my religion teacher once said "the meaning of life is that which gives life meaning", which is basically just vague and ambiguous enough to pass, i reckon
Why are we here?
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The purpose of life, in my opinion, is to ask that very question, or at least for that what it has to be for the time being.
While people may say '42' haha, or 'to reproduce' etc. both of those lead to more questions, and so it should be. Finding out what the purpose of your life isn't something you're going to learn in a day, week or even year.
As some people have stated, life has no inherent meaning, purpose, it is entirely contingent for all we know. However, values and meaning come from life, from our choices and actions, and this cannot be avoided, something as simple as crossing a road, or posting a message on a forum is bestowing meaning upon the world, actions dictate our values, and vice versa.
Nobody is going to be able to answer this question for you, especially not in forum such as this. It is the most important of all questions, and the reason all those other questions exist, so its not going to be a simple response.
In the end, living life is the only way to figure out even partially the answer to this question, trying to live an examined and meaningful life is, in my opinion, the highest principle of human existence. Though I fear too many people are unaware/don't care about this kind of thing.
While people may say '42' haha, or 'to reproduce' etc. both of those lead to more questions, and so it should be. Finding out what the purpose of your life isn't something you're going to learn in a day, week or even year.
As some people have stated, life has no inherent meaning, purpose, it is entirely contingent for all we know. However, values and meaning come from life, from our choices and actions, and this cannot be avoided, something as simple as crossing a road, or posting a message on a forum is bestowing meaning upon the world, actions dictate our values, and vice versa.
Nobody is going to be able to answer this question for you, especially not in forum such as this. It is the most important of all questions, and the reason all those other questions exist, so its not going to be a simple response.
In the end, living life is the only way to figure out even partially the answer to this question, trying to live an examined and meaningful life is, in my opinion, the highest principle of human existence. Though I fear too many people are unaware/don't care about this kind of thing.
I don't think there has to be reason. Not everything happens for a reason. The universe is pretty choatic at heart.
I'm just here to enjoy the ride =)
I'm just here to enjoy the ride =)
To paraphrase a peanuts comic(if I remember correctly)TimeLord said:
"Why?Where would you rather be?"
From there,wonder why you arent there,can you get there?how?
Or can you change where you are so it may BECOME where you want to be.
Do I win?
There is no reason we are here (unless you're asking about the science of what caused life to begin and evolve, instead of a 'why were we put on this earth' question).TimeLord said:
There is no specific purpose for humanity. We simply exist. Despite laws, We still have free will to do what we please, whether that be working hard at school to get a good career or cutting off the small finger of everyone you see with a golden machete. Although you're likely to get in trouble for the second thing.
We shouldn't EVER put strive for something more than we strive for cookies. There are an essential part of life and are an unbeatable form of yum yums.
[HEADING=1]NOT THIS TREAD AGAIN![/HEADING]
look, can we all stop with the bullshit creationist crap. WE NO REASON TO BE HERE. we are only here by a series of chance ok let me go in order for you:
1) a star went supernova resulting in all natural elements to be made and spred in the area of effect.
2) 4 clumps of the heavy elemets gathered and using gravity they started to expand and grow even larger resulting in Mucuary, Venus, Earth and Mars.
3) Eath was place bang on the goldilocks zone where it wasn't too hot or too cold so eath could sustain life.
4) the ball of the lightest element Hydrogen gathered in the centre of the cloud resulting in a commression of the hydrogen atoms where the temperature suddenly grew to plasma area and bang you have fusion resulting in a star.
5) this gave heat to all new planets and when the fusion began it sent of solar wind getting rid off all rocks too small resulting in our asteroid belt
6) 200 Million years later earth cools down and water begins to form
7) Mars and Earth impact resulting in our axis and seasons and the moon was created by the dabree
8) this put us back a bit but basic elements in a cesspool at the right condition and given time will combine and begin to create life. Evolution will set in and BAM you have the first cell and this stats to multiply. 2 billion years later after 2 more major asteroid collisions with the effect put upon by natural selection you will eventual come up with a race of humans which will concor the planet and become a donamant race with in 10,000 years.
[HEADING=2]there is no meaning of life, life is the consequence of random events resulting in chance to create a biological being that will eventual become stupid enough to create a thread like this now please STFU[/HEADING]
also there is such things as aliens because given the right conditions there may even be a race of near similar beings some where our there that are almost identical to us
look, can we all stop with the bullshit creationist crap. WE NO REASON TO BE HERE. we are only here by a series of chance ok let me go in order for you:
1) a star went supernova resulting in all natural elements to be made and spred in the area of effect.
2) 4 clumps of the heavy elemets gathered and using gravity they started to expand and grow even larger resulting in Mucuary, Venus, Earth and Mars.
3) Eath was place bang on the goldilocks zone where it wasn't too hot or too cold so eath could sustain life.
4) the ball of the lightest element Hydrogen gathered in the centre of the cloud resulting in a commression of the hydrogen atoms where the temperature suddenly grew to plasma area and bang you have fusion resulting in a star.
5) this gave heat to all new planets and when the fusion began it sent of solar wind getting rid off all rocks too small resulting in our asteroid belt
6) 200 Million years later earth cools down and water begins to form
7) Mars and Earth impact resulting in our axis and seasons and the moon was created by the dabree
8) this put us back a bit but basic elements in a cesspool at the right condition and given time will combine and begin to create life. Evolution will set in and BAM you have the first cell and this stats to multiply. 2 billion years later after 2 more major asteroid collisions with the effect put upon by natural selection you will eventual come up with a race of humans which will concor the planet and become a donamant race with in 10,000 years.
[HEADING=2]there is no meaning of life, life is the consequence of random events resulting in chance to create a biological being that will eventual become stupid enough to create a thread like this now please STFU[/HEADING]
also there is such things as aliens because given the right conditions there may even be a race of near similar beings some where our there that are almost identical to us
You know, you might actually be right in that. One google search, after reading your post, led me to this information:ColdStorage said:
"Douglas Adams was asked many times during his career why he chose the number 42. Many theories were proposed but he rejected them all. On 3 November 1993 he gave an answer on alt.fan.douglas-adams:
"The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base thirteen, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat at my desk, stared into the garden and thought '42 will do'. I typed it out. End of story.""
Thanks for the answer(or question). I'll look for it the next time I look it through.
Also, Stephen Fry apparently knows, since Douglas told him. But he won't share, the smug bastard.
lol! how hilarious would that be! we finally discover aliens, and we spend trillions of dollars and decades trying to reach them, and when we do, we find they are EXACTLY the same as us, doing exactly the same thing, and hence there is nothing to learn for either of us. I'd love to see the look on everyone's face after that massive anti-climax!-AC80- said:
also:
http://xkcd.com/610/
Action speaks louder than words.
Whilst it is sensible to hoard cookies for times of famine (you never know what the future may hold), even cookies that are kept in a cookie jar will eventually go soft, then stale, so hoarding cookies indefinitely is a bad idea. There can be no definitive answer to the ultimate question, no extrinsic meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything... as to pose that question one would have to be outside the Universe. Not just of Space and Time, but rather more awkwardly: The Universe of Discourse (as it too is part of Life), thereby preventing even a God-like entity from being able to come up with the objective reason.TimeLord said:
In short, the question is broken. It cannot be asked - this is subtly different from saying, enigmatically, that there is no answer.
However, this frees the individual from Religious dogma, the politics of their birth Nation State and what economic model is "correct", whether it be Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Green etc. leaving the individual empowered to develop their own practical philosophy and personal morality that they find works for them. The absence of some 'Hell' does not mean that everyone will start doing horrible things to each other as it is not nice to have the memories of doing those horrible things even if you are weirdly confident that there will be no retribution for your act. The lack of some 'Heaven' or ascendancy to the Godhead through progressive reincarnations does not mean people will stop being nice as they get nothing out of it in the "next life" - do you really need a reward?
Here... have a cookie to tide you over
