The wife seem a little afterthought-y in your musing.
My dog is definitely a higher priority. 
But then she would say the same thing about her dog, so we are even.
I honestly only live and will continue to live for my brother. I’m in bad place now, and was thinking about looking up an old thread here on Straightdope about people’s right to take their own lives.
I love to dream about not existing. I know, it’s ‘nothing’, but I feel like my brain needs a break from all the pain I put myself through… even if it permeant.
Because without a reason there is no point to stick aroundz
You don’t have to do any of that though. You can die and be rid of it all.
Because those aren’t reasons to stay alive, they are just simple pleasure responses.
If I think in terms of man being the highest life form on this planet and will continue to be for the rest of time I feel it is worth living. But, if I think that humans will simply go extinct at some point and some other life form will evolve to fill our niche then it doesn’t seem to make as much sense. Not knowing I tend to give mankind the benefit of the doubt.
If other people consider simple pleasure responses to be reasons to stay alive, who are you or I to say otherwise?
Spite.
Why do you get to decide this for other people? Other people might feel that these are, in fact, good reasons for them to stay alive. Whether you do or not doesn’t matter to them.
I’ve been married, had kids (and watched them grown up), traveled to a number of different countries and been on a cruise. And you know what? It’s AWESOME! And I want to do more of that stuff, and other stuff, too.
Why do I want to be rid of any of that? I like that. And so what if they’re “simple pleasure responses?” Pleasure responses give pleasure. I like pleasure. I’d like to have some more pleasure. And even if I can’t really get more pleasure, I’m pretty happy with what I already have – certainly too happy to say “well, now that I’ve experienced that, I guess I’ll die.”
Without a reason there’s no point not to.
You have yet to explain the advantage of nonexistence over existence. The way I see it, there are two equal and opposite states - existence and nonexistence. If existence needs a reason, doesn’t nonexistence need a reason as well? And if so, why does the reason for nonexistence take precedence over the reason for existence?
If I constantly read any of forbiddentruth dot com or the likes, I’d certainly want to die…and take everyone with me.
The best reason to not kill yourself is the fact that you’re gonna die anyway, eventually. So why rush things? Just find a nice, quiet, comfortable corner to hole up in and wait out the clock.
Besides, it’s extremely satisfying to watch your mortal enemies grow old and die before you.
Why stay alive? Curiosity. I have to know about the next thing that happens, good or bad. And never pass on an opportunity to learn something new. Keeps the mind fresh.
I have been reading lately about happiness being a choice you can make. Are we rich? No, but we’ll be comfortable, and that’s okay. Do we have everything we want? No. But we believe that we have enough, and anything else will just be gravy (somebody wants a new kitchen). Do we have everything we need? An emphatic YES! We have jobs that we both enjoy, we have food, shelter, and transportation. For me, life, with all of its ups and downs, has become an embarrassment of riches in the best way possible.
Boundless optimism carries its own reward, I suppose.
I have thought about this question a lot and I have my own answer. I don’t understand the nature of space-time nor life, the universe and everything but that doesn’t even matter for the purposes of this question.
The fact is that we both exist right now and that is a miracle in its own right. It doesn’t matter if it is eternal or has any greater meaning than what we see before us today. Our very existence now is a fact and just as real no matter how long it lasts. True meaning in life doesn’t depend on anything else other than itself in the here and now.
In math terms, it can be expressed simply: 2>1>0 (given in arbitrary units but 0 equals nonexistence).
It is possible to even go less than 0 for some people in cases like fatal diseases or the prospect of a horrible life but everyone has to decide that for themselves. Anyone that is currently finds more value in existing than not has no rational reason to kill themselves. Any joy that they have right now is just as real and glorious as any other possibility.
Machinaforce, this is a debate forum, not a “I wanna make a whiny observation and then simply deny every attempt to engage me” forum.
Given that pretty nearly all life forms actually do make an effort to continue to live, that is the default biological programming. Since you have not actually provided a reason why anyone should stop living (in more than a whiny “it’s ha-a-a-ard” expression), you should have placed this in the IMHO forum. The nineteenth and early 20th century Existentialists did this much better than you have. However, since you have already gotten over two pages of responses, here, I am not going to inflict it on the Mods, there.
Instead, I am simply going to close this thread. If you want to make a reasoned and logical case for not living, you may open a new thread, here, but I will judge whether it is serious and close it if it is not. If you simply want to repeat this performance, open your new thread in IMHO.
[ /Moderating ]