Meaning of Life: Devil's Advocate - General

[QUOTE=Otsegolation;28922987][b]The biggest lie in the history of mankind is that this life that you can see is all that exists.[/b] The meaning of human life is to transcend into higher dimensions. This purpose however has been torn from us a long time ago, and today it is still repressed. People are kept unaware by filling up their lifetime with incredibly pointless and time consuming activities. You spend so much of your youth being "educated", and you lose what's left of it entering a career. Entering your older stages of life, you can finally pursue your life desires with what wealth you acquired. Here you can fulfil it and feel satisfied, or realize how shallow your goal and ultimate reward was. If you're not accomplished, you are by now too old to create much of a future for yourself. Then, you die. Some of these people have children, and thus the cycle continues. And that is all of the world that you are made to see. You live life once, try to enjoy it, and then you die shortly after. That couldn't be more untrue.[/QUOTE] This sounds very interesting as I too am disillusioned and searching for a purpose, I would like to purchase your CD and book and attend many of your seminars.

[QUOTE=Otsegolation;28922987][b]The biggest lie in the history of mankind is that this life that you can see is all that exists.[/b] The meaning of human life is to transcend into higher dimensions. This purpose however has been torn from us a long time ago, and today it is still repressed. People are kept unaware by filling up their lifetime with incredibly pointless and time consuming activities. You spend so much of your youth being "educated", and you lose what's left of it entering a career. Entering your older stages of life, you can finally pursue your life desires with what wealth you acquired. Here you can fulfil it and feel satisfied, or realize how shallow your goal and ultimate reward was. If you're not accomplished, you are by now too old to create much of a future for yourself. Then, you die. Some of these people have children, and thus the cycle continues. And that is all of the world that you are made to see. You live life once, try to enjoy it, and then you die shortly after. That couldn't be more untrue.[/QUOTE] I'm already in the 11th dimension. Top that!

[QUOTE=Otsegolation;28922987][b]The biggest lie in the history of mankind is that this life that you can see is all that exists.[/b] The meaning of human life is to transcend into higher dimensions. This purpose however has been torn from us a long time ago, and today it is still repressed. People are kept unaware by filling up their lifetime with incredibly pointless and time consuming activities. You spend so much of your youth being "educated", and you lose what's left of it entering a career. Entering your older stages of life, you can finally pursue your life desires with what wealth you acquired. Here you can fulfil it and feel satisfied, or realize how shallow your goal and ultimate reward was. If you're not accomplished, you are by now too old to create much of a future for yourself. Then, you die. Some of these people have children, and thus the cycle continues. And that is all of the world that you are made to see. You live life once, try to enjoy it, and then you die shortly after. That couldn't be more untrue.[/QUOTE] Does this have anything to do with the coming apocalypse, or is that a separate event?

Why does everything have to have meaning. It is stupid to assume there is meaning to your life. Nothing about you is important. You are part of a much larger system and nothing you do will fulfill or not fulfill some greater meaning or goal.

[QUOTE=Mr. Scorpio;28923111]Does this have anything to do with the coming apocalypse, or is that a separate event?[/QUOTE] If it's going to be an apocalypse, you can count on the misuse of technology to be the cause of it.

If any of you guys Stumble a lot, you might have found this story: [url]http://galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html[/url] It's a really cool story. Pretty short. Pretty buddhist. It gave me a different perspective of empathy. I liked it a lot. [editline]31st March 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Otsegolation;28922987][b]The biggest lie in the history of mankind is that this life that you can see is all that exists.[/b] The meaning of human life is to transcend into higher dimensions. This purpose however has been torn from us a long time ago, and today it is still repressed. People are kept unaware by filling up their lifetime with incredibly pointless and time consuming activities. You spend so much of your youth being "educated", and you lose what's left of it entering a career. Entering your older stages of life, you can finally pursue your life desires with what wealth you acquired. Here you can fulfil it and feel satisfied, or realize how shallow your goal and ultimate reward was. If you're not accomplished, you are by now too old to create much of a future for yourself. Then, you die. Some of these people have children, and thus the cycle continues. And that is all of the world that you are made to see. You live life once, try to enjoy it, and then you die shortly after. That couldn't be more untrue.[/QUOTE] I agree with your ideas. Kind of. There's no point in limiting the potential of people. With doing so, we won't get anywhere. Might as well try.

nothing, you only do the fuck you want to do until you rot and die.

[QUOTE=fox '09;28923274]nothing, you only do the fuck you want to do until you rot and die.[/QUOTE] If you think that way, you might turn out like Sid Vicious! That'd be cool.

I believe that "what is the meaning to life" is a nonsensical question because it is asking for an inquiry about the noun "life" which does not have that characteristic of "meaning". That does not mean or imply that there is no meaning to life, it simply means that it is not a valid question. To give an example of an invalid question: "who was water?". That obviously doesn't make sense. To make my point more clear: "what is the meaning to water?". We can surely describe its uses, why it is needed, what it is, use metaphors, but that does address the fact that the question doesn't make any sense. This is less obvious with the question "what is the meaning to life" because it is understood that the question is asking for your own personal meaning and also the question is asked so much that we assume it makes sense. It doesn't make any sense to ask about the meaning of any noun. I'm not going to argue that people cannot make up their own purpose for living, but really I don't believe that it makes sense to say that your life has a purpose or it is significant because all of that is relative to how you value yourself.

[QUOTE=neap tide;28923247]There's no point in limiting the potential of people. With doing so, we won't get anywhere. Might as well try.[/QUOTE] We as a species can get very far, but getting the whole species that far is a different matter. Limiting people from their potential is to keep the current power structure. It's also to direct the energy that those people create. The government will let you utilize your skills if it's in their favor, and will do anything to stop you if you're a threat. Mankind is "getting pretty far", but mankind also has too big a population for what technology and resources it has, and so has to make necessary cuts. If you're reading this, that means you belong to the biggest group of people in the world, which is the driving force of their system, the people forced into work and to give up their life. People like that contribute to this system, but you can also recreate this system on smaller scales. That means you can replace most people on the Earth with persons who are better than what the original worker was. And that mankind can make it's way off this planet, and forget about whoever's left behind.

I came to be who I am through my development and the inspiration of those who have impacted me and imparted on me wisdom and knowledge. As I age and grow I hope to impact and shape those around me in the same way that some very special people have been influential to me. It will be my way of achieving immortality. Sure, I won't last [i]forever[/i]. But my memory will live on for at least a few generations to come as relatives recall what a swell dude I was, eventually confusing the stories and watering down the descriptions with time until I am at last completely forgotten.

The meaning of life is to give meaning to life. Life arbitrarily serves itself. Although not needed, life is a better as a opposed to a cold conciousless existance.

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[QUOTE=Pepin;28923617]I believe that "what is the meaning to life" is a nonsensical question because it is asking for an inquiry about the noun "life" which does not have that characteristic of "meaning". That does not mean or imply that there is no meaning to life, it simply means that it is not a valid question. To give an example of an invalid question: "who was water?". That obviously doesn't make sense. To make my point more clear: "what is the meaning to water?". We can surely describe its uses, why it is needed, what it is, use metaphors, but that does address the fact that the question doesn't make any sense. This is less obvious with the question "what is the meaning to life" because it is understood that the question is asking for your own personal meaning and also the question is asked so much that we assume it makes sense. It doesn't make any sense to ask about the meaning of any noun. I'm not going to argue that people cannot make up their own purpose for living, but really I don't believe that it makes sense to say that your life has a purpose or it is significant because all of that is relative to how you value yourself.[/QUOTE] So you're saying there's no meaning to life and trying to make it sound like a smarter statement than it is okay

After much contemplation I have come to the following conclusion: Life is what you make of it. If you're determined to prove that life is meaningless, then you'll succeed in your efforts, but don't expect your accomplishment to enlighten anybody.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;28924039]After much contemplation I have come to the following conclusion: Life is what you make of it. If you're determined to prove that life is meaningless, then you'll succeed in your efforts, but don't expect your accomplishment to enlighten anybody.[/QUOTE] What if we created life forms similar to us and put them somewhere to live their life without ever knowing that we created them, or even why for that matter. We created them with a purpose, but we intentionally didn't tell them. They will come to the same conclusion of "life is what you make of it". Is that their true purpose, or do they just not know what it is?

Facepunch users have posted similar threads to this before and I've come to the conclusion that Facepunch has too many "meaning of life" threads.

Because though the individual may wither and die, the species will endure. The entire human race is essentially a single being itself, and moving it forward is what's important. At least that's how I see it.

I think the question "do you have a motive to not commit suicide?" is more provoking than the question "do you have a motive to live?". Maybe that's just me though, because the reason I want to keep living is because I don't want to be dead. I don't want to be dead because I prefer existing and hate the thought of not existing. [QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;28923963]So you're saying there's no meaning to life and trying to make it sound like a smarter statement than it is okay[/QUOTE] Not at all. I'm saying that asking "what is the meaning to life" is not a valid question and gave my reasons as to why it isn't. I'm not at all saying that there is no meaning to life or the opposite. To make what I was saying a bit clearer, if someone said "what is the meaning to water" you wouldn't say "water has no meaning" and you wouldn't try to explain out the meaning of water. You would say that the question doesn't make sense. I am making the claim that asking "what is the meaning to life" is the same circumstance. A question is being asked that doesn't make sense. The only part that I can imagine being seen as more than it seems is the first sentence, and I find that to be more bad wording more than anything. I couldn't think of a way to better way to say it and likely came out more complex than it should be. The rest of it seems to be pretty straightforward though, except for the last sentence maybe. I thought I has being pretty clear with what I was saying, but I guess not. If you disagree with my explanation or still think I'm claiming that "there is no meaning to life" please explain why.

In the end, entropy always wins. It doesn't matter what you do. Eventually everything is going to break down. With that, I don't see how someone can have a deeper meaning to life.

Anyone who thinks that life is anything more than an exercise in humor is sorely mistaken.

[QUOTE=Pepin;28924460]Not at all. I'm saying that asking "what is the meaning to life" is not a valid question and gave my reasons as to why it isn't. I'm not at all saying that there is no meaning to life or the opposite. To make what I was saying a bit clearer, if someone said "what is the meaning to water" you wouldn't say "water has no meaning" and you wouldn't try to explain out the meaning of water. You would say that the question doesn't make sense. I am making the claim that asking "what is the meaning to life" is the same circumstance. A question is being asked that doesn't make sense. The only part that I can imagine being seen as more than it seems is the first sentence, and I find that to be more bad wording more than anything. I couldn't think of a way to better way to say it and likely came out more complex than it should be. The rest of it seems to be pretty straightforward though, except for the last sentence maybe. I thought I has being pretty clear with what I was saying, but I guess not. If you disagree with my explanation or still think I'm claiming that "there is no meaning to life" please explain why.[/QUOTE] Why is "what is the meaning of water" an invalid question? I can't think of any reason it would be. "Water has no meaning," seems to be the appropriate answer.

Facepunch users have posted similar threads to this before and I've come to the conclusion that Facepunch has too many "meaning of life" threads.

The meaning of my life is to fulfill my desires/survive.

I don't have plans to leave behind. I will lead my life how it comes. Sort of go with the flow. I don't feel the need to invent or "lead the people to a new revaluation" People say I'm boring for not having big aspirations. I want to make my self happy. Yeah it's a selfish act but as most people say you only get one shot make the best of it. All I want is a comfortable life where I can sit on the internet all day or play games.

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;28924671]Why is "what is the meaning of water" an invalid question? I can't think of any reason it would be. "Water has no meaning," seems to be the appropriate answer.[/QUOTE] Because you are asking a question about a property that an object does not have. You think that this means that it means the answer should be "this object has no meaning", but in actuality the request doesn't make sense. Maybe a programming/class analogy would help. Consider the object below and lets pretend like these are all the properties an iPod Nano would have. [code]Product Name = iPod Nano Memory = 16 gigs Color = Blue Generation = 6[/code] We can request the color and it would return "Blue". But if we request a property that is not defined such as battery life, we would get a complain because the request is bad. The return would not be that there is no battery life, and the complain would not be that there is no information about what the battery life is, it would be that you tried to obtain data about a property that simply does not exist within this object's class. You'd get the same response asking it any other question about a property that does not exist. Please note the the use of the word object at this point can be exchanged for a noun. To go on with this analogy, meaning/purpose/significance is not a property that objects do not have. This is not to say that we don't make up properties for many objects, because that is actually very common. A father may cherish his '"best dad ever" coffee mug, but the value he places to it is entirely independent from the cup and has no effect on the cup. The cup may have great meaning and significance to him, but it in no way adds or changes the properties of that cup. So lets say that we ask the father what the meaning the cup have. The father would likely have an explanation. Now lets say we ask some random person what meaning that same cup has to them. Their answer may be "it has no meaning", but a more logical response would be that the question does make any sense because it assumes that meaning is a property that the cup has. The person could assume that the cup could mean something to whoever owns it especially because it says "best dad ever", but they know that even though the cup may have a meaning to someone, it doesn't affect that fact that it is just a cup. So why can't you say "it has no meaning" or "the iPod has no battery life"? It is because you can't quantify what does not exist. It implies that the property exists and that it is 0. If we have a list of data points of a ball's position along the two different spacial dimensions, we can't ask any question about the third spacial dimension because it does not exist in the data. We can't even assume it exists, therefore we can't say "there is no movement in the third dimension" or "we have no data about what happened to the ball in the third dimension". The answer must be that we are asking for information about a property that does not exist. In the claim I am making, I am arguing that asking "what is the meaning of life" makes no sense because you are asking about information about a property that does not exist. To say "there is no meaning" implies that it is a valid question and also that meaning is an inherited property. I hope I am explaining this well. It's 3:30AM so I guessing I didn't do the greatest job, but I tried to get across my point with a lot of repetition in case one example didn't seem to make much sense. I'll have to read through this post tomorrow and see how I did.

I don't think there is an objective purpose or meaning in our existence. That doesn't mean I live my life as if I had no meaning or no purpose because my brain is constantly fabricating subjective purposes and meanings that feel real enough to motivate me and justify my actions.

ITT: Everyone pretends to know what the meaning of life is, then they argue over it. Again.

Forty-two.

[QUOTE=Pepin;28926150]Because you are asking a question about a property that an object does not have. You think that this means that it means the answer should be "this object has no meaning", but in actuality the request doesn't make sense. Maybe a programming/class analogy would help. Consider the object below and lets pretend like these are all the properties an iPod Nano would have. [code]Product Name = iPod Nano Memory = 16 gigs Color = Blue Generation = 6[/code] We can request the color and it would return "Blue". But if we request a property that is not defined such as battery life, we would get a complain because the request is bad. The return would not be that there is no battery life, and the complain would not be that there is no information about what the battery life is, it would be that you tried to obtain data about a property that simply does not exist within this object's class. You'd get the same response asking it any other question about a property that does not exist. Please note the the use of the word object at this point can be exchanged for a noun. To go on with this analogy, meaning/purpose/significance is not a property that objects do not have. This is not to say that we don't make up properties for many objects, because that is actually very common. A father may cherish his '"best dad ever" coffee mug, but the value he places to it is entirely independent from the cup and has no effect on the cup. The cup may have great meaning and significance to him, but it in no way adds or changes the properties of that cup. So lets say that we ask the father what the meaning the cup have. The father would likely have an explanation. Now lets say we ask some random person what meaning that same cup has to them. Their answer may be "it has no meaning", but a more logical response would be that the question does make any sense because it assumes that meaning is a property that the cup has. The person could assume that the cup could mean something to whoever owns it especially because it says "best dad ever", but they know that even though the cup may have a meaning to someone, it doesn't affect that fact that it is just a cup. So why can't you say "it has no meaning" or "the iPod has no battery life"? It is because you can't quantify what does not exist. It implies that the property exists and that it is 0. If we have a list of data points of a ball's position along the two different spacial dimensions, we can't ask any question about the third spacial dimension because it does not exist in the data. We can't even assume it exists, therefore we can't say "there is no movement in the third dimension" or "we have no data about what happened to the ball in the third dimension". The answer must be that we are asking for information about a property that does not exist. In the claim I am making, I am arguing that asking "what is the meaning of life" makes no sense because you are asking about information about a property that does not exist. To say "there is no meaning" implies that it is a valid question and also that meaning is an inherited property. I hope I am explaining this well. It's 3:30AM so I guessing I didn't do the greatest job, but I tried to get across my point with a lot of repetition in case one example didn't seem to make much sense. I'll have to read through this post tomorrow and see how I did.[/QUOTE] Sure, the question assumes that there is a meaning, but that doesn't make the question invalid. All questions have assumptions about our understanding of the world, but they are still valid questions. That such a property doesn't exist is a perfectly fine answer.