Net

Sometimes I love life, sometimes I don't. But the point is, sometimes I do, which is a benefit over the no-exist condition. If you're not around, you can't feel good. While this is a bit of twisted logic, it still intuitively works. I think most of us feel that living a life of happiness and fulfillment is preferable to being dead, while living in constant pain and sadness is probably worse than death. Nevermind that comparing living states with nothingness is like diving by zero - the point is, that's how we feel, and we base our actions around that intuitive feeling. So if you can ratchet things up so that you feel good at least as often as bad, you're at least at the level where life and death are a wash. If you can do a bit better than that, you've given yourself a reason for living.

Certainly there have been and will continue to be those heroes among us who suffer ungodly torment and yet elect to go on living. I would never tell another what they should or should not do, and indeed I find such stories a source of wonder and inspiration like most people do. But would I do the same in their shoes? I honestly can't say. I don't see why I would, from a logical standpoint, but of course when you bring that zero-division of death into the equation logic sort of goes out the window. Maybe the will to survive as an instinct overtakes the rational mind at that point, even for those of us who consider ourselves rationalists in the extreme. Never underestimate biological programming.