There is no meaning to life

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PaulNZ
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Favorite Philosopher: Marcus Aurelius

Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by PaulNZ »

Alphabravo123 wrote:Nothing we do matters at all. Our short physical existences are but a micro fraction of the blink of an eye in the face of time. Therefore, no emotion or action can make any true difference, seeing as our society will last at the most only a few million years. Our corpses will have turned to ash, disintegrated, and have been reabsorbed and redistributed by the universe myriads of times, and any insignificant deed will be forgotten. In light of this knowledge, I implore you, what reason is there to exist at all? How can we justify our lives when they are so inconsequential in vast scope of this entire metaphysical plane?
Our reason for being is to become.

:wink:
Belinda
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Belinda »

Paul NZ wrote:
Our reason for being is to become.
I agree with this and would like to open it out a little. To evolve morally we need to be as free as possible, freedom of the press and other media, open government and justiciary, freedom of speech and of assembly. Freedom from repression and from state rule by terror.Freedom to help others to be free from poverty,ignorance, repression and terror.

Support Private Manning therefore.
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Misty
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Misty »

The purpose of life is to live purposefully purposely thus creating meaning to life.
Things are not always as they appear; it's a matter of perception.

The eyes can only see what the mind has, is, or will be prepared to comprehend.

I am Lion, hear me ROAR! Meow.
Ecurb
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Ecurb »

Nothing we do matters at all. Our short physical existences are but a micro fraction of the blink of an eye in the face of time. Therefore, no emotion or action can make any true difference, seeing as our society will last at the most only a few million years. Our corpses will have turned to ash, disintegrated, and have been reabsorbed and redistributed by the universe myriads of times, and any insignificant deed will be forgotten. In light of this knowledge, I implore you, what reason is there to exist at all? How can we justify our lives when they are so inconsequential in vast scope of this entire metaphysical plane?
The argument is not logically sound. If a butterfly flapping its wings in Japan can cause a tornado in Kansas, our actions can make a difference, too. I'm not sure what you mean by "true" difference -- but any difference is a true difference. it does not logically follow that because we cannot do everything, we cannot do anything; nor that because we haven't the power or skill to dramatically alter the world, we haven't the power or skill to alter it.

Here's a paragraph about the idealisic Dorothea, who wants to "make a true difference", but whose life goes in a different direction than she planned. It's the last paragraph of George Eliot's "Middlemarch", one of the cannonical novels of the English language:
Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
(Cyrus, legend has it, divided a river into small channels so his army could cross.)
Doffing81
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Doffing81 »

It is apparent that what we do does indeed matter, unless of course you would like to deny this historical situation, or if you prefer, the present itself. Is it not obvious that what you do does indeed matter to yourself, to me, to others, in essence to human beings, and in such a way that it absolutely matters? For who are you to say that the human race, which has overcome so much, will not continue to do so forever, and thereby establish itself as absolute (which may never be known). I would implore you to save your insight, that we will only survive a few million years longer, and to not determine precisely that which is undetermined. You have come this far for a reason. You look to the future for an absolute answer, while the present is that. Is it too much to ask why you have not ended your life, at least in the sense that you have lived, and have done so for a reason, if for nothing other than the fact that you have chosen to do so, thereby establishing choice as your reason? Is it not obvious that your reason for living could be the pursuit of knowledge, for freedom, perhaps even more relatively speaking, freedom from that which is unknown, and will such a pursuit not contribute to the absolution of the human race?
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Branodcus
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Branodcus »

The meaning of life thats just something we were never meant to think about. Does that make sense? :shock:
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HIHIHIHIHI
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by HIHIHIHIHI »

a lot of us ask questions while not knowing the meaning of life, this isn't the meaning of life, but it's also not a meaningless life either, but it's close to the point where you understand that meaning isn't a necessity in life.
If you say you know me, then you do not know me.

If you think you know me, then you probably know me.
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Misty
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Misty »

Alphabravo123 wrote:Nothing we do matters at all. Our short physical existences are but a micro fraction of the blink of an eye in the face of time. Therefore, no emotion or action can make any true difference, seeing as our society will last at the most only a few million years. Our corpses will have turned to ash, disintegrated, and have been reabsorbed and redistributed by the universe myriads of times, and any insignificant deed will be forgotten. In light of this knowledge, I implore you, what reason is there to exist at all? How can we justify our lives when they are so inconsequential in vast scope of this entire metaphysical plane?

This post seems like depression gone awry and a cry for help. This poster has not posted anywhere since. If you return, please seek medical attention. Let us know how you are.

Misty
Things are not always as they appear; it's a matter of perception.

The eyes can only see what the mind has, is, or will be prepared to comprehend.

I am Lion, hear me ROAR! Meow.
Daviddunn
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Daviddunn »

Misty, I reached the same conclusion as you when i read this OP. However, I think this guy/girl is no more, having just one post, I hope i'm wrong. In case i'm not RIP.
Schaps
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Original post

Post by Schaps »

If indeed this was a cry for help, then we are all responsible for not being aware of that need and for not responding sooner. Helping those in need is one way to add "meaning" to life!
Daviddunn
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Daviddunn »

one can be held only partially morally responsible, if one having read the message, understood it, but did not do anything, if such would have resolved the issue. Otherwise, these thlngs happen and the only thing to be done is to pray for these desperate souls. People in their immediate surrounding are more responsible for them.
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Theophane
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Theophane »

Spiral Out wrote: Meaning is not inherent to life itself.
The meaning of life may not be immediately apparent, but it's out there. If nothing else, the meaning of life is called into being when people search for it. Life resists death. It resist entropy. It resists nihilism. It resists the thermodynamic inevitability of a universe coming to rest, cooling off, and falling apart.
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HIHIHIHIHI
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by HIHIHIHIHI »

Theophane wrote:
The meaning of life may not be immediately apparent, but it's out there. If nothing else, the meaning of life is called into being when people search for it. Life resists death. It resist entropy. It resists nihilism. It resists the thermodynamic inevitability of a universe coming to rest, cooling off, and falling apart.
perceptually, yes.

practically, no.

meaning can be thought to be found and then lost from that thought. if meaning comes from a place where questions only come, and answers never are found, then to say that we can locate meaning would be a stretch.
If you say you know me, then you do not know me.

If you think you know me, then you probably know me.
Schaps
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Schaps »

The extent to which the laissez faire attitude of "these things happen" and the not-in-my-backyard approach of "people in their immediate surrounding are more responsible for them" - pervades our thinking and behaviour, so too will life be devalued, continue to be questioned and analysed about meaninglessness by online philosophy clubs- and nations will stand aside while genocide, "ethnic cleansing"and holocausts repeat. Life does have meaning! It the responsibility of each individual to make his/her life meaningful by using every situation as an opportunity for enrichment - both of our own lives and the lives of others. This has nothing to do with "moral responsibility" but it has everything to do with infusing one's life with meaning..
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Theophane
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Re: There is no meaning to life

Post by Theophane »

HIHIHIHIHI wrote: meaning can be thought to be found and then lost from that thought. if meaning comes from a place where questions only come, and answers never are found, then to say that we can locate meaning would be a stretch.
I suspect that you don't want life to have meaning.
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