Life is meaningless

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by Saint, Jan 9, 2014.

  1. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    It's our function as biological machines, it doesn't mean anything. Nor should it. Because that would rob us of the freedom to discern our own meanings and purposes. Even within the context of religion, what does it all mean? What is God's purpose? I don't think it's ever been adequately explained.
     
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  3. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Go to school --> Graduated --->find a job --> marry --> Go to grave

    Everyone repeats this process, is it meaningful?
     
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  5. Sorcerer Put a Spell on you Registered Senior Member

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    For most people it is. It's only those who agonise about it on internet forums who can't decide. Read my post above and you'll have a great more fun than the people on here. Of course it may not be meaningful.....
     
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  7. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    I don't have to prove squat to anybody. You're the one suddenly speculating on the conscious state of spiders and whether they consider humans meaningful or meaningless. More power to you if that's what you want to do, but it has nothing to do with my intitial statement that life is meaningful.

    But then I'm not the one making the sociopathic claim that human life is no more significant than some vibrating molecules. If that's how you experience your life fine. You're meaningless. Congratulations. Suffice it to say I wouldn't turn my back on you in a dark alley.
     
  8. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    You're an agent with the capacity to create its own justifications for being here. It sounds like you've decided to abandon not only that (aside from this ironic conclusion itself) but even abandon the constricted, inherited "keep-a-going" programming an animal comes equipped with. Would a god take this self-destroying approach, especially when lacking any higher authority to dictate to it or decide for it? Granted, you might not have the same degree of freedom as a god to invent and pursue whatever agenda you desired, but you're part of a species that sure as heck has broken out of the stereotypical limitations that life forms in general have been confined to for billions of years.

    Instead of being swallowed up by the negative side of the black hole of nihilism, why not prescribe yourself the goals of aiding transhumanism and posthumanism in some way? Even Richard Dawkins is only hyper-skeptical of supernatural god-like beings, not those of the natural ilk [below]. But why dream only of extraterrestrials who, after millions of years of progress, have either mastered or undermined the regularities of this universe, who could control it or subvert it?

    Has some former Abrahamic god beat you down into such a lowly conception of the potential of human intelligence on this planet that you're content to just slide off into your own new, self-made loser hell-pit of meaninglessness and nothingness? If you still yearn for that old Abrahamic quest to be immortal or something, if this despair stems from casting that off as myth... Then what "gods" would be more interested in rescuing you than those descended from us in the distant future (in one sense or another). If you want to feel small and insignificant, or rather want to use that dead-end to some benefit for a change, then who the heck are you (or me, etc) to determine a priori what is possible and not possible after eons and eons of scientific discovery and technological manipulation?

    Dawkins quotes; New York Times interview: “It’s highly plausible that in the universe there are God-like creatures."

    In “The God Delusion”:

    “Whether we ever get to know them or not, there are very probably alien civilizations that are superhuman, to the point of being god-like in ways that exceed anything a theologian could possibly imagine. Their technical achievements would seem as supernatural to us as ours would seem to a Dark Age peasant transported to the twenty-first century.

    "Imagine his response to a laptop computer, a mobile telephone, a hydrogen bomb or a jumbo jet. As Arthur C Clarke put it, in his Third Law: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ The miracles wrought by our technology would have seemed to the ancients no less remarkable than the tales of Moses parting the waters, or Jesus walking upon them. The aliens of our SETI signal would be to us like gods . . .

    "In what sense, then, would the most advanced SETI aliens not be gods? In what sense would they be superhuman but not supernatural? In a very important sense, which goes to the heart of this book. The crucial difference between gods and god-like extraterrestrials lies not in their properties but in their provenance. Entities that are complex enough to be intelligent are products of an evolutionary process. No matter how god-like they may seem when we encounter them, they didn’t start that way. Science-fiction authors . . . have even suggested (and I cannot think how to disprove it) that we live in a computer simulation, set up by some vastly superior civilization. But the simulators themselves would have to come from somewhere. The laws of probability forbid all notions of their spontaneously appearing without simpler antecedents. They probably owe their existence to a (perhaps unfamiliar) version of Darwinian evolution.” ​
     
  9. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    27,543
    I hope everyone is having as good a day as I am having. And if you are not, well the ball's in your court, so to speak, to make the most of every opportunity of every minute, that the rest of this day has to offer. TIME: 1010hrs AEDST.
     
  10. Dazz Registered Senior Member

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    Ouwch... D:
    What is the meaning of me replying to your post? (not the purpose)
    I don't know. I see no meaning on life itself, but when i say life, i mean existence, from our existence to the existence of the whole universe.
     
  11. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Having a good day is meaningless. The universe is totally indifferent and could wipe out the whole planet with a random asteroid or gamma ray blast.
     
  12. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    If I die I cease to exist,
    then what is the purpose to live and to strive?
     
  13. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    Can u summarize your points?
    May I ask you, how do u make your life meaningful?
     
  14. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    I feel life is suffering,
    because I can not choose to live what I want,
    I have to do job that I hate to do, but I have no choice, I need money,
    I got to continue my job.
    This is meaningless.............. :bawl:
     
  15. Dazz Registered Senior Member

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    143
    Maybe, but is really purpose so far from meaning?
    This should have cleared my vision to your point but my guts goes totally against it. I agree on the part of the religion sure, but aren't we doing exactly that but just outside the domains of religion? Or the religious implications on the "meaning of life"?
    Another question. Is there how to not live a life? How would that happen i ask you.
    Puting it that way almost makes it, not only "sound tawdry and menial".
    I think it's intriguing. I'm not sure but i think the tenth part of "Dialogues concerning Natural Religion" by David Hume (the first parts of it) give some insight into our subject.
    I recon it happens but it goes quite transcendent, spiritually-like, and i tend to disregard anything that gets close to it. As i see that it makes no sense.
    So, has no purpose but, makes sense.
    What's the purpose, and meaning, of having a meaning without a purpose?
    For the sake of sake. Or for the love of love. I wish i could see it the way you do man, but i see no reason nor sense on the things that happen to occur in our universe. Maybe i'm just too young or dumb for that.
     
  16. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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    2,862
    You can't separate the person from the group for the person makes up a part of the group which decides upon its own meaning if they so desire.
     
  17. Trooper Secular Sanity Valued Senior Member

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    “For why has the advent of nihilism become necessary? Because the values we have had hitherto thus draw their final consequence; because nihilism represents the ultimate logical conclusion of our great values and ideals--because we must experience nihilism before we can find out what value these "values" really had.--We require, sometimes, new values.”-Nietzsche

    Is an ultimate purpose necessary? Nope. Do we need an external, unearthly force to care about us? No, not if we care. Like death, nihilism is something that we should struggle against. Nihilism is a fraud, an unrealistic, exaggerated condition of helplessness.

    “Neuroscientist Kathleen McDermott of Washington University began by quoting famous memory researcher Endel Tulving, who called our ability to remember the past and to anticipate the future “mental time travel.” You don’t use the phrase “time travel” lightly in front of a group of physicists for whom the concept is not a convenient metaphor but a very real possibility. But when you hear about how our minds glide through time—and how our memory provides a link not only to the past but also to the future—you see Tulving’s point.”

    Time on the Brain

    Hmm… no past, no future, and then there are those unforgettable moments.

    Hyperthymesia

    David Eagleman's work is fascinating.

    Spider, do people with Asperger syndrome have any trouble with episodic future thinking?

    Memory For the Future
     
  18. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    5,134
    Life is all about being passive and leaving the world in a better place than where you found it. Oh, and picking up positive vibes and feelings.
     
  19. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Our evolved function is to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
     
  20. Saint Valued Senior Member

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    I am a very insignificant person,
    I did nothing significant to the world, not like Newton or Einstein,
    basically the world needs nothing from me, but I need the world to support my life.

    Such a small person like me, why to live in this world?
    I am just a dust.
     
  21. river

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    I have never known anybody in my life experiences , that is devoid of wisdom , of some degree

    Hence saint YOU are NOT insignificant
     
  22. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    As the Ash Wednesday ceremony has it: " Remember, Man, though art but dust and unto dust thou shalt return."

    But seriously, everyone seeks some kind of fulfilment. This is not necessarily happiness, but something that they can tell themselves they have achieved and can feel proud of, or satisfied with. It may come from a job, or a hobby, or taking care of dependents, or other relationships. If you feel you lack this, it would be a good idea to try to add a dimension of your life that provides it.
     
  23. The Marquis Only want the best for Nigel Valued Senior Member

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    *Snort* ...flibbertigibbet.

    Nice try. But I'm afraid you're going to have to do better than that if you want to keep my interest.
    Now, are you going to keep gabbling on about categorised philosophical positions as though you're talking about musical genres, or are you just going to listen to the music you like?

    Read your little Wiki article. Basic premise is flawed, rest of it is meaningless as a result.
    How in blazes did you ever come to the conclusion that nihilism is "anti-life"? Did you just pick the definition you could find which fits?
    Dammit, girl, I'm not a bloody vegetarian. If you're going to invite me to dinner, serve some meat up.

    It's easy playing the fool for those one has no respect for, and only the living can bury the dead.
     

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