What's the meaning of life?

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Belindi
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Belindi »

No, the Christian Gospel is not the only pathway to purification. There are others like Islam and Buddhism. Not all Christians believe Christ is the only way. But he is really good for those who have lost their way.

Regarding the choice of who to help first, I take the pragmatic approach and help whoever is hurting the most first.
I agree that Christian ethics are like ethics of the other main religions, and Humanism. I also agree that Christ is really good for those who have lost their way. This is why Nietzsche disliked Christianity, that it supports and perpetuates loss, death, and disempowerment, whereas it's better to empower lost persons so that they need no supernatural crutch.

The better way to be religious, and Christian, is to regard Christ as the good but helpless one that needs nurturing by men who are brave enough to carry the cross on his behalf.

-- Updated June 5th, 2017, 4:14 am to add the following --

(I omitted that the above quote was from JBH74)
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AlistairGrim
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by AlistairGrim »

I am invested in a religion, however for the sake of his discussion i will communicate as if otherwise.

Life is temporary. And this futility is extended to all living things.
We can help others, but their existence is temporary.
Therefore we cannot make meaningful changes. Therefore there cannot be a meaning to life.
We can act as though other values give life meaning. Commonly people express kindness to others and decide that as a purpose. That is a comforting thought.

Comforting only.

fundamentally selfless or selfish, nothing has changed.
But we are speaking about the ultimate scheme of the universe. Dividing by infinity we are like ants. Ants do not concern themselves with the grand scheme, only simplistic views.

Perhaps if helping others better the temporary existence of all of us, we just do it. Regardless.
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JamesOfSeattle
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by JamesOfSeattle »

AlistairGrim wrote: Life is temporary.
Why do you think this? Since the beginning of life on earth (some billion of years ago) life has been here. If we get off this planet there is every reason to believe life will last as long as the universe.
We can help others, but their existence is temporary.

Maybe by helping some others we help ALL others.
Therefore we cannot make meaningful changes. Therefore there cannot be a meaning to life.
That just doesn't follow.
Perhaps if helping others better the temporary existence of all of us, we just do it. Regardless.
Perhaps if helping others betters the chance of life spreading throughout the universe, it will be worth it.

*
Tamminen
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Tamminen »

AlistairGrim wrote:But we are speaking about the ultimate scheme of the universe. Dividing by infinity we are like ants. Ants do not concern themselves with the grand scheme, only simplistic views.
Yes, we are nothing in front of the allmighty universe that runs its own course and does not care about the tiny accident that we are.

But, on the other hand, each of us is everything there is. Each of us is the universe.

If these pictures are incompatible, I choose the latter.
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Sayso
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Sayso »

This is something I've never wondered about for myself. When others pose it, and I end up wondering what the question means. Life has highs and lows, pleasures and pains, satisfactions and frustrations, etc.

When used rhetorically, the question is very often meant to get people to commit to or contribute to some cause...somewhat like "Do you know who you really are?"

So perhaps some posters would elaborate on why they pose the question?
Belindi
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Belindi »

Sayso wrote:This is something I've never wondered about for myself. When others pose it, and I end up wondering what the question means. Life has highs and lows, pleasures and pains, satisfactions and frustrations, etc.

When used rhetorically, the question is very often meant to get people to commit to or contribute to some cause...somewhat like "Do you know who you really are?"

So perhaps some posters would elaborate on why they pose the question?
Useful suggestion! "Please show me that my life means something!" Or alternatively " Please show me that a good God makes this terrible world somehow ordered!" .

I think that "What's the meaning of life?" embeds the presumption that meanings can be unattached to persons.So the question is not explicit.


Since God is believed by some people to be He Who intends all meanings, " What's the meaning of life?" for those people refers to what God means.

-- Updated July 14th, 2017, 4:42 am to add the following --
Belindi wrote:
Sayso wrote:This is something I've never wondered about for myself. When others pose it, and I end up wondering what the question means. Life has highs and lows, pleasures and pains, satisfactions and frustrations, etc.

When used rhetorically, the question is very often meant to get people to commit to or contribute to some cause...somewhat like "Do you know who you really are?"

So perhaps some posters would elaborate on why they pose the question?
Useful suggestion! "Please show me that my life means something!" Or alternatively " Please show me that a good God makes this terrible world somehow ordered!" .

I think that "What's the meaning of life?" embeds the presumption that meanings can be unattached to persons.So the question is not explicit.


Since God is believed by some people to be He Who intends all meanings, " What's the meaning of life?" for those people refers to what God means.
I think that 'purpose', the verb or the noun, are more explicit words than 'mean' and 'meaning.
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Phorever
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Phorever »

cynicallyinsane wrote:What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose?
The meaning of life is to survive and procreate. For higher beings, the meaning of life is to realize their dreams.
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Pelegrin_1 »

Phorever wrote:
cynicallyinsane wrote:What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose?
The meaning of life is to survive and procreate. For higher beings, the meaning of life is to realize their dreams.
I'd say that the "meaning of life" for a conscious being, such as humans, is simply 'to make meaning of their life', or in other words... to make their life meaningful. Our lives don't really have any particularly innate meaning, other than the meaning we make of it or give to it. We can make little or no meaning of it; we can make positive or negative meaning of it. Have we been destructive or creative, wasteful or preservative, advancing or retrogressing, loving or hateful. Or have we simply been standing by doing virtually nothing.
Belindi
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Belindi »

'Life' is an idea. Living things exist but life does not exist except as an idea. Life cannot mean or intend anything as it is not a living thing.

Not every question makes sense, and the title of this thread does not make sense.
Tamminen
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Tamminen »

Belindi wrote:'Life' is an idea. Living things exist but life does not exist except as an idea. Life cannot mean or intend anything as it is not a living thing.

Not every question makes sense, and the title of this thread does not make sense.
'Life', 'existence', 'being' etc. are concepts or ideas the meanings of which we understand more or less, and surely not as well as we want to understand them. Therefore we desperately try to clarify their meaning, because they are crucial for our very existence. That is why we have religions, philosophical schools, science, humanities and so on.

Heidegger wrote his main work 'Being and Time' to clarify the meaning of 'being'. He got a bit further than many others but did not find the aswer. So let us continue our discussion, perhaps we'll reach the goal. :)
Belindi
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Belindi »

But, Tamminem, there is a problem with this discussion. Participants are sincerely trying to apply their minds to answering a question which has no answer because the question itself is nonsense.

My guess is that the original poster meant something like " Do we make our own meanings, or does God make meaning?".

Or " Can you make sense of your life? If so how do you do so?"
Tamminen
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Tamminen »

The OP was:
What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose?
This is a big question and worth thinking, and not only makes sense but is perhaps the biggest question we have.

Why do you think is has no sense? Should we not wonder about our existence?
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by -1- »

Tamminen wrote:The OP was:
What's the meaning of life? What's the purpose?
This is a big question and worth thinking, and not only makes sense but is perhaps the biggest question we have.

Why do you think is has no sense? Should we not wonder about our existence?
Man in his 100,000 year history has contemplated the meaning of life.

If there were any meaning, you'd think that someone would have discovered it by now.

But 4,000,000,000,000 minds (give or take a few) did not find the meaning of life.

There was not one single soul who found the meaning of life.

So this is zero for four trillion. Not a good average, not even in the minor leagues. And our species IS the major league on Earth.

That's A.

B. is that if you don't believe in an intelligent designer having designed and built the universe, then it is a happenstance. And as we know, happenstances don't have meaning. If you sneeze and bend forward in the effort, and a frog jumps up off the ground and gets in your cloud of cold viruses you've just sneezed out within ten seconds of your sneeze, then there is no reason why the frog was destined to catch your cold. No reason. Cause, yes, there was a causation process. But reason, no.

-- Updated 2017 August 30th, 5:21 pm to add the following --
Belindi wrote:'Life' is an idea. Living things exist but life does not exist except as an idea. Life cannot mean or intend anything as it is not a living thing.

Not every question makes sense, and the title of this thread does not make sense.
I think the question means, what is the meaning of living a life. What reason is there for being alive. What is the ultimate goal in life that give a liver something that says, he has accomplished what he had been called to accomplish, in a cosmic sense.

It is still an unanswerable question, mind you.

Due to this thread, I think I'm going to change my signature from "sweat the small... etc" to "You can always live without a lover, but you can't love without a liver."
This search engine is powered by Hunger, Thirst, and a desperate need to Mate.
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Ranvier
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Ranvier »

-1-

After everything I had said... the three absolutes (there are more ;)) and the prove for "God"....?

-- Updated August 30th, 2017, 6:55 pm to add the following --

*proof

-- Updated August 30th, 2017, 6:59 pm to add the following --

Using a religious metaphor... Peter... how many times must you place your finger in the wound?
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Sy Borg
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Re: What's the meaning of life?

Post by Sy Borg »

Belindi wrote:But, Tamminem, there is a problem with this discussion. Participants are sincerely trying to apply their minds to answering a question which has no answer because the question itself is nonsense.

My guess is that the original poster meant something like " Do we make our own meanings, or does God make meaning?".

Or " Can you make sense of your life? If so how do you do so?"
Belinda, wouldn't the fact that people have wondered so much about the question intrinsically make it worthwhile?

Like many, I've wondered if there is any point to the insane amount of suffering meted out to gormless life forms over billions of years.

I can only explain or justify our lives as links between generations in the biosphere's maturing, with the possibility of developing forms that can continue the biosphere's journey on other worlds once the Sun's heating renders the planet too inhospitable for large terrestrial life. After about 4 billion years the development of the Earth is moving to its dotage. In just a billion years the Earth's surface will be completely sterilised, with the oceans boiled away to enclose the planet in a water vapour "greenhouse" atmosphere with surface temperatures heading towards those of Venus (over 400C).

I, for one, would like the journey to continue for as long as possible, even if it means humanity being vastly different to what it is today. Actually, that would seem preferable.
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