The meaning of life

[McBourbon]

Why do we even ponder such inane bullshit as this? Because we have a more powerful brain capable of rational thought and not merely instinctual impulse? Fuck it. Does it matter? Next topic..........

[Keyser Soze]

im not talking about God as having humanistic qualities or even as a person.

what fascinates me is that something developed out of "no-thing" as Spit described it. for that to happen is amazing to me. how the hell did this occur?? its incomprehensible and therefore pretty wild to imagine.

[McBourbon]

Okay....but why? Couldn't your time be better spent satisfying your Id instead of trying to get all Jean Paul Sarte and find something in the nothingness that is human existence? Just because some scientists have proven that something cannot come from something and that energy cannot be either created or destroyed doesn't mean our scientists are right. You're operating from both the both the known and unknown universal truths and all you're doing, rather than being philosophical, is confusing the shit out of yourself. Pick a science and stick to it.

[Hey Ladi]

Fuck it. Does it matter? Next topic..........

Back to the underware thread with you :poke:

Couldn't your time be better spent satisfying your Id instead of trying to get all Jean Paul Sarte and find something in the nothingness that is human existence?

Because some people enjoy it

edit: Personal View to be expressed in the next paragragh:
And God.... he made the universe or people, or whatever 'he' did, just for the purpose of making it. He has no obligation to see that we have a good time here. He's not good or bad for his lack of interest, it's not up to him. He's not responsible for our outcome. He made us, and may or may not be there at the end to collect our empties & cash our souls in. We are his little tank of sea monkeys, while he is busy cleaning his apt.... we're over there doing our own shit.



Edited By Hey Ladi on June 12 2002 at 2:29

[Spitfire]

but who made God...that's the unknowable tangent....

[McBourbon]

Ladi....you're assuming God created us and not the other way around, then. That much, we've already decided....there is no God except in the minds of humans who needed religion to explain the inexplicable and to provide a moral and ethical set of rules on a societal level. God.......heh! I'm at least with Keyser on the where did it all come from thing.......but I'm not foolish or naive enough to believe that our "GOD", as far as humanity has defined it, had anything to do with any of it. It's a scientific question...not a religious one.

[Hey Ladi]

Ok, so if people made God...... then he is humanly....... I didn't quite mean religion.. because philosophy has the same principals, and is supposedly purely human in nature.

So what is purely scientific? Our existence? fine...

But "What is the meaning of life?" is a person's question & not scientific.

[McBourbon]

Even science is man made. We had people who questioned things and then researched answers. None of it is real, except from our own human perspective. We've placed alevel of importance on our existence here that is based purely on our own need to feel superior, because our brian demands that much. If we stopped thinking so much and merely existed.....much like our animal counterparts......we wouldn't be concerning ourselves with such nonsense.

[Spitfire]

How can this be solely a scientific question? Science doesn't work on an experiential and esoteric basis. That's where science has it's limitations. If something can't be quantifiable, it doesn't exist. No matter what how vivid someone's experiences may be.



and I totally agree that the civilized man has forgotten all of his instincts...and separated himself from nature...which will probably lead to our undoing



Edited By Spitfire on June 12 2002 at 2:35

[McBourbon]

If something can't be quantifiable, it doesn't exist.

Says who? Our scientists...that's who. So if they're human and everything around us is human made and human thought made into reality........we are nothing more than animals with more powerful brains than the others. We are here to procreate and die.

We need to stop placing more importance on our existence than it deserves simply because our brain demands it.



Edited By McBourbon on June 12 2002 at 2:38

[Hey Ladi]

We've placed alevel of importance on our existence here that is based purely on our own need to feel superior, because our brian demands that much

We are superior because of our ability to think beyond the mere needs for survival. Maslow? Who made that pyramid? Animals are not happier because of they don't think about things... they are 'happy' because they have fulfilled their potential & that's as high as they can go. Plus they are animals & we assign them 'happiness" because it makes us feel like we are doing a good job keeping the dog in the house.

[McBourbon]

they are 'happy' because they have fulfilled their potential & that's as high as they can go

So why, with our superior intellect, have we not realized that we are no different than they are? Why do we not realize that perhaps we have reached our potential and that arguing points such is this is all speculation beyond our grasp because we're not meant to know it?

[Spitfire]

Yeah, I meant that it was from a scientific standpoint...read a bit about the aura research (energy in all things, also comes from the sun and moon) of Baron Karl von Reichenbach and you'll see how science fails in matters of human experience...

[McBourbon]

Well...it's been fun....I've got to run to work, folks.
TO BE CONTINUED....

[Hey Ladi]

Because we haven't fulfilled our potential. We take jobs that suck, because of bills, because of trying to have fun, and function in a society. The structure of our kind of existence negates extended periods of happiness with anything less than that which is prescibed as perfect bliss by said society.

Money can't buy you love, money can't buy you happiness.... but you can't do with out it, because you get nothing from poverty either. A happy medium is hard to find, because "life" gets in the way. We need a car, need a house, need that new tv, a blender with 57 speeds...

We ponder the meaning of life because we are trying to rationalize some higher meaning, because it can't be as simple as being happy with what you have, being a good person by respecting others, and all that. If we can think it, why can't we have it.

[IkeaBoy]

I think a major reason why we're not happy is because we are constantly trying to be told we aren't happy. We're told not to be jealous, not to covet, not to put importance in material possessions in religious texts yet we can't help it. Society is based on jealousy. Capitalism is based on jealousy. You don't have it, you want it, and if you have it you want it more and better. You can never have enough things, you can never have enough money. That is the mindset behind capitalism and thus then our culture.

And talking about money can't buying happiness, I think for some (not many it can). I can also understand why people would like money better than people- it's function is known and it can help you obtain things you want, it doesn't change (minus inflation/deflation), it's attitude doesn't vary, you always know what it's purpose is and you don't have to worry about upsetting it. Of course you can never have all the money in the world so it's an endless quest.

And no, we don't know everything. There are an infinite number of things we don't know and will NEVER know. However it is the inability to comprehend that which we don't understand which is yet another reason for the creation of God. People would be afraid of an eclipse, etc. so how do you explain which you can't explain and sooth the natives' fears? Say that God did it. If you don't understand it, it's because God did it. Case closed, don't question it, the masses are happy because their insignificant lives are given purpose again.

Mind you, there ARE happy people in the world. The people who are happy in our culture are blissfully ignorant. The more you know the less happy you are because the more you know you don't know. The people who just mindlessly follows what they're told to follow. Make the barbecue on the fourth of july, enjoy your meaningless job, enjoy your meaningless life, take your family to Disney World during the summer, enjoy the lines, don't question the government, Oswald killed Kennedy, the media doesn't lie. Is this a good way to live? I don't know. On one hand these people will probably be more content than I ever will be, on the other it really is a pathetic useless life (a different sort of pathetic and useless than the one i'm living in mind you) and these people probably won't ever accomplish anything. They won't mind though, they don't think in that way.

[Sean Cold]

Animals are not happier because of they don't think about things... they are 'happy' because they have fulfilled their potential & that's as high as they can go.

There are actually two perfectly good reasons why animals are happy. 1) They don't ponder shit like this and 2) They can lick thier own privates without breaking any bones. Thats it, end of story.

I would love to wax all philosophical over this but since I am drug free, I can not. I don't wonder about shit, I just live my life to make others miserable. Yes, this does bring me great joy for some reason.:firebounce:

[SLASH]

I think a major reason why we're not happy is because we are constantly trying to be told we aren't happy. We're told not to be jealous, not to covet, not to put importance in material possessions in religious texts yet we can't help it. Society is based on jealousy. Capitalism is based on jealousy. You don't have it, you want it, and if you have it you want it more and better. You can never have enough things, you can never have enough money. That is the mindset behind capitalism and thus then our culture.

And talking about money can't buying happiness, I think for some (not many it can). I can also understand why people would like money better than people- it's function is known and it can help you obtain things you want, it doesn't change (minus inflation/deflation), it's attitude doesn't vary, you always know what it's purpose is and you don't have to worry about upsetting it. Of course you can never have all the money in the world so it's an endless quest.

And no, we don't know everything. There are an infinite number of things we don't know and will NEVER know. However it is the inability to comprehend that which we don't understand which is yet another reason for the creation of God. People would be afraid of an eclipse, etc. so how do you explain which you can't explain and sooth the natives' fears? Say that God did it. If you don't understand it, it's because God did it. Case closed, don't question it, the masses are happy because their insignificant lives are given purpose again.

Mind you, there ARE happy people in the world. The people who are happy in our culture are blissfully ignorant. The more you know the less happy you are because the more you know you don't know. The people who just mindlessly follows what they're told to follow. Make the barbecue on the fourth of july, enjoy your meaningless job, enjoy your meaningless life, take your family to Disney World during the summer, enjoy the lines, don't question the government, Oswald killed Kennedy, the media doesn't lie. Is this a good way to live? I don't know. On one hand these people will probably be more content than I ever will be, on the other it really is a pathetic useless life (a different sort of pathetic and useless than the one i'm living in mind you) and these people probably won't ever accomplish anything. They won't mind though, they don't think in that way.

I have a new found respect for IkeaBoy :loveya:

[Gooch]

It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning.

- Albert Camus

[Keyser Soze]

I told you Ikeaboy was the coolest.