Meaning of life.

[Big D]

yeah the past is ok

epic swordfights and indiscriminate slaughter on the battlefielfd ::) :O :-[

[ExSPlug]

Somehow I think there is no meaning of life...

As a student, my parents and those around me usually say:

Get into the university, so that you can end your "sufferings" now.

But then I would think...graduation = unemployment, which is still equal to suffering. Even if you get a job...damn, you still suffer. It's just like an endless loop.

Another question is, ok...lets forget about the suffering part. Assuming that I got into university, so I had fulfilled the "meaning of life", but then what am I to do next? People say that you should keep seeting new goals for your life, but then isn't it like finding troubles for yourself?

[Egeides]

I don't think that the goal is to get the more pleasure and the less suffering. Otherwise, my advice would be to do like these monkeys: get something connected to your brain that will give sensual pleasure each time you press the button. Like them, you'll probably die a few days later from not eating nor drinking.

Would to love be a good goal? I'm not talking only of woman-man love here but love of everything around, from finding what to love in some work to friends, etc. To me, the goal became is Beauty, Truth, Good. A Platonician trinity I first got to know from a book that barely mentioned it. The question here is how is the world built, and if there is something better, this is what we should aim for. It's perhaps in many cases to evade sadness, but it's doing it by looking at the consequences, looking not only to oneself but to the whole, all beings. So it may sometimes get bad for you, while it's better for all the others. It may be not as good now, but it's the thing to do to make so it'll get better later. Love is central to this, since it's the expression of this. It is not only toward yourself, but it is universal: towards each being, towards the whole.

[Acriku]

For the millionth time: Each person makes his own purpose in life.

Surviving is usually a part of it, but I don't think I ever met anyone whose purpose in life was to merely stay alive. Or to reproduce, for that matter. This is the 21st century, for God's sake!

Who said that living was the only purpose? You can add on whatever purpose you want, but living is an inherent purpose in having a life. You don't have to abide by that purpose, it's just there.

[Edric O]

Acriku, I was commenting on Dust Scout's opinion, not yours...

Apollyon, what happens if someone derives pleasure and enjoyment from making others suffer? Should he go ahead with it?

[Scrinlord]

love... :-*

so what happens when love turns and bites you in the ass?

Somehow I think there is no meaning of life...

As a student, my parents and those around me usually say:

Get into the university, so that you can end your "sufferings" now.

But then I would think...graduation = unemployment, which is still equal to suffering. Even if you get a job...damn, you still suffer. It's just like an endless loop.

Another question is, ok...lets forget about the suffering part. Assuming that I got into university, so I had fulfilled the "meaning of life", but then what am I to do next? People say that you should keep seeting new goals for your life, but then isn't it like finding troubles for yourself?

This is pretty much how I feel. Our entire lives are laid out in front of us like a mathematical formula, and we seldom take the time to change it. We are brought up, and made to go to a school that we don’t like for 12 years. And as we get out of school, we are told that we must now go to school for another 4 to 8 years if we are to have a good life and a “real” job. So we pay money that we don’t have, to go to school that we really would rather not be in. After four years, you finally graduate, and get a job. Now every day, we get up, go to work for a company we don’t care about, doing a job we don’t like for a boss we don’t know. We do this every day of the week until we are to tired to care about doing anything else. We then get married and have a kid, and instead of making our children’s lives better, we just send them off on the same path that we traveled so many years ago.

We are told by the media that buying the newest version of everything that comes out every single day will give us happiness, and in our self-imposed delirium, we believe them. Unfortunately, all of these things require money. So we work and work and get more and more money, and we buy more and more stuff. This goes on and on until one day, we wake up, and we look around us expecting to find ourselves overflowing with happiness. Instead, we find ourselves overflowing with cheap plastic shit.

My personal favorite answere is that to love and be loved is the meaning of life, but then love kicks your ass, and what is left?

[Terror]

when it bites me... i search for new love. :)

[Scrinlord]

your lucky, I wish I could do that. But love always kicks my ass, and I am sick of it :'(

[Apollyon]

"Apollyon, what happens if someone derives pleasure and enjoyment from making others suffer? Should he go ahead with it? "

Logically, yes, and in a lot of cases they do. As far as I can see this is the selfish truth of the meaning of life, as horrible as might seem.

[Edric O]

The selfish truth of YOUR meaning of life, you mean.

The meaning of my life is to make the world a better place. To fight for justice, freedom and equality. To serve Humanity to the best of my ability.

There is nothing I despise more than selfishness. "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile" - Albert Einstein

[Terror]

then i think, you could consider me selfish.

[Sneakgab]

Are you suggesting that you derive pleasure and enjoyment primarily from causing others to suffer?

[Acriku]

your lucky, I wish I could do that. But love always kicks my ass, and I am sick of it :'(

Obviously it wasn't love for her. So, it wasn't love, persay, but one-way love.

My bad Edric.

[Terror]

Are you suggesting that you derive pleasure and enjoyment primarily from causing others to suffer?

no ofcourse not, every person has other ways of feeling good. if i help someone, i feel good... but it is in the end a selfish thought... i want to feel good....

[Apollyon]

The meaning of my life is to make the world a better place. To fight for justice, freedom and equality. To serve Humanity to the best of my ability.

Only because you derive pleasure from doing so.

[shygirl4]

I want to know what you guys think the point of life is.

there is a frog which lives in the brazilian rain forest it lives no where else on earth , under the tongue of this frog lives a worm , this worm spends its entire life living under the tongue of this frog , when the frog dies the worm dies , what is the point of the worms life ? there are fields in england where plants grow , and they grow no where else on earth. but a tiny field in england,...why...?

shy ::)

I would say honour, and duties to your Fatherland and it's people are the meaning of life.

re:The meaning of life:

Sir Sard you need one

[Atomic Mitten]

Now that is a really good question.The moral in that story makes me think.

Re Sir sard, lol ;D

[Big D]

this is what my friend b-rex think's about the meaning of life: (he wrote it himself)

the meaning of life isn't always clear, but if you do what you think is best, than you come pretty close to the truth about it. :)

[Dante]

yeah the past is ok

epic swordfights and indiscriminate slaughter on the battlefielfd ::) :O :-[

Something like that. It's better than discriminate slaughter.

Are you suggesting that you derive pleasure and enjoyment primarily from causing others to suffer?

No, but if you remove that 'primarily' then it's pretty close to the truth. All humans, as far as I know, derive some form of pleasure from the pain of others. Whether it's the slaughter of a people or laughing when someone falls over. Everyone has a little sadism in them. Except Edric. I can't seem to find any cracks in his armour... Not without checking my IM box anyway.

But Edric and I do directly disagree. As he said, he lives for others. I live for me and thus by default those I care about and nobody else. We haven't managed to persuade each other yet. :)

[Big D]

:-[ *hides*

[Wolf]

You make your own life, as Edric said. Basically, the only guidelines you have to follow is what you truly believe to be the right thing to do. Don't think too long and hard on that, if you can't find a reason why, mayve its because it just is. All you really need is a little self-honesty (trust me, I think we are honest with ourselves only 1% of the time). Basically, go out and find yourselves. Just do... what you think is truly right. Not what others think it is, or what you think others want to hear, or even what you think will help you out -- just what you feel is right. You're the one living your life, you might as well live it on your own terms.

[Edric O]

Only because you derive pleasure from doing so.

There are other things from which I would derive more pleasure. Yet I choose not to do them.

Not everyone is a hedonist, Apollyon.

[Terror]

pleasure is not measurable...

and give us an example edric...

[Edric O]

I think it is safe to say that I would derive more pleasure from living a nice quiet life than from a lifetime of struggle against capitalism.

Of course, if pleasure is not measurable (which is something I tend to agree with), then Apollyon's idea that people do "whatever gives them the most pleasure" is nonsensical anyway, because there is no such thing as the "most" pleasure.

Dust Scout:

Well, no one has found any cracks in my armour so far - and if they did, I'd quickly repair them. :) But even though we disagree on a fundamental level, I know from our IM discussion that there is some altruism in you. Perhaps one day you will let it out. ;)

[Terror]

Well, this is a tough call. You said:

" would derive more pleasure from living a nice quiet life than from a lifetime of struggle against capitalism."

This however i question. Is it realy a quiet life that gives you more pleasure? I don't think you would have much pleasure when livinga quiet life with the fact in mind that you didn't do anything against capitalism.