What is the meaning of life?

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

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.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Mesh Gear Fox
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.
Click to expand...

Tell L. Ron Hubbard, Sun Myung Moon, Shoko Asahara, Pat Robertson, or any of the other billionaire cult leaders of the world that.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Arthur_Schopenhauer
life
lʌɪf/
noun
  1. 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. 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"
 
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

I think it's pointless because ultimately there isn't any meaning, but people really do want one.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Mecha-Lenin
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.
Click to expand...
I second that. There are a fuckton of people on this planet who all have different expectation, plans and so on for their life.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Mecha-Lenin
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.

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.
 
Mecha-Lenin said:
I would argue that there is no "meaning of life" that we should universally strive for.
Click to expand...
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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mecha-Lenin
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
  • Agree
  • Optimistic
  • Like
Reactions: Mesh Gear Fox, Mecha-Lenin, Stress Sigh and 1 other person
  • 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.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mecha-Lenin
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
  • Optimistic
Reactions: 1 person
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
 
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: systemlord_baal
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back