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03-16-2008, 04:15 PM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: The Netherlands
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Originally Posted by Tricky  Do the Russians love their children too? | You win @ life
I consider myself and atheist and very much believe there is a meaning if you want there to be one.
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03-16-2008, 07:17 PM
|  | Moderator and Twisted Sister | | Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: The maelstrom where chaos merges with lucidity
Posts: 17,855
| | The Meaning of Life...from cradle to grave... (slight language warning  )
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testingtest12Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
testingtest12.......All those moments ... will be lost ... in time ... like tears in rain.
Last edited by dragon wench; 03-16-2008 at 07:26 PM.
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03-17-2008, 12:36 AM
|  | Member | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: The Middle of the Abyss
Posts: 20
| | | I founbd out the answer your all wrong! It's 23 not 42 everything revolves around that number look it up! It's amazing
__________________  When you touch yourself kittens cry! |
03-17-2008, 02:15 AM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Fremantle, Australia
Posts: 6,249
| | To eat, to have sex, and then to die.
As it has ever been. 
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03-17-2008, 06:40 AM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: USA
Posts: 3,107
| | | I don't think the question itself really means anything. At best, it's vague and fuzzy. At worst, it's simply not defined. Either way, it's a meaningless question.
I think you could find a few satisfactory answers if you asked more specific questions. But the questions you ask have a lot to do with you personally, so I don't know if we would be on the same wavelength.
I will say this, though: our outlook, perceptions, beliefs, and convictions are greatly affected by the chemical states of our brains. This makes objectivity difficult, if not impossible. In the end, we believe whatever "feels right" to us, and that sort of thing is subject to change. If you've ever taken drugs or received a big dose of hormones, you might understand what I mean. I'm not saying that it makes all truth inaccessible to us; but it does make it difficult for us to know whether our own beliefs are based on proof and logic or based on our feelings ("confirmed" only after the fact by evidence we selectively choose to accept).
I believe that much depends on whether we are acting rationally and making choices rather than simply "drifting" through life. If your life is "just a bunch of stuff that happened", how can it be meaningful? On the other hand, if you set goals, make choices, and act according to conscious intentions, I think it's much easier to ascribe some sort of meaning to your life.
For example, suppose you were born because your mother unexpectedly got pregnant without meaning to (or perhaps in a situation in which she was actually trying to avoid getting pregnant). That makes your entire existence "accidental", or perhaps a "biological inevitability". Leaving aside the question of whether a greater being such as God "willed" it to happen, you cannot point to a decision made by your mother and say, "I was brought into this world for a purpose."
On the other hand, let's suppose that your mother's pregnancy was planned and intentional. At the very least, there is one reason why you were born: your mother wanted you to be born. That really does mean something. It creates a responsibility on her part, and it means that at least at the beginning of your life, your purpose was to fulfill your mother's desire to have a child. Again, that really does mean something.
There are other ways to look at it, but at least that's a start.
Last edited by VonDondu; 03-17-2008 at 06:55 AM.
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03-17-2008, 12:58 PM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: England
Posts: 4,927
| | | You might as well ask "What do you get when you multiply six and nine?"
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03-17-2008, 01:18 PM
| | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Here, now
Posts: 1,938
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig You might as well ask "What do you get when you multiply six and nine?" | The computation was incomplete... |
03-17-2008, 08:21 PM
|  | Moderator and Board Bimbo | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The space within
Posts: 9,786
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Originally Posted by VonDondu I don't think the question itself really means anything. At best, it's vague and fuzzy. At worst, it's simply not defined. Either way, it's a meaningless question.
I think you could find a few satisfactory answers if you asked more specific questions. But the questions you ask have a lot to do with you personally, so I don't know if we would be on the same wavelength. | Very well said. I completely agree that the question is essentially flawed and meaningless. Furthermore, I can't believe that anyone would find it funny or witty to answer the question with that old Douglas Adams' puzzle.
Mason, if you are a religious person you may find your answer in your religion. That, or any other strong ideology, is the only way to find a more general answer to your question. Religion and ideology usually provide that kind of answers, predefined. If you are not religious, you have to find your own meaning - or not. Also note that there might be a difference between meaning and purpose.
If you have trouble finding a meaning with life, I recommend you to start by looking at the state of the world and see if there is anything you can do to make things better.
__________________ "There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance." - Hippocrates Moderator of Planescape: Torment, Action RPG discussion, Diablo II, Dungeon Siege and Space Siege |
03-17-2008, 10:47 PM
|  | Exalted Member | | Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,172
| | | I disagree that it is a bad question...
But it is not a comfort zone question for m(any) people. It is an interesting question. I think it is THE question.
Why is life meaningful?
First I think it is important to hone in on what you mean by life. What is life? Would be a spawn of your question.
Second I think it is important to hone in on what meaning is? Does it come with a pre-definition? Personally I identify meaning in a matter of discernment; I know meaning when I see it. It is that 'ah ha' feeling that comes (or doesn't).
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03-17-2008, 11:30 PM
|  | Moderator | | Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Somewhere a man such as I exist.
Posts: 4,939
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Originally Posted by Craig You might as well ask "What do you get when you multiply six and nine?" | 9 x 6 = 54, 9 - 5 = 4, 6 - 4 = 2, therefor 9 times 6 is a formation of 42 the meaning of life. I base this logic on absolutely nothing. 
Last edited by Siberys; 03-17-2008 at 11:33 PM.
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03-18-2008, 03:38 AM
| | Member | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: The Middle of the Abyss
Posts: 20
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Originally Posted by Siberys 9 x 6 = 54, 9 - 5 = 4, 6 - 4 = 2, therefor 9 times 6 is a formation of 42 the meaning of life. I base this logic on absolutely nothing. | I like the way you think. I'm going to keep my glass eye on you!
__________________ When you touch yourself kittens cry! |
03-18-2008, 07:42 PM
|  | Moderator | | Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Wanderlusting with my lampshade, like any decent k
Posts: 5,756
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The Meaning of Life is different from one individual to another. Such a question I guess is meant for one to reflect on how one would want to live one's life.
And yeah, it isn't 42...
...it's 23.  |
03-18-2008, 07:48 PM
|  | Temporarily on Leave | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The sun, the moon, and the stars.
Posts: 28,399
| | | If someone were to come up to me and ask, "What is the meaning of life?" I would just stare at them for a minute, and then ask if they understood it, yet. If they didn't, they'd never get it.
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03-18-2008, 10:05 PM
|  | Moderator | | Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Hell if I know
Posts: 15,231
| | The meaning of life is to Be
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03-19-2008, 08:31 AM
| | Moderator and Board Bimbo | | Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: The space within
Posts: 9,786
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Originally Posted by Claudius I disagree that it is a bad question...
But it is not a comfort zone question for m(any) people. It is an interesting question. I think it is THE question. | It's a bad question because it is like asking somebody else "Who am I and what do I want?". It's a meaningless question because the answer is totally individual and subjective, you have to find your own answer so why bother to ask?
What do you mean by saying it is not a "confort zone" question for some people? Apart from patients with depression and similar, I have never in my life met anyone who found it unconfortable to discuss the subjetive meaning with their own life.
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