Political Crossfire Forums

[Agent Orange]

Is there a meaning to life. Yes or No and why do you think that? Personally I believe life is all about personal interpretation. What do you think?

[demosthenes67]

i don't think there is a meaning to life, a purpose maybe, but probably not a meaning. i'm sure you could tell that by what i said in my Religion post. good quote in your sig by the way, from Apocalypse Now if i'm not mistaken.

[VBach37]

42

[The Central Scrutinizer]

The older you get, you will find there is no easy answer to this question. I'm not sure of it myself, but I like to think giving and receiving love has something to do with it.

[HomoUniversalis]

Meaning of life? If we are to take Heraclitus' teachings as valid, the everchanging nature of the universe would surely whipe away such a concept. After all, meaning, purpose, essence, they are unchangeble. Why do we name an elevator an elevator? Because it elevates us to a higher level within a building or structure. Its meaning, its purpose is elevation. Or, at least, that is what it has been designed for. It was the meaning and purpose at the point that we constructed it, and when we use it. If one were to go in there with a compagnon to... exercise certain fysical capabilities, it would serve another purpose.

The human being, and life in general (one would almost dare say 'that which exists' in general) is not of one meaning or purpose. Rather, it is pluriform, and can be used for a number of things. One quintessential purpose, or reason is therefore dubious, unless we consider that such a purpose would unify all the acts, all the purposes every in existence of that being, than we come to the conclusion that it is in fact death. All of our acts, our thoughts, and those of others, slowly pace towards the creation of the setting of our death. Perhaps it is the construction of the apartment building from which we throw ourselves onto our ruin, or it are the various people leaving us behind, so we feel so alone life seems without (dare I say it?) purpose.

If we are to believe in some purpose or meaning, that is, one that is truly binding to ourselves, and to those who influence us (after all, we are rarely islands (and even if we were, such a view would not influence the determinist reality of our own lives leading towards our death)), the only reasonable conclusion is.. death..

Mr U

[Kt]

No meaning, No purpose, unless you give it meaning and purpose.

[Borommakot]

Helena` wrote: No meaning, No purpose, unless you give it meaning and purpose. Exactly life doesn't have any greater purpose than what you give it. Someone who lives a life with the people they love helping others the best they can has more of a meaningful life than a rich guy with no family who is alway miserable.

[Snarf]

No meaning but a purpose; make babies...

[anselfir]

Ohhh

This be the first question of hte world.

Given the present situation, it is impossible to assess whether an overall purpose exists, and thus, regardless of the existence of the overarching purpose, which defines absolute morality, the individual is responsible for his beliefs.

[Agent Orange]

Let me ask a question then... what one word sums up life to you. (and whatever your answer to the meaning of life that is how you interpretate it) To me its interpretation. Its a self supporting theory that is the one thing all human beings that are alive do... they interpretate information, their situations, surroundings, others, ideas etc. Thus would it not be the meaning of life. I agree though that life has no meaning unless you give it meaning but I think interpretation is a word that fits very well with the meaning of life.

[Stygma]

I'll just be typical and say self-actualization.

[thebreadloaf2003]

i do not think there is a universal meaning to life, but rather that every person has their own unique meaning for life that cannot be fully discovered, only portrayed by themselves, their personality, and actions

[Agent Orange]

But that is your interpretation of it!

[Korimyr the Rat]

All meaning, all sense of purpose, in this universe is created and imposed by us.

We don't even live for the purpose of creating meaning-- we live as a consequence of unfeeling, uncaring chemical reactions.

I think it is this absence of divine (or natural) order that makes it so absolutely essential that we devote ourselves to the pursuit of this order. Our belief in causes, our dedication to something greater than ourselves... this is the only difference between our lives and any other series of chemical reactions.

[XPhile2868]

I don't believe that we are alive for any purpose, but I do believe that we are all only here for a tiny part of history and so we must actively help to change the world for the better for future beings, so that our tiny speck of sand in the desert justifies it's existence.

[spacta]

The meaning of life. Well, we could say it is to reproduce, as i'm sure a biologist would assert, we could say that it is to be happy as in, perhaps, a buddhist philosophy, but what does any of that actually mean? not a lot. i believe we are here to enhance the lives of others by aiding their happiness and increasing our own as a by-product, therefore ensuring a self perpetuating cylce of happiness. I think that my happiness lies also in the production of offspring and the passing on of my genes. meaning is something we seek throughout our lives but unfortunately we will never be content because there aren't any answers. However, if i was to tie down an actual meaning to life it would strongly relate to the above. I suppose there isn't real meaning because in the grand scheme of the workings of the universe our silly little planet doesn't mean very much, unless you are of a religious faith, but then, meaning to life wouldn't really be a question.

[Gus]

Korimyr the Rat wrote: All meaning, all sense of purpose, in this universe is created and imposed by us.

[Rozzlapeed]

I don't think that it could even be logically stated that the general purpose of life is to reproduce. It is simply a syllogism to say "The common quality of all organisms currently living on earth is the biological drive to reproduce. Therefore, the purpose of life must be reproduction." But reproduction is simply an extension of the definition of life, that is, a self-sustaining chemical reaction.

Does the natural quality of a thing equate to its purpose of existence? I don't believe it does.

Could the purpose of life simply be to provide an environment conducive to the development of higher-level, more complex systems? Cellular biology provided the basic system to allow for the development of human intelligence. Could the human mind be the ultimate purpose of life?

Is the purpose of every system to create a higher-level system that is more capable of observing existence and directly manifesting its will?

[Selfish_Meme]

I think life is a term humanity made up to describe the process we go through from conception to death. As such its meaning is clear. The question I think you are asking is 'is there a higher purpose to life than just the process of living from conception to death?'.

This would be completely subjective, living things that cannot understand the question strive to be succesful at producing offspring. We can think of better things to do with our lives. So yes there is a higher purpose and it is whatever you think it is.

[nrhy]

there is no point in life, it is cycle in which we live and die, and hope we contributed good for the evolution of mankind...