Poll: Is the meaning of existence relative?

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Naleh

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May 25, 2010
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I don't think life needs a purpose. Life simply is; let us use it and cherish it.

That said, you can certainly assign a purpose for yourself, so I voted yes.
 

John the Gamer

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May 2, 2010
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How would I now what is and is not? If we choose our own destiny, how do we know it isn't acually decided for us? And if we're working towards some unknown bigger goal, how would we know; it's beyond our imagination. But I like to think that we actually have a choice.
 

Jedoro

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Jun 28, 2009
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Pirate Kitty said:
Mkay.

I've actually got depression and have been having a difficult time of the past few years. I tried to find comfort in a god, but it actually made me angry; it may me feel he didn't care or want to help me.

But this is all off-topic. Thanks for answering all my questions so nicely. I hope your day or night goes well :)
Well, He was nice enough to give us some guidelines to live by, but I know what you mean, hence my desire to follow my own plan in lieu of waiting for His.

And it wasn't too off-topic, since it was related to existence, but you're welcome. I actually ran off to work there, so now my day's just chilling at home, sleeping, then going back to work tonight, but thank you. If you don't feel like clogging the thread up, I wouldn't mind talking more in PM's.
 

linwolf

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Jan 9, 2010
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I voted. No, this life is pointless.
But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't enjoy it. For me there are no purpose, so all there is to do is enjoy it. As long that your enjoyment doesn't prevent somebody else enjoyment.
 

Midnight Crossroads

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Jul 17, 2010
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I like to believe that the pointlessness of life allows us the freedom to make one up. It can be as flowery or dingy as we like. It won't matter, after all, once we're dead.
 

Calo Nord

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May 8, 2008
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There is no meaning to life as we know it. We are basically nothing more than highly evolved bacteria on a rock. What meaning there is to life is what you create yourself.

If you are educated on the evolution of organic life, you will see realistically how pointless our existence really is. Not to mention how pointless we ourselves are as intelligent organisms, being slaves to many things such as microbial life which sustains us. Depressing i know, but it is better to accept reality than to persist in delusion no matter how reassuring. That being a quote from the great Carl Sagan if i remember correctly.

The meaning of existence as a whole however, is not understood.
 

Naleh

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May 25, 2010
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Ashcrexl said:
Digi7 said:
I strongly believe we make our own purpose. For instance, my purpose is to make beautiful things for other people to enjoy, and to find love to share with others. To have as many exciting, unique and beautiful experiences as is possible on this earth... And browsing a forum isn't one of them, keep in mind ;)
my issue with this is, why? of course since you exist, you might as well make other peoples life more tolerable, but why? so they can lead more happy lives? why? so they can improve someone else's life? why? so they can enjoy the shit out of their own life? why? so that you can die, rendering your entire existence of improving other people's lives and enjoying your own life pointless? why?

also, there so few interesting experiences in the world to soak up. if i live longer than 25 years, i will be very disappointed indeed.
I (politely) disagree on both points.

One: Increasing the happiness levels of yourself and those around you isn't a means, it's an end. It's desirable of its own accord. There's no further "why" needed. (You treat things as desirable of their own accord all the time - or why did you bother to type a post?) And your life spent doing this wasn't pointless at all; simple Butterfly Effect means that every single life leaves a significant and permanent impact on the future.

And two: There are a truly mind-boggling number of interesting experiences in the world. Have you white-water rafted? Skydived? Written a poem or short story? Enjoyed next summer's blockbuster? Been into space? (Okay, that one's probably outside your price range...) Studied the complex dance of biochemistry or quantum physics? Seen ? Spelunked? You could live a hundred years and not experience it all. And that's just the one-in-a-lifetime things; what about the simple daily pleasures of fulfilling your hobbies, hanging out with friends, or posting on forums?
 

RobCoxxy

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Feb 22, 2009
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Well, you make your own meaning. Do what you want.

Because I don't belive in some large, bearded omnipotent being.
 

teisjm

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Mar 3, 2009
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For a "meaning of life" to actually matter, it would require people to work towards it, whether it's a personal meaning, or a higher universal meaning.

If some divine unquestionable beeing appeared before teh world and told them "this is the meanign of life, do this" it still wouldn't matter, cause people would still not be bound to do so, and would just keep doing what they wanted to do, so even though life now technically had a meaning, practically it wouldn't matter.
 

Airhead

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May 8, 2008
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The greatest common motivation all living beings have, IMO, is the will to survive. Because if they lack that, obviously they quickly cease to be "living" beings. Spreading your genes around that may trump survival. But other than that - life is what you make of it.
JRiseley said:
edit* Of course the whole world could be tricking you, but the utter narcissism to even contemplate that is ridiculous.

double-edit* I'm not being harsh or trying to offend, but seriously, unless you have a philosophy degree or have read up on it don't even touch solipsism and existentialism and the like.
Is it just me or are you just a bit pretentious? Having degrees and reading up is all good, but thinking for yourself is more important, wouldn't you agree? And you don't have to be a narcissist to consider, say, China being a hoax. Other people may me targeted as victims to fool, too. Of course, the scenario is wildly improbable, but still, considering improbable scenarios is what keeps the mind (and the geek culture) going.
 

Gigano

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Oct 15, 2009
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Beyond the basic biological goal of virtually all life forms (survive long enough to reproduce), I doubt there's anything to life but what you actively or passively, consciously or unconsciously choose to make of it.

That's what I'll go with anyway.

Thaius said:
If anyone can choose whatever their purpose is, there is no purpose to life as a whole. Relativism in most philosophical areas (purpose, morality, etc.) completely destroys any sort of value or purpose it could have. If there is no general purpose in life, then the only purpose is to live a selfish life and ensure our own existence and happiness in whatever way we see fit. The only reason to do otherwise would be social codes and values, but what point do they have if the point of our entire existence is up to the individual?
Social codes exist to further our own existence and happiness. If you can reasonably trust I won't steal your stuff, and I can reasonably trust you won't steal mine, then we both of us- individually or in collaboration for greater gains - can set out to accumulate more, pursue partners or whatnot.

And who says one could not choose altruism or other idealistic purposes and goals as one's purpose in life? Look to something like support of gender neutral marriage, that does not exclusively come from people who would individually benefit from it, in spite of some of them undoubtedly also being cultural and/or ethical relativists. Objective absolutism is not a requirement for ethical systems to be chosen and followed even beyond your own interests.

Besides, even if an objective standard existed, how would we know what it was? There are plenty of competing world views - religious and secular - already, all claiming to hold "the one truth", none of them universally accepted or even accepted by just a majority of the 6,5 billion people around.
All we could go on was our own heartfelt beliefs, but to paraphrase Nietzsche, one need but stroll through a lunatic asylum to learn that even the deepest conviction or belief - even when written down and/or worshipped - proves absolutely nothing about what objective reality is like. Even with an objective standard in play we - always observing through a subjective filter - could not know it, and certainly not agree upon it.
 

Ampersand

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Life has no inherent purpose beyond that which we make for ourselves. I've never understood why some people want to think that there is some kind of unseen force governing thier lives, and i've never seen any evidence to suggest that there is...........*sigh* although i suppose it could be argued that since time is simultaneous, everything that can happen is going to happen anyway regardless of whether it was intended or not.
 

CompetingMantis

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Nov 10, 2010
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'Since we are all ultimately alone, isolated islands of subjectivity in an objective world, we have absolute freedom over our internal nature, and the source of our value can only be internal.'

Kind of sums it up for me.
 

GrizzlerBorno

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Digi7 said:
Ever since we began here in this obscene and strange world, we have tried to make sense of it. It's what we do, we pull things apart so we can understand then, because we fear ignorance.

See religion, ideals, philosophies, etcetera.
To me, Religion and ideals exist not because of our fear of ignorance; but because the ordeal of living a life, whilst accepting that, at any given moment, there are a shit-ton of variables that can end our lives instantaneously (earthquakes, Heart attacks, strokes.etc.), is just too much to bare. It would be like living with a noose round you're neck forever.
And hence we FIND things to believe in. A belief that gives us a much-needed direction/ objective. And it can be many things mind you. The most obvious is religion (I won't die now, because [insert deity's name] is looking out for me), but it also includes Pursuit of Knowledge, Deep love, and most importantly, Art. Our ability to create Art assures us that in spite of our inconsequential existence on Earth.... we DO have value.

I do believe in a higher power. But i know it's made up; if that makes any sense at all :)
 

Averant

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Jul 6, 2010
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JRiseley said:
Averant said:
Ah, philosphy. The unanswerable question.

I'm similar to an athiest, but I had fun and came up with my own faith. I call it Univism. I believe that the universe is eternal, a living thing. And I don't mean just endless is distance. It's eternal in all aspects. Each big bang/big crunch is a heartbeat. There were infinitely many big bangs before now, and there will be infinitely many after. There is no God as we know him, the universe itself is the ultimate force of nature, IS nature. And we are part of it, made of it, so we ourselves are eternal.

Hey, philosphy can be fun if you want it to be. XD

So, to relate to the OT, life is pointless. What we do doesn't matter. Live life and have fun.
Funny thing is this isn't in itself unique, Einstein believed something similar. 'ts called Spinoza's God.

You know, this actually makes me kind of happy.
 

Dags90

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Oct 27, 2009
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Lyx said:
The meaning of "existence" is relative to the english language.

Also, i could not reasonably vote, because the answers have nothing to do with the question. Actually, almost everything in this thread is a contradiction.
They don't have nothing to do with the question, they're just not the right answers. It always mucks up polls when you try to include reasons into them, people should just leave reasons for the discussion part of the thread. The answers should really be a simple "Yes/No", the extended reasoning only make the whole thing rather silly. "No, this life is pointless" is clearly a vote for "Yes" in the original question.
 

[.redacted]

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Jan 24, 2010
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HT_Black said:
Existence is an incomparably vast and complex thing, and to stretch your mind beyond its limits is to invite a quick and unfufilling death. There are only so many things humans can comprehend, and the nature of the universe is not among that number.

So, in short: yeah, I guess.
Exactly, there are only so many things humans can comprehend.

I don't want to be human.

This existence is meaningless.
 

Korenith

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Oct 11, 2010
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Erm.... I want to say A and C so I probably shouldn't vote.

Basically my theory is that life actually has no point in a objective sense so we invent a meaning that defines what we want out of life. This invented meaning is still A meaning though, just because it is self defined doesn't mean it isn't a valid meaning. So like I said, its a mix of A and C but I definitely don't believe in a "greater purpose".