The Meaning of Life

[The Professor]

Sh*t Happens...

Lake Peigneur sinkhole disaster - YouTube

Can't you just imagine the telephone conversation with the engineer who miscalculated?

"Ya hear that loud sucking noise, boy? That's the sound of your career."

-- Paravani

I'm not sure what that has to do with sausage or accordion players, but I like it anyway. And, no, I have NOT been dranking. OK, Maybe just a bittle lit.

Have a great day and a great new year to follow. Thank you for all your enjoyable posts.

 

[anotherlife]

Okay, but still, what about those who assign meanings to lives of others around them, by the might of physical power and mental/age power and by threats? Children and abused adults don't have the opportunity to question that. Doesn't that become a meaning however imposed and damaging? And can we undo it effectively?

 

[skye]

"To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."

Friedrich Nietzsche.-

 

[Wiseacre]

Okay, but still, what about those who assign meanings to lives of others around them, by the might of physical power and mental/age power and by threats? Children and abused adults don't have the opportunity to question that. Doesn't that become a meaning however imposed and damaging? And can we undo it effectively?

I am sure that many people have had their right to decide their own fate or life's meaning taken from them, just as with their freedom and every other human right. Some never got the chance in the first place, or if they did maybe they lacked the ability one way or another to control their own destiny or their own meaning. Don't know if an imposed meaning can be effectively undone, might be possible but probably very difficult. I'm thinking about slaves, or people under the influence of communism such as North Korea, who were never able to decide anything for the themselves. If they were freed, could they function as a free person and make their own decisions? It won't be easy.

 

[Connery]

My meanimng of my life is assigned when I listen to my inner voice and am true to myself. Without having the courage of my convictions my life would be meaningless.

 

[Connery]

Okay, but still, what about those who assign meanings to lives of others around them, by the might of physical power and mental/age power and by threats? Children and abused adults don't have the opportunity to question that. Doesn't that become a meaning however imposed and damaging? And can we undo it effectively?

No one can assign a meaning to the very essence of a human being. A soul cannot be dictated to.

 

[April]

Do you need a threesome for that?

I don't think so, Unky...

 

[Wolfsister77]

Live life to the fullest. Know there will be both joy and pain. Try to help others. Experience your emotions fully. Learn from all that is around you. Be happy. Make others happy.

That is the meaning of life.

 

[Unkotare]

 

[ipaps]

Sh*t Happens...

Agreed. Live is shit. Shit happens.

 

[midcan5]

The article quoted below talks about the distances of our universe, they boggle the human mind.

excerpt December 2012 Harper's Magazine

"...For many reasons, biologists and chemists believe that liquid water is required for the emergence of life, even if that life may be very different from life on Earth. Dozens of candidates for such planets have been found, and we can make a rough preliminary calculation that something like 3 percent of all stars are accompanied by a potentially life-sustaining planet. The totality of living matter on Earth—humans and animals, plants, bacteria, and pond scum—makes up 0.00000001 percent of the mass of the planet. Combining this figure with the results from the Kepler mission, and assuming that all potentially life-sustaining planets do indeed have life, we can estimate that the fraction of stuff in the visible universe that exists in living form is something like 0.000000000000001 percent, or one millionth of one billionth of 1 percent. If some cosmic intelligence created the universe, life would seem to have been only an afterthought. And if life emerges by random processes, vast amounts of lifeless material are needed for each particle of life. Such numbers cannot help but bear upon the question of our significance in the universe."

'Our Place in the Universe - Face to face with the infinite' Alan Lightman

 

[Cenotaph]

This is what I believe at the moment:

Meaning is a human invention. Therefore, the meaning of life is subjective and varies from person-to-person, culture-to-culture, etc. For example, Christians feel that the meaning of life is to glorify their god... whereas nihilists believe that human existence (or really life in general) is ultimately meaningless.

At the end of the day, though, I really do not know. My understanding of the universe is severely limited, and it would be arrogant to say anything with 100% certainty.