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Is (your) life futile?

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  • #1

    Is (your) life futile?

    Is there any meaning of life at all?

    My life is completely insignificant; it won't change one single thing in this world. This assertion is not to be interpreted as an expression of some teenager's low self-esteem or pathetic depression of having been thrown away by a lover...

    I truly believe it. Furthermore, I go on to claim that, in the bigger scheme of things, your life and every single individual's life is completely meaningless as well... I make that judgement without knowing you and I firmly believe I'm right...

    Does this imply that life at an aggregated level (i. e. the existence of humanity) is meaningless too? Is the sum of a large number of totally insignificant parts also insignificant? I'm not sure about that one...

    Discuss, mortals.

    Carolus
    Last edited by Carolus Rex; May 24, 2005, 18:46.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Well I tend to agree.

    Life does appear essentially meaningless. Or rather the only meaning I can see is that we must reproduce to carry on the species, but then there is no aggregate meaning to life. We each give our own lives its own meaning.

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    • #3
      Meaningless != pointless.

      So life's meaningless. That's just maturity talking. Only a very few people will be remembered in the centuries to come. That's just percentages working against you. So what if you're not remembered, you're not changing the world or you're not part of some grand plan? So there's not overarcing design driving the universe that has you as a very special part of it.

      So who cares?

      Life's meaningless. True. Doesn't mean life's pointless. You may never make a big impact but your day to day activities give a point to your existence. You help people. You make friends and family happy. You try to be on the side of justice and decency. Everyday if you work to improve society then you're giving the finger to our nihilistic universe. Leave the world slightly better than when you began and you've done the most important thing a person can do.

      Life is meaningless. Deal with it and get on with living
      Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
      -Richard Dawkins

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      • #4
        Food

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        • #5
          For one to be meaningless there would then have to be the polar; meaningful. Since nothing is really meaningful on that same scale, I would have to conclude that ones existence is therefore not meaningless... merely, it just is.

          However, we do not exist nor do we interpret ourselves on such a scale, no matter how hard we try. Thus, if you feel meaningless it is merely because you wish it to be so. Similarly for those who think that they actually have a purpose or duty. We may no it is all BS, but for the sake of our humanity and our sanity it is best that we find contentment in our endevours and try to find satisfaction apart from our vices.

          Row, row, row your boat...
          Monkey!!!

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          • #6
            Life's meaningless. True. Doesn't mean life's pointless. You may never make a big impact but your day to day activities give a point to your existence. You help people. You make friends and family happy. You try to be on the side of justice and decency. Everyday if you work to improve society then you're giving the finger to our nihilistic universe. Leave the world slightly better than when you began and you've done the most important thing a person can do.


            to bad the world ain't mingless
            Monkey!!!

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            • #7
              Never heard of the butterfly effect? (no, not the movie).

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              • #8
                "What we must decide is perhaps how we are valuable, rather than how valuable we are."

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Starchild

                  Meaningless != pointless.
                  I take it that you mean that these two concepts are not equal?

                  Originally posted by Starchild

                  Life's meaningless. True. Doesn't mean life's pointless. You may never make a big impact but your day to day activities give a point to your existence. You help people. You make friends and family happy.
                  Maybe. You also hurt friends and family, though... Neither really matters...

                  Originally posted by Starchild

                  Everyday if you work to improve society then you're giving the finger to our nihilistic universe. Leave the world slightly better than when you began and you've done the most important thing a person can do.
                  That's just naive youth speaking. No single individual can change society or the world we live in. Even starchildren grow up and burn out...

                  Carolus
                  Last edited by Carolus Rex; May 24, 2005, 19:15.

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                  • #10
                    That's naive youth speaking. No single individual can change society or the world we live in. Even stars grow up and burn out...
                    How dare you contradict Starchild, our elected religious leader?!!

                    Where's that ignore button
                    Monkey!!!

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Dracon II

                      Never heard of the butterfly effect? (no, not the movie).
                      You believe in chaos theory? I believe it has some interesting things to say about how the economy works.

                      You imply that it makes life meaningless?

                      Carolus

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Kuciwalker

                        Food
                        How articulated... You sure you're at the top of the food chain?

                        Carolus

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Carolus Rex
                          I take it that you mean that these two concepts are not equal?

                          Maybe. You also hurt friends and family, though... Neither really matters...

                          That's naive youth speaking. No single individual can change society or the world we live in. Even stars grow up and burn out...

                          Carolus
                          Why change the world? Who said anything about altering the course of society? You want to find a point to life in this entropic universe of ours? Then go hug a loved one. Smile when you get your lunch from the deli. Be there when someone needs you. Do no harm and, if you do, be mature enough to apologise for it.

                          Go out there and revel in the crush of humanity. Feel the sun on your back and the wind in your hair. Glory in the fact that this moment will never come again. Plan like you're going to live for a hundred years, act like you're going to die tomorrow.

                          Revel in sensation, in the fleeting moment and the lost instant of being. Sit quietly in the warmth holding the hand of someone you love and know that in all the universe, in all the aeons, in all the meaningless random chaos of everything, you can do such a simple act.
                          Exult in your existence, because that very process has blundered unwittingly on its own negation. Only a small, local negation, to be sure: only one species, and only a minority of that species; but there lies hope. [...] Stand tall, Bipedal Ape. The shark may outswim you, the cheetah outrun you, the swift outfly you, the capuchin outclimb you, the elephant outpower you, the redwood outlast you. But you have the biggest gifts of all: the gift of understanding the ruthlessly cruel process that gave us all existence [and the] gift of revulsion against its implications.
                          -Richard Dawkins

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Starchild

                            Why change the world? Who said anything about altering the course of society?
                            Well, I thought you did. Check out my quote above...

                            Ok, so Carpe Diem makes your boat float... Well, I saw that quasi-philosophing Dead Poets' Society too... Handkerchiefs, anyone?

                            Yet, however well put your paragraphs above are, and no matter how nice those moments you describe seem, each one of them is nothing but an infinitely small paranthesis... The rest is silence...

                            Carolus

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                            • #15
                              Since I intend to still be here in a few centuries, I also intend to be remembered then. Hopefully, I won't still be posting on Poly.
                              Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...

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