The Sense Of Life

[NaidRaida]

 

I searched for a similar topic but surprisingly I found nothing. If I´m wrong then sorry and lock it or move it if you think it´s misplaced here.

 

 

The sense of life?

 

What do you think about that? Did you ever asked yourself that in a serious (scientistic/philosophical/religious/...) way?

Or should I say "What´s our sense of life?". Do you differ between humans and animals in this case? The technical sense seems to be absolutely identical (preservation of the species).

 

I thinking about it often and cannot just say "this is my sense of life". Lookin to it a bit philosophical cannot generate an immediate or ultimate answer.

My father is used to say "The sense of life is just beeing". That is definately correct at first, but pretty boring and too easy said for me.

You can lay around the whole day and "you are". But that seem to be pretty senseless.

Maybe the sense can be found in every thing we do everytime. But if that doesn´t lead to great attention to all the small things, it is not a satisfying theory, at least not very practical.

By thinking about flying around on this blue peace of partially liquid rock and metall with enormous speed thru a - possibly - endless space I think there could be some interesting theories.

 

Also the pure technical aspect (reproduction) is too easy to explain all that what happens aroud us. You think all that around us is just a fluke, or made by laws of nature (God?)?

I´m also interested in scientistic theories, but they cannot answer some interesting questions. This are pure facts, and sometimes still only guessing.

Certainly, having children (I have none) may offer you a new sight on things I suppose and bring "new or more sense". I have no children yet.

 

Maybe it´s just related to our brain to think all the time, and this question for a sense is finally some kind of "unlogic algorythm" inside the brain that leads to just nothing. Also imaginable.

Some weird interpretation of the awareness of the self maybe?

 

I don´t suppose to find "the" sense of life, this is why I want hear something from you. If you think this topic sucks, then don´t post or spit on me.

I´m not searching for a sense, I´m pleased with my life. Just want to share some minds here.

 

Some interesting quotes I found (freely translated, maybe badly):

 

Be the change on your own that you wish for these world. (Mahatma Ghandi)

Do not fear the death, but fear that you never will begin to live. (Mark Aurel)

A day without laughing is a lost day. (Charly Chaplin)

When a human didn´t found something for what he would give his life, he doesn´t suit to live. (Martin Luther King)

[Sanjeem]

I don't really think there is a meaning or sense of life, I think that all this happened by chance and things just started to evolve. No real meaning just pure luck or however you want to put it. However that doesn't mean I don't look at other views aswell, that's just my strongest one.

[T.Rez]

Are we talking meaning and purpose of life? I always the say the meaning/purpose of life is for you to decide. Each to his own.

[Toup]

Life is for living.

[Xboxless]

A completely hopeless depressing view on life:

 

Work to live, live to work. You work hard to make food, or get money to get food so that you can stay alive. Now what do you do with that life? Keep working to stay alive. An endless cycle of nothing.

 

While I agree with T. Rez, to each his own I can't help but think that their is no purpose. I was always told that their is something out there for you, but your experiences and thoughts are what designate your life's purpose.

 

So basically, their is nothing for you until you have experienced life for awhile.

 

 

 

I'm going to go cry in a corner now.

[LittleBlueTroll]

"When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life." John Lennon.

[AlexGTAGamer]

Whenever I think about such questions as this my mind is always blown by the possibilities along with other questions such as "How did we get here" and "Are we alone in the universe". When you think of our planet it is no more than a speck of dust on the intergalactic scale that is our universe, the Solar System and everything. Sometimes it even scares me to be honest to think about questions such as these.

 

Anyway, "The meaning/sence of life is whatever you want it to be. Live free, work hard, prosper, multiply, it is your life and it is for the living so live it to the full."

[mr quick]

What I always wondered about:
Why do some scientists look for the meaning of life? They believe in the big bang, there is no meaning.

 

 

^2016 revision: lol

Edited April 27, 2016 by Marwin

[TheNathanNS]

if you ask me i'd say nearly everyone on earth meets people they like, hate, love, loath and everyone has rough times and smooth times.

i'm having a rough time with loads of people, including my Uncle due to the death of his friend, but its another phase of life.

[Typhus]

Life is an essentially hollow and meaningless thing. Given fictious importance to keep the common sheep from slitting their wrists. Humans are born into misery and misery defines our life. We love our parents, they die. We love our friends, they abandon us. We love ourselves, we grow old, sick and unrecognisable.

Life is nothing but uninterrupted pain intersped with brief moments of shallow joy. And all the 'compassion' people show to starving African kids and crippled puppies wouldn't fit inside a thimble. People care as long as it is convenient for them to do so. Most of the time they're content to ignore you and fester on just how important it is to accumulate other people and f*ck them.

It's funny really. Humans are born into a cruel world where death is the only inevitability. Yet they spend their entire pitiful existence trying to turn all that cruelty and Death into pretty pink flowers and sweet bedroom trysts.

 

That's what I get out of life. I get nothing but misery from the whole thing. Every logical answer points to our own irrelevance in the grand scheme of things.

[NeedForSpeedXP]

I get nothing but bad luck out of life.

I've been doing the lottory for 5 years, but nothing.

I always seem to get moaned at, and blamed at.

I hate life for what it does to me, but I like life because it gave me a nice family

[Darkconnor55]

we must be here for a reason?but i dont think we'll ever and i mean EVER find out and i think the answer is something so complex we wouldn't be able to handle it.

 

 

[Typhus]

we must be here for a reason?

If we're not, I don't see any reason to keep on living.

[Adler]

Life is an essentially hollow and meaningless thing. Given fictious importance to keep the common sheep from slitting their wrists. Humans are born into misery and misery defines our life. We love our parents, they die. We love our friends, they abandon us. We love ourselves, we grow old, sick and unrecognisable.

Life is nothing but uninterrupted pain intersped with brief moments of shallow joy. And all the 'compassion' people show to starving African kids and crippled puppies wouldn't fit inside a thimble. People care as long as it is convenient for them to do so. Most of the time they're content to ignore you and fester on just how important it is to accumulate other people and f*ck them.

It's funny really. Humans are born into a cruel world where death is the only inevitability. Yet they spend their entire pitiful existence trying to turn all that cruelty and Death into pretty pink flowers and sweet bedroom trysts.

 

That's what I get out of life. I get nothing but misery from the whole thing. Every logical answer points to our own irrelevance in the grand scheme of things.

Huh... been enjoying your "trip" lately?

[Typhus]

 

Life is an essentially hollow and meaningless thing. Given fictious importance to keep the common sheep from slitting their wrists. Humans are born into misery and misery defines our life. We love our parents, they die. We love our friends, they abandon us. We love ourselves, we grow old, sick and unrecognisable.

Life is nothing but uninterrupted pain intersped with brief moments of shallow joy. And all the 'compassion' people show to starving African kids and crippled puppies wouldn't fit inside a thimble. People care as long as it is convenient for them to do so. Most of the time they're content to ignore you and fester on just how important it is to accumulate other people and f*ck them.

It's funny really. Humans are born into a cruel world where death is the only inevitability. Yet they spend their entire pitiful existence trying to turn all that cruelty and Death into pretty pink flowers and sweet bedroom trysts.

 

That's what I get out of life. I get nothing but misery from the whole thing. Every logical answer points to our own irrelevance in the grand scheme of things.

Huh... been enjoying your "trip" lately?

I have absolutely no idea what on Earth you are talking about or how it relates to this topic. Are you implying that I am a pothead?

[KilnerLUFC]

Life is an essentially hollow and meaningless thing. Given fictious importance to keep the common sheep from slitting their wrists. Humans are born into misery and misery defines our life. We love our parents, they die. We love our friends, they abandon us. We love ourselves, we grow old, sick and unrecognisable.

Life is nothing but uninterrupted pain intersped with brief moments of shallow joy. And all the 'compassion' people show to starving African kids and crippled puppies wouldn't fit inside a thimble. People care as long as it is convenient for them to do so. Most of the time they're content to ignore you and fester on just how important it is to accumulate other people and f*ck them.

It's funny really. Humans are born into a cruel world where death is the only inevitability. Yet they spend their entire pitiful existence trying to turn all that cruelty and Death into pretty pink flowers and sweet bedroom trysts.

 

That's what I get out of life. I get nothing but misery from the whole thing. Every logical answer points to our own irrelevance in the grand scheme of things.

Huh... been enjoying your "trip" lately?

I have absolutely no idea what on Earth you are talking about or how it relates to this topic. Are you implying that I am a pothead?

Think he was getting at your 'leave', but might be wrong.

[trip]

Huh... been enjoying your "trip" lately?

What? Did someone call?

 

I had a difficult time reading the OP because of the centering. But is this just the age old "Why are we here" question?

 

We are advanced biological beings. Do with it what you will.

[Adler]

I have absolutely no idea what on Earth you are talking about or how it relates to this topic. Are you implying that I am a pothead?

I was quoting your sig. Your recent posts seem to indicate that you haven't changed at all.

[Typhus]

Think he was getting at your 'leave', but might be wrong.

Well, here's the truth. I'm a busy man. I have a lot of stuff on my plate right now.

Leaving this place is, hand-on-heart, on my to-do list. But a lot of things are more important. I simply do not have the time to leave the forums. Real life has to come first, y'know?

[NaidRaida]

What I always wondered about:

Why do some scientists look for the meaning of life? They believe in the big bang, there is no meaning.

Scientists who believe in Big Bang theory are making an essential mistake after my point of view.

If they say "There was nothing before the Big Bang..." this is just impossible. Our collected data makes this theory pretty possible (galaxy expanding movement f.e.) but only if something had existed before.

It´s the basic of all, the cause-and-effect principe. Nothing can can be made of just nothing. Scientistically this is just wrong to me. This is the gap for incoming religious aspects for me.

 

Due to this fact - we do not know what happened before - there´s much space for other not scientistical theories.

Maybe I´m focusing more on the question "Where does it all began?" rather than the meaning why it began. But when you come to the very first point, the why is maybe also answered.

[Pat]

Do you differ between humans and animals in this case?

The only thing that sets us apart from the animal kingdom is our possession of an imagination. Our imagination is what leads to progression, to construction, to using tools and building shelters, to forming societies lead by morale rather than the sole intent of survival. With no imagination, we would be no different from any other animal, going day to day only caring for our own survival, relying on the primal instincts that we constantly attempt to suppress today.

[Jonny_Tightlips]

 

Life is an essentially hollow and meaningless thing. Given fictious importance to keep the common sheep from slitting their wrists. Humans are born into misery and misery defines our life. We love our parents, they die. We love our friends, they abandon us. We love ourselves, we grow old, sick and unrecognisable.

Life is nothing but uninterrupted pain intersped with brief moments of shallow joy. And all the 'compassion' people show to starving African kids and crippled puppies wouldn't fit inside a thimble. People care as long as it is convenient for them to do so. Most of the time they're content to ignore you and fester on just how important it is to accumulate other people and f*ck them.

It's funny really. Humans are born into a cruel world where death is the only inevitability. Yet they spend their entire pitiful existence trying to turn all that cruelty and Death into pretty pink flowers and sweet bedroom trysts.

 

That's what I get out of life. I get nothing but misery from the whole thing. Every logical answer points to our own irrelevance in the grand scheme of things.

Yes, life is suffering. But it is completely up to the individual human being, who is a manifestation of this Universe no matter how much you think you are separate from it, to create his or her own meaning in life. Our destination is through our own actions. Suffering can be painful, or it can be a means by which we can become stronger. It's the same thing as choosing between avoiding exercise because it's too hard, or working out because you know there are benefits in the end.

 

We live in a cause-oriented Universe. Because we are forms of life fortunate enough to have the capacity to both kill and to love, it is up to the people on this planet to recognize their own inner negative functions that rule over their behavior, and become stronger than them in order to make causes that create happiness in our own lives and the lives of others. Suffering is caused by habitual causes that one makes. The cause to complain about a situation, the cause to hurt someone emotionally or physically, the cause to discourage one's self from achieving what one whats because he or she thinks she is not capable. These causes are examples to show that we create our reality, and because it is the truth of our existence that destroying is much easier than creating, it is entirely up to you to become a strong, capable individual that can help inspire others to do so as well.

 

Typhus, In terms of thinking of life as a pointless, endless cycle, i can only say that you must summon up the courage to take life as your canvas, and really try to bring forth your own powerful volition within you to do what you love to do. Never be afraid of anything, and even when the sh*t hits the fan, that is when you state loud and clear "I won't give up!"

 

By never giving up until we achieve the positive results in our lives, we can encourage everyone in our lives to do the same.

 

And remember this, if it were not for the contributions of the great achievers of the past, we wouldn't have so many things that make our lives easier today. To live with a sense of mission in order to contribute to the advancement of humankind forever onward is the greatest possible cause one can make with his or her own life. Negativity only exists in the heart of the individual, so never believe that by you making the cause to create a momentum of absolute, indestructible happiness in your life, that any effort is wasted.

 

You may die before that is fully achieved, but simple observation shows that everything in the universe has already been created. All energy and matter already exist, and go through cycles of change. The cycle of birth and death exists within the life of the universe, and like i said, since we are manifestations of this universe, we must go through those cycles as well.

 

To be truly happy though, it is up to us to create the most out of ourselves so we can encourage others to keep living, so that when we die we can appreciate what we've created and move on to our next existence, whatever it may be. Live with conviction, live with courage. Don't settle for temporary happiness, climb the mountain that is your life to be able to say at the end, "I did it!" and continue onward.

 

You decide if you're going to be happy in this life, or not.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Zak.

[Xboxless]

Do you differ between humans and animals in this case?

The only thing that sets us apart from the animal kingdom is our possession of an imagination. Our imagination is what leads to progression, to construction, to using tools and building shelters, to forming societies lead by morale rather than the sole intent of survival. With no imagination, we would be no different from any other animal, going day to day only caring for our own survival, relying on the primal instincts that we constantly attempt to suppress today.

I actually was thinking of this last night.

 

The thing that separates us from animals is our ability to think logically. The sad thing is that we admire athleticism over intelligence. War over science. Fighter planes over tevatron.

 

The thing that separates us from animals is being pushed away. Nasa is having their budget cut, Tevatron too. All just so we can carry on our wars with people who can't understand that we are all one.

 

That's what mainly pisses me off, why can't people learn to accept. Israel and the rest of the middle east at war with each other just because they are different. We are f*cking animals.

[Pat]

 

The thing that separates us from animals is our ability to think logically.

Logic is not imagination. All animals use logic in some way; keep in mind that logic is not merely complex ideas. Logic can be as simple as choosing between trying to cross a rapid river by swimming through it, or walking across a tree which has fallen across it.

 

The only thing that separates us is imagination. It's really that simple, yet imagination is so powerful, that in reality it has become a very complex difference. Imagination is responsible for religion, and it's the primary reason we all seem to believe that there is a meaning of life, when in reality... there isn't. If humanity met its end today, the world would keep on spinning. That's not to say life is pointless; life is what you make of it. There is no, however, ultimate goal aside from what we ourselves wish to achieve.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Pat

[Xboxless]

I dunno, are they using logic, or is it just their instincts and information passed down from their ancestors?

 

I was mainly trying to get at our scientific ability, I probably could have used a better term. My point still stands, we are pushing away what makes us better than animals.

[Pat]

 

I was mainly trying to get at our scientific ability

And is that not part of our imagination? The majority of sciences are used for research, but what is the research used for? Rocket science put us on the moon, chemistry tells us what substance A will do if we mix it with substance B, and what the resulting substance - substance C - can do that can benefit us, or harm us (or others). Looking at it this way, can we really dismiss the idea that science is a tool of sorts?

 

Keep in mind that I'm not attempting to disprove your point - in fact, I agree with it - I just believe you're looking at it the wrong way. Physical strength is celebrated in the animal kingdom as well as humanity; it's how a pack leader is chosen, sometimes it's how mates are chosen, and in all cases, it is how survival is chosen. The phrase "survival of the fittest" is quite true and will always be true. As you say, we humans seem to prefer attributes that display physical strength to attributes that hone in on things like the study of science, ie our imagination, ie the one and only thing that sets us apart from the animal kingdom. Why? Because we still have the same primitive instincts as any other animal, and we always will, no matter how advanced society becomes. Suppression of these instincts is possible, but complete removal? Impossible.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Pat

[Xboxless]

Looking at it the wrong way? As in I am calling it logic you are calling it imagination.

 

If this is going to continue we might as well take it to pm. I am always open for discussion.

 

Though I might as well admit, I am bouncing in between MineCraft and this so I may not be thinking clearly.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Xboxless

[Pat]

I simply feel logic cannot be used as a synonym for imagination. It's much too broad of a term, and I personally feel imagination is a type of logic. I will not argue any further, however; we are obviously of the same mindset, at this point the debate is merely terminology.

[Xboxless]

Argh, screw it. I wasn't thinking clearly at this moment, too much bouncing around from thing to thing. My thoughts aren't straight right now.

 

I was going to say something but right now I just can't.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2011 by Xboxless

[NaidRaida]

Interesting is if the specific animal has an awareness of the self. Most animals don´t have this ability.

They can think, but not about their own and their role in the world. In a mirror they cannot recognize themselves.

It´s finally still an unsolved mystery why our brain started to mutate so much from the apes brain. Just for surviving the capability of the human brain is pretty exaggerated and beyond every logic.