Why the meaning of life?

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When people say, if I could know the answer to any question, I'd want to know the meaning of life, why?

Why not ask, what is the meaning of cheese? You're essentially asking the same thing.

I think what people really want to know when they ask what is the meaning of life, the want to know "why are we here?"

But to me, "What is the meaning of life?" is no more insightful than "What is the meaning of dirt?"

Discuss.
 
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My meaning of life is computers, food.. and depression. That's what i have and feel lately :(
 
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Well it looks like 3 out of 3 people have failed to read your post. All I have to say is, well... life is more 'mysterious' than dirt, or chess. Life is unique in that it applies directly to us, seperates us from inanimate objects and materials (which make up 99.99999999% of the universe), and doesn't have any obvious purpose. With chess you could respond "designed by humans to strain and train the mind" or with dirt you could say "it provides the soil in which plants can grow." These aren't 'complete' answers, but they give some sort of an answer, which is more difficult to provide with life. Technically the universe could exist on its own without any form of life whatsoever, so there doesn't seem to be any practical application for having creatures scurrying over the rocks floating around the universe. It's just more interesting to hear someone try to explain why something exists that has no practical application for anything outside of, perhaps, humoring a diety.

Personally my favorite question is "What is the meaning of purpose?" I wrote up a fairly long explanation of my views on that topic when I was bored sitting at the computer one day... it has more psychological applications than religious ones. The meaning of life is just awkward to me.
 
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FF|Skyrider said:
My meaning of life is computers, food.. and depression. That's what i have and feel lately :(
/huggle :)
 
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I said cheese, not chess, which is funnier. But yah, I see where you're coming from.
 
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Heh, I remember asking this question to my parents when I was young I got the reponse "The meaning of life is to enjoy life". I guess for me it's a crush on a chick, see if she will go on a date with me, a drink here and there and gaming/using the net. That shall change though as I should probably start looking for work.
 
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I really can't look at that statement in any kind of insightful way. Life is just what we do, our existance which seperates us from inanimate objects. That's probably what a dictionary says or something, but that's just what I think. I don't even understand why people say they don't know the answer and dwell on it, I just told you what it is.

When you said that people mean "why are we here?" I do the same thing. We're here because life slowly evolved into what we are today. There's no purpose behind any of it, it just happened.

I dunno, I guess i'm just not a philosophical guy.
 
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Life is but what we make of it, therefore its purpose and definition differs for each person.
 
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Sonic Boyster said:
Well it looks like 3 out of 3 people have failed to read your post.
You mean 4 out of 4 chess boy o_O.

But yeah. The wikipedia thing I posted has a little part that debates the meaning of "meaning".

Saying "why are we here?" is better than asking "what is the meaning of life?" is a little weird. Its semantics, really. Why not ask "where does cheese come from?" instead of "what is the meaning of cheese?"?
 
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Humans ask because they can. They want to know the unknown, and as we discover more, there's less unknown to us. We know what that big bright round thing in the sky is. We know what can cause people's temperatures to rise as their body gives out. We know why it gets dark in the absence of a light source. But it does make me thing a little. The only reason why we can ask ourselves questions dealing with the meaning of life is due to the fact we are capable of such questions. We're a rather insignificant chunk of the total life here on earth when it comes to pure numbers, but I'd venture to say that we're the only chunk of life that does question why. Does anybody else find that a little funny?

Now there's a few more questions: Why did the cycle start? Will it ever end? Would it matter if it ended? The bigger the picture you look at, the more you realize that it doesn't matter. But when you funnel it down to an individual level, it can mean everything. Looking at the universe it probably wouldn't matter if life ended, but to me, it would. And since it matters to me, I want to ask why it matters to me.

It's also human nature to quantify things. I'm a rather smart and clever person, but I want to know to what extent. So I make up this test that tells me I've got an IQ of 135. That puts me in the top 2% when compared to everyone else. He's got an IQ of 74, that puts him at the bottom 4%. I make 24,000 dollars a year, I'm hardly successful while that other dude who makes several million dollars a year is very successful. We then yearn to find the meaning of life so we can quantify it. Perhaps one guy decides the meaning of life is to score with as many ladies as he can. He'd then look at his count and compare it to others to see how much better he did than they. He got a whopping 34 while I only have been with three women.

There's probably many other reasons why humans ask this question, and each is as valid as the next.
 
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Personally I think people ask that question because they want to believe that there is more to life than just eating, sleeping, breathing, excreting, going to work, etc, and so they think that maybe there is some big secret answer which knowing it would make everything make sense. Personally I don't. An interesting thing though is the whole "The purpose/meaning/bacon of life is to enjoy life." Well, if that was the purpose then the majority of the human race fail at life.
 
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Because everybody seeks some 'Higher Purpose' that doesn't actually exist.

Just be satisfied with what you actually have, and don't take it for granted.
 
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Humans are arrogant to think they have any other purpose than to procreate, which is why they ask questions such as these.
 
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Wake up, eat, sleep, sex, games, sex, eat, sex, sleep; Repeat. It's a vicous cycle but someones gotta do it.
 
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You are but another organism that seeks shelter from the storm that is your survival.

Within the socially habitual malevolence you're willing to accept as success, you've simply second guessed natural instinct.
 
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Optimus Prime said:
what is the meaning of cheese?
cheese
n.

-A solid food prepared from the pressed curd of milk, often seasoned and aged.
-A molded mass of this substance.
-Something resembling this substance in shape or consistency.


cheese
tr.v. Slang cheesed, chees·ing, chees·es

To stop.


Idiom:
cheese it
Slang

-To look out. Often used in the imperative.
-To get away fast; get going. Often used in the imperative.
 

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