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I take "important" to be a human invention.
Yup. So is cricket. None the less, there is a definite answer to the question "Did so-and-so score 100 runs in the last game, or not?".
it is a belief which does not relate to an 'objective' reality.
OK. But it might (like beliefs about cricket scores) relate to a not-so-objective reality. What you certainly can't rightly do is leap from "is not a statement of objective truth" to "is a statement of objective falsehood". If "important" is a predicate that only has a definite meaning once you say for whom, the same is true of "not important".
once I accept it is a false belief
But that's exactly what I'm saying you don't need to do. (Unless the belief in question is that whatever-it-is is universally, eternally important. That might be false. But I don't see why you need such beliefs in the first place.)
I fail to see the rationality behind the 'urge' to explain it any other way.
I'm not sure exactly what "it" is here. The urgency you attach to remaining alive probably is just your survival instinct talking. (Though it may also be influenced by, e.g., other people's interest in your remaining alive.) But whatever sense of importance you attach to things other than remaining alive surely has other origins.
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What is important though? Isn't that just subjective as well as illusionary? Purely objectively speaking (if such a thing is possible) everything is relative, even importance e.g. what is important for me, might not be for you, what is important in 1765 might not be important in 2015, what is important on earth might not be important on the moon, etc. etc. Is saving someone's life important? Yes, to that person and those who love that person it is...for a while. 500 years from now, not so much any more. So once you find something important you must also realise that this importance is only important within (your) context. Thus making it unimportant. In order to keep it important you must believe in it. Believe it has importance, believe the context justifies the importance. So in the end aren't you just rationalizing importance and thus your reason to live?
As I see it (please correct me if I am wrong) everything we do is just to kill time. importance and unimportance are just qualifications we invent so we can avoid feeling bad.
Okay. Not sure what the reason is for the negative points on my last 2 replies. I will admit my response to this article was fuelled by my own frustrations. But still I do not see where my logic fails when I say: "Life is objectively without purpose afawk. The rational thing to do is accept that."
For the past 30 years I lived a life without meaning, purpose, passion, importance, you name it. Still, I feel no need to end it, nor does that mean I cannot enjoy things. But what that does do is make me feel lonely. I see everyone around me, everywhere, hiding behind their own self-created "purposes".
To me, it is like everyone is digging holes and trying to find something, totally oblivious to that fact that there is a vast world above ground. It is just an -no doubt biased- observation/feeling. I didn't respond to disagree with the article, but to see if anyone can give me a logical, rational reason to agree with it (=start digging a hole).
I failed in that. Sorry.