What would you say to a firm believer in the non-existence of a meaning to our existence?
42
I don’t know anyone who’s a strong believer in nonexistence. Perhaps you should elaborate, unless this is a clumsy salvation troll . . .
Not a troll. Likely, I have 40 - 50 more years to live. If I don’t believe that there is a meaning to all life (lack of meaning = nonexistent), what the hell am I to do with those years? The same as everybody else? Spit out kids, buy a minivan and age?
(Sorry, posted this as a new topic too. Stupid, stupid, stupid.) 
People aren’t wearing enough hats.
lack of meaning = nonexistent
I don’t understand this at all.
Let me put this another way. The topics of discussion here in “Great Debates” cover items such as gun control, eating healthy, Jesus’ life span, politics, etc.
If there is no reason for our very existence, are the topics that we’re debating ways of making our meaningless lives more comfortable until we eventually pass?
If you were able to view the Earth from above and witness the billions scurrying 'round like ants, would you giggle and wonder what it’s all for?
If you have ever asked yourself what your reason for being is, what is your eventual answer? And if you never found a satisfactory answer, how did you eventually learn to cope with your antlike behavior?
I like the theory that we’re here and we crave Happiness, so the Pursuit of Happiness is the purpose of our existence. The game is to find out how to best facilitate it. The Buddhist philosophy is that Physical fulfillment/stimulation is not a road to true happiness, because the very nature of physical satisfaction is transitory. Connection/Empathy is stressed as a means to lasting happiness.
But in the end it really does boil down to 42.
I don’t think there’s a meaning to life. You’re born, you keep your head down, you die. That’s all folks. One person’s life is totally meaningless in the grand scheme of things and when you die, even though there will be people who mourn, there will be several billion who couldn’t care less, another billion who’ll probably laugh at you and at least a couple of people who’ll jump for joy.
There is no grand plan, no hidden meaning behind it all, just millions of people who’ll grow old and die and millions more waiting to take their place.
Depressing? Well I don’t care. I’ve just been dumped and at the moment any reason for existance is pretty well hidden.
Speaking strictly for myself, my behavior is not antlike. If you must apply a fantastical metaphor (“If you were able to view the Earth from above . . .”) in order to make your life seem meaningless, then I leave you to it. But to imagine that the people around you play the same games with themselves is a bit solipsistic.
See my post here regarding why I think some people imagine their lives are meaningless, FWIW.
CheapBastid - I like that thought, as well. But it doesn’t make much sense. We’re here simply to please ourselves and find happiness? The ultimate goal is happiness? It begs the question - who is so interested in the billions finding happiness? I don’t believe in God or a supreme being - a ridiculous notion and one invented by people like myself who needed a “reason” or “meaning” for existence.
Gomez- I pretty much am resigned to your way of thought, hence the question today. Yes, it is depressing, and I was hoping that people that have contemplated their existence could let me in on the secret to not worrying about it.
Sorry to hear about the demise of your love life. May your search for happiness bring fruit soon.
I’m not really searching for answers to the meaning of life, so much as trying to find out how to cope with the very fact that there isn’t one. Lissenin (nonexistence of a meaning). 
If you combine the Monty Python and Douglas Adams theories, you get the feeling that we need to each have and wear 42 hats. That could mean a lot of things, but as this theory catches on, and gradually evolves into a major religion, the true message is to cast off your low paying job, and go into the holy profession of manufacturing and distributing hats. Ka-ching $$$
If you need a meaning, find one or make one up. I don’t think it will be seen as meaningful if it is attached to transitory things, which is everything, so it has to be sort of philosophical.
The Spastic Weasel thing EvilBeth has going looks pretty cool. I don’t know about any of their rituals, but if they involve a spastic weasel in any way it would have to be interesting. They could probably drag the 42 hats into it somehow too. Just make sure they don’t require tithing.
Sorry, that’s LisseneR.
Lissener - Thanks for the response and for the link to your post. Sorry about messing your name up earlier.
I enjoyed your post, as it explains to me, at least, how you have gone about answering the question of existence for yourself. You’re lucky.
I’m mildly curious as to why you’ve taken such a defensive stance to my musings here.
In wondering what my purpose is here, it helped me to take a macro view of the world. Thus, imagining what it might look like when viewed objectively from somebody sitting on a nearby planet (figuratively speaking). I didn’t intend for it to come across as a direct attack on you, per se, but on the seeming futility and lack of reason to it all.
I beg to differ, people around me do play the same games. After all, philosophers for ages have been asking the same question and grumbling at the lack of purpose.
I view it as antlike, scrambling around, trying to make this world a more comfortable place. Curing diseases, electing leaders, and for what?
Eventually, I imagine I’ll tire of trying to pin reason to my being here, and I’ll just fall in line on the ant farm.
And it will be fine…I hope.
Hey Interlewd, please don’t read more than adolescent heartbreak into that last post, I was just trying to exorcise some of my current negativity towards womankind without opening up a pit thread about it.
Having thought about it a little more since my last post I reckon that the meaning of life is so subjective that it rules out the idea of a singular, overriding meaning which may be imposed by a deity or something like that. The meaning of life is something which only you can define as it is your life after all. At the moment I reckon that the meaning of life is to be pissed around until you die. But then again I’ve just been dumped, I’ve been dumped before and God knows I’m gonna be dumped again. I’m pretty confident that in a couple of weeks my outlook on life and my opinions as to the meaning behind it will be quite different than they are now.
Last week for example I probably thought something similar to CheapBastid, that the pursuit of happiness (and love in particular) is the one driving purpose behind our existance. I will probably go back to thinking along those lines at a later date in the not too distant future. Then again I might put on some Radiohead and start thinking that the meaning of life is to take pleasure in the individualities and eccentricities which life throws up all the time, to try and see the inherent beauty behind it (that’s what I get from Radiohead anyway). Then again I might read something by Hofstader and start thinking that the meaning of life is to learn as much as possible and try to accumulate as much of the vast amount of knowledge and wisdom which there is in the world in my lifetime.
In short, life and the reasons behind it are, IMHO, a wholly sujective experience but whatever your outlook you should at least try to enjoy yourself however you can. Happiness is much more enjoyable than sadness, love is better than grief and the reasons behind life itself are down to you and you alone. You dictate the rules to yourself, do what ever makes yuo happy. After all it is your life.
Gomez - Glad to here your heart wasn’t completely smashed. You have a great attitude. Your last post was thoughtful, and, I hope, will give me something positive to think about. God knows, I’m tired of wondering about it, I haven’t always been so preoccupied with it and I know, inherently, it’s an absolute waste of time.
It’s nice to hear that others think about it, too.
Why bother living then?
Very good point.
Interlewd wrote:
Cope?
You think it’s depressing for your life to have no meaning or purpose?
Hell, it’s liberating! It means you don’t have to do anything special to please some deity or achieve your (non-existent) purpose. It means you don’t have to “make the grade.” It means you can do and be anything you want to, so long as you’re willing to live with the consequences. And it means that the only consequences are the real, measurable ones – you don’t have to worry about accumulating Karma points or racking up time in Purgatory.
Sure, the universe is a cold place that doesn’t give a damn about you. But it’s also not a nanny telling you what you must or can’t do. Think of the universe as an amusement park, and your life as a ticket that says, “Admit one. Go!”
Neat.
42 and hats aside, what do you want? A handbook for the recently non-deceased? So what is the meaning of life, anyway?
Ask a religious zealot, and he or she will tell you that it’s about accepting God (and/or Jesus) into your life and being accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. Ask Billy Crystal, and he’ll tell you it’s about “one thing.” Ask Wilt Chamberlain or Ron Jeremy and they’ll tell you it’s about screwing women. Clearly these ideas don’t mesh.
Where do you fit in? How should I know, I’m not you. I probably can’t tell you anything that will convince you one way or the other. But ask yourself this: If life in general has no meaning, does that automatically mean that your life does as well?
Stop asking what life means. You don’t believe in God, so you don’t believe we were put here as a race to for grand purpose. So then we’re a statistical anomoly in this grand place we call a universe. A freak accident. And we as a race can’t search for “meaning” because the answer might be that there isn’t one. But what does life mean to you? And that question alone might take the next 40-50 years, and a few minivans, to answer.