The meaning of life in definition...

...is to exist

-Dan

Ooooh, deep thoughts. Did you come up with that on your own, or did you pawn it off someone? Further, metaphysical debates have long debunked your 'answer' to the question because it is cyclic logic. Thanks for adding to the fray a hypothesis that was thrown out around the time of St. Augustine.

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You know it to be so

Xeno, you really are a small mindless child aren't you. Can't write, can't
spell and can't even come up with orignal ideas / theories:

Ever heard of Michio Kaku? I think you have. It is quite blatently
transparent a huge proportion of your postings have swiped his findings /
research has mysteriously appered on your postings -and then you insist
that you understand them and pass them off as your own?

Anyone interested should try some of these posts. You may recognise some
of it. I apologise for the space this post takes up and since I have only
just gone online, I also apologise for not yet knowing how to paste links.
I am but human, not a pure incandescent 10th dimensional asexual energy
spike. Sorry.
http://www.dnai.com/~zap/zeropoint/essayone.txt

<A HREF="http://www.maximus.dircon.co.uk/

" TARGET=_blank>http://www.maximus.dircon.co.uk/

</A> <A HREF="http://www.greenleafpublications.com/stdlist_hl.html

" TARGET=_blank>www.greenleafpublications.com/stdlist_hl.html

</A> <A HREF="http://www.meru.org/science.html

" TARGET=_blank>www.meru.org/science.html

</A> <A HREF="http://www.wbaifree.org/explorations/mk-artcl.html

" TARGET=_blank>www.wbaifree.org/explorations/mk-artcl.html

</A> <A HREF="http://www.dorsai.org/~mkaku/mk-artcl.html

" TARGET=_blank>www.dorsai.org/~mkaku/mk-artcl.html

</A> <A HREF="http://www.flash.net/~csmith0/hyper.htm

" TARGET=_blank>www.flash.net/~csmith0/hyper.htm

</A> <A HREF="http://www.khouse.org/articles/update/hyperspace.html

" TARGET=_blank>www.khouse.org/articles/update/hyperspace.html

</A> <A HREF="http://www.salemctr.com/newage/snac21.html

" TARGET=_blank>http://www.salemctr.com/newage/snac21.html

</A>
Alternatively, you could go to one of your facourite search engines and
type either of the follwing: Xeno's plagiarism home page /
Unable-to-think-for-oneself.com / I'm-cleaning-my-teeth.mum /
I-got-an-"A"-at-1hand.typing.com / Pass-thetissues.com


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You know it to be so

Matt,

is that all you have to say?
That i'm just some mindless twirp?
You're the mindless twirp because
you keep trying to get your little
pathetic idea across that you think
I'm a moron or something. I don't
care and certainly no one else cares
either.

Besides, explain in great detail why
you think I'm an idiot. Explain
in great detail why you think Tuskin
is an idiot. You have failed to do
so far as well as try to disprove
our theories. All you've done is
call me little stupid childish
names.

I've never heard of Michio Kaku, sorry.
My views are my own. I only call God,
God cause God is not a he or she.

-Dan

I have to agree with Xeno here. The meaning of life, quite simply, is to exist. Anything more is subject to one's station amid the human condition.

Although I might like to add that biology is merely complex physics and chemistry. There is really nothing surprising in any species' behavior when you stop to think about the grander show.

Life is simply another state of the universe; Crowley wrote that "every man and woman is a Star." Sagan wrote "we are all made of stardust" or something like that. It's all energy and matter. We are nothing more than a mass of universal static.

The meaning of life is to exist, I agree. But is not its privilege to have as much damn fun as possible?

thx,
Tiassa

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"Let us not launch the boat until the ground is wet." (Khaavren of Castlerock)

Xeno, the word is twerp.

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You know it to be so

Matt D,
Stop being an asshole.

DaveW
Admin

What a series of posts in this forum! We have people sophomorically intrigued by the shallow, narcissistic, and intellectually pretentious crap spewed by Sartre, Camus, and all those other puerile Existentialists, alongside others whose philosophies have all the depth of the poetry of Rod McKuen...all trying to look deep and sophisticated...

perhaps the meaning of life is to learn -

in the end we are all part of creation and our contributions alter this course;
how we apply ourselves, reflects this outcome directly. epistimology and metaphysics are married.

Odysseus--

I wonder at the "tone" of your post. I would rather hear Sarte and Camus than Art Bell or Gordon Liddy. I would--I think--prefer Rod McKuen over, say, the Grinch?

I love relying on the heavy hitters of philosophy. But have something of your own to say, too. Don't simply rely on those who came before you to speak on your behalf.

So it's crap. So what? It is still human to wonder if there's a grander purpose to life than--if I might paraphrase Camus--breakfast, work, dinner, bed, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. After all, when you take the phrase literally, how pointless is a "rat race"?

Would you deny the right to ask the question? Would you limit the attempt to answer to only the present, so that we might repeat the philosophical realizations of the past over and over, thinking we're brilliant each time?

Lighten up. I mean it. Drink a beer or somehting. Really, life is fun if you take a stab at abstract ideas.

Tiassa

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"Let us not launch the boat until the ground is wet." (Khaavren of Castlerock)

tiassa, Xeno and you both stop far too short. The meaning is life is to ask the "whys" not to ignore them. Yes, you should ask the big questions---but to say the meaning of life is "to exist" is a smarmy, meaningless cop-out. That implies all experience is ethically and morally equivalent---Hitler's as well as Mother Teresa's, Jeffrey Dahmer's as well as Jonas Salk's. I reject that utterly. It not only leads down the path to chaos to sum up the meaning of life that way, it is intellectually lazy and dishonest.
BTW, I drink Honey Brown Ale, and have been known to shoot a Coors now and then, although I prefer the now-defunct Strohs.

tiassa, I have learned in my half-century that any REAL fun, however spontaneous, is a matter of the the utmost seriousness.
Also, accept my apology for the harshness of my message you will receive in the topic about the Shroud. I got carried away.
That doesn't mean I take back any of what I said, but the ad hominem personal attack was unworthy, even if I believed it to be true. It's not for any mortal to judge that way, least of all me, a fellow sinner.

Odysseus, I have withdrawn a long-winded reply about the shroud; I will re-write and re-post without the dose of scorn; thank you for your thoughtfulness in that debate.

Regarding the current topic ....

Which of the "whys" would you ask? I would hate do argue your "Why is the sky blue" versus my "What makes the sky that color".

I don't think that "to exist" is smarmy. It depends on how we define life. If we define it biologically, as a product of a physical universe, then the meaning of life is simply to exist, and all other concerns are subjective afterthoughts. If, however, we take life to imply the more intangible things which make us human, then yes, I suppose "to exist" is trite.

You bring up a good point, though. The Holocaust happened, but what would the world look like if it didn't? Would we, as a human race, eventually have undertaken this kind of attempted extinction? We call Hitler evil, and I agree that, in a societal context, he is evil. But if we examine the conditions that form the method of his thought, we can learn much about how to avoid the kind of social psychology that brought us the Holocaust, and then Hitler becomes academically valuable.

I would not advise that you ask any bacterial species about Dr. Salk, either. What was Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer to, say, the crows? To assume anything more than life is its own meaning attaches a perspective which can limit the word life. If Hitler and Dahmer complicate the question of the meaning of life, then are the species who don't care about human devils somehow "not life"?

Or am I being too specific here?

thx,
Tiassa

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"Let us not launch the boat until the ground is wet." (Khaavren of Castlerock)

[This message has been edited by tiassa (edited August 22, 1999).]

I continue my search daily for the meaning of life, keeping an open mind and trying to rely only on what is cold hard fact. On fact I have yet been able to disprove is that thought only leads to more thought. I believer it is when we stop thinking that the truth comes forward.

emit

To add a bit of theology to this topic in the Religious Debate category, I just thought I'd mention that God makes the claim, in the Bible, that the true meaning of Life, as it pertains to all creation, is to be in fellowship with God. The meaning of Death is to be eternally without fellowship with God. Incidentally, Hell ( Including the Lake of Fire ) is the only place God does not hang out. Thus, the completion of Death is there in Hell. The completion of Life is in Heaven ( God's neighborhood ).

You may contact me personally at isda@gte.net

Tiassa:

Besides the viewpoints of a human and a bacterium, I should think there are others from which one could ponder the question. For example, it is entirely possible that to some very old minds out there it is we humans who are the bacteria.

That said, I'd like to offer a mathematical perspective. Life is about accumulating information. Think about it: life starts from the simplest and crudest forms, and as a whole evolves toward ever-greater sophistication and elegance. The growing complexity of life and its interactions with the environment alone constitute an accumulation of information about the universe. But now, we throw a new variable into the equation -- sentience. What is it, if not the ultimate tool for accumulating knowledge? (The next great leap in Evolution, where the real evolution is not about mere life, but about growing information?)

Perhaps life in itself has no goal other than survival. But combined with the universe which gives it existence, life acquires a purpose as well -- understand and master the universe. Hmmm... Who knows, maybe once life reaches a certain modicum of wisdom, a new purpose could become apparent?

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I am; therefore I think.