The Meaning Of Life

Discussion in 'Agnosticism and Atheism' started by TheSamantha, Mar 5, 2016.

  1. TheSamantha

    TheSamantha Member

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    There's no such thing as nothing.

    The particles were always there.

    Then there was a Big Bang.

    Then the universe, then galaxies and solar systems, then planets, stars, moons, asteroids, etc.

    An asteroid collided with Earth that carried the building blocks of life.

    Enter pre-biotic soup.

    Then the molecules in the soup collided, creating the first cell.

    Life.

    Evolution.

    Us.

    This is the meaning of life.

    Why do even the smartest people ever known act as if it's some mystery, as if no one knows?
     
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  2. Because they recognize the fundamental limits of human knowledge, to know that what we perceive to be is all that there is, and nothing else exists.

    There are alternate theories to the Big Bang. Some people believe the universe is a hologram. Some people believe it's all a computer simulation. The fact is no one knows. The laws of physics break down at the singularity. It's something outside of time and space as we know it. You say there is never nothing, but if there is no time there is no time for anything to ever happen, so why would the Big Bang ever occur? There are theories about this as well, but no proof of anything.

    Life has never spontaneously formed in a lab given the building blocks of life. Literally no one knows how it came about, or how dead matter can combine and suddenly become living matter, and if it can, if that means anything.

    And what the hell is consciousness?

    We humans are only very small and do not really understand ourselves or our place in the universe. It is a mystery. If it weren't, there wouldn't be any scientists looking for answers, obviously.
     
  3. Tyrsonswood

    Tyrsonswood Senior Moment Lifetime Supporter

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  4. Bud D

    Bud D Member

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    There is fulfillment to life. Biologically there is joy, love, enjoyment.

    Honestly I think the point in life is to die better and more blissfully than in past deaths. To have a better journey, if we can improve, than what other journeys have been.
     
  5. Moonglow181

    Moonglow181 Lifetime Supporter Lifetime Supporter

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    evolvong of spirit, too.... :).....in other words...i hope so....but who knows for sure....I only hope.....
     
  6. Bud D

    Bud D Member

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    I think spirits always were, were already evolved at the highest, best and brightest. There is no evolution in those realms other than remembering what was forgotten.

    Maybe that's why life is such a gift and difficult. Because we can and do evolve here.
     
  7. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

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    as a sentient being it is to explore, as a sapient being it is to create and explore.
    every life form with a cerebral cortex and a central nervous system is at leas sentient.
    less defined by capacity then interest.
    it is possible no sharp distinction exists, but only a matter of degree.
    this may not prove possible to clearly determine.

    the op makes a number of leaps, which well withing reason, are none the less, beyond absolute determining.
    especially the one about life dependent on a source colliding with earth.
    there is no determination of a necessity for this.
    if anything, such a need is far from probable.

    there is no reason to assume "the building blocks of life" weren't already here, in the primordial mineral substrate.
    a catalytic stimulus is of course possible also.
    but again, even that is a matter entirely of speculation.

    even the big bang, while based on sound evidence, is by no means the exclusive possible conclusion from it.
    though it is certainly more likely then big some invisible guy in the sky wishing it all into existence.

    why? because all that is ever known is evidence, and the conclusions WE draw from it.

    if ever there is a fantasy, it is that of absolute knowledge.

    science is real, science works, but to confuse either method OR faith, with the idea of any knowledge being absolute,
    is simply the unwillingness of the ego to accept, that there will always be more that is not known, then there is that is.
     
  8. bird_migration

    bird_migration ~

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    With claiming a Big Bang, you assume an expanding universe. The Big Bang used up a near infinite amount of space at its 'birth'.
    If there is no such thing as nothing, where or what is the universe expanding into and what was there around the Big Bang?

    Other than that, I agree that life has no knowable meaning or purpose other than the personal one we give it.
     
  9. Mr.Writer

    Mr.Writer Senior Member

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    The universe is expanding according to extremely persuasive data, namely the red shift of most galaxies. To ask what was there "around" the big bang is to beg the question of "space", which clearly doesn't apply, so you're only pointing out a weakness of English, not of the Big Bang.
     
  10. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

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    Because no one does for sure. What you've given us are a series of words referring to factual events: the what of existence. Meaning involves the why. Shortly after graduating from law school, getting a good job, and acquiring a fiance, my brother was told he had kidney cancer and that it was probably incurable. Many would say his life lost its meaning. He didn't see it that way. He was a fan of Viktor Frankl, the Viennese psychologist who thought that meaning was the most basic human need. As Nietzsche put it :"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." When people would bring up the tragedy of his situation, my brother would always say: " It is what it is." He then set out to find what meaning he could in his situation, starting at first with nature outings to his favorite places, and later family gatherings. But ultimately he decided the meaning of his last weeks of life would be to model the dying process so that others might benefit from it. Some might have thought him crazy, others would have said that whatever he or anyone else might think, his life had no meaning. But for those of us who were with him to the end, it was apparent that he had an entirely different take on it. And so did we.
     
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  11. Total Darkness

    Total Darkness 100% Cocoa

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    The meaning of life:


     
  12. hillbillyhippiechick

    hillbillyhippiechick Member

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    I think the meaning of life is "conscious awareness" or simply "to be" ... without that there is nothing (because there is no conscious being or entity to perceive anything).
     

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