Does life have any meaning?

Your brother is nihilistic. Even though I am an atheist, I don't have such a bleak outlook on life. Life for me has meaning, and it is what I give it. Life is my canvas and I can mold it and make it how I want it, rather than theistic by painting by numbers. I don't have to have a belief in an invisible friend to give my life meaning or purpose. Yes I do think that after this life ends, that is it, no more you, but that doesn't take away any of the value within this life. In fact it makes it even more valuable. Those who believe they get to float off to some paradise cheapen this life because they only look at the end of life as the only thing important. They are the ones who typically take a huge dump on this planet because they believe their invisible friend is going to return to remake it anyways, so why bother caring about the planet?

Does meaning have any life?

Your brother is a very intelligent person.

Yes he is very intelligent but wrong in my opinion

it seems i stand in the middle of this topic, which has become more of a debate of theistic and atheistic viewpoints. i, myself, believe in a God, but not the protector on high that Catholic Sunday school told me about. i believe that it is up to man to find meaning in life. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God will swoop down and make things all better for us. We have free will for that. we do with our lives what we choose, and we reap the consequences-- good and bad.

as i said, it is up to us to find meaning in life. so to a certain extent, yes, there can be a huge meaning in life, if in fact you choose to make the most of it. I always say that you don't necessarily have to follow a huge organized religion or be ole "Pious Peter". but the least we can do is be true to ourselves, benevolent, honest, and forgiving. That, at least i think, is a way to make or find meaning in life and create an environment that is as harmonious as possible in these often frayed, tragic, and unjust times.

Then by all means expand on your view on your brother, please. I'm sure it has something to do with your personal god.

The answer to this question is.. NO! :bigsmile:

This is how I found the answer:

Obviously the word that is puzzling is the word 'meaning'. Let's start there.

To find the meaning of something.. is to boil down information and create a message.

Eg. "What does it mean if the traffic light is red?" We simply take the information "there is a red light on the pole next to the road .." and the message is "stop the car" .. now the traffic light has a meaning.

Note: We are programmed to find meaning in things... (silly humans)

Now the real question: "What does it mean if there is an earth with animals and a universe" or in other words.. "What is the MESSAGE that is trying to be sent!!?" The truth is.. The question should never have been asked! It is an absurd question, and an absurd concept trying to link Life with Meaning.
It's like asking "what is the message behind 'table' ?.. there must be a message behind it, because it exists... !" :eek:

What humans have trouble understanding is..(let me write it in caps)
THINGS DON'T NEED TO HAVE A MESSAGE.
THEREFOR THINGS DON'T NEED TO HAVE A MEANING...
FOR EXAMPLE: LIFE!!! :poke-eye:

Hypothetically, the meaning of life might be to satisfy a god..
Life might be a path to some other magical fantasy land...
We might be an experiment to some enormous aliens that have trapped us on a ball of gravity and are studying how fast we grow

Listen carefully now... (I might write in caps again...)
EVERY ANSWER IS IMMEDIATELY SHUT DOWN BY RE POSING THE SAME QUESTION.. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THAT"

That question can be asked an infinite amount of time!!
Mathematically making the answer "NO" or "NOTHING"!!!!!!!!

The truth is.. we are silly for even posing that question! .. BUT it's to be expected... we live day to day by creating meaning in things .. It's human instinct. In our insignificant little world... 'meaning' is everything!

But must remember it's also a human concept.
If the earth were to suddenly explode... the word 'meaning' and everything we've made it mean (lol) would explode with it.

In conclusion, there is no MEANING to life. DUHHH... !
But it's not as bad as it sounds!!

.. knowing 'the answer' let's you focus on a new question...

"What do we do then?"

The answer:
STOP questioning it.. and just accept it!
We should experience this for whatever it is!! Know that we are amazingly lucky to be a part of this crazy illusion! We should all be living happily in FEAR!! not of made up monsters like satan... but of a real monster like REGRET who will eat your f*cking heads off If you're still moping around questioning life when you're too old to move.

The End.

From a cosmic perspective, people are vanishingly small, temporary, and insignificant. In a universe where time is measured in eons and distance is measured in light years, of what consequence are we?

If humans were to annihilate ourselves by nuclear holocaust, or destroy our habitat beyond repair and go extinct, we would not be missed. Our eventual demise is all but inevitable, but it does not matter. The great cosmic dance will continue, stars and galaxies so numerous as to defy comprehension will be born and die, and our existence will end without having had any noticeable effect at all.

I imagine some folks take comfort in this argument. If our lives are utterly inconsequential and meaningless, then there is really nothing to worry about. We are absolved of all responsibility. I can see how this sort of nihilism might be liberating. If nothing matters, be carefree.

I follow how one can deduce the insignificance of life. I imagine the allure of meaninglessness. Yet, I will not concede, because if there is one thing I am sure of, it is that life has meaning!

Humankind is precious. Awareness makes us special. While there is quite probably intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, it is at least a rare occurrence. The universe is mostly empty space. Nothing is the rule, something is the exception. The mere fact that anything exists is marvelous, but more wonderful still is the fact that something is aware of that existence.

I ascribe to the belief that humankind (and any other intelligent life that may be) is the universe becoming aware of itself. What would be the point of this vast and magnificent cosmos if no one were around to witness it? Humanity possesses the rare and beautiful gift of seeing and understanding.

I suppose we could debate what humanity's unique ability to witness may or may not entail, but I take it to at least suggest that we matter.

If you believe in a god, then your purpose is to do good deeds.
Am i right?

I imagine most folks find comfort in 'believing' .. especially in believing that there is a meaning to life.

Meanings arise from the context things are placed in. This being the case they are entirely subjective and there is no objective meaning to anything. Objectively a painting is simply a collection of hues organized in a specific way, what they represent and mean is interpreted entirely by the observer. To someone who has never seen or heard about cows, a painting of a cow does not represent the same thing as someone who is familiar with what deer are and means different things to a vegan and a hunter.

I think is rather stupid to say "meaning". It is "purpose".

This mentality is not uncommon in ancient times. Imagine if you are born, your purpose in life is a slave to a master. When there is no "master", there is always a "God". A lot of people find it comfortable to be told you they need to do, and what they must do. In the BDSM community, there are a lot of willing 24/7 slave willing to submit to a master. The mentality is the same. To some people, it is emotionally liberating to submit to someone. It does not matter if this something is a god, or a person.

The purpose is still imposed by the subject. Slaves may rebel, even man may rebel against God, it's just that his chances of success are much slimmer.

Have you ever consider that slaves love to be slaves? Why? The stability, and routine.

Then they're choosing to affirm their slavery and are assigning themselves the purpose of being a servant.

To be totally honest I have no idea what what you said had to do with what I said at all. It's still not an objective purpose, so life has no purpose outside of what we give it just as it has no meaning outside of what we give it. Your attempt to replace 'meaning' with 'purpose' solves nothing.

To find 'Meaning' is to find the message behind something.
Asking for the meaning of life.. is asking for the message behind life..

Humans beings are designed to find meaning in things.
We can't easily fathom that something can simply just not have a meaning.
Unless we relate it to something of a similar nature..

we can't answer 'what is the meaning of life'...
for the same reason we can't answer 'what it the meaning of SPOON.'

it has no meaning!

I was not replying to you at all. What i was trying to get at is that when people ask "what is the meaning of life", they really want to find a "purpose" in life.

Even if you don't believe in God.

It seems you become more sociable, and in touch with your feelings.