Political Crossfire Forums

[_reticentness]

I say there's no meaning to life. Sure, giving and recieving love is good and makes everyone happy but it doesn't give us any meaning. We're here to live and do stuff but none of it has any meaning to anyone or anything besides us.

[THEXRATED]

Agent Orange wrote: 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?

It depends what we define as life and from what aspect we observe it. If one were to look at universe as a whole, organic life on a small planet like ours in relatively typical galaxy and solar system would very unlikely have a lot of meaning. Even from the perspective of our solar system, organic life on this planet is pretty meaningless.

However, if you look at organic life within this planet alone. It is quite meaningful to all participants, from vegetation to mammals. Remove or change any significant aspect of ecology in our planet and it would result in extinction of most organic species. Few might survive depending on their environment and ability to adapt.

If you then go on and look at specific aspect of our animal life, for example. You will find more meanings. And with us humans, even more than with other animals.

So the correct answer would be that there is a meaning, but no clear indication that the meaning has any purpose beyond the immediate area of influence, in this case our planet.

[r4diohead96]

spacta wrote: 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.

r4diohead96 wrote: yes but what you are saying is more of a "purpose" i think that everyone has a different "meaning" to their own life, to some that dont really value life, it is meaningless, merely existing, others have to prove existence, to take on a sort of "fight club" attitude and prove that they are not merely a statistic, prove their existence and not bask in the ever flowing bliss of "normal" life. to break from the constant flow of things, it means that they can control history. all by themselves. it makes me sad when people piss their lives away because to them life is "meaningless."

[r4diohead96]

you write the dictionary for your own life, you decide what it "means"

[beingsrk]

life - has a meaning - for people who say no i dont understant whats the reason....if they feel life has not been good to them, i think they might have not come across something called love...

[arti]

I’m going to use a slight variation of this topic for this post. Instead of meaning of life, I will discuss the purpose of existence.

Simply put, the purpose of existence is life. This is a difficult point to relate so bear with me.

A virtually infinite spectrum of possibility formed our universe. Had the Big Bang been a fraction of a degree different we would not be here. The fact that we are here means one of two things. Either we could argue that our universe is one of a virtually infinite number of “trials”. Like a giant crapshoot, we exist because of the pure luck of the draw. See enough poker hands and eventually you are going to hit a royal flush. Or as religion would have it, we exist because of a careful arrangement of interactions down to the subatomic level. In this case, we are here because a higher power, or what have you, wants us to be here.

Now I’m going to lead you through an argument. Let’s assume the purpose of existence is to reach some pinnacle of understanding. One of you described it as self-actualization. This means the entire reason this delicate balance we call life was constructed, the entire universe, is for enlightened thought to understand something. What happens when you understand that something? Do we simply fail to exist? Does the world end and humans advance into heaven? I do not claim to know the answers to these questions. I do, however, question the train of thought that brought them into the discussion. I do not think the entire universe with all of its majestic creation is simply to teach us a lesson.

Let’s assume we existed as all-knowing beings. If you know everything, what is the purpose of having thought? These beings would be in a steady state for their entire existence. There would be no conflict in their lives, nothing to anticipate or experience emotion over, no reason for time. This is the eternal waiting room. Heaven? Hell? Purgatory? Call it what you will, I would rather be an ant then exist as nothing.

What do humans do when they are bored? They attempt to entertain themselves. Why is prison such a common punishment? It attempts to bore prisoners into submission to society. We take people away from “life” and they get depressed. Entertainment is so popular because it creates variation and conflict in our lives. Isn’t it obvious? We are here to live life. We create conflict in our own lives to entertain us. The entire creation of this delicate universe is so you can experience love, joy, anger, fear, and all of the other complex emotions humans are capable of. I believe we created ourselves. We wanted to be entertained in the ultimate game, life.

So go on vacation, hit on the secretary, drive like a maniac, and steal a candy bar. You are alive. Create some conflict in your life.

-arti