What gives life meaning?

On another thread, someone mentioned that evolution would remove meaning from life. That makes me wonder what gives life meaning- is life only meaningful if a higher power reaches down and says "Let there be man"? Does a belief in God automatically give life meaning- if so, why? Does there have to be a higher entity to make life meaningful? Or is it our responsibility to give meaning to our life?

Peace and love

 

I remember talking to my dad about this. He said (paraphrasing) - of course there's no 'meaning of life' what an silly idea.' Have to agree. Who needs it? What kind of meaning should life have? And what if the meaning one person comes up with doesn't work for another. And another thing - many people conflate a goal of life with a meaning of life. I suppose if a creator outside the universe created life, then it would have some meaning to that entity. But if such a creator wanted us to know what our ability to survive, reproduce and grow old signified, that significance would be much more clear.

 

To answer my own question, I think that one does not need a higher power to have a meaningful life. I think we give our own life meaning, and as Layla said, there is no inherent meaning of life. For me, life is meaningful when I realize how humanity and the world is completely interconnected, how we are all the same, despite superficial differences (think Indra's Net). My life has an outer meaning when I do what I can to help others or at the very least, do not harm them.

Peace and love

 

I basically agree, although I think some ideas of meaning are more meaningful than others. Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl considers the quest for meaning to be one of the most powerful human drives. He developed this theory as an inmate in a Nazi concentration camp, where he noticed that the ones who survived the experience with the least trauma were the ones who developed a sense of meaning. He also regarded meaning as very personal and individual--what gives life meaning to one person might not work for another. One person might find it in happy childhood memories, another in a beam of sunlight. His brand of therapy involved trying to identify the things that are basic to each person's sense of meaning: what keeps them going? Why don't they commit suicide? Is there anything they'd give up their lives for? Family, friends, country, God? But he also thought there were some wrong paths a person could take in the search--things that might look promising on the surface but ususally don't bring a sense of lasting satisfaction: sex, drugs, money, power, status, etc. All blind alleys, ultimately meaningless in bringing real happiness.

 

Good point. Those who look for meaning in the material world, such as getting more money, owning that new yacht, or in a bottle will ultimately be disillusioned when their escapism no longer helps deal w/ the pain. I think Kurt Cobain is a great example of this; he searched for meaning in music and heroin, but when these no longer worked, he took his own life. Many, many others are in similar situations, but we don't hear as much about them.

Peace and love

 

To learn, grow and love?

 

I don't know about y'all, but the meaning of my life is to have a good time.

 

then what?

 

No, that's it.

 

indulgence and attachment to sensory gratification can only lead to pain. is the polarization between pain and pleasure all you are seeking in this life?

 

I beleive there is no Big Cosmic Meaning to life. All this kinda just happened. So I guess the point of continuing to live is just to be happy and bring happiness in your surroundings.

« In a Universe composed of 99% of complete emptiness, jamming with people you love could be considered pretty damn amazing. »

 

Here my young friend is a very simple answer.

My quest for knowledge makes me different from that Lima bean in your garden. Yet! We are both alive and have a genetic memory to some extent.

 

perhaps you and the lima bean are headed in the same direction.

 

I don't think that there is much meaning to life, but there is meaning to words.

 

creating and exploring.

=^^=
.../\...

 

What gives my life meaning are the moments I create. Without those moments, whether good or bad, I 'd have nothing to claim, to tell, to share, to remember.

 

Life has no meaning - but that doesn't stop me having fun

 

experiences

 

To live honorably, to fight fiercely, to die bravely--what more meaning could we want?

 

love?