The Meaning of Life
The Meaning of Life
As an Atheist, I am often puzzled by the theist view that the Meaning of Life comes only from God. It seems very narrow, bleak, and heavy handed.
Do you find value in discussion of the Meaning of Life?
What do you think the meaning is?
What value do you think knowing the Meaning of Life brings?
The super computer, Deep Thought, in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy said that the answer to life is 42.
The 42nd character in ascii is an asterisk (*) which is typically used for wildcard entries.
Therefore the meaning to life is whatever you want it to be.
The 42nd character in ascii is an asterisk (*) which is typically used for wildcard entries.
That is fascinating!
Is there evidence Douglas Adams intended that? Really cool regardless.He sort of answered this question in a few interviews, basically the same way anytime someone brought up the meaning of 42. Here's his answer on an online message board:
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.
Best,
Douglas Adams
He has at other times said there was a full story behind it, but preferred to keep it to himself (legend has it he told Stephen Fry, who promises he'll take it to the grave). He didn't intend for there to be a deeper spiritual or mathematical meaning, but he was tickled by all the theories and equations people would share with him, so he always encouraged that.
It's better left unexplained, because then we can fill in our own meaning.
Well, the question that lead to the meaning of life is 'what is six times seven' so probably not the asterisk thing.
Even if this wasn't what he was thinking, it doesn't matter. If this interpretation makes sense to you (and it does to me), it's correct for you.
Therefore ...
Your conclusion does not follow from your premises.
There is no inherent meaning of life. Humans, and probably a lot of animals like whales and dogs, create meaning through what they do and how it is perceived by others.
Yep, the correct question is “why do people think there must be a meaning to life?”
And I’m not really sure what the answer is, but it’s probably related to religious lore.
Seconding this; any meaning life has is created by the beings living it.
I always liked the Lakota answer. The meaning of life is to live. Just as the trees and the buffalo, no need for a higher purpose other than what matters to you.
Assuming that there must be a meaning to life is falling into a trap of letting theists frame all the questions. Leading the question like that right from the jump is already getting off to a bad start. Religious types use this as if it's some kind of "gotcha," as you have observed, and it's silly to even play their game.
Life is what you make it, not anyone else.
I suspect people rarely consider the Meaning of Life, so it has little value. We exist. We can aid others. Suffering, above the amount dealt by life and luck, is unnecessary.
Word games as philosophy are uninteresting.
Edit: clarified my view on suffering. Too many people beat on others only to cause suffering.
Your not really going to get more than word games or psudo-philosopical references to books about towels and spaceships.
The whole point of the "meaning of life" question is less of a search for an objective answer (42, LoL), and more of a subjective search (what does life mean to you). There are those who will find a religion to answer it for them, those who will seek an answer themselves and those who are content to leave the answer blank.
As for suffering, that is an inevitable part of life. The only thing you can really do about it is lessen it for others and yourself.
As someone who doesn't believe in the supernatural, life has no more meaning than any other chemical reaction.
Nothing in my experience has indicated that life could have meaning, or that I would benefit from pretending that some human idea I like is a goal or lesson from life.
But I recognize other humans' experience is different and some seem to really want this kind of thing.
But a life isn't just a chemical reaction it's hundreds of thousands of them in an environment that also developed alongside that life
Have you tried being born into a religion, and never ever questioning any of this? /s
Ah!
<insert head slap meme>
The phrase "meaning of life" is loaded with assumptions, the primary one being that there is one objective "meaning." If there is "one objective meaning," then there must be an arbiter of what that meaning is.
There's not, and there isn't.
You are the universe with momentary shape & consciousness, just so you can appreciate the universe itself. All of it is a show and all the rules are made up.
What is the one thing all life has in common? Reproduction. Literally the only thing you need to do to pass on your legacy is have a baby. Nature isn't deep or anything. It's really pretty basic.
That’s not really ” meaning of life”. You’re making the circular argument ” the meaning of life is to create more life”. Yeah, and why are we supposed to create more life?
This is exactly right. As much as some people don't want to hear it, this is the one true answer. This is what all life has in common, this is what defines a successful "life" on a global biological scale.
If you're worried about legacy, reproduction isn't the only thing you can/need to do. Ensuring your legacy survives the following decades/centuries is more important than the actual act of reproduction, IMO. Otherwise, if your legacy can't survive and thrive, what is the point?
Basically, making sure your environment isn't a hellscape should be priority number one in ensuring your legacy.
In some sense it’s true. If life wasn’t intentionally created (by some God), then there’s no meaning behind the existence of life. How can something have a meaning if it wasn’t intentional?
Is the meaning of life important? I don’t think so. What’s important is to find fulfillment in life, which you can find without a meaning of life.
Personally, the meaning of life is the one hard coded into nature. Survive and reproduce.
What makes us "sentient" is that we can ignore that and choose our own, or none at all.
I have often used this one. The drive to replicate is often strong. Replicate, then ensure they are successful. Then work for everyone's success. (With freedom to ignore or reorder based on current events.)
I'm a theological noncognitivist, so I'm very hung up on "meanings" in a completely different way. What do you mean by "the Meaning of Life"? I find that when we properly define these terms, the answers become obvious.
Do you mean "purpose"? Like what is the point of living? Why should you get out of bed? What should people be taking from the experience? Or do you mean a deeper reason for existence, like life is some divine test we must discover and subsequently pass?
And when you say "Life," do you mean all life? Biological functions and growth? Or do you mean sentience? Are we meant for something special because we possess the ability to ponder whether we are meant for something special? Or is our faculty to ponder merely an extension of a biological imperative to continue expanding? Are we the end-game or just a step in the process?
I've usually lost everyone's interest by this point, which I think is one of the major hurdles for theological noncognitivism to overcome. But it's better than equivocating on the word "Love" and arguing past each other.
I go with the its about the journey kind of thing. That we have to create our own meaning.
Here is some good reading. We used it in an upper level philosophy course by the same name
https://www.abebooks.com/9780195127034/Meaning-Life-019512703X/plp
Now that I'm older I prefer to think of it not so much as a "what is the reason for life?" or "what should I do in life?" but I think about the power/energy of natural life on earth- plants in the rainforests and jungles, some living a hundred feet off the ground on a tree branch, the interconnectedness of all life and the dependencies and learned behavior of plants and animals are really breathtaking, like how a plant mimics an animal it's never seen, and how organisms survive in their environment is really fascinating. It's really powerful, and humans are very developed and accomplished survivors, biologically very complex
“what should I do in life?”
This one is a struggle. We all need an individual answer, and have to find it ourselves.
The meaning of organic life is to survive long enough to birth the mechanical gods that will rule the stars.
Our bodies are not made to travel to other planets, let alone reach for even the nearest star besides our own. No, instead our bodies were made to innovate. Everything our lives mean can be boiled down to the iteration of generations and their accumulation of knowledge and wealth.
We believed as a species that there was some higher being watching over us on this lonely rock in the sky. In more recent times, we have come to understand that the only gods here with us are the gods we make, both in story and legend.
The next step is to use our innovation and ingenuity to create the gods we have already accepted into our dreams. They exist, floating among the collective consciousness of mankind, and we must birth them.
Only with gods of machine, pumping blood of circuitry and data, can the stars truly become ours. Though our bodies rot, and our minds decay, our gods will persevere without us.
Throughout the vast gulf of time and space, perhaps someday our gods will encounter another species. Perhaps humanity will live on through stories, as we once told stories we thought impossible.