What is the meaning of Life?

[zindikasheen]

Truthfully? I think the meaning of life is to live it however you want. Do everything you ever wanted to do, do nothing your whole life, I think it's yours to live.

As for religion, I honestly don't know. I like to believe that there is something after death, whether it be reincarnation or heaven/hell, but that's about as deep as my philosophy goes. I'm sure whatever will happen will happen, for good or ill, and I'm not gonna revolve my life around what may or may not come later. I'll deal with that when it comes, and live now based on how I feel and what I want to do.

[Fuyumine]

Solid answer.

I think if everyone kind of made their own meanings to life (including myself), they'd be a whole lot happier than they are now. It helps to not expect something at the end of the road, y'know?

[dthc]

However, sometimes it seems as if people try and say, people came from apes, yada-yada-yada, and that because God never said people came from apes, he must not exist.
Well, on the contrary, I don't exactly believe in that style of evolution, but I do believe that life started out with single-celled organisms, then underwater, then amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, etc. The bottom line is, we're here now.

Your "theory of evolution" is the only theory of evolution. Like, we've gone through this. People did not come from apes, that's just a simple way of explaining the theory. Most people have had it explained to them wrong, but there is only one theory of evolution. Most people don't understand it though and that's the confusion.

The second one is the whole issue with Jews not eating pork products. The Bible says that pigs are unclean, and that is why we could not eat them. Now, giving room for translation, I believe it was more of a tip. Hey, this animal will give you diseases and illness if you eat it because in Jesus' time they did not have the proper technological advances in food preparation and pig could not be cooked well enough, therefore giving those who ate it worms, ulcers, dysentery, and all sorts of horrible shit. I'm pretty sure nobody gets that from eating pig anymore, so...OMNOMNOMNOM.

Lies. Pork can still fuck a digestive tract up. Pork that's been super processed won't though. You aren't going to get a tape worm from a piece of bacon...

[Fuyumine]

Your "theory of evolution" is the only theory of evolution. Like, we've gone through this. People did not come from apes, that's just a simple way of explaining the theory. Most people have had it explained to them wrong, but there is only one theory of evolution. Most people don't understand it though and that's the confusion.

One of the things that used to upset me about religion (when I was the Angry Atheist guy) was the fact that people didn't give "their God" enough credit in the creativity department. I am a firm believer in evolution, and as a believer in God as well I feel like...well, maybe evolution is an example of God "still creating real time." Like, for me, it's even more proof that God exists. But I'm weird like that. :\

[dthc]

One of the things that used to upset me about religion (when I was the Angry Atheist guy) was the fact that people didn't give "their God" enough credit in the creativity department. I am a firm believer in evolution, and as a believer in God as well I feel like...well, maybe evolution is an example of God "still creating real time." Like, for me, it's even more proof that God exists. But I'm weird like that. :\

Exactly. Doesn't evolution just seem like a crazy ass miracle?

"Huzzah! I have turned algae into Doaj. For my next trick, I will plant him in the ground and he will grow back out a tree."

That shit is fucking crazy....

[Nami]

If I may, I'd like to interrupt with the meaning of my life.

I've forfeited the true meaning of my life. Therefore, I never discuss it (it is not meant to be understood anyway). Now there is essentially no real meaning to my life... but I have assigned insignificant value. To quote Joe Clark: "I don't have to do nothin' but stay Black and die."

More specifically, these are my plans:

1) Make lots of money.
2) Donate to "charitable" organizations.
3) Invest time in "helping" people.
4) Get that piece of paper that says I'm smart and successful (a college degree).
5) Die at least a somewhat peaceful death (or instantaneous, at least).
6) Ensure my memory fades from this world (set up a living will so that my remains are not buried and that I have no funeral).

In other words, I fulfill my own whims and desires. That's about it.

Back to regular programming.

[TELIMS]

There was a book i read a long time ago, i believe in my junior year called "A Man's Search For Meaning." This book was about a psychologists experience in a concentration camp. Through this experience he came up with a new psychotherapy called Logotherapy. It was considered the the "third Viennese school of psychotherapy," I'm not going to go into detail about what that means, but his method was that through suffering one could find happiness, that through suffering one could find true meaning behind there lives. His turned out to be his wife, it was one of the things that kept him going during his time in the concentration camp. I truly believe that life is based on ones own study of there life. I don't think anyone has a right to criticize someones meaning in there life regardless of what it is. Some might say that to shun the truth is just pure ignorance, however i disagree. The mind is such a powerful thing and destroying someones believes or meaning in life through knowledge can have such a huge impact on that person leaving them feeling lost and miss guided. Along with that knowledge is only something that is proven through logically explanation and to draw a line between instinct and spirituality is such a blurry line, it's hard to tell. There is nothing wrong with being a Susan Sally and I'm sure there are many that would disagree with me but our time here is only limited to the time we have and i think that, that is a gift, like a toy given to us to do whatever we want.

Doaj gave me a theory on time once. Time is measured on interest, not necessarily in minutes or seconds. I love this theory. Some complain how fast days go by or how slow days go by. "Time fly's when your having fun," or that saying about watching a pot boil.

If you do it right, time should be gone before you know it

From all my discussions with my teachers and friends, i came to one solid conclusion that love was a universal meaning, but i would like to add to that. Love AND Hate because you can't have one without the other.

I'm going to subside my theory here, i think if i kept going it would go on forever such as philosophical questions go

[A Bit Obtuse]

I used to think that the meaning of life was to make an impact on the world.
Spending what time you had on this earth to change it (whether it's in a good or bad way is up to you). You know, be someone people will miss once you're gone.

But that's what I used to think. I don't have a clue about the meaning of anything in life now.I think it's supposed to be that way and truthfully I don't even think there's any meaning or reason to my life. But I keep living because I could be wrong, there could be some kind of meaning but I would never find out if I died now. Maybe down the line something will come up or not. Who knows?

[Fuyumine]

Huh. Glad to know that I ain't the only person getting existential around here. The replies I've seen written here are really fascinating, though I think my fascination may be largely due to some of your ages and the fact that you come up with some of these reasons. LOL

[BlackJack]

[TELIMS]

There's nothing wrong with existentialism lol

Lifes meaning is your own

here here i say.

[Sephiroth]

Work Know Play Later

[TELIMS]

How deep can a conversation go, sometimes even the simplest sentence can mean a thousand words. I love/hate deep conversations. When it comes to the meaning of life the conversation is never ending, and usually someone will leave feeling vulnerable. I envy that person. That person now has so much more the ponder about. Telling someone something can change the entire way you think of something.

The mind is such a beautiful thing.

[Kikuri-Hime]

There's nothing wrong with existentialism lol

Existentialism is really only the first step. When you finally consider that all the things we consider to be important or prudent are simply social constructs whose very meanings are simply defined by us you have a completely different ball game. If you want to look at it from a biological prospective I suppose you could say that our only purpose is to ensure the proliferation of our species. If you're looking for a emotional appeasing answer unfortunately I haven't found one that exists. However in his essay The Myth Sisyphus Philosopher Albert Camus attempts to solve the issue of Absurdism. In it the character Sisyphus attempts to revolt against death but is ultimately punished by the Gods and condemned for eternity to push a rock up a mountain only to have it fall back down repeatedly. To me life is essentially meaningless, however I do consider it viable to posit the leap of faith which, to me compromise reason and rationally, or suicide as life is inherently meaningless to begin with seems rather absurd in of itself. So we are then left with reconciling, acceptance and coming to terms with purposelessness of our existence. That's pretty much my position on the issue.

[BlackJack]

I guess I'll give a serious answer now.

I believe that we are put here to do what God wants us to.
I know it sounds simple and automatic, but that's because it is.
I believe this because I believe in God, Jesus, and the Bible.
The Bible says (or so my Pastor says it does) that we were put here on Earth by God to give glory to him.

This doesn't sit well with me for a few reasons. I don't like thinking that my life is beyond myself. I believe it's called "pride", but that's what it is. I want to live my life for me. If you think about it, when we help others, we are helping ourselves. If you are the kind of person that helps people, it is because helping other people satisfies your values. If you go against your personal values, you feel guilty. But living for God's glory seems a bit different somehow. Thinking that you are little more than God's masturbatory session seems bad. Although I suppose being the end-all-be-all of the universe entitles you to that sort of thing.

At this stage of my life, however, I just go how I feel. I am most definitely NOT a credit to my religion. I look at porn (aka lust). I (arguably) steal music, movies and tv shows. I cuss. I nurture these traits in others. If I gave a damn (there it is again) half the time, I would probably be very guilty. In fact, writing this has made me feel a bit guilty.

The fact remains, though, that I know (call it "believe" if it makes you more comfortable) that I'm here for God's purpose, whatever it may be. Whether I live by this purpose and meaning is a different story altogether, and something that I've been struggling with for a long time.

[Cavallone]

I think we were put on Earth as a plot by a bunch of aliens, and they're secretly watching us murder each other over a bag of popcorn while a bigger, green alien provides color commentary ala World Wrestling Entertainment.

Have I already posted in this thread?

I think so.

But honestly, I think we're here to just exist — and each of us has our different meanings of the term exist. Whether we're living life to the fullest, or just hermit crabbing away on some vile little island chock full of cannibals and cameramen, I think we each have our own little purpose we're going to fulfill.

Mhm.