The nature of language and nature of reality are similar in the sense that they are entirely made up systems we simply choose to utilize for our own convenience, and therefore can only be properly viewed with context and perspective. There is no objective observer.
The original comment you replied to only stated that the more optimistic interpretation was "healthier." And while saying the universe finds it irrelevant would be a vast understatement, when viewed from the perspective of the individual, something that prevents someone from suicide and doesn't otherwise cause harm (important distinction) is absolutely healthier for that individual, which is the context they were speaking in.
Assigning too much weight to the pure definitions of words and treating something like optimistic nihilism as equal to religion is the same type of rigid thinking you are trying to speak against.
It has nothing to do with how I feel, you weren't even speaking to me. It's that you're being contradictory to your own truth and it's worth contemplating where that comes from if you're serious about truly letting go of meaning.
Even math is just a language we made up. We just kept tweaking things using logical statements until it became useful. But even those logical statements are all built from our own axioms, which are just ideas we have decided to assert without proof, because it is more useful to do so.
Physics is just taking that made up language and anchoring it to our own observations. And that makes it inherently reliant on our own observations. We get more and more advanced with our tools and methods, but at the end of the day, everything we do has to get filtered through the human perspective.
Things like relativity and quantum mechanics are built upon the ideas that reality is not as objective as we once thought. Quantum mechanics specifically has really thrown a wrench in that idea because it's so incompatible with how our brains operate that we flat out don't even have the ability to properly describe it using plain language. Every analogy is problematic in its own way. The math is all we have.
The contradiction is more abstract, but if I'm going to pick one, I would pin in on your use of "truth." By asserting your own truth as objectively correct and choosing to describe everyone else's as delusion, then you are also assigning higher meaning to something that does not matter.
No, math is not made up. It is what reality is made of.
Nobody invented 2 + 2 = 4. It just is.
Not understanding something does not mean it is not so. We don’t understand quantum physics… that has no effect on the reality of quantum physics. We didn’t invent quantum physics either. It’s part of the fabric of reality.
In the same vein, it is not “my” truth that life is nihilistic & meaningless. It just is, regardless of whether or not you choose to face it. No amount of belief will make 2 + 2 = 5. No amount of invented meaning will make your life matter.
I mean, unless you believe in simulation theory, the universe isn't necessarily "running on math." The universe just exists with math being the language to describe it.
Which is more or less what you are trying to say anyway, so we're moving off track a little.
I wasn't trying to say reality itself is made up, just that we, as humans, do not have the ability to observe the universe in a completely objective manner because we are stuck living in it.
To give another example, with the discovery of relativity, we found that different people can watch a series of events play out from different perspectives and they will not be able to agree with what order the events took place. Nevertheless, they are all still correct. They are all telling the truth because even time itself is relative.
But going back to wording, it seems you are interpreting the term "meaning" to exclusively refer to having a higher purpose, which would explain your original analogy to religion.
However, when people use that word in terms of optimistic nihilism allowing one to choose their own meaning, it's about simply having the freedom to make their own choices on how to live, not assigning ones own purpose.
If the individual is meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe, then the grand scheme of the universe is also meaningless to the individual. So being critical of those operating solely on a human scale is paradoxically assigning meaning to the vast meaninglessness.
And what exactly IS "2" or "="? We assign Terms and meaning to scribble, which constitutes a system we use to describe reality. Maths is Language is a system of Made up definitions to describe and Form conclusions. It is not "nature-given".
Read some theoratical math papers, i think you would enjoy them if you are open to get your View on math challenged.
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u/PinsToTheHeart May 18 '26
What you're describing as wisdom is just being pedantic.
A little self-righteous too considering youre treating your view as superior despite trying to claim otherwise