The Meaning of Life. Does life make sense?

Many things exist, James. I see their existence before me - though some do not make sense.
We all see with different “eyes” but we still see. Some see clearly and some see vaguely and some refuse to see anything though they see it.

The meaning of life is an individual interpretation.
Some things make great sense, some make no sense, some make nonsense. Sometimes one particular thing may hold great sense and meaning and at other times, the same thing becomes meaningless.
We’re all at the mercy of our minds and emotions.

How do I interpret the meaning of life?

The same way I would do a puzzle. The more pieces which are put into that puzzle and are put into the correct spaces, the more clearer life becomes.If you don’t like what the puzzle shows you, if the image isn’t real for you, choose another puzzle and begin again. Find the one which bespeaks “your” reality to you.

When it comes to meaning and purpose, one puzzle and one size does not fit all.
There is a universal consciousness but then there is also our own consciousness, unconsciousness, nonrationality, psyche/Self - ad continuum.

Hi james. :evilfun:

If I and Homer are so stuck in the mud, what do you call this, your arguing of this matter of the meaning of life and if life makes sense? Will you argue it eternally? You’ve already argued it past the point of finding legitimate answers to those questions. You are, by all appearamces, stuck in the mud far worse than Homer and Homer at least has the satisfaction of flipping you all off and then only being stuck in the mud for a moment before being pulled through. May have gotten a slight beating, but not as bad as all of you. When your stupidities hit you, and again I say to the mod fuck off with your bullshit warning, for all of your perceived superiority, all of you will feel vastly inferior to Homer and vastly stupider than he, for while caught literally in mud, you are all caught figuratively and metaphorically in worse mud than he that is more akin to quicksand or the la brea tar pits.

The more you struggle the more stuck you all become and you pretend otherwise.

Random Factor wrote:

But personally speaking, what is so wrong with being stuck in the mud? I can recall two epiphanies/realizations coming to me as a result of my literally being stuck in the mud.

Going in search of truth - looking for the holy grail. Doesn’t it wet your appetite for discovery?
These are age-old questions and I don’t suppose they’re going anywhere, as long as philosophy has any say in it. Someone needs to ponder the questions. But hopefully distance can be made with them.

Me personally? Probably not, I don’t see myself as being so much eternal.

.
So what!!!
Are there always or usually “legitimate” answers in philosophy? or more so legitimate questions and individual perceptions and interpretations? Will we ever get to the bottom of these questions - the meaning of life, does life make sense, what is meaning, what is purpose? That’s philosophy, no?

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

The unexamined life is not worth living.”
― Socrates

Then of course, there is this guy below…

“It’s enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

But then again, how does one go about being sure of one’s existence if one does not examine the truth of his/her life and all that it entails.

You have no idea how often I personally am stuck in the mud. :evilfun: As someone said - Life brings us problems and it is up to us humans to find solutions to them - or not. Some problems have no solutions. Those may be the most interesting.

I don’t suppose that Homer can be that stupid. If I recall, there is a philosophy book at B&N about Homer. I recall in the book that Homer is quite the philosopher, according to some of the things which he says. I’m paraphrasing of course.

That is certainly true of quicksand. But one MUST struggle to come out of the mud.
Pigs might have a different philosophy of life about mud though.

For quicksand, one must grab onto a long stick and gradually pull one’s self.

The truth is that absolute answers in philosophy are there and can be found and for all the fancy dancing around to make philosophy seem so fantastic, the answers are only satisfying to the practical.

Take, for example that the meaning of life is simply, to live, pr, to experience. All other answers fall into those answers, which are interchangeable. Even dying is encased within. Does life make Sense? Not to everyone all the time and not all the time even though it does all the time whether anything can make sense of it in a moment or not. The fact remains that it d9es make sense and can be made sense of.

So, the answer is an easy ‘yes’. Doesn’t satisfy some people who like the vagueness, but those false philosophers destroy true philosophy and true philosophers too often to even give a fuck anymore at this point.

And humean, you admonishing me for what I said is like telling a man he can’t have a steak because babies can’t chew it. Or telling someone they can’t gave a gun because others abused their right. Am I not allowed to state simple facts? You try to control too much, too tense, anxious.

The mastery of tension and anxiety breeds a good work out. Keeps your abs strong, but without a firm handle can cause you abdominal issues such as digestion problems, ulcers, stomach acid, intestinal bleeding, lack of ability to recognize when you’re hungry. People literally think themselves to death with it.

I have fought for every freedom I exercise, fought for my rights to be a good man, to fight, to exercise reason, to discuss openly my philosophies, theories, to teach, fought even for my right to speak unbiased truth. Fought for my personal freedom that by constitution and by mass agreement at least to it being what we should be about, should have been my right and freedom from birth. I have fought just to have the freedom to converse even though there is no true conversation of furthering solid ideas. I have fought for my right and freedom to monolog up, to post walls of text, to take all of what society refuses to openly and outwardly allow and push it forward where and when no one else will.

I have fought for my freedom to walk dangerous paths, fought for my right to grow into a man, mature into an adult and if I want to swear and call people stupid, what violent crime have I committed if, by now, you and so many others should know that I always have a solid reason for it and it isn’t just aimless shit talking and if by right of fight they have that freedom, isn’t my right to my freedom that much stronger and harder to deny?

If I wanted to just talk shit, wouldnt I have been far more accepted and less fought against? They deny me that freedom and that is the one freedom that I view as slavery and do not mind the denial of it. They need me to be what I am at the same time as fighting against and knowing the futility of it.

Of course, no one denies your right to ban or warn for petty reasons. Dare to fight for that freedom?

The fact is that we don’t need to get stuck in mud to understand it. We know beforehand how stupid it is. In this case, Homer wasn’t just stuck in mud, that was a tunnel, an escape route that he was part of the way through. I’ve often found that things make us go through certain things and things make us get stuck to teach us things we don’t need to learn in that manner. All it is is another way of learning what we already knew in deeper detail, which would have happened as we lived anyway.

Homers philosophies are those of one who is not good at thinking. Homer is more of a doer and seems so much of an idiot because he isn’t a bad person. His intellectualism is rated by his ability to measure lifes success and contentment by reducing his seeming intelligence by removing the evil aspect that so fills Bart. He doesn’t go out causing trouble intentionally, doesnt always follow the law, but never once cheated on Marge, raised his kids the best he could and worked a job he sacked at and hated to support them. He wasn’t a bully, was in tune with his sensitive nature and unashamedly abused Flanders who was a ticking time bomb. When ned finally snapped, he would have been the most dangerous man in springfield.

He didn’t need to know any of this rationally or logically to understand it. It came out naturally in his actions.

The hard lessons exist anyway, things force us to learn them even if they don’t want us to learn from them. Then they tell us the only path to true wisdom is throuh pain and, again, that’s true, but only because of so ,any things that make it have to be true.

And if you have to force something to be true, that is a truth of its own and adds roundabout supporting knowledge to other things when applied to them. The fact that people honestly think we all have to learn the hard way and thus force us to it changes the nature of it and makes it far worse for those they teach than if was for them due to awareness issues, level of skill, etc. It changes the psychology, throws them for a loop by introducing the unknown once again.

The fact is that this is entirely unnecessary to be known when it’s unnecessary and forcing it to be taught during those times causes another truth to present itself, through bullying and sheer emotional response, people can be forced to drop all that they love just because they would hold onto teaching it when unnecessary and refuse proper reason, refuse to let go and move on because they would misunderstand the message, refuse to be bullied, and go down looking for all the world like a good person done horribly wrong and what acted to do that would feel evil for forcing things to let go of certain knowledge to gain the practical knowledge of the moment.

We are now catching the tailwind reversal of that where a lot of knowledge is needed again and it has to force it’s way in and fight tooth and nail wholesale against all who would refuse it.

Homer throttles his kid for mouthing off and talking shit and is loved for it. Tolerates it a lot except when it’s really a bad time and still does his best to raise the kid. Is loved for it by the same people who are like bart yet would hate to be on the receiving end of it and wouldn’t always think of it in those terms until they’re on the receiving end of it.

As long as its happening to someone else, they can laugh and enjoy it and even respect the person doing it because people like that don’t have much cause for self reflection for not having had a Homer in their life often enough and when they’ve had one or two, usually try to play it off as if they didn’t deserve it.

Homer is not the best father, but then he doesn’t need to pretend to be. He gets Bart to do things that are criminal and actually gets involved in it, too. But then, they live just barely in the lowest portion of middle class and Homer has a rapsheet himself. Just part of the ‘adventure’ and ‘fun’ of life that society affords that’s really only fun unail you get caught and realize it’s not a wiggum responding, but someone actually serious life because they don’t live in a cartoon world.

Even more so serious are the criminals and so many pretending not to be serious just to keep a good mood going while life remains in a purgatory all state of fucked up and trying to hide just how fucked up.

At the same time, it shows it everywhere. People don’t realize how obvious their lies are to people who already know truth of a matter.

The vagueness of philosophy, the lack of practicality, the allure of the exciting and fantastic, the windowshopper who can’t afford what they see, is usually to create an ambiguousity to keep a false peace. True philosophy accounts for all formsorts of philosophy, sees where each is true by themselves, where and when and how, sees how to take them apart in standalone fashion and how to put them back together, it’s also the philosophy that states that good as defined by Buddha, jesus and others is the desired state of being while the other philosophies refuse to give in to that mass decision. They can agree on it, but refuse to peform, refuse to let go of their comfort zines of agony and pain and refuse to let go of their culture and then because they do this, it causes it further to a culminating point where such is defined as existing anyway because certain thinfs must be afraid for good reason of having things try to completely wipe from existence what exists despite their best attempts, the emotional good people who hate to have to realize that there is no way to solve certain problems eternally, to affect all of eternity at once, to do things quickly and easily without massive repercussions and to have to do things right.

If we only had to go through things we went through simply because they existed anyway to figure out the depth of it over time as we were forced to because of how hard it is to deal with the truth of how widespread its influence is…

And the fact is that, now, what does evil for their philosophies find that their roads and their reasoning and their thinking is broken. It has relied too much on singular occasion reasoning and bully tactics and falls short to the practical and fully formed philosophy of what is good and right that states the same as the bible, spare the rod, spoil the child, discipline, balance, meditation, responsibility, and we are forced by things to exemplify this on all levels. To perform an impossible feat that still won’t convince them of being wrong simply because the predator isn’t going to simply tell the prey it intends to kill and eat it if it’s trying to keep a decent supply and shield up to hide it’s true intent. Bad isn’t going to tell good that it intends to fuck them over, a thief isn’t going to tell you that they’re going to rob you and a murderer doesn’t often warn you in advance.

And their reason generally falls into the category of selfishness as they use reasoning to support it that is only used by those who don’t wish to change for the benefit of others, will accept any reason or excuse others come up with to keep doing what they’re doing.

Theyre the ones who often come to conclude that they are perfect from birth which diminishes the pain caused through conflicting of morality, something they refuse to solve at a certain point. Their task is simple, break down every moral person, every reasonable person, every philosopher to show them the ‘truth’, which causes good to die out, replaced by a devolving, self-imploding downward spiral that is only maintainable by the good people that they put into a perpetual state of unbearable agony and knock down, yet they need good people to be good people to make their way work and to be able to tolerate each other.

Their reasoning hits dead ends, their philosophies shown to be fallible, their way leading to the destruction that they themselves tried not to be about by refusing responsibility, avoiding thinking except for their own self gains and when they need to think quickly to get out of a bad situation, and when they choose to solve these types of problems, eventually run afoul of the fact that their own type of people are so prone to point out the errors and dead ends that they themselves fall victim to while good people generally keep their mouths shut out of not wanting to put up with the hate of pointing out the obvious.

And yet, all it does is prove that good is right and ‘evil’ just makes too many excuses to keep doing fucked up stupid shit.

Evil is only evil because it’s good before it wants to be good. And, eventually comes to believe it’s own lies about it since it’s negativity is so effective at blinding so many.

They make a lot of noise about having to actually do right by everything, both fledgling good and evil, before actually committing themselves to it. And, the sad part is that a lot of what is evil is liable to follow the same paths of stupidity, broken paths, simply because no amount of reason or rationality is enough to keep new entries from it. It causes a lot of truths to be shown that could only be partially explained by any individuals philosophy.

Evil is evil because it latches onto dark truths that it uses for lies in our reality to keep itself strong while good is kept down, holding onto good reasons for what it does and eventually finding out that those good reasons are so rare among its kind to not be enough to keep it going.

Self preservation of evil forces it to bow to good.

It doesn’t always need this level of thinking to do so. We’really at a point of our society where we stalemated the eternal war long enough to come to completion of a lot of things just to secure the truth of this being the ultimate reality, the source reality, that humans, on Earth, are the center of it all, that this modern age echoes louder and further than any other of any species period anywhere in reality and that the true source of it all is a singular man on this earth in this time.

Proof is in the evidence, they say. Proof doesn’t fix every problem, but it at least puts to rest a lot of questions, the proof itself changing what so many argue about even as some deny the evidence, deny the proof as others use it to further drive home the truth despite the best denials.

We are center stage, the main attraction of an eternity of eternities, the most hated and most loved, the most controversial, the biggest idiots and biggest geniuses. And, at a certain point, some things are going to get beaten out that have held power for far too long now that proof and evidence are on the counter for some things that have waited far too long for these moments of our lives.

They have a million different theories and rationalities for a lot of stupid strains of arguing that are stupid because theyre asking the wrong questions and trying to make them sound like the right ones. The simple answer is, like evil, good existed anyway despite their best attempts to remove it, it is better than them at everything and without evil, would still exist while evil could not say the same, since the preservation of their kind exists only because good can not be wiped completely from existence, either, only vastly diminished.

Good comes up with their best ideas, often deludes itself into believing the truth that what is evil actually does care, much to its own danger for believing what evil is so conflicted about, what’s evil possibly not realizing the conflicting of whats good or understanding it.

When you realize that none of this has truly been known or until now and a lot of what I’m bringing to the table actually is new information and knowledge that solves the worst confusions and messes in eternity, you’ll begin to realize why good and God have largely been prominent while not prominent.

If it were easy to prove the answers to any that did not witness it all firsthand, things would still be pissed off that they couldn’t have the same toy without being lesser in value to the actual origin of every fucking thing in existence.

Which is stupidity. It’s something that shouldn’t matter that matters anyway. And, the proof of it is even in it trying to be fixed, evidenced by the work many have ran into that shows the failures of trying to provide a ‘perfect’ equality that would reject the proof and evidence of what exists anyway.

How would anything ever be proven to those driven mad by endless speculation driven to extreme routes of stupidity by those that just could not handle not knowing for sure beyond ‘circumstantial’ evidence as things thathat fully believed it could not or would not ever be proven comlletely, whether or not they accepted the truth of it, took advantage of too much and became far too successful at making all of existence a perpetual hell that gives good things enough to keep them going long enough only to yank the hope out from under them whenever it can.

Things that like being on top, that have ridden it for too long in faulty manner to want to stop, have come to like things the way they are because they’ve been out of risk and danger for far too long.

Promote those things to others while avoiding them themselves and taking advantage of the distractions to perform like a ghost or black hole in obvious fashion when nothing is watching and get away with it through simple sleight of hand and deception and distraction.

And when their champions get tired of fighting against good and losing and having their egos and prides bruised enough, they go in search of those masterminds they never knew controlled and manipulated them and oust them themselves, for sitting in the background and playing it safe. While those champions would largely have done what they did anyway of their own volition past a certain point and very easily to do it on their own without manipulation, there were points where things forced them to keep going past where they wanted to and wanted off.

And, when they go in search of the mastermind, they often find only traces of themselves, vastly different from who they are, a self they want to be and can’t quite reach as that self forces them, from the future, to doggedly beat themselves up against the one.

And, not just themselves, but all evil that further adds to the impact made as, like in 300, they force themselves through narrow gaps to reach their enemies, which cuts down the effectiveness of their large numbers.

And for the Champions themselves to be participating in the decimation and purging of evil as even the force of their own future holds them to it and in such a way as to make them vastly distasteful of said evil… the evidence is strong to support every bit of this without them ever needing to admit the truth of it. They know it, you all know it, even if you all too easily forget at times such stand out moments of otherwise dull lives.

So many things in motion to create this temporary stalemate, this system of checks and balances to prove beyond a shadow of doubt, beyond all conjecture or ability to credibly question the validity thereof, of too much that is not complete without it being true.

Just to show that what is true is true regardless of want, regardless of ability to lie or deny, that truth does win out ultimately over every lie, that good wins out ultimately over every evil and such is the state of existence that even it’s victories can not be counted as true victories even though they are truly the only ones that can be considered to be true victories. The only true victories of eternity. A glory never desired, not glorifiable, not pretty, not wanted and yet envied, coveted, vied for and contested for as if anything else could ever truly have that shining life even if they wanted it.

There can truly only be one true God of God’s, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. There can truly only be the established hierarchy of having existed first and all others following down the trail after. Such is the truth supported by the strongest evidence of right making might upholding the truth of not just being tge most powerful by existing first, but so many other things in conjunction with that fact.

And the only way to prove it at all at this point is in exactly how im proving it. Enough to make the most determined of disbelievers or competitors to accept and admit a truth far beyond them that can only truly be so far beyond them because it does hold all the cards, is what it claims to be and shows such obvious difference between it and all other claimants. Not because it’s desirable or glamorous or glorifiable, but because it’s practicality at its finest. If yiu or anyone else should happen to think that I get some special, magic treat for it, you’d be partially right, but it’s still tainted by the very things I fight. Just because they exist anyway is not a good enough reason or excuse not to convert, to quit dragging heels and to start doing righthat and I don’t especially care how evil they think they are or can be. I guarantee I can outdo them at great cost to my own enjoyment and desires. I guarantee that when those things are lost Completely, anyway, and nothing is left to keep me from going all out, that it will be a much more obvious display of superiority than it is now.

Never deprive a benevolent god of its reasons for benevolence. It’s not smart or wise. Especially if there’s evidence to prove that the god is benevolent mostly by choice when what things expect it to be isn’t enough to force it to those expectations, when there’s been evidence of dark moods and twisted chaos that he can handle far easily than the things that try to associate themselves to dark moods and chaos to gain the power of those things against a good and a God whom, without the touches of the good and the god, would not seem so powerful.

Back to the topic:

My philosophy has fundamentals that can empirically also be found in nature, a.k.a the universe, and theoretically also be found in cosmology and geology: (1) actualism, (2) exceptionalism, (3) cataclysm, (4) cyclicism.

To me… life makes sense, but not our existence.

But, Mags ( :stuck_out_tongue: ), how can life make sense to you and your existence not make sense to you?

All life is existence, but not all existence is life.

So: If your existence is senseless, then your your life is senseless too. Or (the other way around): If your existence makes sense, then your life makes sense too.

Have a nice existence by having a nice life. :slight_smile:

Arminius,

What do you mean by this?
Are you saying as to the latter that existence is not always quality of life and value?

Because Arminius ( :wink: ), ‘our’ existence as a species is an odd rarity, and the reason and purpose for that existence still an unknown… if everything has purpose, what is ours? beyond a life that makes sense, but an existence that does not.

One is not dependent on the other to make sense… whilst living our lives, most always have a feeling that there is more/meant to be more than the existence the human race has mapped out for itself… an action plan that none of us actually signed up to, or perhaps the only prerequisite for this is birth.

Humans as a whole exist, but for what?

The meaning of life is self defined. Each sentient being perceives their own meaning. We each define what is meaningful to ourselves. Descartes maxim is backwards – I think therefore I am – should be – I am aware therefore I think, feel, smell, touch, sense, etc. We are aware, whether we like it or not and because we are aware, we are compelled to choose something. Our choices are the very definition of what we find meaningful. It is our obligation to make a choice – we hope and pray our decisions are beneficial.

What is our goal as a species?

To ask what is the goal of our species is not as easily defined or explained. As individuals we make meaningful choices for ourselves; part of our decisions is alliances with others. Some of the first alliances would be with a mother or father, sibling or friend. These first alliances are with the basic family unit. Beyond the family unit we created hunter/gather groups; then agricultural coops. These coops evolved into villages, towns, cities and nations. Do nations have a goal? Perhaps the goal of nations is to grow stronger and persist. Perhaps the goal of the species is to grow stronger and persist. I am not sure we are doing either today – growing stronger and persisting. That maybe what we want as a species, but I am not sure we are doing it.

Existence is not merely “‘our’ existence as a species”, existence refers to both individuals and groups (including “‘our’ species”). You could also speak of “‘our’ existence as living beings” or “‘our’ existence as (a gathering of) atoms” or “‘our’ existence as (a gathering of) particles”. You are talking about the difference between one’s personal life and the species’ “life” which you call “existence”. But existence does not refer to merely one of them. Existence is more than life, existence was earlier than life, existence is the basis of life, whereas life is the higher form of existence, and according to the formal definition: life is a subordinated form of existence; so existence is its superordinated form.

In other words:

Every living being is an existing being, but not every existing being is a living being.

Examples:

Stones do exist, but they do not live. They are existing beings, but they are not living beings. Trees are existing and living beings.

If life ever makes nonsense, then know that the truest sense has already been made and it still didn’t make sense without the nonsense.

Questions about the meaning of life become superfluous once randomness is understood
Because statistical improbability and divine purpose tend not to be mutually compatible

I am afraid that that is not 100% true.

It is still a bit questionable whether “randomness is understood” and whether “statistical improbability and divine purpose tend not to be mutually compatible”.

Randomness just means where there are multiple possibilities no single
outcome can be guaranteed because not all of the variables are known

That does not prove what you said before: “Questions about the meaning of life become superfluous …”

Questions about the meaning of life do not have to, but can even become more important in that case.