Philosophy Discussion Forums

anthonybrown wrote: ↑November 25th, 2018, 8:37 pm jklint is exactly right, we are all different, all have to learn different lessons and are given the necessary tools and environment to learn those lessons

Nonsense! There don't exist the tools and environment for even the wisest of men to make sense of life. Learning is open-ended with no eternal meaning to be obtained from it.

Billion of glaxies,Principles of physical world,Scientific evidences and pre born conscious(zero) plus after death conscious(zero) are all independent of our lives(Especially life) so what can be the purpose of life?
Let me redefine it very clearly that its the physical losses & metaphysical gains(if any) which raises this typically thought that life can be for any purpose because in longterm people inherit something and next generation/form supposes its the pre plan of meaningful life whaich actually is not there.We can only have a perception of majority dominated view that life has a meaning but it was started without aim and will end without aim.

My assumption is if there is no cause there should never be an effect hence aimless start can not produce an aimless end so there is no meaning of life span except eating,drinking,believing what others do/not do and leaving offsprings behind us.


Material success,earning money,getting job,running health,making property,writing one's thought on paper/electronic media,having reproduction and million other works can NEVER be a meaning of life BUT these are what billions have done before so what others have already done is only a dominated thought regarding slavery of time.I must also conclude here that what no one has never done before can't also be a meaning but only innovation.

One may have religious explanation,may have psychological explanation,may have personal explanation,may have materialistical explanation,may have supernatural type of explanation BUT notice it that this is their explanations and they are not agree to one another hence any disputed hypothesis from time to time,from place to place and from entity to entity are ABSOLUTE FALSE.I must add here very clearly that explantions notifies the reason of happening not the logic for being happened.

That's all from my side.

Most responses are personal - figuring out & fulfilling your purpose.

In the bigger picture, more universally and spiritually, maybe the purpose of human life is to progress & thereby have joy.

This hypothetical story told of a man who, after death was approached by someone. He asked them, “Are you God?” And the being responded, “Sure - you can think of me that way if you want.” This being helped him see the BIG picture - how he was next going to be a peasant woman thousands of years before his most recent life. It didn’t make sense to him & said, “How could that be?” Then the being showed how he was every single person in this world and how time is irrelevant in that realm. There’s the possibility that we are all one - just different expressions of that one. I have wondered if all consciousness that ever has lived or will live is the sum total of God.

Newme wrote: ↑November 29th, 2018, 11:54 pm Most responses are personal - figuring out & fulfilling your purpose.

In the bigger picture, more universally and spiritually, maybe the purpose of human life is to progress & thereby have joy.

This hypothetical story told of a man who, after death was approached by someone. He asked them, “Are you God?” And the being responded, “Sure - you can think of me that way if you want.” This being helped him see the BIG picture - how he was next going to be a peasant woman thousands of years before his most recent life. It didn’t make sense to him & said, “How could that be?” Then the being showed how he was every single person in this world and how time is irrelevant in that realm. There’s the possibility that we are all one - just different expressions of that one. I have wondered if all consciousness that ever has lived or will live is the sum total of God.

This is called absolute and eternal nonsense because..
You can't infer your god/gods in making every conclusion of yourself.No one agrees this nonsense that conscious states sum will be god.Who say it and show you can say it and what it can conclude except nothing?
Scientific evidences are needed by you and general awareness is needed to take a true turn.
If i say that whole universe composition is formed by matter this is exactly a rubbish thing as you produced.
Our thought is general example that is not formed by matter while we still are included among the universe limits.
What you know that is your borrowed knowing either from others or from antinode of nodes.Thats all

Newme wrote:

In the bigger picture, more universally and spiritually, maybe the purpose of human life is to progress & thereby have joy.

What is "the bigger picture" in the context of meaning?

What can you mean by "the purpose"? Purpose does not exist unattached to a conscious mind that purposes. So do you refer to your own purpose or to God's purpose? If the latter how do you know what God purposes?

Nothing truly matters in the grand scheme of things so only in the here and now
Something has to exist even though this did not have to involve us but just does
When we are gone our existence will have counted for absolutely nothing at all

To me there's no such a thing as "meaning". Survival is perhaps the only thing that matters throughout the course of human history. We are solely responsible of giving "meaning" to our existence.Everything we do, think , or feel will eventually wilt and die with us. Sad isn't it??? However humans are in some way incredible creatures and we have strong defense mechanisms so as to avoid negative thinking that would result living with a terrible existential anxiety.
Again I repeat the one and only thing that humans find meaningful is survival. We strive to go to college in order to get a job that's going pay well enough for our survival. We fall in love, get married or have sex in order to procreate which again results in the perpetuation of our species aka survival. We pay for healthcare in order to be able to enjoy longevity etc... This may sound like an existential or even nihilistic point of view, however this is the only true and realistic meaning behind everything we do in our lives. But if you're still looking for a noble spiritual meaning I guess that would be helping others. Everybody enjoys being a philanthropist from average people to billionaires. And the reason behind this is surprisingly again, survival. We feel obliged to help other people because subconsciously we are struggling to survive. People do charities so that when they're dead they will have left a huge legacy behind them. Although they're dead their name survives through their acts of kindness.

Nelav25 wrote: ↑December 1st, 2018, 2:50 pm To me there's no such a thing as "meaning". Survival is perhaps the only thing that matters throughout the course of human history. We are solely responsible of giving "meaning" to our existence.Everything we do, think , or feel will eventually wilt and die with us. Sad isn't it??? However humans are in some way incredible creatures and we have strong defense mechanisms so as to avoid negative thinking that would result living with a terrible existential anxiety.
Again I repeat the one and only thing that humans find meaningful is survival. We strive to go to college in order to get a job that's going pay well enough for our survival. We fall in love, get married or have sex in order to procreate which again results in the perpetuation of our species aka survival. We pay for healthcare in order to be able to enjoy longevity etc... This may sound like an existential or even nihilistic point of view, however this is the only true and realistic meaning behind everything we do in our lives. But if you're still looking for a noble spiritual meaning I guess that would be helping others. Everybody enjoys being a philanthropist from average people to billionaires. And the reason behind this is surprisingly again, survival. We feel obliged to help other people because subconsciously we are struggling to survive. People do charities so that when they're dead they will have left a huge legacy behind them. Although they're dead their name survives through their acts of kindness.

Nehlav, welcome.

Not everybody goes to college in order to to get a job, there are various motives.

People are variously motivated to fall in love, get married , or have sex.

Many people are not philanthropists and some people would rather harm others.

I agree about wanting to survive as a main motivator for what people do. Do you mean duration of survival, or quality of survival ? Some people choose a short life but a happy one.

Belindi wrote: ↑November 30th, 2018, 8:11 am Newme wrote:

In the bigger picture, more universally and spiritually, maybe the purpose of human life is to progress & thereby have joy.

What is "the bigger picture" in the context of meaning?

What can you mean by "the purpose"? Purpose does not exist unattached to a conscious mind that purposes. So do you refer to your own purpose or to God's purpose? If the latter how do you know what God purposes?

Thanks for sticking with the topic, rather than engaging in ad hominem logical fallacies as Amjad... did.

The bigger picture refers to the meaning of why life exists on this earth - in this solar system and universe and to the beginning of life here.

You’re correct in pointing out that nobody really knows what God’s (objective truth/Intelligent Design’s) purpose of creating this world and life on it. I’m just guessing, while realizing I, like most, am probably ignorant about much of the possibilities. Indeed, it’s theorized that higher dimensions involve infinite possibilities of infinite possibilities. So, as Socrates acknowledged - none of us really know much!

The meaning of life has many afferent explanations depending on the concept of what the person or group that looked for its meaning where trying to accomplish.
I did not have any political or religious preconception. I entered into the search for the meaning with an open mind. I did not know the answer. I did not know the answer to any of the questions.

When you are solving a problem you must look at it without having any preconceived idea of an answer to that problem. You must clear your mind of everything you know about the subject. Remember that previous theories, assumptions and facts could be wrong.
Reassess everything with an open mind. Do not make a conclusion to what the answer is until you have looked at the problem from every possible prospective. You must look at it in every possible way for every possible answer. Once you have run out of different answers than look at why you came up with those answers. Reassess every answer, combine every answer, dissect every answer.
Remember the problem might have more than one correct answer or the correct answer might be a combination of the different answers that you have come up with.
If you try to solve a problem with an open mind the true answer will reveal itself.

To know the meaning you need to try to understand what life is, where it came from, what it is made of, how it sustains itself, how does it reproduce, does it die or is it immortal, where does it exist.

Life is everywhere from deep space to the deepest cave. It can adapt to any environment given time and that is its strength and its weakness it takes time to adapt.
Life as we know it comes in many shapes and forms determined by the environment it adapted to. From the extremophile that can live anywhere that its molecular bonds aren't broken to the blue whale that can only live in salt water.
Where did life come from. If you take the theory of the universe's creation from a big bang than it was created from an explosion. Was the universe created from a soup of matter and antimatter in which a bubble of matter formed than it was created by a bubble. Was the universe created inside a singularity than it was created by a singularity or a combination of any or all of them or none of them or god. Scientists don't know they just make theories based on incomplete data and an interpretation of there and other people's research and beliefs and that is all anyone can do.
The universe is both infinite in size and time. It always has been and always will be. It is just the arrangement of what is in it that changes.
As is now known light doesn't travel at a constant speed it can be slowed down therefor also speed up. So it is not a good indicator of whether an object is moving away or towards us. It can also be bent. One of the ways to find a black hole is look for light in the shape of a crescent rather than a point of light. Background radiation proves there was a big bang but doesn't prove it created the universe just that there was a big bang in our part of it. A singularity could form anywhere that doesn't mean it created the universe.
Every time we invent new technology to look deeper into the universe we discover more galaxies some are so far away that they must be traveling faster than the speed of light if they where part the big bang. Some galaxies are even accelerating due to dark matter. Some are on a collision course with each other. Others have collided. As our technology improves so does the age and size of our universe
The universe is constantly changing creating new opportunities for life
The truth is that no human knows how or if the universe was created so know human knows how or if life was created. We just know it exists and as far as we know it needs a universe to live in.
Life needs an energy source to exist either light, heat or matter in any or all combinations.
Life divides to reproduce the amount of times it can divide is determined by its adaptation to its environment so it is immortal but it can die.
Life can need more than one to be immortal and die at the same time
Life is made up of everything. There are gaps in our periodic table we haven't discovered every element yet but i can guarantee life has and is using them to sustain itself because it will adapt to any environment given time.
Life is that which creates itself and others.
The meaning of life is 'adapt to the environment'. If it doesn't adapt it will cease to exist and it has to exist to have a meaning. An adaptation must happen for evolution to not just be replication. An adaptation without a purpose is unlikely to succeed wasting time and resources.
we are all unique adaptations to our own unique environment. we think, feel, smell, see, hear, taste, touch, react, respond, remember, read, understand, comprehend and learn everything differently to everyone else.
i think therefore i am. we can change our adaptation and or our environment for better or worse any time we choose.

itt wrote: ↑December 23rd, 2018, 10:53 amThe universe is both infinite in size and time. It always has been and always will be.

Got any evidence for that.

itt wrote:

When you are solving a problem you must look at it without having any preconceived idea of an answer to that problem. You must clear your mind of everything you know about the subject. Remember that previous theories, assumptions and facts could be wrong.
Reassess everything with an open mind. Do not make a conclusion to what the answer is until you have looked at the problem from every possible prospective. You must look at it in every possible way for every possible answer. Once you have run out of different answers than look at why you came up with those answers. Reassess every answer, combine every answer, dissect every answer.
Remember the problem might have more than one correct answer or the correct answer might be a combination of the different answers that you have come up with.
If you try to solve a problem with an open mind the true answer will reveal itself.

While it's good to aim to be as objective as possible it's impossible to not be subject to prejudices; after all you are not a newborn babe.

It's also impossible to look at the problem from every possible perspective . God is said to be omnisicent and there are no other contenders.

Not every problem has an answer .It's healthier to accept that you cannot know anything at all for sure.

Belindi wrote: ↑December 25th, 2018, 9:39 amWhile it's good to aim to be as objective as possible it's impossible to not be subject to prejudices; after all you are not a newborn babe.

What makes you think newborns don't have prejudices, they may be simplistic prejudices, a preference to be fed something that tastes 'right' when hungry e.g. but I'm pretty sure they're there.

Mark1955 wrote: ↑December 26th, 2018, 5:08 am

Belindi wrote: ↑December 25th, 2018, 9:39 amWhile it's good to aim to be as objective as possible it's impossible to not be subject to prejudices; after all you are not a newborn babe.

What makes you think newborns don't have prejudices, they may be simplistic prejudices, a preference to be fed something that tastes 'right' when hungry e.g. but I'm pretty sure they're there.

I agree Mark but I guess you don't mean "simplistic" you mean' simple'.

The meaning is not feeling and it has no relation to thought. We probably are cognitively close to experience the meaning if there is any meaning at all.