# What is the meaning of life?



## MarvinTheParanoidAndroid (Dec 6, 2015)

To me, it is to surpass our limitations and break away from our weaknesses. To overcome not just our personal shortcomings but the ones that plague all of us.

What do you believe the meaning of life is?


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## Cuck Norris (Dec 6, 2015)

42.


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## AnOminous (Dec 6, 2015)

There isn't one.


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## chimpburgers (Dec 6, 2015)

To me, it's all about Julay.


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## autisticdragonkin (Dec 6, 2015)

Reproduction


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## Strelok (Dec 6, 2015)

To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.


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## Silver (Dec 6, 2015)

To _live_ it.


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## Kazami Yuuka (Dec 6, 2015)

It is whatever you choose to make it. We will all die anyways.


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## Too Many Crooks (Dec 6, 2015)

To make your own meaning.


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## Cosmos (Dec 8, 2015)

I firmly believe that the meaning of life is trying to positively impact the world before you have to leave it. It can be as big as finding a cure for cancer or as simple as being kind to others and raising them up instead of bringing them down. 

It's a bit sappy, but I've always been sort of an idealist.


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## DrJoshii (Dec 9, 2015)

Biologically our purpose is to pass on our genes.


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## AnOminous (Dec 9, 2015)

DrJoshii said:


> Biologically our purpose is to pass on our genes.



That's not a purpose because it arose out of no intention.


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## vertexwindi (Dec 9, 2015)

"What is the meaning to life" is a dumb question because it assumes that everyone thinks of life in the exact same way while it actually holds a different meaning to everyone on the planet and thus there will never be an universally accepted answer to that question. The closest you will probably get to an actual answer is "whatever you make of it".

Badabing badaboom. English lit class at work.


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## Ravenor (Dec 9, 2015)

There isn't one, there is no underlying meaning to existence there is only a cold unfeeling and uncaring universe in which we live out our finite existence.

We can give our lives meaning, we can love and be loved by others, live our lives in such a way that we cause more good than bad in the short time we have but even then one day our names and deeds will fade into obscurity, our faces will fade from the last photograph, we wont even be a memory. But the universe will not note our passing it wont check our name on a list that we have fulfilled some form of arbitrary accomplishment or got some form of great cosmic joke, what we can do is just be the best person we can and just try and be significant to at least one person so we don't end our existence lonely and afraid of what's coming next.


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## Cave (Dec 10, 2015)

The meaning of life, according to Aristotle, is to fulfill a function. What is that function? Being human. Qualitatively, what separates man from other species is his reason and ability to reason. So, in order to fulfill our function, we must reason and be able to reason well. 

Why do we do this? The end goal is to become happy. 

By fulfilling this function, we will be on the path to achieve what all men want: happiness.

Happiness is a lifetime goal. It's a lifetime process. It won't and cannot be achieved during life (maybe) and so the real pleasure is in the distraction. The journey provides us with an ever-increasing context. As we learn more, we understand more and we can discuss more. It genuinely feels good to be a good thinker.

Plato, I think, also followed this sort of thought. The path to happiness is knowledge. 

In short, the meaning of life--as I see it--is to fulfill the function of being human.


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## Connor Bible (Dec 11, 2015)

As an existentialist, I am of the opinion that existence really has no meaning beyond what we ascribe to it. It's a blank canvas that we add our colors and brush strokes to.


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## Abethedemon (Dec 13, 2015)

To attain the highest score so we can appear on the leaderboards


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## Have a Pepsi (Dec 13, 2015)

I believe that because there is no meaning, the best thing to do is to get as much pleasure as you can out of your life and maybe help a few others get there, too.


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## Derbydollar (Dec 13, 2015)

To live as nature shaped us. Some of the beauty in humanity lies with it's relative existence!
For me, that means standing steadfast for personal liberties and pursuing the well being of myself and the people I love, it means molding the world into the image I desire.

We're all islands in a flowing river, being chipped away slowly- Just to be redeposited in chunks downstream. Each island with it's own flavor, it's own flora and fauna.
No island defines another, though they may eventually bridge... 
Wow, I got a little flowery there.


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## Jaimas (Dec 15, 2015)

> *What is the meaning of life?*



Answer: None.

This is not a bad thing. Bereft of meaning, we are free to come up with our own. 

There is something awesome in that.


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## The Joker (Dec 28, 2015)

Silver said:


> To _live_ it.


That or something gay about the human spirit.


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## Sanic (Dec 31, 2015)

It's certainly not here.


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## Stress Sigh (Jan 5, 2016)

The search for the meaning of life in today's modern age is pointless because there's nothing to show for it. You can spend ages meditating and contemplating but it's nothing anyone would pay you for or trade you for it. Also many times people get blinded by what they would believe the meaning is supposed to be instead of seeing or accepting as it is.


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## Have a Pepsi (Jan 5, 2016)

Stress Sigh said:


> The search for the meaning of life in today's modern age is pointless because there's nothing to show for it. You can spend ages meditating and contemplating but it's nothing anyone would pay you for or trade you for it. Also many times people get blinded by what they would believe the meaning is supposed to be instead of seeing or accepting as it is.


Good point. To build on that: if one was meant to figure out the meaning of life, someone would have by now.


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## Stress Sigh (Jan 5, 2016)

Have a Pepsi said:


> Good point. To build on that: if one was meant to figure out the meaning of life, someone would have by now.



People have found "it" but as I said it doesn't harmonize with everyone. Too many people are too attached to a lovey dovey concept of it being love or happiness when really the closest I can ascertain is the meaning of life is to just survive. Survival is the thing that links all living things not just humans. When people discuss the meaning of life it's always through a very human-centric lens.

To wax lyrically about it the purpose of life is to preserve it.


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## AnOminous (Jan 6, 2016)

Stress Sigh said:


> The search for the meaning of life in today's modern age is pointless because there's nothing to show for it. You can spend ages meditating and contemplating but it's nothing anyone would pay you for or trade you for it.



Tell L. Ron Hubbard, Sun Myung Moon, Shoko Asahara, Pat Robertson, or any of the other billionaire cult leaders of the world that.


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## ActualKiwi (Jan 6, 2016)

life
lʌɪf/
_noun_

*1*.
the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.
"the origins of life"
synonyms: existence, being, living, animation, aliveness, animateness;


*2*.
the existence of an individual human being or animal.
"a disaster that claimed the lives of 266 people"
synonyms: person, human being, individual, mortal, soul, creature
"more than 1,500 lives were lost in the accident"


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## Stress Sigh (Jan 6, 2016)

AnOminous said:


> Tell L. Ron Hubbard, Sun Myung Moon, Shoko Asahara, Pat Robertson, or any of the other billionaire cult leaders of the world that.



Yeah you got a point I personally never really think about exploiting people like that. I still believe though the actual meaning would be something really mundane and it would get these desperate dumb people really depressed if they found it.


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## AnOminous (Jan 6, 2016)

Stress Sigh said:


> Yeah you got a point I personally never really think about exploiting people like that. I still believe though the actual meaning would be something really mundane and it would get these desperate dumb people really depressed if they found it.



I think it's pointless because ultimately there isn't any meaning, but people really do want one.


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## systemlord_baal (Jan 6, 2016)

Connor Bible said:


> As an existentialist, I am of the opinion that existence really has no meaning beyond what we ascribe to it. It's a blank canvas that we add our colors and brush strokes to.


I second that. There are a fuckton of people on this planet who all have different expectation, plans and so on for their life.


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## Mecha-Lenin (Jan 8, 2016)

I would argue that there is no "meaning of life" that we should universally strive for. But meaningfulness is important for humans. A human life without meaning is not necessarily good. Meaning is about striving towards goals and values you hold. Without human striving or desire there is, essentially, no meaning at all.

Meaning, in other words, is a function of the human individual. Not an object to attain but a driving animus like purpose, but different in nature.



Spoiler



This is a boiled-down version of a paper I wrote on the topic of meaning in life, that I am quite proud of. Of course just posting it here would be me ego masturbating... and nobody likes that. I won't write a tl;dr here either (If you want a copy you can PM me and give me criticism, I think it is the best way). Otherwise, carry on.


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## Sperglord Dante (Jan 8, 2016)

Mecha-Lenin said:


> I would argue that there is no "meaning of life" that we should universally strive for.


I would go further and say it would be depressive if life had any inherent meaning. Because if it did, it would make all (but the one who's actually right) of our schools of thought and our individual goals objectively useless.


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## Mecha-Lenin (Jan 8, 2016)

Sperglord Dante said:


> I would go further and say it would be depressive if life had any inherent meaning. Because if it did, it would make all (but the one who's actually right) of our schools of thought and our individual goals objectively useless.


I mean, one _could _argue that all or most philosophy leads towards a "grander picture", but that shit gets convoluted fast.

Subjectivity, at least, some, is the spice of life.


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## KatsuKitty (Jan 9, 2016)

In the end, there is no meaning. Life on Earth is essentially a rare accident in the grand scheme of the universe. As far as life goes, we really only work as a paperclip maximiser, stopping at nothing with the sole end objective of living and reproducing. So really, I think "to reproduce" is as far as you're going to get in terms of a meaning of life, but the need to reproduce itself is a meaningless optimisation process.


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## Doctor Professor Timon (Jan 9, 2016)

The story so far:
*In the beginning the Universe was created.*
*This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.*
*Also:

"42" Is the answer you seek.*


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## Stress Sigh (Jan 9, 2016)

KatsuKitty said:


> In the end, there is no meaning. Life on Earth is essentially a rare accident in the grand scheme of the universe. As far as life goes, we really only work as a paperclip maximiser, stopping at nothing with the sole end objective of living and reproducing. So really, I think "to reproduce" is as far as you're going to get in terms of a meaning of life, but the need to reproduce itself is a meaningless optimisation process.



We're just a lucky lonely blip in the universe if we do find other life whats even the chance of them developing to our level of sentience if nothing else here on earth is even close to us. It's a grim lonely thought once we reach the stars to find nothing but dust and rocks. There are just so many tiny one in a million factors that caused the earth to even support multi-cellular life.


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## TheAmazingAxolotl (Jan 10, 2016)

The meaning of life is simple enough. We are the spawn of single-celled organisms from the far reaches of the universe come to the earth in the form of a meteorite that would one day evolve into multi-cellular complex organisms with thoughts and emotions, yet we are biologically programmed to do one thing alone and that is to destroy the host planet by draining it of its resources. The resulting desertification, which will render the earth similar to Mars, will kill off all of humanity. Then the ruined earth, which still holds the seeds of life, shall be struck catastrophically by an asteroid, sending the seeds of life to the far reaches of the universe, to other planets wandering in the Goldilocks zones of their respective stars, where the cycle shall start anew and the human condition shall wreak havoc for aeons to come until the universe collapses under the force of its own weight like a house of cards.

tl;dr - the meaning of life is to destroy that which gives life, but never succeed


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## AnOminous (Jan 10, 2016)

Stress Sigh said:


> We're just a lucky lonely blip in the universe if we do find other life whats even the chance of them developing to our level of sentience if nothing else here on earth is even close to us. It's a grim lonely thought once we reach the stars to find nothing but dust and rocks. There are just so many tiny one in a million factors that caused the earth to even support multi-cellular life.



If that life is anything like us, it's probably lucky for both of us that life is fairly infrequent and intelligent species few and far between.  The whole speed of light thing means we'll probably find out about any such life long before we actually have to interact with it directly.

A theist might even suggest it was set up that way on purpose.


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## Mecha-Lenin (Jan 10, 2016)

AnOminous said:


> If that life is anything like us, it's probably lucky for both of us that life is fairly infrequent and intelligent species few and far between.  The whole speed of light thing means we'll probably find out about any such life long before we actually have to interact with it directly.


I little off topic, but I personally am confidant that any species with the technology to travel reliably between worlds would have literally zero reason to fight... ever. Why fight human beings over Earth when you can just take fucking Mars? Or Saturn's rings? Or build a sphere around your home-star and have more energy than you possibly use? Or put yourself into mini-computer chips that last millions of years?

Interstellar war won't happen because beings with warp-drive simply gain enlightenment... It won't happen because it makes no fucking sense to do so in a practically infinite universe. 

It would be like stealing from your next-door neighbor for food, _when you have millions of dollars, and Giant is next door_.


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## AnOminous (Jan 10, 2016)

Mecha-Lenin said:


> It would be like stealing from your next-door neighbor for food, _when you have millions of dollars, and Giant is next door_.



There are people just that petty and spiteful.  I don't see why ayyliens would necessarily be any more perfect.


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## Sperglord Dante (Jan 10, 2016)

Oh, Fermi paradox discussion.

I don't buy into the utopic paceful aliens theory either, and quite honestly find it easier to believe they'd fuck our shit up instead of sharing their knowledge. Stephen Hawkins once said:



> If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.


If you wanna look at it in another way, think of the people who live in suburban areas around forests. These people aren't inherently "bad", most of them would probably never go out of their way to harm animals, and yet their very own existence and need for housing is detrimental for the wildlife. Planets such as the earth are relatively scarce, so a super advanced alien race might find it easier to extract goods from here than in any other place in the milky way. And that wouldn't be good for us, wouldn't it?


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## Mecha-Lenin (Jan 10, 2016)

My argument stemmed from the path of least resistance. Sure, you could easily destroy humans and take Earth. But why even bother? Just take any one of the billions of planets without a belligerent species.



Sperglord Dante said:


> If you wanna look at it in another way, think of the people who live in suburban areas around forests. These people aren't inherently "bad", most of them would probably never go out of their way to harm animals, and yet their very own existence and need for housing is detrimental for the wildlife. Planets such as the earth are relatively scarce, so a super advanced alien race might find it easier to extract goods from here than in any other place in the milky way. And that wouldn't be good for us, wouldn't it?


I again point out that there is nothing special about Earth that would make it more attractive to invade. If you have the ability to travel faster than light, then you surely could also terraform a planet? You're probably also just a computer by now, quite frankly. You don't need food.

The only reason an alien species would harm humans is if they were maleficent beings. We have no reason to assume that... they could simply be ignorant of our existence, or apathetic.


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## Randy Lahey (Jan 11, 2016)

Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.


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## Deadwaste (Jan 12, 2016)

What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything? According to the best and most accurate book in the world, _the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy_, the answer is 42


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## LN 910 (Nov 3, 2018)

Well, Rare Earth hypothesis is just that, a hypothesis. Mars came SO CLOSE to supporting life and that's practically right next door. We don't know what's out there, otherwise we wouldn't want to go.


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## Idiotron (Nov 8, 2018)

This is the true meaning of life:

To eat, drink, shit, piss, sleep and fuck.
Those 6 things are the only things we MUST do in order to stay alive ourselves and create the future generations. Everything else is just killing time between birth and death.

Yes, life is that meaningless.


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## Teri-Teri (Nov 8, 2018)

Is to know thyself. It's up to you whether you decide to give it a meaning or not.


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Nov 8, 2018)

Well, let's start with the meaning of meaning.

This is the one people are using when the ask about the meaning of life: 
noun. important or worthwhile quality; purpose.

Purpose. Important or worthwhile quality. These are things that do not exist objectively, only subjectively, a thing has a purpose to another thing.

So, from whose perspective are you asking for the purpose of life?  The theoretical creator of life?  Some random examples of life (AKA us)?  

To me, the purpose of my life is to keep being alive while being as comfortable as possible.  As long as I am alive and fairly comfortable my life is worthwhile to me.  In the pursuit of comfort I do the various things that people are supposed to do.

If you're looking for objective purpose I don't think you'll find it.  Except in the most mundane possible sense, where you could say the purpose of life was to continue the causal reality that preceded it, but that's not satisfying in any way.


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## Vorhtbame (Nov 17, 2018)

I used to wonder why it is that this generation is so miserably unhappy.  Now I know it's because we assume we know things we logically cannot know.

What is the meaning of life?  Damned if I know, but I know what I should be doing with it and what kind of person I should be at the end of it.  I'm sure it'll make more sense in the post-game analysis.


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## vertexwindi (Nov 17, 2018)

Vorhtbame said:


> I used to wonder why it is that this generation is so miserably unhappy.  Now I know it's because we assume we know things we logically cannot know.


I blame social media. When the entire world is the audience to your every move, it's hard not to get stressed out.


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## White bubblegum (Nov 17, 2018)

Live like you'll die today, and live so you die without regrets.


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## PorcupineTree (Nov 28, 2018)

There is no meaning, you’ve gotta make one.


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Nov 28, 2018)

Vorhtbame said:


> I used to wonder why it is that this generation is so miserably unhappy.  Now I know it's because we assume we know things we logically cannot know.
> 
> What is the meaning of life?  Damned if I know, but I know what I should be doing with it and what kind of person I should be at the end of it.  I'm sure it'll make more sense in the post-game analysis.



Yeah. People only started asking about the meaning of life this generation. Good point.


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## Zarkov (Nov 28, 2018)

The meaning of life is to drive troons to suicide by shitposting on the Internet.


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## ToroidalBoat (Nov 28, 2018)

I also think you choose your own meaning for your life.


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## Midlife Sperglord (Nov 28, 2018)

To quote the great philosopher, Ice Cube.....

_Life ain’t nothing but bitches and money._

I don’t have either.  My life has no meaning.


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## SirQuicksand (Nov 28, 2018)

Go out and do shit, or don't and just be a lazy shit.


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## MiyaEL (Nov 29, 2018)

Corbin Dallas Multipass said:


> Yeah. People only started asking about the meaning of life this generation. Good point.


And what about all the historical philosophers?


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Nov 30, 2018)

MiyaEL said:


> And what about all the historical philosophers?


Damn it when will they add the "Whoosh" rating?

I was being a sarcastic asshole, as usual.  I was making fun of the person saying questions like this are why the current generation are fucked up.


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## Emperor Julian (Dec 2, 2018)

Define your own meaning, the universe concludes with your death as far as you're concearned anyway.


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## Vyxenn (Dec 4, 2018)

The meaning of life is up to you.


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Dec 4, 2018)

Vyxenn said:


> The meaning of life is up to you.


Well ok. Feels like a lot of pressure, but fine.

It's to make me rich, powerful, and immortal.  That's the meaning of life. Everyone's life.  Get to work, slackers.


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## juliannice (Dec 11, 2018)

Make money and survive.


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## Black Waltz (Dec 11, 2018)

There is no meaning, everything is pointless.


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## MiyaEL (Dec 11, 2018)

Dink Smallwood said:


> There is no meaning, everything is pointless.


?Just because you have not found the answer does not mean it does not exist and every action has a reason so if everything was/is pointless then how was pointless started? Because something truly pointless would never have come into existence .
Now there are plenty of things we say are pointless in life but that is merely just a misunderstanding or ignorance on our part when we say that due to the fact we don't know the root cause of why something has happened so rest assured there is a point to life but you're not going to find good answers if you look externally because this world is full of many wrong answers but if you  look Within you will find it


Dink Smallwood said:


> There is no meaning, everything is pointless.


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## BILLY MAYS (Dec 11, 2018)

The ability to process materials from our environment to become energy to move life, and building blocks for the growth of life.


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## Guts Gets Some (Dec 11, 2018)

MiyaEL said:


> ?Just because you have not found the answer does not mean it does not exist and every action has a reason so if everything was/is pointless then how was pointless started? Because something truly pointless would never have come into existence .
> Now there are plenty of things we say are pointless in life but that is merely just a misunderstanding or ignorance on our part when we say that due to the fact we don't know the root cause of why something has happened so rest assured there is a point to life but you're not going to find good answers if you look externally because this world is full of many wrong answers but if you  look Within you will find it



Life is a coincidence. Everything. Stop applying meaning when there simply is none.


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## BeanBidan (Dec 11, 2018)

Hentai


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## WormShake (Dec 23, 2018)

Simple, life is great and living is the greatest thing of all time.


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## Slap47 (Dec 25, 2018)

Corbin Dallas Multipass said:


> Well ok. Feels like a lot of pressure, but fine.
> 
> It's to make me rich, powerful, and immortal.  That's the meaning of life. Everyone's life.  Get to work, slackers.



People have had meanings forced upon them. 



Apoth42 said:


> The Jiajing Emperor
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiajing_Emperor
> 
> ...



Like these women, their meaning was to live as a menstrual blood farm for a man who wanted to live forever.


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## Godless9 (Jan 10, 2019)

*WTF? What is the meaning of life? Like the purpose? Life has no purpose. Why the fuck would it have a purpose?*

*It is so annoying when people think they get to chose their own purpose too. It ultimately doesn't matter to anything what anyone does with their lives. And yourself when you die you don't exist anymore and if you don't exist then nothing you did will matter to you. Morons.*


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## Elysium (Jan 10, 2019)

Godless9 said:


> *WTF? What is the meaning of life? Like the purpose? Life has no purpose. Why the fuck would it have a purpose?*
> 
> *It is so annoying when people think they get to chose their own purpose too. It ultimately doesn't matter to anything what anyone does with their lives. And yourself when you die you don't exist anymore and if you don't exist then nothing you did will matter to you. Morons.*


Well the Christian world view... *sputters about Christian bullshit*


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## Godless9 (Jan 10, 2019)

*


Elysium said:



			Well the Christian world view... *sputters about Christian bullshit*
		
Click to expand...

*
*You are just making assertions. What is the argument for that?*


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## MiyaEL (Jan 11, 2019)

Guts Gets Some said:


> Life is a coincidence. Everything. Stop applying meaning when there simply is none.



Why do you say there's no meaning ?that's much like saying it rains so you don't have to take a shower when in fact that's not why it rains 

it's not enough of a reason for rain to exist there's a much more complicated reason for rain to exist but the misinformed would never know unless taught shown or experienced but in order for any of those to happen you would have to exist which is fine now because now you would have a reason and meaning for existence


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## MiyaEL (Jan 11, 2019)

Godless9 said:


> *WTF? What is the meaning of life? Like the purpose? Life has no purpose. Why the fuck would it have a purpose?*
> 
> *It is so annoying when people think they get to chose their own purpose too. It ultimately doesn't matter to anything what anyone does with their lives. And yourself when you die you don't exist anymore and if you don't exist then nothing you did will matter to you. Morons.*


Well let me ask you this do you agree that we are in the exact spot /situation that we hand picked to be in?


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## Douglas Reynholm (Jan 11, 2019)

Life in of itself or to the individual? For the individual, the important or worthwhile qualities/purpose can be anything. As a whole, just to exist.


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## StyrofoamFridge (Jan 11, 2019)

Pantheism is the doctrine I follow.


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## Godless9 (Jan 16, 2019)

StyrofoamFridge said:


> Pantheism is the doctrine I follow.


You are a fucking clown. Pantheism. Everything is god so you are just redefining "god" and still lack belief in deities which makes you an atheist. Pantheism everything=god therefore feces and period blood=god


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Jan 16, 2019)

Oh fuck, we got two maniacs in the same thread throwing weirdly colored random fonts at each other.

Well, I imagine there'll be a few choice bits to pick out, like when someone sets up two chatbots to talk to each other, or has a couple markov generators have a conversation (maybe that's basically the same thing).


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## Queen Elizabeth II (Jan 16, 2019)

The meaning of life is to furiously masturbate your epeen on the internet to show how woke, offended or what an epic trololol you are.


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## StyrofoamFridge (Jan 16, 2019)

@Godless9 I only follow what I can see is real. Life is ugly, beautiful, and real. The concept of God is not the same to everyone. We are conscious beings observing the universe we are part of. Believe what you want to believe, but you cannot deny that life is amazing. The nihlistic atheists wish to make everything bland and unimportant.


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Jan 16, 2019)

We've already decided this, why are you guys still discussing it? I was told it was up to me, and so I said the meaning of life is to give me money.  Pretty cut and dried. Get cracking nerds, I want my cash, your life is literally meaningless if you don't do so.


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## Godless9 (Jan 17, 2019)

StyrofoamFridge said:


> @Godless9 I only follow what I can see is real. Life is ugly, beautiful, and real. The concept of God is not the same to everyone. We are conscious beings observing the universe we are part of. Believe what you want to believe, but you cannot deny that life is amazing. The nihlistic atheists wish to make everything bland and unimportant.


What claim do you think nihilists make that is false?


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## vertexwindi (Jan 17, 2019)

Probably the claim that existence is without purpose, you know, the core belief behind nihilism? It honestly feels lazy to wave away such a complicated concept so easily. Honestly, (blind) nihilism is just as inherently immature as (blind) optimism, one is just seen as more "mature" because idiots confuse it for profound thinking.


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## Queen Elizabeth II (Jan 17, 2019)

vertexwindi said:


> Probably the claim that existence is without purpose, you know, the core belief behind nihilism? It honestly feels lazy to wave away such a complicated concept so easily. Honestly, (blind) nihilism is just as inherently immature as (blind) optimism, one is just seen as more "mature" because idiots confuse it for profound thinking.



What evidence do you have that there is a macro purpose set from outside us? Nihilism is logical in that it's the only position there is sound grounding for holding it at present (it being justified by the lack of proof).

Existance itself can be purposeless, and you can still set your own micro purposes. You can have your own purposes, be they hedonistic, charitable or whatever, whilst still aknowledging in the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter either way.



> I met a traveller from an antique land,
> Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
> Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
> Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
> ...


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## Godless9 (Jan 17, 2019)

vertexwindi said:


> Probably the claim that existence is without purpose, you know, the core belief behind nihilism? It honestly feels lazy to wave away such a complicated concept so easily. Honestly, (blind) nihilism is just as inherently immature as (blind) optimism, one is just seen as more "mature" because idiots confuse it for profound thinking.


https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/purpose
Purpose: The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
You deny that atheism entails there is no purpose for life. If atheism is true life couldn't have been "created" without a creator but life exists because of unintentional purpose? I don't think it even makes sense to say "purpose" when it is not intended for anything. You believe life exists in virtue of what?  I don't understand your view.


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## Sable (Jan 18, 2019)

The purpose of life is to have children, work hard and don't be a dick. It helps to enjoy yourself because if you're sad all the time you've probably already killed yourself.

Eventually our descendants might be lucky enough to do the same in space.


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## vertexwindi (Jan 18, 2019)

Fagatron said:


> What evidence do you have that there is a macro purpose set from outside us? Nihilism is logical in that it's the only position there is sound grounding for holding it at present (it being justified by the lack of proof).


I'm not saying there is a purpose set from outside us. The way I see it the purpose of life is the purpose you make for yourself, so really I don't really disagree with your statements except the part where you say that "it doesn't really matter".


Godless9 said:


> https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/purpose
> Purpose: The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
> You deny that atheism entails there is no purpose for life. If atheism is true life couldn't have been "created" without a creator but life exists because of unintentional purpose? I don't think it even makes sense to say "purpose" when it is not intended for anything. You believe life exists in virtue of what?  I don't understand your view.


I don't think we were talking about atheism in particular, but under your literal definition then the purpose of life is to have plenty of offspring and assure that we as a species don't die off. So get to it.


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## Hatoful Dandy (Jan 19, 2019)

To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of the women.

Or it could be an ongoing personal experiment see how much a person can change over time and somehow maintain some unshakable core aspects of your personality, even with the anonymity one has online to shitpost to their heart's desire.


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## ICametoLurk (Mar 2, 2019)

God created the most beautiful, pure, perfect servile creation. The angels. They bored him too death. So he created man, who, in his base imperfection forced a evolution (corruption) in his perfect creation, the angels. God was amused. You are less than a spec of sand, if not less. If you cure cancer or die in your bedroom with dried up toilet paper all over, both amuse God and is his will.


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## 666DEATHGAY (Apr 9, 2019)

Below is my argument

You do not know the purpose of life/the universe/whatever larger system you are a part of
Nothing can hold any value from an ultimate frame of reference if not in relation to an ultimate purpose of the system you are in, for example a pawn in a chess game should only be valued in relation to which king it will help checkmate.
Purpose from an ultimate frame of reference is currently far beyond our grasp of understanding, even when it comes to what direction we should work in.
Our purpose as conscious beings then becomes finding out what the ultimate purpose is

I regard the 4 statements above as absolute truth that should be agreable by all humans, and my conclusion from these truths is that humanities goal and therefore my goal in life (I don't consider myself special) is furthering the stability and extent of intelligence. This also requires the motivation that there is a hierarchy of intelligence between say a rock and a human and maybe a human could comprehend the ultimate purpose but a rock definately could not. What I mean by "stability of intelligence" comes close to the statement "stability of society", maintaining the capabilities we do have.


The ethical implications of this I think go as following:



define utilitarianism as "an ethical theory which states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility"
define utility as "furthering the stability and extent of intelligence"
Right and wrong and good and bad can only be defined from an ultimate frame of reference in relation to our goal, so our utilitarianism is both right and good and "maximizes" means that it's also the best ethical code by definition.

"what if there is no ultimate purpose?", then nothing holds value and it doesn't matter that we increased our intellectual capabilities or if we didn't. If you are wrong you've hindered the purpose if you are right you gain nothing.
There is not a lot of room for disagreement here unless you ascribe to meme philosophies or are very dumb and believe in things like organized religion.


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## Cool kitties club (Apr 9, 2019)

Without an idea of the meaning of life how can you know utility is good? The idea that humans should use their lives to fulfill some purpose is a meaning of life in and of itself. 


666DEATHGAY said:


> There is not a lot of room for disagreement here unless you ascribe to meme philosophies


You are holding up a value judgment as absolute truth with no evidence


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## 666DEATHGAY (Apr 9, 2019)

Cool kitties club said:


> Without an idea of the meaning of life how can you know utility is good? The idea that humans should use their lives to fulfill some purpose is a meaning of life in and of itself.
> 
> You are holding up a value judgment as absolute truth with no evidence


It's utility applied in finding out the meaning of life. We know what direction to go.


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## Cool kitties club (Apr 9, 2019)

Correct me if I'm wrong but you're saying we don't currently know the meaning of life, but that we should seek to fulfill out utility to that meaning. Therefore we should maximize our ability to find/know the meaning, so that we could therefore maximize our utility to that meaning.


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## Corbin Dallas Multipass (Apr 9, 2019)

666DEATHGAY said:


> Below is my argument
> 
> You do not know the purpose of life/the universe/whatever larger system you are a part of
> Nothing can hold any value from an ultimate frame of reference if not in relation to an ultimate purpose of the system you are in, for example a pawn in a chess game should only be valued in relation to which king it will help checkmate.
> ...


Wrong. We already discussed this and figured out the meaning of life, then deleted the thread so the secret couldn't get out.  You're way off.

But, in a more serious dismissal, your argument is fundamentally flawed. You posit "purpose" as an absolute, objective thing that exists.  You also suggest some "ultimate frame of reference" which Einstein has pretty well shown doesn't even exist. All there is is the subjective and the relative.  Points 3 and 4 fall apart for the same reasons.

Therefore I do not agree with your supposed "absolute truth", and thus it is apparently not agreeable by all humans.

There is only room for disagreement actually, there's no room for your meme philosophy because it's based on known bad assumptions.


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## Bassomatic (Apr 9, 2019)

It's different for everyone. It's just that simple. We try to muse dream and think it but life is just that what we make it and hope it to be.

My life is filled to you it may be good or bad empty or full and vise visra.


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## Clop (Apr 9, 2019)

You're going to run into dilemmas where utilitarianism weighs the needs of the many against the needs of the few and I do not wish to live in a society where a human's right to live can be stripped away just because it's convenient.

I see no worth nor meaning in a modern world that sees people as expendable. Those are the ways of small, warring and dying populations.


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## Kalishnakov (Apr 11, 2019)

MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:


> To me, it is to surpass our limitations and break away from our weaknesses. To overcome not just our personal shortcomings but the ones that plague all of us.
> 
> What do you believe the meaning of life is?


To appreciate that you have the awareness of experiencing your existence.


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