# LIFE - will we EVER know the point? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 5, 2002, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699 "2002-12-05T15:36:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/41 "2002-12-05T23:49:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by don’t be a jerk-off \* > **because it is scary not knowing why the fcuk we’re here !** Which is scarier – not knowing the reason why you’re here, or knowing (or at least strongly suspecting) that there **IS** no reason why you’re here? ---
**Author:** ![Boxer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47774/32.png) [@Boxer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boxer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/42 "2002-12-06T00:41:42Z")
The purpose of life, indeed the whole of reality is based upon, honest, loving, relationships. May truth, love, and realimacy be yours today. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/43 "2002-12-06T00:46:29Z")
I don’t think life has any meaning. But it has no bearing on my life. Whatever I could think, I still have desires and feelings. If I’m thirsty, I may think what there’s objectively no point in sustaining my life, but I still want to drink. And once I get my hand on a glass of water, it still makes me happy. And it’s the same for essentially everything. I want to listen to some good music, I want to avoid suffering, something makes me sad and I want it to change, etc… ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/44 "2002-12-06T01:19:49Z")
The purpose of life is to transform the non-living Universe into a single, transcendent living being. That being will be God. God, being entirely free of the constraints of time, having come to exist, will therefore _have_ existed eternally and _will_ exist eternally. That is the Purpose of Life. Or it isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![JustPlainBryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JustPlainBryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustPlainBryan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/45 "2002-12-06T03:21:27Z")
I would say that you need to make your own meaning to life. You need to establish the point of your existence, otherwise you’ll be seeking out these answers forever. Taking a few philosophy classes helps, but ultimately it is you who needs to create your own philosophy. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by blowero \* > \*\*I still don’t see how that’s scary. How is NOT having to fulfill a purpose more scary than HAVING to fulfill a purpose? \*\* I don’t get why fears need to be justified to you with a rational explanation. This is akin to asking me why someone has a fear of enclosed spaces or a fear of heights. Can you not just accept that some people (including myself) have irrational fears? > [@](#): > > **Which is scarier – not knowing the reason why you’re here, or knowing (or at least strongly suspecting) that there IS no reason why you’re here?** I would say the latter, which is why we humans in general tend to create meanings and points where there are none, thus becoming self-fulfilling prophecies. Slightly off-topic: Is there a psychological term for the fear of randomness, chaos, and general disorder? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/46 "2002-12-06T11:25:32Z")
Dinsdale wrote: > [@](#): > > Would it work better if I said reject instead of deny? And is the problem as real for seriously question as for deny? I’ll try to keep this jargon free. The problem in stating categorically that God does not exist is that there is an implicit assertion that He might. In other words, implicit in the assertion that something is NOT possible is the assertion that it also IS possible. Think of it this way: if there were no “is possible”, you’d have nothing to add your “not” to. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/47 "2002-12-06T11:28:28Z")
I’m not sure I agree there **Lib** ; can a concept not be entirely fictional? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/48 "2002-12-06T11:41:59Z")
Yes it can, but that doesn’t make it impossible. Think how much science has borrowed from science fiction to make fantastic technologies into a reality. Once again, you cannot construct “ **not** possible” without “possible”. You cannot make a negative without something to negate. That’s why it has been formalized as a fallacy — a substantive denial of a positive onological proposition. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/49 "2002-12-06T11:45:56Z")
Thanks **Lib** ; I think I may have been misreading ‘is not possible’ as ‘does not exist’ (which isn’t nearly the same thing). ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/50 "2002-12-06T11:54:04Z")
**Fromm** here to eternity…😃 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/51 "2002-12-06T19:32:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Boxer \* > \*\*May truth, love, and realimacy be yours today. \*\* Dude, where are you getting **your** dictionary from? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/52 "2002-12-06T19:35:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Libertarian \* > **In other words, to assert that it is not possible that God exists, you must assert as well that your statement is meaningless since the term “God”, avered as representing something nonexistent, is nonsensical.** Consider the following statement: “It is not possible that two electrons, occupying the same quantum state in the same place at the same time, can exist.” Is **this** statement nonsensical too? ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/53 "2002-12-06T19:36:39Z")
Er, correction to the above post: “It is not possible that two electrons, occupying the same quantum state in the same place at the same time, can exist.” Is this statement **meaningless** too? (Gawd, I **hate** not being able to edit my own posts!) ---
**Author:** ![Young\_Mr.Grace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e47c2d/32.png) [@Young\_Mr.Grace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Young_Mr.Grace)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2002, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/54 "2002-12-06T21:46:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elucidator \* > \*\*The purpose of life is to transform the non-living Universe into a single, transcendent living being. That being will be God. God, being entirely free of the constraints of time, having come to exist, will therefore _have_ existed eternally and _will_ exist eternally. That is the Purpose of Life. > > Or it isn’t. \*\* Hm, interesting theory. Hydrogen gas coelesces to form stars, which over time fuse heavier elements. These traces of heavier elements are ejected through a nova to go into forming other stars and planets. The heavy elements combine to a form that can mechanically take in other molecules from its environment and therby reproduce itself. These forms become more and more complex and more able to survive their environments over the generations by only the strong passing on their genetic information. Perhaps the billion-year process of life and evolution is the universe waking up from a dream and slowly becoming conscious. Or maybe the universe is a rectal wart on a giant celestial Shoggoth, and the “big-bang” and inflationary period was the flare-up. I shudder to think of what will happen when preperation H causes “the big crunch”. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/55 "2002-12-07T11:10:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*Er, correction to the above post: > “It is not possible that two electrons, occupying the same quantum state in the same place at the same time, can exist.” > > Is this statement **meaningless** too? > > (Gawd, I **hate** not being able to edit my own posts!) \*\* No. That is not an ontological statement. Once again, the fallacy is “a substantive denial of a positive ontological statement.” ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/56 "2002-12-07T11:11:57Z")
Or proposition, actually. Just to be perfectly clear. ---
**Author:** ![Justhink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@Justhink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justhink)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/57 "2002-12-07T23:03:51Z")
Consent validation is the purpose of self-recursive interactives. The purpose is to weed out all variables of coersion on yourself or from other existents. NObody consented to be born. Nobody consented to live an entire life abusing the consent of others against their desire to validate their own consent. Rationality always uncovers consent, and irrationality always abuses it to simulate it - consent redemption is precisely how ‘all of this’ is understood/decompiled. New thoughts are abstracted only in the event of not adopting the law “might makes right”. Those who operate this law, even unaware, will not learn or produce anything new - they don’t do any work in the sense of sentient beings. -Justhink ---
**Author:** ![Justhink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@Justhink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justhink)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2002, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/58 "2002-12-07T23:12:46Z")
That is to say, consent redeption patterns will force consent no matter who you are. Consent redemption is ultimately conversional to the mind which comprehends itself in the means that we do. -Justhink ---
**Author:** ![Iamthat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Iamthat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iamthat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/59 "2002-12-08T04:36:05Z")
The meaning of this existence has to come from outside it otherwise it’s circular. I can’t say this life has meaning because……. And then point to something within it. It would be analogous to saying the bible is the truth based on the bible. ---
**Author:** ![Thrasymachus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Thrasymachus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thrasymachus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699/60 "2002-12-08T07:29:16Z")
It’s survival. All life strives for it, competes for it, evolves at it. In a social species like ours other elements emerge, but I’ve always felt that just plain survival was the basis for them all. Somewhere in the galaxy, other things are surviving too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/life-will-we-ever-know-the-point/140699.md?page=4)