C.S. Lewis... Well, I can't find the exact quote (It's from 'The Problem of Pain' if anyone has it). But it went something like this...
Quote:
"To ask 'wouldn't it have been better not to exsist' is a question we cannot answer. We have no idea what not existing would be like and therefore cannot in any true sense think that none existence would be better than existence."
I tend to agree.
I think that not existing is as simple as not existing, zero.

Not existing is better than grieving, on personal level (Sure you can be of use while grieving.).

Let's put this logically:

If not existing is 0, joy is + and sadness is -, a person who is joyful for +1 and sad for -1,03, he would be "happier" is he didn't exist, for 1+(-1,03) < 0.

And I'm sure that while Morgoth does his evil, people would not be that happy and from their perspective it would be "better" not to exist. So, yes, I think that it would have been indeed a gift to humans if all of them would die. The problem is that Melkor tortured them before giving death, so in fact it would have been nice of the Valar to speed up either the destruction of Melkor or Men.

Sorry, this might have been better in the Akallabeth-topic.

EDIT: Here is a site that might be of some interest.
My post here is pretty radical, but I'm pretty sure that in a world of war, people weren't that happy. Of course the people living during peace were probably happier and actually happy, but not knowing the existance of happines (not existing yourself) would keep you away from wanting to be happy and so you would be rid of all your problems as there would be nothing to make better.

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Last edited by Volo; 01-26-2007 at 11:38 AM.
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