Meaning of Life.

[The Comedian]

Pha! This is an easy one.

Of course there's a "meaning" to life. Nice part is -- we get to pick what that meaning is. If your life doesn't have a meaning, then go pick one. There's plenty of candidates out there: kids, art, the Earth, sex, a warm cup of coffee in the morning, being a sarcastic SOB, posting on message boards, God. . .

And the doubly nice part of life's "meaning" is that it's commitment free -- If you want to sleep around with another meaning, the old one won't mind one bit. Heck, you could have multiple meanings if you wanted, and none of them would be jealous. Of course, you'd have some time management to do, but that's better than angst-ridden aimlessness. Unless, of course that kind of thing gives you meaning.

[billyjack]

[blazeofglory]

In point of fact the meaning of life is layered and no one has kind of been able to find it. We all make assumptions, ideas about it but we do not know. We do not know why we are here, and the reason for being alive is yet to be unfolded to us. No prophets, no Gurus, no pundits have ever been able to decipher the meaning of it. No one under the sun could demystify it, so many strivings notwithstanding

[robertlc53]

humans are aware. which is why they fear their impending doom. your life will one day have purpose sharp. it is on that day that you will retract your statement. your life must currently have no purpose. when you are at work your purpose is to perform your duties and obtain a paycheck. therefore you have a stated purpose. when you live life and love it and everyone in it you have a stated purpose. there is no grand design (although religion innatley disagrees with this and liberty together) or blueprint ie no stated purpose to life. no one is gonna come around and say to the collective human race "I'VE GOT IT! from months of calculating i determined the surefire way to reach perfect harmony and symbiosis would be if every person DID _________ !!!!1(insert stated-collective human purpose her)" so therefore you are the author of your own book, not some omniscient predecessor who cracked the code of the cosmos!

[forty 6 & 2]

i had some spare time and joined this thread today. it seems to me that the articulate top .1% are flexing their intellectual muscle to out philosophise (sic) each other in some kind of metaphysical pissing contest.(You'd swear i'd never been on the internet before!). The fact that everyone seems to be so sure of their own take on the subject only goes to reinforce my own theory that the wisest man/woman knows that they know nothing. Live. Feel. "Over thinking, over analysing/ seperates the body from the mind"... Peace and love

[robertlc53]

i had some spare time and joined this thread today. it seems to me that the articulate top .1% are flexing their intellectual muscle to out philosophise (sic) each other in some kind of metaphysical pissing contest.(You'd swear i'd never been on the internet before!). The fact that everyone seems to be so sure of their own take on the subject only goes to reinforce my own theory that the wisest man/woman knows that they know nothing. Live. Feel. "Over thinking, over analysing/ seperates the body from the mind"... Peace and love

answering a question constitutes adding to the collective knowledge/piss available in this thread? and then you go on to say that knowing nothing is enlightenment. what muscles you have.

[forty 6 & 2]

What question am i answering? Please enlighten me. An don't say "what is the meani... blah blah blah". The language you use in your previous posts is juvinile nihilism to say the least, are you 14?

[forty 6 & 2]

"juvenile"

[skib]

I agree with you on several points- I don't have time to read this entire thread to see what has been said, but I oftentimes find myself wondering why I feel like the most insignificant, meaningless sack of **** on the face of the planet. If life is supposed to have a meaning, why is it such a pain in the *** to figure out? Granted, that is considered the great mystery- to figure out that meaning.

I also think The Comedian is onto something- the meaning of life has no generic terms other than to figure it out for yourself. Your meaning depends on where you take your meaning from- your job, your spouse, significant other, your God, your lack thereof, it doesn't matter. If you want the meaning of your life to be the slimiest crook ever to slither the earth, by all means, go for it. Just get caught quick so the rest of us don't have to suffer you.

[ShoutGrace]

It is in my humble opinion that life truly has no meaning. We are organisms put on this planet to live our life and and do what pleases us. We are nothing but another species with superior intelligence and reason. That is why our life has so much structure and beurocracy. We live our life in guaranteed death. We reproduce and the next generation goes through this life cycle. Repeated hundreds of times all while the process of Evolution takes place. Therefore our life truly has no meaning. In a broader sense nothing really has any meaning whatsoever. But our emotions, our emotions is what blinds us into this anomaly which very few ever realize that we are meaningless. On this earth to do only what pleases us.

Sharp, I see where you get this idea, but I would qualify it. Life may have no intrinsic meaning. . .we live, we die as any other animal. But that "superior intelligence and reason" you acknowledge humans to possess imbues us with a burden - we alone recognise the futility and meaninglessness of existence, therefore we have the responsibility to create meaning for ourselves.
This is not an intrinsic "meaning of life," some absolute quintessence- it is an individual construct forced upon us by the emotions and reason we possess.

I agree. Given the view that humans are merely biological organisms and that death brings annihilation, life is futile and meaningless. There is no objective or intrinsic meaning to human existence, or anything else for that matter. “Everything is pointless and therefore so is saying so.” In such a condition, creating meaning for ourselves helps us get out of bed in the morning, and enables us to act in many cases.

Says the great atheist Bertrand Russell:

“Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of meaning, is the world which Science presents for our belief. Amid such a world, if anywhere, our ideals henceforward must find a home. That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins . . .”

He ends the passage by saying:

“Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built.”

We may do well to consider the nature and colour of such a habitation (keeping in mind that by some lights, it is all we have).

[Judas130]

In point of fact the meaning of life is layered and no one has kind of been able to find it. We all make assumptions, ideas about it but we do not know. We do not know why we are here, and the reason for being alive is yet to be unfolded to us. No prophets, no Gurus, no pundits have ever been able to decipher the meaning of it. No one under the sun could demystify it, so many strivings notwithstanding

Indeed, one may claim (as i have done many times over) that an obvious approach to meaning may be best. What do we do, essentially? we live, and reproduce, and die. Yet why is this? why do we reproduce? of course, to promote the species, but what attachments and purpose can this serve beyond the blunt obvious? To simply say our meaning is 'to procreate, and die, nothing else' would be flawed, as meaning includes significance and personal attachment, while simple logic does not.

"Over thinking, over analysing/ seperates the body from the mind"... Peace and love

Maynard James Keenan? A good song my favourite of Tool in fact, yet what a terrible thinker.
I don't see how separating the body from the mind can be viewed as a terribly bad thing, unless keenen wants us to base ALL we do on carnal desire. Which, even I, cannot support fully. His statement means: 'chilllll go smoke dope dude, thinking doesn't matter', Which is hardly relevant in a thread that requires thought. The body exists separate to our mind, but it is persistently influenced by it, whereas a dog has one mind and body. Pseudophilosophy such as Maynard's fails at meeting the requirements of argument.

[robertlc53]

What question am i answering? Please enlighten me. An don't say "what is the meani... blah blah blah". The language you use in your previous posts is juvinile nihilism to say the least, are you 14?

ha. i was saying that your post is a waste. we are here to propose answers to questions. your response was a complete waste and everyone could do without it here is my point.

[godlessdaeth]

Isn't that the meaning of your life, sharp?

these and everything is the same. and dependent on the same thing. we all exist for existing sake.

[godlessdaeth]

we exist for the sake of existing. and not only that but the same go's for everything.
so i think that the meaning to life is to simply exist.

[billyjack]

i see what yer saying godless but to say that everything exist for existence sake doesnt really get us any further than we already are. an all encompassing statement can't really be checked and studied. its like saying all is god or something. sure it might be, but you cant really prove this or disprove it so its sort of...meaningless....you know what i mean.