Actually, I'm serious.

Forget philosophising, people adjust the meaning of their life to their circumstances. But generalising, the meaning of life for must of the posters here is basically the same: grow up, get a good job you enjoy, maybe have a family and generally enjoy life. Gain as many experiences as possible using your 5 senses and die old and healthy for your age in your bed.

Of course there are other meanings, for "not the average" person. I'm talking about people who are believers in some well-defined, established life philosophy or religion, as opposed to people who have no specific religious beliefs.

For a really devout Christian for example (I'm not talking about people who are Christian merely on paper i.e. 95% of them), the meaning of life is to live life according to the Bible, spread the knowledge of the religion as much as possible, achieve a TRUE faith so that you can earn the eternal life beyond the bodily one. The meaning posted first above is secondary to this one in a true christian's life but they are not mutually exclusive.

Feel free to add the meaning of life for other religions that I'm less familiar with.

But am I right or not? See it's not that hard to define :D

Oh you meant WHY are we here? Well if you're the first kinda person, you don't need a reason: physics, chemistry, biology. If you're the 2nd, then it's obvious, defined by your religion.

peace, I'm out :D

Someone forgets about a ban currently on religion.. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Feel free to discuss it, just keep with the rules, guys.

Vaskez serious? whoa... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Haha, yeah I made it so it's not a religious discussion. Hopefully it can slide under the rule barrier :D

[img]smile.gif[/img] We'll see, serious one. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

*nods* damn right, I'm a respectable serious individual :D

Well, for me it's easy, drink as much beer as possible whitout falling off my chair. Day in day out. :D

See? Johnny agrees it's easy to define :D

Aargh! Who pushed your philosophy button vaskez? I shouldn't have hinted at other questions in your G&E thread. I seriously can't answer these questions.

[Edit: And don't even think about incorporating rhyme into your 'easy' answers. I'm not ready for the mental hospital... :D ]

[ 08-30-2005, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: Sever ]

yep it's all your fault Sever

The reason of life is to fend off would be predators (possibly such as dinosaurs), attract a mate and keep the cycle of life going.

But then as a father you have to answer the most trikiest qustion in the book, "Daaaaad, where did i come from?". You stutter with shock at his question and reply "Erm, well you see son err.. when a man and a woman get together.." After the conversation, your young lad stares at you with open eyes and a gaping mouth, and you have just relized by saying 4 sentances you have drunk 14 glasses of water, needing to go to the toilet realy bad. thats 6 more glasses you need in a whole day!

No burnzey, that's the meaning of life for non-sentient animals [img]tongue.gif[/img]
But I spose that's kinda included in what I said about having a family. So I agree in that sense. But show me where/when the average person has to fend off a predator in their lifetime :D

Oh and gotta love the Australian kiss definition in your sig :D lol

[ 08-30-2005, 10:33 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

Maybe a homeless guy begging you for money is an example of a predator..

I believe Burnzey took the question literally and simply answered it. "What is the meaning of life" is to preserve life for the future and the only way currently available is to produce children.
However I don't think you intended to ask "What is the meaning of life", but rather "What is a meaningful life" in which case the complications you mention arise. See this will adress the means by which the first is achieved. How do you manage to preserve the future of the human race in a meaningful and acceptable fashion.
I offer no solutions, but I think anything you mention can be boiled down to acceptance and respect. All of us basically wants to be accepted and belong somewhere. Religion is a good way to install meaning in your life and gain acceptance within a group. The same applies to the obsession of getting married even though this type of partnership contradicts many aspects of our nature. Marriage is the commonly accepted way of getting children so this is what we strive for.

[ 08-30-2005, 11:02 AM: Message edited by: mad=dog ]

i dont think there is a meaning to life anymore. i mean last century it was to live your life the way your diety wishes so you can be with him/her when you die. but there isnt as many believes anymore so what about the rest of us?.
If its to have a family and make more people then whats the meaning of life for people who are unable to have children? or someone who has decided that they wont to live alone?. I think you have to study your goals and make your on reason for living up, there isnt one to encompass everyone.

The meaning is life is to determine the meaning of life. :D

Wow. try sitting back and trying to work out exactly what that means. its one of those "chicken or the egg posts"

10 points for giving me a headache Zebodog

The meaning of life is to improve yourself, and if you're particularly noble, improve the lives of others. Simply put, progress.

Q: What is the meaning of life?

A: A Monty Python movie.

Things like getting a good job and being happy seem to me more like the purpose of life rather than the meaning. Is the meaning more why does life exist and so on? Or maybe they're the same thing. The purpose of my life is to achieve my goals and be able to look back in 50 years and be satisfied with what I've done, but I don't know if there is a meaning. Maybe life just is.

There are no non-sentient animals, Vask. All animals are sentient - sentience is simply the abiility to feel sensations, be conscious.

...Sea-sponge, Aelia. Sea-sponge.

Eh, I thought sentient meant self-aware. And blah to all that stuff about dolphins recognising themselves in mirrors. What I meant was basically humans only, as the only species on Earth to worry about their origins (and yes I DO KNOW this for a fact, of course ;) :D :D )

Also, I KNEW someone would attack based on the distinction between meaning and purpose etc. I tried to address both.

and damn, I've come to the conclusion that Ilander is more annoying than me!

Come ON guys! We have known the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything for some time now. It's 42.

The meaning of life for me lately comes in the form of a few NWA classics. I've been listening to some old school albums again, to which I'm sure you can relate, Vask.

The meaning of life is whatever you decide to do with it. You make up your own meaning, it shouldn't be determined by everyone else's standards. Or...

life
n. pl. lives (lvz)

The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism.

[img]tongue.gif[/img]

meaning of life?

it's conjecture, but fwiw i have an opinion. [img]graemlins/twocents.gif[/img]

i believe there is much around us that we can't see nor comprehend, and i see that as our particular limitation.

as a species, our perception as dubious at best. we certainly don't have very long memories and we tend to see ourselves as the pinnacle of life in today's universe. imo, it's all prolly due to limited conciousness, pre-conceived perceptions and brief life spans.

anyway...
i read a math book in one of my philosophy classes back in college and i can never remember its' name. it was about a species who lived in 2 dimensions. when one of their friends turned *sideways* they no longer existed and were mourned as dead. when confronted with the possibility of a third dimension, they boggled. they had no way of coping with a concept of such enormity. except to kill the messenger. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

i don't know that we will ever understand what's around us and how, or even if, we affect it. simply because there's so much we can't see.

V***V

I was gonna say that...but that's the answer, it the question that I'm not sure about... ;)

I think there is no meaning to life, we are just a biological mishap stuck on a remote desert planet far away from the center of the universe... we have managed to evolve to a point were we acctually believe there is some point to our existance. Which is great, and if we manage to find a meaning and lead a happy life from it then thats great...

By the way my ultimate goal these days and what gives my life meaning is making a certain someone else happy... :D

so are you saying that there are little beings from another planet that could look identical to us in every way? i bet there would be, or how we come to exist. I believe in all the theories and sommehow they manage to fit together. I also think the astroid belt was a planet but had a big bif with mars over earth or something like that, and mars one, taking over earth as our own and wiping out the dinosaurs. The meteor crashed in the earth from that planet also help extinguish all pre historic life forms. I am rabbiting on so do correct me if im wrong.

If not only Universe, but also mass is infinite then there would be someone in a completely identical situation typing these very same words... infinately far away.

I am aware of the ban on religion, yet I offer this little piece of humour. While borderline I hope it remains within the frames of good conduct.

"When the Lord created the world and people to live in it - an enterprise which, according to modern science, took a very long time - I could well imagine that He reasoned with Himself as follows: 'If I make everything predictable, these human beings, whom I have endowed with pretty good brains, will undoubtedly learn to predict everything, and they will thereupon have no motive to do anything at all, because they will recognize that the future is totally determined and cannot be influenced by any human action. On the other hand, if I make everything unpredictable, they will gradually discover that there is no rational basis for any decision whatsoever and, as in the first case, they will thereupon have no motive to do anything at all. Neither scheme would make sense. I must therefore create a mixture of the two. Let some things be predictable and let others be unpredictable. They will then, amongst many other things, have the very important task of finding out which is which."
E.F. Schumacher "Small is beautiful"

Sorry, but one of my favorite quotes. Mostly in response to vasselle.

Um, I wouldn't have called it attacking. It's not exactly encouraging when you try to contribute by expressing a considered opinion and are said to be attacking. I had thought you were trying to create some sort of philosophical discussion that was somewhat deeper than what colour are your undies :rolleyes: .

Ah well. Anyway, I don't know if you did so much address both. Or at least, as I would interpret 'what is the meaning of life' it is exploring why does life, as in, things that live and die and create changes to the universe exist at all; why is the universe not just static and unchanging; why is there life here and not elsewhere. What people are talking about in this thread is what is the meaning/purpose of my life as an individual. The latter is relatively easy to answer but the former is not at all. I have no idea really.

damn right, biatches :D

100 Miles and Runnin, Straight Outa Compton, real n****s don't die :D


"And while they treat my crew like dirt
Their whole damn family is wearin our T-shirts "

-classic line :D

[ 08-31-2005, 09:59 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

Blah @ attacking. Couldn't think of a better word, ok arguing against, on that basis. I didn't REALLY address both, I just addressed the why are we here question in the last bit of my first post, if you look again and tried to cover it with one sentence :D being lazy.

You're right in the distinction between what is the meaning in MY life and what is the meaning of life in general. I'd still say both are easy to answer as I have said my opinion on the former. The latter again comes down to your beliefs, most religious people accept that they cannot fathom a God's reasoning for the existance of life in general. And for non-religious people there IS NO meaning i.e. it's a random eternal cycle of phsyical elements. In both cases, in a way the question has been answered.

My point with this thread was to discuss it yeah, but also just to prove that both questions can be answered quite easily if you want them to be :D although to completely put all doubts aside is impossible.

To multiply and not die. In whichever order. That is at least what most creatures that inhabit this ball of iron seem to be aiming for.

Some people are putting a lot of thought into their answers :rolleyes:

[ 08-31-2005, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: Vaskez ]

I think maybe a more appropriate question would be, why are human brains and minds such that we ponder such issues? ;)

I dunno, Vask, I think Iron Greasel's answer is okay - maybe he is considering all species not just humans and picking the meaning that is relevant for all of them.

I'm not religious and I don't find the 'just randomness' answer very satisfying. So for me the answer is not easy to come to.