the meaning of life

[kedaman]

ive just concluded that it's meaningless :(

The meaning of life is to try and find that meaning. :p

[Jamagei]

but is it really?

i mean what if there was some preordained reason for us being out here. probably not. I suspect we have to make our own meanings. (hence religions and stuff) it's nice to think that when i die i might leave something behind that's says to people about me. that is my meaning. i made it up myself.

[kedaman]

no it can't be, because null*1=null :(

[kedaman]

what about reality, the one i think i live in sucks, i hate completely everything now!

[chrismitchell]

The meaning of life is Procreation.... Because all life is designed to Procreate! Thats my thoery.

Otherwise It's Beer!

[Active]

Kedaman you are wrong ...may be for the first time..

I just looked up..Chambers,oxford dictionaries and they
have this word with meaning.

Len$( MeaningOf("life") ) > 0

The last snippet is from MSDN.

[kedaman]

?meaningoflife is nothing

returns true to me :(

hey don't look up stuff in dictionary because that makes me even more depreseed

[Jamagei]

i like Chris' Meaning of life. much better than 'be good and go to heaven'

[Jamagei]

so, what's got you so down, kedaman?

[kedaman]

i've decided to take my left next to my 21'th birthday if nothing continues to happen

Whats up kedaman mate?

[kedaman]

i have no idea, it just started this morning

and it feels like emptyness is what

[Jamagei]

i don't see how you can be so down when you have such a wicked avatar. if i had her, i'd be sooo happy :D

you sure you weren't just hungary?

emptiness just happens.

time to fill it up. :D

[chrismitchell]

Bollocks to "be good and go to heaven" Sorry to any religeous people. I just don't get it...... I would much prefer to have fun with the life that you were given by your mother (or whatever). Because all life is, is a series of moments.... and if you can't enjoy the moments you have then whats the ****ing point!

[kedaman]

there :(, now i got a new empty avatary :(

and a new empty signature :(

and a new empty life is awating me :(

Originally posted by kedaman
there :(, now i got a new empty avatary :(

and a new empty signature :(

and a new empty life is awating me :(

Well just start again then.......

[kedaman]

I've been waiting for that all day now simon.

and it feels like this day what's i've been waiting for past half year

[chrismitchell]

Yeah I think that everyone should chill out, grab a cold beer and meet me in the pool house of life!

[Active]

I guessed it...Did the lady on your desktop elope with
Mathew Gates ???

[Jamagei]

i'm up for that.

kedaman, i feel empty most days, but frankly i know that when i get out i have a good time and you don't notice it. you need to get up, do stuff. go out, have some beers or something.

[kedaman]

nah, it's nothing like that

Normally, you'll post some advice to me here in the forums and it'll blow me away. I probably won't understand most of it, but i'll spend some time thinking about it, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I'll have learned something.

Now it's your turn.

This is the point of growing up. When you realise that you may never get married and live happily ever after in a big house with 2 kids and a dog. Only films ever end with beautiful sunsets. Your childhood will always seem happier than it actually was. It's a flaw with the human makeup - we are programmed to never be truly happy, to always want something more. In your case you want there to be a meaning to your existence.

The next step is to stop looking for the meaning and wait for it to come to you. Buddhist teaching (particularly Zen) explains this - its the only way to ever be content. Stop searching, striving and struggling. For once, go easy on yourself.

I believe the meaning of life is to attain true contentment, whatever that may be. The religious amongst us may see contentment as their own specific afterlife - whatever. It doesn't matter what it is, it will come if you let it.

In the meantime, keep the empty avatar and empty sig for a while. Take some time to yourself. When you feel better, bring her back and let her dance for us.

[kedaman]

nah, i've been trying to do something for past half year and it has had the opposite effect.
btw i don't drink beer

[Jamagei]

do what exactly?

btw neither do i. i hate the stuff :)

[kedaman]

argh, youre not getting it! i'm really really really really sure there's no ****** point in life. Yeah i wish a lot of stuff, like having a girlfriend i never had, finish my game i've been working on for ages and get rich some day, but that's when everything get's meaningless, why on earth would i get those things just to see them disappear

[kedaman]

and religion is pointless, at least for me

You feel empty because you're deliberately trying to fill something as intangible as purpose.

Think for a moment about all the concepts you understand and I probably never will. Unstructured concepts that you can grasp, but will remain alien to me until the day I die.

Now swap places with me if you will. Slowly let go of your grip on this idea of life and purpose. I'm not saying you will find what you're looking for, but you definitely won't while you're in a negative mood.

Of course it would appear that there's no point in life. The difference is how you approach that issue.

Some people never notice that they are empty. Such people are shallow.

Some people choose religion. Their void is instantly filled.

Some people bury themselves in their life. They either become super- intelligent, famous etc or addicts.

Some people spend their life thinking. They find things to fill their void regardless of the overall idea.

you don't need to attach a "why?" to everything...

[kedaman]

no i'm not, i'm just so tired of being real, i know this is either what i'm trying to do for past half year:
trying to get something done
trying to hide from reality
and everytime i succeed in either, i have this undescribable good feeling, but it's getting less and less intensive each time, i just picked this way of describing i because i'm generalizing my whole life. Now this is probably natural also, but for me it has been accelerating enormously past half year and i find everything i do and whatever i try is pointless.

I'm not asking any qwestions, i'm trying to get away from something, and it's catching me up and eats me.

and i think it's nothing

[chrisjk]

"God, what is the meaning of life?"
"You know I can't tell you that Homer"
"Please..."
"You'll find out when you die"
"I can't wait that long!"
"You can't wait 6 months?!?! Okay, the meaning of life is.............."

[chrismitchell]

Not wanting to be the Atheist of the room, but in my opinion you make what you want of life. If you want to stay in your room, you stay in your room. But if you want to see what there is outside and experience the strange possibilities of life, the universe and everything. Then there isn't anything that man can't do with or without the help of a god (or whatever you believe in).

I think that emptiness is always going to be part of the human condition. Love helps, but the nihilists amongst us will always remember that only oblivion awaits.

Or does it?

Nobody can prove or disprove that our earthly actions are pointless. The nothingness / emptiness / blackness that embraces you is no different to the same ethereal hollowness that is inside any or all of the great thinkers. The trick is to not let it be negative. Emptiness is just that - neither positive nor negative. You can simply take the approach of making your life happy, going out, playing pool drinking and filling your hollowness with "positive" experience. or you can mope around miserably and fill it with "negative" experience.

There is another option that nobody seems to notice.

Use the emptiness as a blank canvas. Instead of trying to fill up whatever hole you consider to be in your life, simply relax. Wait for the depression to pass (it always does. I'm in a depressed mood at the moment - I have been for a while now, but I know it will go away if I let it), don't try to hold on to it. Eventually everything will be clear to you.

The meaning of life will not be made available to you until you are ready for it...

[Jamagei]

Chinese Proverb

when the student is ready, the teacher arrives

[chrismitchell]

The Meaning of Life is available at all good record shops! :D

[alex_read]

Chocolate Chip Cookies apparently !

or 41.

42!

some people...pah!

[alex_read]

Never actually read the book, just from my (not so good) memory I came up with that one.

1000 appologies sire, can you forgive me ?

[barrk]

You will not be forgiven until you read the book! That's an inexcusable offense!

ooohh...

go on then ;)

[parksie]

Lynch him!!!!!!!!!!

[Pix]

The meaning of life - always a good question to ask people when they're p***ed :)

Yea.... Just like "how long can you handstand for?" :D (if anyone remembers)

[alex_read]

Lynch him - little extreme wouldn't you say ?

[simonm]

Why are you depressed to realise there is no pre-ordained meaning to life? Now, instead of fulfilling a purpose that has been decided for you, you can decide your own purpose and work towards fulfilling it.

Nobody can tell you (although many will try) what your purpose should be, that is up to you.

You may not be able to shake off the feeling that everthing you do is pointless but I say: Everything is as meaningful or as pointless as you want them to be.

In previous threads of yours, I got the impression that you were of a religous nature. Have you lost your faith? If so, do you want to get it back? This is not the place to rediscover your faith so I would look elsewhere if that is the case.

I believe that reality (or our perception of it) is a self imposed prison. Only by realising that can you focus on the obstacle and move round it and be free.

very zen...beautiful...

[HaxSoft]

Kedaman, from youu post on 03-26-2001 04:09 PM, you seem to indicate that there is no reason to eat, because you'll only go hungry at some point. There is no reason to get a girlfriend only to lose her at some point.

I would say you worry too much about things that might go wrong so you don't want them to go right in the first place.

Don't take everything so seriously. The concept "Meaning of Life" does not really make any sense. We don't have a life ... to us humans, there is only now.

Not even the past exists ... it is just what we think we remember right now.

Use now for something useful. And everything matters, but we have no way of seeing how it does. We humans are too limited for that.

Being a musician, I have often written really ****ty songs that sucked. But I did it anyway, put them in a drawer for 6 years. Only last week I found a song written in 1989 -- we play it in the band now, so there was a meaning in the end. Of course it had to be worked on a bit, but it shows that everything is useful ... the trick is to find out what for and when.

Don't be so afraid of losing something that you won't ever get it in the first place. You live now, and there are no guarantees. Enjoy what you have now, and don't think about tomorrow. If things go wrong, deal with it when it happens.

[alex_read]

Well judging from your post, "live for the moment, there is no past" it would be acceptable to rob a bank on the spur of the moment as you are grasping the oppurtunity and making the most of life, and no-one will remember anything ?

[simonm]

There is no past in the strictest sense only because you cannot know, with absolute certainty, that you have a past. Your memories may have been implanted.

[HaxSoft]

In our human minds (we are time-bound) ... there is no past, but I think the cops will think they remember you did something wrong.

And the problem is not that you robbed a bank in the past ... the problem is that you did something that they don't accept in a now.

Besides, I am not so sure, people can own things. They can take them and refuse to give them to others, but does that mean they own them?

[alex_read]

depends if you use the "finders keepers" rule ...

[chrismitchell]

Everybody loses something, its just a case of remembering about it when you need it the most.... Like love, money and sanity!

[HaxSoft]

I happen to like these "agreements of ownership" that we people use. It is practical. But I don't think we truly OWN the things, although we agree that you own your computer and I won't take it ... it's practical -- not necessarily the only right way.

The governments around the world have no problem taking your house if they need to build a road there. They give you another, though ... does the government own your house or do you?

I think what you're trying to say is -

The only thing that truly exists is now. The past is passed. It does not exist now. Only memories, both mental and physical, but these memories are now. The pyramids in ancient egypt exist today. They do not exist yesterday, because yesterday does not exist (not the same as yesterday did not exist).

The "memories" attached to a past can affect us today, but the past itself can no more affect the present than the future can. (I think). Only the memories of the past and the hopes of the future. And these are very simple human concepts.

[alex_read]

don't even get me started with the government ... :mad:

[simonm]

The past no lnoger exists.

The future does not yet exist

The present is an infinitely small amount of time.

Therefore, do we exist attall? :rolleyes:

[HaxSoft]

Behemoth, you have understood me quite correctly.

I can't know if this is how it REALLY is -- I am only human.

It may be that all points in time exist simultaneously, but we have no way of telling if so.

[simonm]

Saying all points in time exist simultaneously is like saying all points in space exist in one place!

i.e. It is a contradiction.

[chrismitchell]

Originally posted by alex_read
don't even get me started with the government ... :mad:

I think that everyone should vote for the Monster Raving Loonie Party! :D

[HaxSoft]

Originally posted by simonm
The past no lnoger exists.

The future does not yet exist

The present is an infinitely small amount of time.

Therefore, do we exist attall? :rolleyes:

YES -- but time does not.

[paulw]

Nothing wrong with contradiction - your going all Quantum again.

keddie - whats up? You have lots to offer and we'll give you some back.

Does existence have to have a point? I think it does have a point but that's me - yo certainly don't have to find the answers to all the big questions to make it wrth living - what's for breakfast? is usually a good start - we can work up to Does God exist? by lunchtime.

Take it easy.

Cheers,

P.

the present is an infinitely small amount of time, but it travels along with us, so it is always ther and we always exist in the present.

Time (regardless of its existence) is nice like that

:D

Love & Peace.

[simonm]

There may be nothing wrong with two (or more) statements that contradict each other; that would be a paradox if they were both true.

But, a statement that contradicts itself does not have a truth value. i.e. you cannot say it is true or false. That has nothing to do with quantum mechanics (as far as I know).

Does not this statement contradict itself?

...all points in time exist simultaneously

[paulw]

Yes it does because the inability to pin down a state (i.e. True or False) is the essence of Quantum physics - it is not the same thing but philosophically they are close.

haven't we had this discussion before;)

Cheers,

P.