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Recent ruminations on the meaning of life

Qlip

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does there have to be meaning for something to exist?

can't we just be happy that it does? :huh:

Some of us can't get away with being happy with that. We are the ones who cause trouble for everyone else.
 

miss fortune

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by that I meant some sort of grand cosmic scheme... I'm perfectly at peace with the fact that I'm just a pile of compounds and reactions that happened by chance... and in a way that's even more awesome! My chances of existing are about as slim as the chance that Pol Pot will win the next US presidential election! :holy:
 

Qlip

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by that I meant some sort of grand cosmic scheme... I'm perfectly at peace with the fact that I'm just a pile of compounds and reactions that happened by chance... and in a way that's even more awesome! My chances of existing are about as slim as the chance that Pol Pot will win the next US presidential election! :holy:

You never get that nagging feeling that you should be doing something with yourself?
 

Lark

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by that I meant some sort of grand cosmic scheme... I'm perfectly at peace with the fact that I'm just a pile of compounds and reactions that happened by chance... and in a way that's even more awesome! My chances of existing are about as slim as the chance that Pol Pot will win the next US presidential election! :holy:

This would appear to be meaningful, what you have just written here.
 

Lark

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No. If the brain has agency and assigns meaning to its environment then it follows that the environment must have inherent agency and meaning.

Its like a straberry cake. If the strawberry cake tastes like strawberry cake then it follows that weat tastes like strawberry cake.

If the cake is made by a conscious being then it follows that so was water, weat and all other ingredients.

*broken logic*

Yeah, man is not God.

*see I can repeat simple nonsense too*
 

miss fortune

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You never get that nagging feeling that you should be doing something with yourself?

I get bored, so I try something different :shrug:

I feel that all existence is kind of a happy accident and I should try not to fuck it up in my pursuit of interest because then it wouldn't be anymore and I can't create another forest or anything of the sort without 100 years or so
 

Qlip

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I get bored, so I try something different :shrug:

I feel that all existence is kind of a happy accident and I should try not to fuck it up in my pursuit of interest because then it wouldn't be anymore and I can't create another forest or anything of the sort without 100 years or so

Not fucking things up is doing something, kind of. I'd say about half my pursuit of shining virtue is attempting to not fuck things up. It seems impossible without some kind of divine intervention.
 

miss fortune

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Not fucking things up is doing something, kind of. I'd say about half my pursuit of shining virtue is attempting to not fuck things up. It seems impossible without some kind of divine intervention.

oh... I'm aware that in the grand scheme of things I'm a total fuck up

and humanity kind of fucks up on a regular basis as well

pretty much my thoughts on the matter are that I can try not to allow my existence to make a negative impact on other people and things, but I know my nature and realize that it's a losing battle... but if I try things might not go as bad as if I didn't

my brain somehow missed the "believe in god" part, which leaves existence as both a bit lonely and a bit thrilling... like visiting a new place where you don't speak the language or know anyone else :)
 

Qlip

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oh... I'm aware that in the grand scheme of things I'm a total fuck up

and humanity kind of fucks up on a regular basis as well

pretty much my thoughts on the matter are that I can try not to allow my existence to make a negative impact on other people and things, but I know my nature and realize that it's a losing battle... but if I try things might not go as bad as if I didn't

my brain somehow missed the "believe in god" part, which leaves existence as both a bit lonely and a bit thrilling... like visiting a new place where you don't speak the language or know anyone else :)

There's actually a lot more to the whole God business than searching for meaning to fill some void. I was in a spot where I was totally fine with not having an objective point. What drives me mostly is wanting to know what the heck is going on around here, it's my natural built-in meaning. Once I felt like I had a glimmer of what's up, I'm now beholden.
 

miss fortune

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There's actually a lot more to the whole God business than searching for meaning to fill some void. I was in a spot where I was totally fine with not having an objective point. What drives me mostly is wanting to know what the heck is going on around here, it's my natural built-in meaning. Once I felt like I had a glimmer of what's up, I'm now beholden.

and that sort of thing is why I generally find religions that are frequently judged as "primitive" to make more sense... the sun, water, life... those things are awe inspiring on their own! :holy:
 

Passacaglia

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Oh, I see! Life is meaningful because we love life. Yeah, I'm onboard with that.

I guess I just never associated love of something with the word 'meaningful,' but that totally makes sense.

I dont think its as easy to draw boundaries as you do, also I think while that appears neatly demarcated it is reductive, empiricism is not all it is cracked up to be and I'm not simply talking about metaphysics and spirituality/religion, which I detect a dismissive aversion for on your part, but quantum physics, other sorts of theoretical and research domains, logic, inferences, hypothesis, all exist which are not strictly empirical but basically the best guess, without being invalid. I think that all knowledge should strive towards the positive.
It's not all cut and dry, no. Like how arguing philosophy does require logical rigor -- if you want to do it persuasively, at least -- and how psychology is a relatively (some might say notoriously) uncertain science. But there absolutely is a difference between what is -- demonstrable facts, or at the least trends and probabilities -- and the world of ideas and beliefs. A wheel doesn't roll because we think it ought to or because we believe it does; a wheel rolls because rolling is a consequence of its physical shape. My computer doesn't work because I've decided that it ought to work or because I want it to work; it works because a lot of different people put a lot of time and effort into determining the independently-existant physical facts which allow it to work. (Electricity, magnetism, semiconductor/insulator/conductor properties, etc..)

Conversely, I've recently sent a few prayers to a god I invented. Not because I can demonstrate that my god is a fact -- by definition, metaphysics are beyond provability -- but because it relieves tension and because I want such a god to exist. That's belief...or at least, wanting to believe. On a separate but related note, I help people because I have empathy and I believe in bettering the world around me. Again, no physical facts involved; just philosophy and emotion.

Putting facts in the same box with philosophy in the same box with religion in the same box with spirituality is reductive. That way lies the madness of young earth creationism, and other nonsense derived from dogmatic tribalism. And yes, I am absolutely dismissive of such fundamentalist religious nonsense.
 

Duffy

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Ruminations about anything never did much for me....I see that now. I feel like the closest I've come to satisfying the existential itch was through experience, by engaging with the world. The mind is too slow to comprehend that which is felt.
 

miss fortune

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I'm getting the sense that 'meaning' is something of a shorthand for 'This is really amazing. Like, really unbelievably cool!'

I meant it in there is no greater purpose behind existence... things exist because of coincidence and scientific laws and such :shrug:

predestination is a pretty awful concept anyway
 
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