The question on the front page of my local weekly paper: What is the meaning of life?

[Kelvin Mace]

They asked lots of people from the a stripper to the local Republican sheriff.

http://www.yesweekly.com/main.asp?SectionID=18&SubSectionID=44&ArticleID=1992&TM=50788.9

My answer, which is bound to make a lot of people unhappy:

Life is meaningless in the "grand scheme of things". A random occurrence, in a random universe, that happened to result in a sentient life form capable of asking, "What is the meaning of life?"

The sooner we understand and accept this, the sooner we can get on with our lives and give them meaning. Otherwise we waste our lives keeping score and hoping someone will get what they deserve in the "next" life.

[whistle]

1. Send in this link...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085959/

[deepthought42]

2. 42.

The real question is, what is the question? *lol*

Ok, other than that, I'd have to agree with you. I know it sounds trite, but life is what you make it. Any of use could have easily not been born, so we should make the best of this thing known as 'life'.

[Kelvin Mace]

4. I have always been fond of 42

since it made as much, and actuallly more sense than every other answer I had heard.

[deepthought42]

15. yeah, same here. My life would be meaningless w/o "42".

[dipsydoodle]

23. The actual question

was what's nine sixes ? The computer must have used base 13 to get to 42. I figure it would take until the end of time to even attempt to explain that to Dimson and he still wouldn't get it. :)

[TahitiNut]

9. Well, to be slightly more accurate ...

... that's the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Dividing by 3, maybe it should be 14? :dunce:

[deepthought42]

14. My bad, haven't read the Hitchhiker's series lately...

;) Perhaps we should ask Deep Thought...oh wait, not me! Let's just hope there are no Vogons out there.... :scared: *lol*

[TahitiNut]

18. Well, as I say each time I leave the Sushi Bar with a full belly ...

... "So long and thanks for all the fish!" :rofl:

Except for that frozen 1.75-lb. hunk of lutefisk that was delivered today for my Norwegian-American mother's Christmas 'pleasure,' of course. (I hope the noxious fumes while cooking it don't result in an evacuation of the neighborhood.)

Donning my "Don't Panic" button, it's off to the wilds of consumerism for last-minute foraging. :hi:

Talk about "the meaning of life" ... this is the season for living in that question, for sure. :eyes:

[deepthought42]

30. *hand to forehead*

I should have said that on Saturday (had sushi w/a friend) or even yesterday (sushi w/co-workers)!

And I could use one of those "Don't Panic" buttons, soon it's off to the wilds of consumerism (aka: the mall) to go to job #2! AHHHHHH!!!! Is is Thursday? I never could get the hang of Thursday. ;)

[brokensymmetry]

3. It all depends on the belief system.

And since the various belief systems are mutually
exclusive, and generally mutually antagonistic, the
results are little more than random idle thoughts
of random idle people.

As for my opinion of the meaning of life...surely
it must be faster horses, older whiskey, and more money.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Then basically life has no meaning

unless you give it meaning, you say. But the way people give meaning to their life differs. A person who values themselves above others will judge their life to be good if they are able to destroy the lives of anyone in the way of their persuit of happiness. A person who has random acts happen to them that renders their life hopelessly full of pain and sorrow should then commit suicide, because life has no meaning, anyway, right, so why worry about any consequences this suicide would bring to others? Unless a person is taught to value others and society as a whole, basically there's no reason to do anything except what you like, and damn the consequences.

[Kelvin Mace]

11. Yes, and no

Life is what YOU make it. You will do good and evil, and others will as well. The ultimate repsonsibility lies with us, not gods or demons. No one is keeping a cosmic score to reward or punish us for our deeds.

We are God. We are Satan. Which path we follow will affect our life and the lives of our fellow humans.

I have not said life is "valueless", just "meaningless". There is a BIG difference.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. But for many, life IS valueless

because they have no values. That is my point. Unless people are given values, then it's basically do whatever you want to do.

Since I assume you are an atheist from your post, what do you do to see that others are given values? Not just your family--what organizations do you support that can instill values in people? I'm curious, not trying to start a flame war.

[Kelvin Mace]

20. At no point have I said

"Don't give people values".

If you take religion as philosophy, rather than dogmatic rules of behaviour, you can find many admirable values to guide you in your existence.

From an evolutionary aspect, cooperative behaviour is best for humanity, since our development of intellect has given us destructive powers way out of proportion to our abilities.

If life is valueless to some people, it is OUR failure, since we are collectively responsible for what happens on this planet. Each of us make choices which has profound effects on our lives and others. We need to stop pretending some of our choices are dictated by supernatural forces, and take responsibility for what is going on.

As to organizations teaching us values, that is once again abdicating our responsibility to use our own brain and pay attention to actions and their consequences.

I can walk into one church and it will teach me to love my fellow human being, and I can walk into another (of the same denomination) and they will tell me to hate certain people for certain reasons.

No, we have to do it ourselves. We can look to others for advice, but we have to make the choices and live with the consequences.

At least, that is how I choose to live my life. :)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

24. So, in other words,

you don't support any institutions that teach values.

[Kelvin Mace]

27. Didn't say that either

:)

I do support institutions. But ones I support may not be the ones you support, or should support.

I give money to some political candidates. I have given money to churches doing things I approve of. I have given money to people on the streets.

I am less interested in organizations "teaching values", than I am in organizations "living values".

Teaching people to help the poor is one step removed from actually HELPING the poor. One is easy, the other hard, and as they say, talk is cheap.

I am in favor on any group or person who teaches people to THINK, rather than tells them what to think. If peope would trouble themselves to think, values are pretty much obvious.

I am not here to tell anyone what to think, just TO think.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

29. I can't agree with you

sorry, but I don't think values are intrinsicly found in a person-I believe they are learned behaviors. So I guess we will disagree on this point.

[Kelvin Mace]

31. And where did I say they were NOT

learned behavior?

You seem to want me to say that we must learn values from some institution, for example a church. If we do not go to this institution and learn what they tell us about values, we will be valueless.

Values are learned from our parents, from school, from our job, from life, from experience, from ourselves and from dozens, if not hundreds, of other sources. Are they the CORRECT values? Depends on who you ask.

Values are simply a particular person's point of view, whether that point of view is me, you, my mom, my teacher, George Bush, Jesus, the Dalai Lama, or Isaac Asimov. The validity of those values are open to debate. Some people create an entire religious mythos in order to validate a specific set of values that they agree with. They like it black and white, neat.

Life is easier when we fool ourselves into believing that we are carefully fulfilling the values of a superior creature who will reward us for our loyalty and punish the people who disagree with us and offend us. We are abdicating judgment of our actions to a third party (God, the Bishop, our Mom, etc)

Living life in a manner that requires us to make our own choices, think out what we must do in each and every situation that confronts us, is VERY hard. Living a life where we must look in the mirror each day and judge ourselves and our actions is brutally hard.

I am more impressed by the altruistic atheist than the pious believer. The believer acts out of fear of punishment, or to curry favor. The atheist simply does what is right without expectation.

Of course there are evil believers and atheists. The former can hide behind religious dogma to justify their actions, the latter can't.

[Kelvin Mace]

32. I got your PM

A little unfair to drop a bombshell like that then make it impossible for me to reply. If you would send me you eMail by PM, I can address the points you raised.

I disagree completely with your conclusion, and would like to discuss it before you make any decisions.

[MrCoffee]

6. if "life is meaningless", how do we "get on with our lives and give them meaning"?

[Kelvin Mace]

13. The question has always implied

that we are here for a reason. For us to be here for a reason, this implies someone put us here, and thus has some repsonsibility in this matter for our existance. As a result, we waste quite a bit of our life, if not all of it trying to curry favor with that power to make our lives better and punish those who wrong us. We even create elaborate mythologies about this power, with rules, holy texts, and lists of enemies to punish/convert/oppress.

My view?

We are here by random chance. Make the most of your life, its the only one you have. Your life has the meaning YOU give it.

Hell *is* other people, so is Heaven.

[LibDemAlways]

7. Many years ago while in Hawaii I gazed up at the millions of

stars visible in the clear night sky and wondered the same thing myself. The only conclusion I reached is that we are tiny specks in a universe vast and complex beyond all imagining and that our role here on Earth is to make the most of our limited time by being good caretakers of our planet and good and helpful friends to our fellow humans - both marks of a life well lived.

[Kelvin Mace]

21. The only true immortality is in the memories of others

[The2ndWheel]

8. It would be nice if it were meaningless

I'm content in the randomness of it, the chance. The way the Earth spins around the Sun, with no destination, just like life.

[jgraz]

10. Randomness is so comforting, isn't it

I never understood how the thought of an all powerful judge who watches and evaluates your every action was more comforting than simple, meaningless randomicity.

[Uncle Joe]

16. The meaning of life is to grow and then be recycled in

an endless loop of possibilities.

[Kelvin Mace]

22. Works for me

:)

[alfredo]

17. Providing for other beings by eating, shitting and dying.

[Yavin4]

19. I Recently Discovered The Meaning of Life

"Life is meaningless in the "grand scheme of things". A random occurrence, in a random universe, that happened to result in a sentient life form capable of asking, "What is the meaning of life?"

I could not disagree with you more. Evolution is anything but random. Natural selection entails understanding your environment, adapting to it, and changing it for the better.

Thus, the meaning of life is:

Leave the world a better place than how you lived in it.

If everything is meaningless and random, then all living species on earth would never survive.

[Kelvin Mace]

26. Natural selection

starts in many cases with random mutations which are beneficial to the organism. These mutations give the organism an advatage over others who lack it, and the mutation survives.

The cosmic forces that resulted in this planet's creation were not evolutionary, it was a random event. A random chunk of rock, a random size, and a random mix of elements resulted in life. Evolution then took charge, and here we are. If the history of Earth was a novel, life shows up a quarter of the way into the story, but doesn't get any lines until the last sentence, on the last page.

I agree that now that we have reached the point we are at, things have pretty much stopped being random, and started being in our control.

Unless we get pancaked by an asteroid.

[Zhade]

25. Only human arrogance demands there be one at all.

NT!

[Kelvin Mace]

28. And arrogance

is something we humans have an overwhelming supply of.