What is the meaning of Life?

[Tenkage]

According to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42. 42 is a consecutive 4 and 2. "Four Two" in Japanese is pronouced "Shini". "Shini" means "to die" in Japanese. Hence, the answer to life, the universe, and everything is TO DIE!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is called "overanalyzing".

0.o duuuuuuuude.

 

[Lukyo]

Faith is the opposite of knowing

You can't have faith in something if you don't know what it is.

So wrong it hurts. Faith is believing, not knowing.

Believing based on what we know.

 

[Ninonybox_v1legacy]

simple.....sex.....it creates life, its what we look forward to after we are born, and when we have it the process is created again.

 

[Lukyo]

Hu

God proved His position over and over again in all of history, Jesus being the focal point of that.

If your position of what life is about is so true then you can please prove it to mean. I'm not impervious to evidence. My faith in God is maintained by evidence.

-snip-

It's kind of hard to keep my faith out of the meaning of life when it is the whole of my philosophy.

It would be pretension if it is my faith was own invention but I didn't make this up and no other person made it up either. <b?If there is a God and it is the God of the Bible that that is what the meaning of life is[/B]. No one was here at the foundation of the world except God but I trust Him enough to tell us what it is all about in the Bible.

If there is a meaning to life it can't be a speculation since it is going to affect how a person is suppose to conduct him/herself.

By the way, Faith is trust in things not seem based on what is seen. The Bible stands as the inerrant word of God so i have faith that what it says is true.

Bolded parts contradict each other. You claim to "know" God exists and it is the Christian god. Then you assume it. Granted there is nothing wrong with going off of assumptions if you know how to do it.

Hu?

He doesn't need people to exist. God doesn't need the universe to exist, He wanted it to exist.

No he didn't, but did he need to have us worship him? According to you he does. Besides, how do we know the Christian god is the right one? (If you say "He was written about in the bible" I am going to ask "How do we know the bible is right". If you respond to that with "God said so" then I am going to point out the circular logic and you are going to deny it).

God doesn't need people to worship him. God made people to worship Him because he wants to be worshiped and truth is He deserves to be worshiped.

Let's see why do I believe in the God of the Bible?
First of all I believe that good and evil are objective terms which automatically prevents me from being an atheist or a pantheist.

After that its a process of elimination.

Judaism should acknowledge Christ since He is their Messiah.

Islam denies the divinity of Christ

I shouldn't have to explain why I am not in a cult like Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, or Scientology. All basically insane.

Is there something more specific you wanted to know.

You can be monotheistic and still have a subjective view of good and evil. A lot of the philosophy professors at my university are Christian and disagree with the bible on good and evil.

Using this logic Christianity is wrong because it accepts Jesus as its messiah and denies the divinity of Allah. The fact that a religion disagrees with another doesn't make either one less valid.

Ironically, Mormons are the only ones I can respect as a religion(at least the sect in my town). They are very nice, non-pretentious people. They made a good first impression on me. I really hope the rest of Mormonism is like them.

The Bible is what Christianity is based on. Just because a Christian-so-called disagrees with the Bible that make it ok to think morality is subjective? No.

The Koran came up nearly 600 year after Jesus and says things about Him that the Gospels or history don't support. Als the The Gospels were actually made in the lifetime of the witnesses of Christ. The Koran isn't trustworthy.

Mormonism isn't interested in Jesus but in Joseph Smith, and the version of Joseph Smith it prefers to present.

 

[Lukyo]

Faith is the opposite of knowing

You can't have faith in something if you don't know what it is.

that's why it's called "Belief"

Belief based on what we know. And if it is not true we shouldn't believe in it.

religion isn't about the search for "truth" or "facts" (what you think "we" know)
God, the monotheistic God of Abraham, wants you to believe in him without proof.
that is "Faith".
people who try and prove the existance of God are missing the entire point.

Where in the Bible is their an appeal to blind faith? Never.

 

[Cheesus333]

My friend seems to think that the purpose of life is preparation for death.

I can't decide if it's subtly optimistic or crushingly depressing.

As for me, I just like to enjoy myself and help other people enjoy themselves where possible. I used to dream of making a difference to the world, but I guess that's a little far-fetched...

 

[Tenkage]

simple.....sex.....it creates life, its what we look forward to after we are born, and when we have it the process is created again.

Kinda hard to take you seriously with an Avatar like that (Yes I've read VG Cats, and let me tell you...yeah they never should have played god LOL)

 

[crudus]

The Bible is what Christianity is based on. Just because a Christian-so-called disagrees with the Bible that make it ok to think morality is subjective? No.

The Koran came up nearly 600 year after Jesus and says things about Him that the Gospels or history don't support. Als the The Gospels were actually made in the lifetime of the witnesses of Christ. The Koran isn't trustworthy.

Mormonism isn't interested in Jesus but in Joseph Smith, and the version of Joseph Smith it prefers to present.

So I take it you agree 100% with the bible? So If I find an obscure passage in the bible you aren't going to disagree with it one bit?

Appeal to age? Ok I can roll with that. If you want to appeal to age then Hinduism is the oldest (living) religion at about 3500 years old versus Judaism's and Christianity's 2500 and 2000 years old, respectively. Now, some of the events in the bible have been found to probably be based on fact. The disaster of Noah's Ark is likely the Toba Event some 75,000 years ago(oddly enough all it wiped out two species in the Homo genus). The earliest time anything resembling writing was around 30,000 years ago. That's 45,000 years for something to be embellished through spoken word and you are questioning 600 years between Jesus and the Qur?an when writing existed. What could the Qur'an so about him that are definitely wrong anyway? The Qur'an isn't even about him. That is like saying my science book is wrong because it ends a sentence with a preposition.

Mormonism is the only sect of Christianity that has treated me with respect. All others look down on me for being an atheist or Discordian. I was willing to listen to their beliefs and they listened to my beliefs. It was quite interesting.

My friend seems to think that the purpose of life is preparation for death.

I can't decide if it's subtly optimistic or crushingly depressing.

As for me, I just like to enjoy myself and help other people enjoy themselves where possible. I used to dream of making a difference to the world, but I guess that's a little far-fetched...

More imagine like you want to be accomplished. You decide what accomplished means. If your goal in life is to catch every pokemon then do it before you die. If you want to get rich, then get rich before you die, etc.

My view on life is to do what makes you happy so long as it doesn't inhibit the happiness of others.

I like it. It is very Wiccan. They have one rule for morality: an it harm none, do what ye will. Basically, "do no harm".

 

[fletch_talon]

God doesn't need people to worship him. God made people to worship Him because he wants to be worshiped and truth is He deserves to be worshiped.

Mr Smith: Now Timmy, your mother and I concieved, gave birth to, and cared for you for a long time, so every Saturday (so as not to interfere with lord worshipping time) you must pray to and worship us.

Timothy: But you put me up for adoption right after I was born. I havn't had any contact with you for the past 18 years. Heck until last tuesday, I didn't know that I was adopted or that you existed, even now the only evidence you've given me is a non official unsigned document which says "We are your parents, Worship Us!"

Mr Smith: That's beside the point. We want to be worshipped and we deserve to be worshipped. If its ok for God then its clearly ok for us to expect your devout worship despite you having no reason to accept our claims, we had you purely for the purpose of having you worship us and yet we have had little to no effect on your daily life whatsoever.

I don't claim God doesn't exist, but I certainly think, if he is the omnipotent being and pinnacle of morality that people seem to claim then he's not going to enforce unreasonable rules/laws. If god wants our worship, fine. That doesn't mean he has a right to demand it. There is no evidence of his existence besides an old book written by a select group of people who God was nice enough to appear to.
Why should people in the middle of South America believe in a God they've never heard of? And what reason can you give them to believe simply because you have a story written before you were born that says it exists.
Why should I believe when there is less evidence for the being that supposedly created us than there is for giant lizard creatures that ruled the Earth before humans existed. Plenty of other religions have texts about them and real live people who represented them and claimed to be divine themselves (pharaoh's much). Yet I should pick your religion, your very specific brand of Christianity (God knows how many there are... pun intended) because God deserves to be worshipped because he created us to worship him.

My view on life is to do what makes you happy so long as it doesn't inhibit the happiness of others. Also known as do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.
I have more beliefs than that but if those rules were followed the world would be a more peaceful and in most cases a happier place.

 

[Christopher Dudgeon]

We apologize for the inconvenience

 

[Tenkage]

My head is starting to hurt from this debate....

 

[Tenkage]

mine too

so here's a catharsis:
It's Nice to be Nice.

simple, yes very simple

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

There is no one meaning to life; it's whatever you choose it to be. If the reason you live is for your family, or your friends or your job, that's your meaning of life right there. Personally, mine is to have fun and happiness consistently throughout life. I think people nowadays get forced into thinking that life goes like this; Born - baby - primary education - secondary education - possibly further education - job - find partner - make a family - have kids - die. That's pretty much how most people live, and it's this mundanity that leads people to question the meaning of life, because everyone thinks it should be lived the same. I'm not saying this isn't a perfectly good way to live life; people find happiness in all sorts of places, but the point I'm making is that we need to break out of the 'path of life' that society has given us and try and live our lives to the fullest instead of following the system like sheep. Because you only live once, and although I'm only young I don't want to be lying on my deathbed with any regrets.

 

[Cuppa Tetleys]

God doesn't need people to worship him. God made people to worship Him because he wants to be worshiped and truth is He deserves to be worshiped.

Mr Smith: Now Timmy, your mother and I concieved, gave birth to, and cared for you for a long time, so every Saturday (so as not to interfere with lord worshipping time) you must pray to and worship us.

Timothy: But you put me up for adoption right after I was born. I havn't had any contact with you for the past 18 years. Heck until last tuesday, I didn't know that I was adopted or that you existed, even now the only evidence you've given me is a non official unsigned document which says "We are your parents, Worship Us!"

Mr Smith: That's beside the point. We want to be worshipped and we deserve to be worshipped. If its ok for God then its clearly ok for us to expect your devout worship despite you having no reason to accept our claims, we had you purely for the purpose of having you worship us and yet we have had little to no effect on your daily life whatsoever.

I don't claim God doesn't exist, but I certainly think, if he is the omnipotent being and pinnacle of morality that people seem to claim then he's not going to enforce unreasonable rules/laws. If god wants our worship, fine. That doesn't mean he has a right to demand it. There is no evidence of his existence besides an old book written by a select group of people who God was nice enough to appear to.
Why should people in the middle of South America believe in a God they've never heard of? And what reason can you give them to believe simply because you have a story written before you were born that says it exists.
Why should I believe when there is less evidence for the being that supposedly created us than there is for giant lizard creatures that ruled the Earth before humans existed. Plenty of other religions have texts about them and real live people who represented them and claimed to be divine themselves (pharaoh's much). Yet I should pick your religion, your very specific brand of Christianity (God knows how many there are... pun intended) because God deserves to be worshipped because he created us to worship him.

My view on life is to do what makes you happy so long as it doesn't inhibit the happiness of others. Also known as do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.
I have more beliefs than that but if those rules were followed the world would be a more peaceful and in most cases a happier place.

Ok, maybe not as passionate as you about atheism, but I do agree that if seek our own happiness without depriving others of it the world can be a better place.

 

[ImprovizoR]

There is no purpose but the purpose you give to yourself. That ages old question is actually pretty stupid and easy to give a correct answer to if you're not a philosopher. That's because philosophers only deal with questions. They never give answers to anything. And that makes the question seem more difficult to answer.

 

[Flamezdudes]

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.