Is Life a Gift or a Burden?

Is life a gift filled with opportunities or a curse filled with burdens?

Do you feel like you're making a positive impact on society or do you feel helpless like a small cog in a giant system?

All I know is that the only 2 certainties in life are death & taxes.

It is my belief that how a person view life is completely dependent on a combination of factors such as their circumstances and willpower. Too many people yearn for safety and stability but neither of these are guaranteed, not even a tomorrow. On top of this realization, people have to compete throughout their lives just to get by, while feeling like living in an inescapable rat race set by society. I argue that It is because of this reality of life, many have pondered if it would've been better if they had never been born.

People have different perspectives on life, whether they think life in general is good or bad, it all comes down to which framework one is viewing life from, but the framework is heavily influenced by one's own journey through life.

• The "life is a gift" camp believes that life is inherently valuable and should be cherished at all cost.
• The "life is a burden" camp focuses and acknowledges the hardship and struggles in life.

In this meeting, we will discuss whether our own existence is a blessing or a burden in our current world.

Questions:
1. Is it cruel to bring a child into this world?
2. How do you view a typical human life?
3. Do most people live a script?
4. Do you believe that the typical script of a human life can be broken? If so, how? If not, why?
5. What makes you see your life as a good journey or a burden filled baggage?
6. How does environment such as nature & nurture affect one's outlook on life?
7. Is our society filled with opportunities or cruelty?
8. What happened during your life that made you lean one way or the other on your look on life?
9. Is it possible that life is neither cruel or joyful?
10. How opportunities can change a person's destiny?
11. Do we have the freewill to choose how we view life?
12. What's the role of confirmation bias in how we perceive the journey of a human life?
13. Why are some people much more optimistic than others and vice versa?
14. Did people have it easier in the past or is it the opposite? (Examples & explain)
15. How does religion influence the sanctity of life?
16. Many people wish they had never been born, do you fall into this camp? If so, why? If not, why?
17. How or is it possible to shift our perception on life?
18. Have mental health declined over the decades?
19. Is it healthy to give oneself benign delusions over the harsh realities of life?
20. Have people gotten too soft and lazy with modern amenities? (Referencing to the book: "Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress" by Christopher Ryan)

Guidelines:

• Hand raises are required.
• There will be a 3 minute timer for every person. However, in this group, I do allow a brief back and fourth interjection from others if it's something that's related to the person who was just speaking. This is a way to prevent the group from feeling too "robotic" in style and get your pressing question asked to the speaker and get the answer right away without waiting all the way back to your turn again.
• Be authentic & civil!
• Please refrain from using Ad Hominem (personal) attacks. Instead, please attack the points from others.
• Severe Ad Hominem such as racist behavior will result in being removed from the meeting.

Zoom link will be posted 10 minutes before the meeting.