Mighty big questions get tackled on this forum I see! I like it I don't attribute any meaning to life, nor do I know what it would be like to HAVE some sort of meaning... what does that mean? I think the world would be a VERY different place if life had some sort of 'goal'.
The meaning of life: Well, let's see. What if I said, there is none. In fact, we are not even here. We are just an echo from the past.
The answer is obviously 7, unless you mean philosophically, then its evolution of your consiousness as a whole, globally letting the universe evolve with you. (If you didnt notice, Im a thinker)
Though I ponder these questions in my journal all the time, sometimes finding things I believe to be enlightening enough to make me run outside and scream, while other times finding more questions than I started off with, there are a few certainties, or Truths I have learned, and maybe even discovered on my own. As my dad likes to put it, absolute truths (upper case T's), such as what would be maybe the 'meaning of life' are always a combination of smaller truths (lower case t's). So, a Truth is a bunch of truths put together, and some unfold all at once, while others take a very slow process. Personally, I've found this to be true. Every moment of clarity I have ever had has always been the result of a succession of previous events that I suddenly became aware of, and, when the awareness solidified, the Truth surfaced. We may go through life never finding a Truth, or, one could say the answer is there is no answer. In that case, no answer is, in actuality, a Truth. But that's almost akin to Decartes deceiving demon theory. Very slippery slope kind of stuff, stagnant even, and I don't want to lose my line of thought. Socrates advocated constant inquiry of all things, for we are beings seeking understanding, not only in ourselves, but in each other, and we find answers in understanding, truths and Truths. His reasoning for constant inquiry was due to him he treating life as if he knew nothing, which created a situation where he put himself in a position to always learn something. This latter thought has become my philosophy, mutated, and is similar to what someone has mentioned already. A wise friend of mine once told me to, "Absorb life like a sponge, the good, the bad, and the neutral, for it all plays a role in your experience, all shapes who you are as a person, and progresses you forward to the person you're meant to be. And never do anything that would prevent you from being able to absorb life." So maybe it's not about the exact meaning to life, not about the pursuit of that upper-case Truth. Maybe it's about putting yourself in a position to receive experience, to be aware of things around you, to drink in everything like a sponge, to saturate yourself with the stuffs of life. Maybe we are just figments of our subconscious, or maybe we've restructured reality into 3D through evolution, because the True reality would be too overwhelming for us to internalize at this point in our lives. Sometimes, I think I see dead people. Other times, I know I do. Maybe I am dead. Than what does that make you?
Looking back over this thread, my opinions at base really have not changed. I do not believe in a point to life.
The question shouldn't be what is the meaning of life, but rather where is there meaning in life? The difference between claiming to know the answer, and searching for it.
We are but shadows that are born with sunrise and die at sunset... in other words there is no meaning, we just give ourselves those to make us feel better
The 'meaning of life' is a vapid question asked by people unable to find something worth living for. The only meaning of life is the one you make. Trial and error, not some cosmic intervention, is going to give you the answer. Waiting around for it is going to waste the life you're trying to find meaning in.
To keep existing. What is life all around us doing? Surviving. If some new conditions present themselves, the environment changes, life itself must change to stay alive. Now us, humans... There are cosmic rocks moving around at speeds that, if were to plunge into a planet, could destroy all life on it. There are suns popping to red giants, supernovas, supervolcanoes, etc. Life without conscious intelligence could not survive those under any circumstances, for that imagination and inventiveness are required. We have those abilities and we are of life, and they developed naturally, through evolution. For life's continued existence they are absolutely required. The point, meaning, purpose, of life is to survive, to keep existing. And where did it all begin? From replicating molecules, molecules that obviously, looking at all life around us, became more and more complex. The molecules themselves probably had conditions under which they replicated better and faster, but not so well in unfavorable ones, but still did, just slower. Since the conditions weren't as good the result of replications were different than those in better ones, so the molecules changed and sort of adapted - where it all began. Just a theory like thing. When to look at the level of the universe then nothing has a meaning, it all simply happened.
Exactly! So why not give yourself a meaning? I can see it from the standpoint of not wanting to fool yourself into anything, but... isn't that a big part of life? Fooling yourself into thinking that you really know anything at all? I'm not talking about you specifically; I'm talking about everyone. We've all got to make up what life is for ourselves in some fashion or another - we've got to come to terms with the fact that, yes, we are all going to die. This thought has haunted people since the dawn of civilization. Hell, at least half of Greek mythology is about fear of death. If an idea that is not necessarily true can make your existence more enjoyable, you might as well hold on to it. This excludes all those idiotic thought processes like sexism, elitism, ageism, etc. Those kinds of ideas are no good for anyone. ...Anyway, my two cents.
Of course we do! we all like to feel good about ourselves and our lives, and we lie to ourselves all the time about everything... just to make us feel good From the girl that dates a jerk thinking she can change him cause she's that special girl to the rich people giving money to the poor... by the amount of money you read they gave you would think there shouldnt be any poor people around! And most people do come up with some meaning to their life at some point, IMO most i think pick Legacy in all its forms and glory, legacy for future generations or our legacy of our name to be remembered even 2000 years from now... But at the end even that is meaningless i mean what is 2000 years in universe, its not even a blip on the radar
"To be is to do"-Socrates. "To do is to be"-Sartre. "Do Be Do Be Do"-Sinatra. "Scooby Dooby Do"-Scooby Do. "Yaba Daba Doo!"-Fred Flintstone Fred should probably be first. That's my primeval man talking. If you don't know what the point of your life is you need to get out more.
"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." - Albert Camus
I like that. Maybe not all your advice is garbage. I'll remember that. I have a family credo my kids (the oldest now 28) had to be able to recite on demand: Love is not an emotion, it's a commitment; happiness is not a condition, it's a decision.
That's not true in all cases at all times. I don't mean short term lows, I'm talking about real reasons - sometimes long term or even life-long reasons for not feeling happy.
"Ah, yes. The meaning of life." Reading this thread Lucky sees humans and thinks on how some humans struggle with a question this profound while others have no thoughts on it. To borrow from xxxxxxx, "... life doesn't need a meaning, it needs a purpose." She takes a sip of her coffee, and sits back on the couch mulling over ideas. Looking to her right the outside world calls and a purpose reveals itself. "To be happy and make others happy isn't that a glorious purpose? Must there be a higher purpose? A goal?" Smiling she thinks a human needs no more than a full belly and a loving heart. Then why is it so difficult for humans to accept life as is? Why must there be a purpose, or a meaning to it all? Isn't it enough to be? "yes, to be and have a daily life and the motions to go through." Lucky muses. But why is it that humans want to bend their significant others to their wishes to their purpose and with that bending lose their grip on the other. It slips out off control and into the realm of chaos. To where nothing has any meaning anymore. Yet they do not see and bend more and more until finally one of two breaks and no longer is able to go through the motions. Motions that were not their own to begin with but laid upon them and acted on because of expectations that needed to be fulfilled. Only to end up broken instead of bent. "You've changed." Lucky hears the man say to the woman. He does not see the hurt in her eyes, nor the crack in her armour. "What is the matter?" Unaware of his bending he refuses to see her for who she is, he wants her to be how he perceives her. How she should be. Lucky shakes her head. "Why can't humans just accept others as they are? Why is there always the need to shape and change, to fit into that box readied for them upon birth. And when they break and break free, they are broken." Staring into the reflection of the darkened window Lucky looks upon herself. "Humans may break, but can be mended too. And maybe, maybe one day they will learn to accept and just be. But that would be a perfect world and that ..." Lucky refuses to go there for a perfect world can never be and remain. Not as long as humans remain human and they keep looking for their purpose.
I have some simple views on this very issue: it's development, the personal one. Progress is something which should be the sense of the life.
