I would agree that life for us is largely pointless much like the life of a dog or a horse for example. These animals are born and carry out physical functions for the good of themselves and their species. There is no objective goal to their life but rather just a steady progression of small points or objectives in order to sustain the cycles of life.
We are much the same way. We can of course have certain subjective goals that supply meaning for us such as a calling to be an artist. But, as you say, they are inspired from outside. I doubt this to be an objective goal or originating with oneself, but rather a conditioned response to life’s influences in accordance with ones talents. But basically even thoough we have these lofty opinions of ourselves, we are just going with the flow much like a dog or horse.
If we do have a potential that can provide an objective meaning to life rather than just a going with the cyclical flow as does all organic life on earth, for me it must be evolutionary and beyond the limitations of the life cycles of the earth.
If you had never known or loved your perents,
you would feal meaningless and empty and weak and incomplete.
From your day of birth antil now, life comes from life.
You will choose your “meaning” in life, using the free will that was givin you.
Life has no true meaning if you do not learn of and love the one who created it, but no religion is a salvation because each religion is made up of mere men.
My faith, though i thought it was dead, was growing and molting, shedding its skins and shells, sometimes it made me feel free, sometimes it made me feel doomed.
My freinds, if there is a God, then sertainly it would be worth while to try to know him, because if he created us then he must know what we need!
Dont turn to humans if you want God, pray to the one who created all things.
I hope for your future, thank you for reading.
And read the Word of God for yourself, ask Him to teach you, After all didn’t He promise “Seek and you shall find”? See if it is true for yourself.
I don’t believe He will mislead us. We just have to prove it.
Life is inherently pointless, and religion doesn’t alter that a whit. But just because there’s no inherent meaning to life doesn’t mean it must have none. I think a purpose you assign to your own life has as much validity as one assigned to you with equal whimsy by religion.
Nothing is meaningless. Life has all we can offer, plus that which we cannot. We create the lives we live, truly like gods. This life is so more important than those who did not wish to understand, for those who do are on the path to understanding. Seek and you shall find no more than what you were supposed to. All that is, is a result of what is supposed to be. Can this be so meaningless as we relate to life from a subjective stance. Just from this we see it cant be understood individually, that it is meaningless as a whole. This is all the more reason to accept its meaning. For its meaning lies in its truth, which lies in us, to experience it for ourselves in our own little ways.
interesting question actually, I mean do we “understand” life with or without meaning. If we can say of it that we understand it then it has meaning. If not I suppose we can say it doesn’t. I understand what is good in life that is enough for me, religion doesn’t provide meaning for anything, afterall it’s actually nonsensical
Life consists of a sertain amount of activities.
We take in energy, we reproduce, we grow mentaly,
it is so simple.
If you are surrounded by true freinds who love you, how can you feal lost and alone and meaningless?
For me, the meaning of life is a wholistic growth process of all life factors, then my faith in a resurection and God’s eventaul rulership of earth helps me not fear death and loose hope in doing whats right even if i feal like im fighting a loosing battle.
This inherently concludes that if one can find a point to life, then there already exists a point to life.
Stresses are often relative to the perspective of the individual and can include age, social standing and other factors. Getting food might not seem like a stress (of any kind) to you, but it might very well be for an infant.
What do you mean by “assigned� Please disambiguate this for me.
To attack the question of the topic, its title to be more specific, it is impossible to judge whether life would be meaningless without religion or not because as we are – in this current social paradigm, we have no referent to the contrary. We have not lived in a time when religion did not exist.
Furthermore, anyone can speculate and appear assured of their stance with regard to the meaning or meaninglessness of life. However, it is ultimately a futile and illogical endeavor until we have more information.
I wasn’t not raised in a religious household, but was always interested in the subject. However, I’m interested in the same way that we might be interested in the religion of some tribe in the Amazon. I’m fascinated by what the primatives believe.
That might be insulting, but it’s what I think and feel. Anyway, I have spent most of my life helping people and have a very humanistic attitude. This is because I am not in a fantasy world about life.
You are absolutely right, life is completely pointless. But this is where people go wrong… becuase most people think this is a bad thing. But who’s to say life being pointless is bad? I think, that life being pointless, is one of the most important aspects that makes it function properly. Imagine life with a single goal or purpose, ironically, what what would make life completely pointless, because it’s just a process to reach an end. Life is not trying to reach an end, it’s a circle, an expression. Beautiful and ugly, there isn’t any other way.
Because of life’s meaninglessness, we are able to ascribe meaning to it. If life was meaningful, there would be no way to derive meaning from it because it would be inherent already, tied to that meaning, or in other words, restricted. For some reason people think it’s a terrible thing that life is meaningless, but I think they fail to realize how this meaninglessness really is. It’s just like people who busy themselves avoiding misfortune, they are so confused, so interested in always doing good, they never enjoy it, because they don’t realize the good depends on the bad. You couldn’t experience anything without a difference, therefore, both of these things are good, because they support each other. Meaninglessness is just as important as meaning. How could you know what was meaningful except against the background of something meaningless? This is the birth of appreciation. It’s all really a part of man’s confusion, and basic ignorance of a mountain having two sides, but the mountain being one at the same time. Non-duality.
If life is an expression, does that mean there is a form to life, like to art? But the formal cause is the final cause in natural things. So then you’re saying the meaning of life is it’s own perfection. What then is the perfection of life to you, and you’ve found your meaning.
You wouldn’t be here online if you thought life was pointless – you’d have no motive to post.
I thought evil was an ontological parasite.
Humor me. Can you give an example where the good depends upon the bad?
Life is a paradox. Because we live through our ego, our own little worlds, we have the ability to ascribe whatever meaning we wish to our lives. When one begins to know and understand this as truth, they will understand that life in itself does have inherent meaning and purpose. Is it not possible that this restricted inherent meaning calls for the ability to fool yourself into thinking that there can or cannot be meaning? Doesnt that make it all the more beautiful? To have to come to a point to understand that what I was thinking was wrong. We change daily, and our beliefs and opinions change along with our experiences. Our meaning and purposeful lives are being fulfilled whether or not you are conscious of it.
Okay, I think I’ve got something. If life’s meaning is how i described – that the experience itself is the meaning – it would be true that you would have an illusive, yet possibly variously posited meanings to life. The way for meaning to be stable is if the meaning of it belonged to something outside it, greater than it: such as a benign Creator would be.
I think this explains both torrentfield’s observations and answers the thread’s opening question.
