Meaning of Life.

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Originally Posted by IamMissingaLink

nice :).
anyway...seeing life as lacking inherant meaning mean you don't embrace expereinces of life and that death is preferable.

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The threadstarter (or post you replied to) were not using the word 'meaning' is the same way as you have; your using it in the context of the 'small picture' i.e. your individual life e.g. having friends, family, going out etc...In that sense, we all have 'meaning'.
The others imply that humans are here only as another species created from evolution and not for any higher 'reason'. In this sense, we all have no 'meaning' in the end.

Good summary:

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Originally Posted by Smooth Operator

I think the problem is that your looking at the big picture rather than the small one(your own individual life).

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This really is just an atheist 'opinion' though, and highly debatable.

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Originally Posted by Therapy?

The threadstarter (or post you replied to) were not using the word 'meaning' is the same way as you have; your using it in the context of the 'small picture' i.e. your individual life e.g. having friends, family, going out etc...In that sense, we all have 'meaning'.
The others imply that humans are here only as another species created from evolution and not for any higher 'reason'. In this sense, we all have no 'meaning' in the end.

Good summary:


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This really is just an atheist 'opinion' though, and highly debatable.

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im not looking at the small picture...what are u talking about..

Small picture/Big picture is irrelevant; meaning in any facet of your life (especially its meaning) is entirely in your interpretation. Should you choose to see mortality--the guarantee of death--as making your short life innefectual and meaningless, then guess what, you'll make yourself into an embittered self-fulfilling prophecy...not always, some thrive on that cynicism. Whatever your view, the point should be self-empowerment in your worldview. If you depress yourself, shy away from conflict etc., you're already dead in many ways.

So, if the fact that the lineage and cyclic death and rebirth of humanity, and every other organism on this planet, is validation that our life is meaningless, shucks-howdy hoss! The only thing you have definite control over is yourself--even that is f@#!&d with by the will of others. If you can take every experience or relationship and acknowledge your finite life, relative lack of consequence etc., you might be more aggressive in getting what you want now, not procrastinating. We're animals, we reside at the top of the food-chain, making our peers our only predators...in war, hunger, the workplace or the family, you can be manipulated or assert yourself and maintain some autonomy.
Besides, with the right ambition, look at all the things the great dictators of the last three centuries have accomplished! Encouraging , right?

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Originally Posted by IamMissingaLink

im not looking at the small picture...what are u talking about..

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I'm talking about ambiguity, I suppose I've made a very stipulative definition of small/big picture.

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Originally Posted by Darl

Small picture/Big picture is irrelevant; meaning in any facet of your life (especially its meaning) is entirely in your interpretation. Should you choose to see mortality--the guarantee of death--as making your short life innefectual and meaningless, then guess what, you'll make yourself into an embittered self-fulfilling prophecy...not always, some thrive on that cynicism. Whatever your view, the point should be self-empowerment in your worldview. If you depress yourself, shy away from conflict etc., you're already dead in many ways.

So, if the fact that the lineage and cyclic death and rebirth of humanity, and every other organism on this planet, is validation that our life is meaningless, shucks-howdy hoss! The only thing you have definite control over is yourself--even that is f@#!&d with by the will of others. If you can take every experience or relationship and acknowledge your finite life, relative lack of consequence etc., you might be more aggressive in getting what you want now, not procrastinating. We're animals, we reside at the top of the food-chain, making our peers our only predators...in war, hunger, the workplace or the family, you can be manipulated or assert yourself and maintain some autonomy.
Besides, with the right ambition, look at all the things the great dictators of the last three centuries have accomplished! Encouraging , right?

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I agree that the fact that one believes he will die does not take 'meaning', in the sense you have described, out of his life i.e. is therefore irrelevant. I don't get how small picture/big picture is irrelevant to this discussion though.

I think the meaning of life differs with each individual life. Context and opinion change so much between individuals that we each make unique meanings out of everything. Life is what we make of it, doesnt the same apply to the meaning of life? Even if your meaning is lack of meaning, it is still yours and is no more signifigant then any other opinion. Maybe every meaning we have made of every experience, every thought and revelation that has given us the pleasure of understanding a little more of our life and purpose, is what shapes an overall meaning. Get what i mean?;) :p

You have a right to think about what you want, and outsiders don't have the rights to tell you what you think. At the end it's all up to you, but I felt that even if life has no meaning to you yourself, to others around you , like your parents and relatives and friends and classmates, you being in existence affect them in one way or another. In other words, your life has meaning to them, even when it has none to you

If you never find it within life, you will find it within death.

If life doesn't have a meaning for me,I would have jumped from the window!

I didnt get here by chance, there must be a reason, il look for one, one thing i can say is, "meaning or no meaning" im going to make my life larger than it already is. "Its not that life's too short, you've been dead for too long".

Meaing of life, eh? Complex. I haven't read this entire thread or all of your posts yet (that would take hours and it's already like one a.m.) but I can establish my own opinions. I'm sorry if I sound pessimistic saying this, but ultimately I believe that life as no meaning. Saying that we are here to reproduce or make life better for those who come after us sounds to me like A) an excuse or B) resorting to animal instincts. Think about this; with the advances in science made these days, everybody knows that the world will eventually come to an end; then what'll it all be for? We work hard to make life easier for those people who could prosper from it, but who can prosper after the world has been destroyed? I apologize for my depressing views, but this is how I view the world. Completely futile.

I was reading your posts.
I also search the meaning of life. Because I do believe that people have different talents (and can have different purposes in life) but I also believe that there is an absolute meaning attached to human existence as such.
At some moments it does not even bother me that I don't know the meaning of life, this mystery is a dear friend of mine. (we all read literature, or not?) And I would not want to ruin this world of wonders, at least as long as I can wonder it.
But I also get frustrated that I am so helplessly ignorant regarding this mystery of human existence.

What I also wanted to say: we can debate an eternity and we shall not find the meaning of existence. The way out is not conducted by reason, the real meaning can only be outside reason, in faith, in intuition, in our heart… anywhere, but not in the head.

The thing is: it is so enjoyable to reason and discuss about meaning, it makes us feel meaningful, so, it can not be meaningless.

Life itself has no meaning at all~~
Your mission of life is to creat the meaning of your own~~

Truly, I think that each man finds his the meaning of life as he discovers his purpose to fulfill. I equate meaning, purpose, potential, hope and happiness; I group them together and consider them intimately linked.

Purpose gives meaning, that in your place in the world you have a job to perform, a determination that keeps you going. Potential fulfills purpose, because we are gifted with infinite, miraculous abilities, and when we pursue them, push them, then we achieve a sense of satisfaction--and that gives us a hope, a faith, belief in ourselves and others because we recognize the potential in others that we see in ourselves. Joy is derived from the hope we have.

Whoa, so just rambled there. Hope you can work that out. ;)

To believe life is meaningless is the same as believing you have no purpose. Sometimes this sentiment is fostered by the notion that you have to have some grand duty to fulfill or else you are meaningless. But this is not true. Even the little things give meaning and value, especially those little things. A humble role is as grand as a large one, if you are willing to be content with it. Meaning is also not to be confused with destiny. I would love to be a children's book writer, but I don't consider that my purpose in this world. Simply, I consider my own, personal meaning to be God, and therefore He is my purpose and what I pursue, and my potential will ultimately be used to follow Him, and that makes me happy.

To jump into the deep end of this topic (I.e. I haven't read more than the first and fifth pages)...

I, personally think that overall, life has utterly no grand or greater meaning. I just think there are too many flaws in every single theory I have heard for any of them to float in my book. We are just a few messy lumps of organic tissue floating round and round in the void on a lump of rock. You are born, you live a bit, you die. Perhaps if there is any meaning at all, it is meerly to avoid death for as long as possible. Anything above this is purely something invented to fill the void of uncertainty.

Yee gods thats a depressing thought...

Not neccesarily deppresing Shadow. In a way, a compliment to mankind's imagination and mental ability. If "organic tissue lying around" is really all there is to it, look at the masses of complex and diverse thoughts and creations around the meaning of life. Pretty impressive void fillers if you ask me. Perhaps it was to be some sort of sick competition to which organic lump came up with the best idea? :lol: Just kidding, but all our thinking makes it worth it doesnt it? Even if life meaning is mysterious, all the passion and creation around it develops something even more magnificent and rewarding, life worth. Whether anything means anything, or everything means nothing, we still live and breath and think. I myself can live with that for a while :D