What is the reason for life or living?

CerebralCortex

What is the reason for life or living? This question is bugging me but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to find the answer I keep ending up with 'why?' .:( There has to be a reason for us being here. Can anybody please enlighten me?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

it's marginally preferable to the alternative?

simu

Why does there have to be a reason?

wayfarer

simu wrote:

Why does there have to be a reason?

Just what I was going to say, what does it matter if there is a reason or not. The fact is that it can be great fun, even if it is meaningless, all the natural desires and instincts inherent to being human make sure of that

The_B_Man

as somebodys sig sez:
"im not livin, im just killin time".

eljono

Green Pringles

Altheus

Well, have you tried living a life on heroin, prozac, mushrooms and cocaine?


imho, I very much doubt we're here to try and figure out why we're here, once you stop trying out that fact maybe you'll enjoy and embrace life, and realise that the reasons aren't important, stay content and satisfied and do that for everybody else. That way everybody would be having way to good a time to even consider the matter of why we are here.

NotMe

CerebralCortex wrote:

What is the reason for life or living? This question is bugging me but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to find the answer I keep ending up with 'why?' .:( There has to be a reason for us being here. Can anybody please enlighten me?

It sounds like you don't want to be here. If you woke up tomorrow in paradise where you had everything you ever wanted would you ask yourself "why am I here?". No. Although you might ask "how the f*ck did I get here?". So the question you should ask yourself is "why am I not happy here?".

Slutmonkey57b

Only humans would be arrogant enough to assume that there must be a reason for them to exist. If there is a more pointless lifeform in the universe than humans, it has yet to make itself known.

The answer is, there is no reason. Have another beer.

fragile

Snowboarding

Neuro

CerebralCortex wrote:

What is the reason for life or living? This question is bugging me but no matter how hard I try I can't seem to find the answer I keep ending up with 'why?' .:( There has to be a reason for us being here. Can anybody please enlighten me?

Basically you're enquiring about that age-old chestnut, the Meaning of Life.

But there's a fundamental problem with the question:

What is the Meaning of Life?

It's a compound or loaded question; it presupposes that life has a meaning in the first place. If we're to be rigorous we must first ask:

Does life have a meaning?

And the answer, quite simply, is No. But this has not deterred people from applying an arbitrary meaning after the fact. This is the origin of nearly all organised religion, philosophy, music, poetry, literature, theatre i.e. the bulk of all the work ever undertaken in the humanities.

So why are you here? Simple really. Your parents asked the same question that you're asking right now and concluded (incorrectly) that the meaning of life was to have children. After all, that's what everyone else was doing at the time. How could 5 billion people be wrong? And isn't that the reason God put us on this earth?

But what your parents were actually doing was partaking in the biggest game of 'pass the buck' ever undertaken this side of the Big Bang. Instead of trying to figure out the problem for themselves they said:

"F**k it, let's have children and let them agonise over it for seventy or eighty years!"

There's no more selfish or egotistical an act as having children. Buy hey, that's just me...

Neuro

The_B_Man wrote:

as somebodys sig sez:
"im not livin, im just killin time".

It's from a song called True Love Waits by Radiohead.

0utshined

42 guys, it's 42

Lafortezza

CerebralCortex wrote:

What is the reason for life or living?

The vinegar stroke.

Sleepy

The_B_Man wrote:

as somebodys sig sez:
"im not livin, im just killin time".

It's a Radiohead quote. It was written for inclusion on the Bends but they were never happy with a studio version of it and eventually released it on the Live Kid-A era "I Might Be Wrong". Worth checking out...

Back on topic? There's no way we can tell if there is a reson. Personally I'm of the belief that there is none, that life's just a series of accidents and chance occurences, there is no great reason we're here so the best we can do is enjoy the ride as much as possible.

Gordon

What Sleepy said.

Moved from PI as this isn't a personal issue afais.

Neuro

0utshined wrote:

42 guys, it's 42

That's all very well, but what's the bloody question?

Gone West

its very arrogant to say that life definetly doesnt have a purpose. What proof do you have? Sure I could argue that life *might* have no purpose, but a concrete statement liek that is just way out of the ballpark

Gone West

42 is the answer to what? Lets start a 5 million year boards debate on what the question is. then the mice will be happy.

*note*: if you didnt understand that go read THHGTTG

CerebralCortex

Well thanks everybody I didn't think you would all reply so positively.
Snowboarding is way better than beer hands down.
Hint for future replies I don't drink, I refuse to drink something that for the effect it damages brain cells.
:cool:

CerebralCortex

wayfarer wrote:

Just what I was going to say, what does it matter if there is a reason or not. The fact is that it can be great fun, even if it is meaningless, all the natural desires and instincts inherent to being human make sure of that

What about when the fun ends and you have to face the no meaning and slave for your right to live?

Neuro

wayfarer wrote:

Just what I was going to say, what does it matter if there is a reason or not. The fact is that it can be great fun, even if it is meaningless, all the natural desires and instincts inherent to being human make sure of that

Some philosophers and certain religions, Buddhism for example, believe that these natural desires and instincts are actually the origin of suffering in the world...

"I know of no greater absurdity than that propounded by most systems of philosophy in declaring evil to be negative in its character. Evil is just what is positive; it makes its own existence felt. Leibnitz is particularly concerned to defend this absurdity; and he seeks to strengthen his position by using a palpable and paltry sophism. It is the good which is negative; in other words, happiness and satisfaction always imply some desire fulfilled, some state of pain brought to an end.

This explains the fact that we generally find pleasure to be not nearly so pleasant as we expected, and pain very much more painful. The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other."

- On The Suffering Of The World (1851), Arthur Schopenhauer

You can read the whole text here.

fragile

CerebralCortex wrote:

What about when the fun ends and you have to face the no meaning and slave for your right to live?

It's when you face the fact that there is no meaning to life that the real fun begins

CerebralCortex

fragile wrote:

It's when you face the fact that there is no meaning to life that the real fun begins

That's purely opinion and personal perspective. Believing there is a void of non existence after we die makes experience of anything pointless.

Dades

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

Only humans would be arrogant enough to assume that there must be a reason for them to exist.

Touché

FuzzyLogic wrote:

its very arrogant to say that life definetly doesnt have a purpose. What proof do you have? Sure I could argue that life *might* have no purpose, but a concrete statement liek that is just way out of the ballpark

Agreed. This is a "philosophy" board - no answers - only opinions.

I 100% believe we have no "reason" to be here. That said - if there was - I believe it would probably be beyond our comprehension anyway.

And oh for a euro for every time I've read HHGTTG...
Just fantastic.

Dades

CerebralCortex wrote:

That's purely opinion and personal perspective.

All of this is purely opinion and personal perspective.

CerebralCortex wrote:

Believing there is a void of non existence after we die makes experience of anything pointless.

When you go on holidays, does knowing you have to go back to work afterward make it a pointless experience?

Kimbot

I believe that the meaning of life is just to go and make a go at it and see if you can make a big enough impression on people in the process.

A.S.H.

The Atheist wrote:

When you go on holidays, does knowing you have to go back to work afterward make it a pointless experience?

Well for me, I repress the fact that I have to go to work and generally just live it up as much as possible untill the morning I'm back in work. A holiday is used and needed to recharge the batteries and to remind yourself that there is more to life than work. Too many people Live to work rather than work to live. As regards Life I don't think there is any reason for, there is no answer and after you die that's it, I stop myself from fully comprehending the extreme futility of existance by either not thinking about it or drinking till I forget. I try to have fun along the way though.

Dades

A.S.H. wrote:

I stop myself from fully comprehending the extreme futility of existance by either not thinking about it or drinking till I forget. I try to have fun along the way though.

Just because something doesn't have a reason, doesn't mean it's futile.

To suggest life is futile is to suggest it's not worth living. And while there may not be a "reason" we are here there is nothing to stop us enjoying our turn, and from making it more enjoyable for others while we're here.

Neuro

A.S.H. wrote:

Well for me, I repress the fact that I have to go to work and generally just live it up as much as possible untill the morning I'm back in work. A holiday is used and needed to recharge the batteries and to remind yourself that there is more to life than work.

I'm always surprised that poeple don't negotiate for 40 days holidays per year instead of the standard 20 in exchange for a cut in pay before starting a job. It makes sense as these days what we really lack is not money, but time.

Dades

Neuro wrote:

I'm always surprised that poeple don't negotiate for 40 days holidays per year instead of the standard 20 in exchange for a cut in pay before starting a job. It makes sense as these days what we really lack is not money, but time.

Touché.

But if we weren't in work where would people find the time to get busy on message boards?