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Ok I know there have to be other people out there that perhaps deal with this so I am wondering how other people that perhaps without faith in a religion etc...deal with the eternal why questions.

If you get to a point where you believe you might never get the answers to why we are are here? and where we are going? How do you deal with that?

I don't get this all the time and is worse sometimes than others. I do get into a state though where I really want to know why we are here? Where did we come from? The thoughts become constant and obsessive. Despite me tellingmyself that perhaps the answers don't exist.

Existential depression / crisis has always been the explanation of choice by my pdoc. Sure anti depressants do help some.

But what do others do to deal with these eternal what is the purpose to life questions?

oooh yeah, i get this sometimes. i think about it way too much and my head feels like its going inside-out or something. i read a lot about absurdism once which i guess is kinda similar to existentialism. there was a really cool quote from albert camus (i think) that i used to have about why suicide would be pointless, which used to help me with stuff and wondering why we're all here etc. i'll try and find it...

I am interested in the same questions. Everytime I do read some or try to find the answers, I end up knowing that we really don't have the answers to my questions. Science or religion can't answer them, so I just accept that I can't know. I try to put those thoughts into reading science and religion and exploring instead of worrying.

GBV

Appreciating those thoughts. I can well imagine that Camus wuold have written seomthing along those lines. Although I can't think what quote you are refering to I may well actually go and dig out "The Outsider" for a reread even if just to get out of this head for the time being. Would surely be better than "1984" that I have finally found my way through. Actually thinking on the concepts of "absurdism" I am kind of reminded that acceptance is kind of all there is here. AS much as it really pains me to think that may be the case.

Yes I hear you Aqua but I read that bit too much and keep coming back to the answers aren't there is really frustrating.

I do have a religion but I also wonder about these things too. And sometimes my head gets overwhelmed by it also. I try to think about other things when that happens. It gets to be too much for me and I can't take it. So I try to focus on other things. I try to do things in the here-and-now to take my mind off of it. Unfortunately, most of these thoughts occur to me while I'm laying in bed, ready to go to sleep. So I really really have to focus on other things. Sometimes I try to have my H distract me by talking to him about other things too.

I always think of Woody Allen when I think about this topic. He was always wondering about this topic in his movies. They would often take on a dark-humor kind of thing. But I think he really does have issues with this, or else he wouldn't have put it in his films. "Hannah and Her Sisters" has scenes with this topic in it.

Anyway, to me, there are no answers. It just IS. So Radical Acceptance might have to come into play here. I have not read any philosophical books - they scare me too much. So I don't know theory, etc. I just know how/what I feel. I guess I just push it away since that's the only way I can deal with it.

Haha. Yes, notice I used the word "try". I don't always succeed at keeping my frustration at bay, I just choose different things to become frustrated about. It would be nice if I could always redirect it successfully into something more meaningful.

hmmm annoyingly i can't seem to find the quote-sorry!! but if you stick his name in wikipedia some stuff comes up about it... you might be able to find it from there