I have just recently found this board and please excuse me if this question has already been debated.
Is there a meaning to life? Can there be a meaning to life if life is nothing more than a chemical reaction? Do all the things we think as important, such as art, talking, developing and refining culture, working, and protecting the environment have any true value? What does it matter if all life on the planet ends? According to cosmology, eventually our Sun will engulf Earth anyways - what would destroying all life a few billion years early matter? Even if we populate the entire galaxy, eventually all the stars will burn out and all the protons will decay away, and again there will be nothing left of us. All of us and our descendent’s destiny are already sealed to destruction. Do we only value life because we ourselves are living? Or is there something more to life than just a series of chemical reaction? We spend time everyday doing things that we think are important but none of them are if there is no meaning? Are not the elements that make up our bodies (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon …) the exact same stuff that litters our entire universe? What makes our body elements any more special than a pebble on a planet on the other side of the galaxy? Can there be any true meaning if we are merely a by-product of the evolution of the cosmos? Where is the meaning?
Anyone who can help answer this question or any part of this question will be greatly appreciated. I truely hope that there is a true meaning to life, not one that’s just a human construct. Otherwise, what the point of anything?
there is no meaning to life. all you get is your short limited life. it is up to you to use your time in whatever way you most desire to. if you do not do so it is your own fault for wasting everything that you will ever have… time.
Why does there need to be a (I presume) universal meaning?
My aunt, for instance, has dedicated her entire life to education and helping people; first as a nun, then a missionary, and most recently as a school administrator. Has she lived a meaningless life? Who’s to say? In a few million years, most likely nobody will have ever heard of Nancy A********. Has she found meaning in her life? Yes. Is she happy? Yes.
You don’t need to journey to the end of the Earth’s existence to be depressed. Name as many people as you can who were alive 100 years ago and what they accomplished. Now compare that to the total population of the Earth at that time.
Don’t sweat it. Find your own meaning and live your life as best you can in order to fulfill it.
At the risk of sounding maudlin I think love is the meaning of life. Love yourself, your family and those around you and let yourself be loved and you will have found happiness and the meaning of life. For when you are in the throes of loving and being loved your time here will have been spent with quality. Then maybe, when we become that cosmic dust you are referring to, we may see the very creator of that dust.
Anything beyond that belongs to the great mystery and we will never know that until we pass on.
Absolutely, yes life has meaning. However obscure it seems, our ability to extract definition from the surrounding universe also enables us to determine meaning from it. Nihilistic attitudes do not produce further reality. Pessimism does not promote cognizance. Stagnation does not foster achievement. It is in productive pursuit of excellence that the meaning of life manifests.
The ability to exhibit coherent thought and attain artistic expression are some of the pinnacles of human achievement. Culture is the manifestation of those pursuits and they are nurtured by continuing endeavor. The promotion of knowledge and art propagate human life and allow for positive realization of meaning. As humans, we largely synthesize reality as we know it. This does not void reality of meaning. However, it does confer upon us the necessity to ensure that life has purpose. Strip away any purpose and, of course, life seems meaningless.
If you strive for nothing, then life will seem meaningless. If you deliberately pursue goals of self improvement and enrichment, then life automatically obtains meaning. All of this relies upon your own personal attitude. If you rely upon others to give your life meaning, you will merely be a toy for external forces. If you assume command over your destiny, life and all of its riches are yours.
The meaning of life is…life. Think about it. If there were no life, there would be no one to question meaning. Even if there was life, the meaning can only be questioned once said life evolved intelligent thinking. Ending your life prematurely, and the possible lives of future generations you would have produced, is therefor meaningless. The answer is in your question. Enjoy it while you can.
JBENZ sez: You are a fluke of the universe, you have no right to be here. And, whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back.
That would be “the deteriorata” , gee JBENZ, I had not thought of that in a couple of decades…LOL!..
All seriousness aside, to paraphrase the Unitarians, the meaning of life is to give life meaning, …that means the responsibility is YOURS! not some bearded deity in the sky…kinda an awesome task when you stop and think about it…makes it a little more understandable why SO very many people would rather defer this duty to another…
I won’t be so presumptuous as to answer your question, but I will direct you to 2 great resources: Existentialism and Monty Python. As the existentialists figured out, we are the species that requires meaning in order to live - my dog sure doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying over this - and the only meaning we can have is the one we create. Big responsibility, eh? Also, watch “The Meaning of Life” by Monty Python immediately, and you will never have to ask this question again.
The “life” DixieChiq speaks of is nothing more than cellular decay, too jejune even to be called life. The Life Aha speaks of is eternal, and is the only Life there is. Its meaning is Love.
your life may be jejune, but mine is not. i consider that a lot of the time i spend here is worthwhile and valuable [to me].
with my “dull, unsatisfying, lacking of nutritive value” life, i have gone on a 5-month trek in the mountains, bicycled across the country and around the globe, worked overseas for years, built my own house. i find earthly life to be interesting and stimulating.
Life is either inherently meaningful, or it is not. I don’t personally see any reason to believe life is inherently meaningful.
Assuming for one moment that life is inherently meaningful, what would that meaning be? What is the purpose of life? What if the meaning of life is not some feel-good concept like love, but human suffering? Who gets to decide what the inherent meaning of life is, and why? How do we know we can trust that person?
If life is neutral, if there is no universal meaning, that doesn’t prevent you from finding meaning on a more personal scale.
It matters to me, and you, and anyone else who is affected by the world we share. But in the long run, if we were all dead, it wouldn’t matter any more. It’s kind of a liberating concept if you think of it the right way, and kind of a bummer if you perceive it the other way. Life goes on, so make the most of it while you can.
