Is (your) life futile?

[Dis]

we need meaning to keep from shooting ourselves. It's tough when your existance means nothing in the world to no one.

[BeBMan]

Yeah, but the meaning to keep us from shooting ourselves comes from human minds - from humans which think (because of some good reasons I'd say) it has meaning not to shoot ourselves.

Of course I have no idea how religious people would say that, but that's my opinion.

[techumseh]

Read Sarte: http://www.marxists.org/reference/ar...ist/sartre.htm

And Camus: http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users...lit/indexa.htm

[Dracon II]

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?

On the contrary... I was responding to the claim that you made implying that if you did not exist, the world wouldn't be any different.

The flutter of butterfly wings that constitutes your so-called meaningless and inconsequential life could bear tremendous fruit, or could be incredibly disastrous. I'm sure Hitler's father often pondered on the inconsequentiality of his life in the big scheme of things... as would have Martin Luther's father... or their mothers for that matter.

[Frankychan]

Originally posted by Flip McWho


Maybe so but experiences don't lead to some purpose. Well at least they don't seem to. Heck, go through life building up experiences and then you die and all those experiences become essentially purposeless again. It's like people who say lifes purpose/meaning is to acquire knowledge, bs, doesn't lead to any purpose or meaning, its just something to do whilst your here. Same with experiences.

Basically you're just wasting time till you die and how you waste that time is up to you.

Of course not. Whose to say that those experiences gained in life become wasted? What's to say becomes of our essence after our bodies expire? Acquiring knowledge doesn't mean jack unless you apply it to the world. Knowing how bee's communicate is all well and good but if you don't apply it to helping your fellow man, what good is that knowledge? The application of said knowledge should be the goal in acquiring knowledge itself.

I wouldn't necessarily say we are wasting time acquiring experiences for the sake of experiences. If you believe that all accumluated experiences are lost upon expiration, well...I can't really argue with that because that goes into spirituality (something I don't want this thread to turn into).

What happens after life is something none of us know, but I personally like to believe that our accumulated experiences mean something to our Karma.....

[Flip McWho]

Yeah in general I tend to agree with you. It's just that if you try to talk meaning and purpose to life it seems to head into a talk about the afterlife. You could argue that the only meaning to life is to help make the world a better place but again its entirely up to the person what makes a better place. So in the end it pretty much renders asking this whole question meaningless.

I must say Starchilds answer did leave me with a little fuzzy feeling inside

[Starchild]

/me watches as his cult grows.

[DeathByTheSword]

it all finally comes down to if you believe that you are the sum of your parts or something more...it doesnt matter if other people will miss you or not...it matter if you stuck by your principles when it counted. that when you walk down the street you can start smiling for nothing just because you are happy...but is also means crying when something bad happens running until you have to gasp for air and your heart is beating so hard in your chest that you think it will explode...

Live LIFE so that you can be proud of what you see in a mirror

[Frankychan]

Originally posted by Flip McWho
Yeah in general I tend to agree with you. It's just that if you try to talk meaning and purpose to life it seems to head into a talk about the afterlife. You could argue that the only meaning to life is to help make the world a better place but again its entirely up to the person what makes a better place. So in the end it pretty much renders asking this whole question meaningless.

I must say Starchilds answer did leave me with a little fuzzy feeling inside

Agreed. Definitely talking about "meaning" and "purpose" in life eventually steers to the afterlife and religion. Besides, I doubt any of us are going to change our opinions and beliefs on what "Life" "Means".

Of course, we're all inherently going to apply our own religion's p.o.v. on what life means to us.



Yes, Starchilds response was pretty impressive. And I agree with the soul of what was said.

[Flip McWho]

Live LIFE so that you can be proud of what you see in a mirror

Aye maybe so, but I think Carolus Rex is arguing thats whats the point in that? Sure you can look yourself in the face in the mirror every evening/morning/afternoon/night but essentially that doesn't mean anything.

Basically this whole question is pointless unless you figure out what the afterlife is, which as stated is virtually impossible. Given no afterlife, there pretty much is no meaning to your life other than what you give it yourself. Given a afterlife then that changes everything and you best hope you don't piss off some big bad guy who'll get you in the next life.

[Flip McWho]

Just to expand on my first paragraph. I think Carolus Rex is looking for an answer to this question that can be applied across the board to every single human being (and whatever else maybe) that there is. Maybe, I could be wrong in what Rex is looking for. However he ain't gonna get an answer that'll sufficiently satisfy him I think. Deriving meaning to life is just a human construct anyways.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Flip McWho
Just to expand on my first paragraph. I think Carolus Rex is looking for an answer to this question that can be applied across the board to every single human being (and whatever else maybe) that there is. Maybe, I could be wrong in what Rex is looking for. However he ain't gonna get an answer that'll sufficiently satisfy him I think. Deriving meaning to life is just a human construct anyways.

Yep, and it is good in that way IMO. Imagine there would be one universal meaning of life we all had to follow - sounds horrible to me.

[Flip McWho]

Yeah and it raises all sorts of issues once you get to the fact that some people become really successful business people and politicians and some people just end up as the'common people'. How can you have one solid meaning to life when theres such widespread difference between people?

You can't, and if you did life would be bloody boring, imagine everyone trying to follow the same meaning to life, you'd end up with a heap of clones with only minor variations between them.

[Sikander]

Re: Is (your) life futile?

Originally posted by Carolus Rex
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

Take heart Carolus, with "the butterfly effect" even a decision as seemingly insignificant as declaring war in a computer game could change the outcome of history. So be careful!

[Carolus Rex]

Re: Re: Is (your) life futile?

Originally posted by asleepathewheel

Sounds like you need to step away from the monitor and get outside. Talk a walk through the park.

Do you still believe in Rock and Roll, Carolus?

Yes; it keeps me from falling asleep at the wheel...

You miss the point (and so does Starchild). This is a philosophical issue; not a matter of me "learning" how to enjoy life (I enjoy it as well as I sometimes hate it).

Life is still meaningless... The moment I'm gone, nothing will matter anymore: what I did, what I thought, how I lived... The impact will be absolutely zero. IMHO, of course.

Carolus