What is the meaning of life?

Of course I realize this. There is no more point to our life than there is to the life of a whale,a tree, or an ant. The only accurate explanation to the purpose of our life is based on science.

What is the meaning of meaning? I mean, does anything really mean anything? or is everything actually meaningless? Do we just attempt to attribute meaning to things to make life seem meaningful, when we should actually just accept that things just are?

But then again how do we know anything is real anyway? And what is reality?

"Are we here just for our own satisfaction and enjoyment of our own short lives?"

No. We're just here. Not "for" anything.

You wake up on a Saturday morning with your entire day free. What do you do with yourself?

I figured it out. I'll let you know for $250,000.

That's a $10m value for ONLY $250k. Let me know who's interested and I'll send you a paypal link.

Well, after 7-1/2 million years of computing the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42.

Proof:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=answer+to+the+Ultimate+Question+of+Life+the+Universe+and+Everything

A Monty Python film.

The 'Meaning' of life is the Government trying to make everyone the same. They want us to all be average and equal. Well, there is no equality! Sorry!!!

We've already figured this out on a few other threads. Do a search and you will have your answer.

It's all about the chase for the 3 minute mile.

Sure, we'll all be dead in 100 years but mankind will be a little closer cracking 3.

You need doctors and engineers and teachers and accountants to keep society going. Then you need runners of all kinds to pursue different training techiniques and improve genetics.

Then there must be Letsrun posters to spread the word.

You have contributed to this awareness.

Mankind thanks you.

Life has the meaning that you assign to it. Live your life in the way that you feel is best and you will be successful. Is there an overall meaning? Not really, the meaning is whatever makes you feel happy and complete. I feel that life is here to help each other. I long ago realized that I am not going to be rich or successful so i just live to have fun.

"Meaning" is a contextually-based, goal-oriented self-created psychological construct.

Meaning is what you make it.

The best devices to give life meaning involve goals that remain static for years, decades, and generations.

Religion is a wonderful meaning device because 1) its goals are never quite achieved, so 2) it can be passed through generations, which 3) generates cultural identity.

Running is a bad way to give your life meaning because 1) you set and accomplish goals every year and 2) most runners quit the sport after a few years.

Psychologically, something about the human brain craves order to alleviate the pain of chaos. Every person creates their own meaning (whether it be running, religion, or something else).

Meaning does not have to be rational. See: runners.

not a religious person wrote:

Has anybody ever come to the conclusion that nothing you do on a day to day basis or in life in general matters at all? 100 years from now you and everybody you know will be dead, all of your life's hard work and "accomplishments" will be forgotten along with your name. What's the point? Surely there are other people who feel this way... How do you deal with it? Are we here just for our own satisfaction and enjoyment of our own short lives?

You've got it backwards. It's 100 years from now that doesn't matter during YOUR lifetime. 100 years from now, you'll be dead and will have no awareness of anyone then living. Your life matters; theirs don't. Those people will also die and be forgotten in the following century. But that time frame doesn't exist as far as YOU are concerned. The purpose of YOUR life is to pursue YOUR values and YOUR happiness. Who knows, maybe you will make a lasting contribution and will be remembered by future generations.

I could give a shit about future generations 100 years from now. I live my life in a way that the people I care about right now - my wife, my daughter, my extended family and friends, the poor kids in Africa, the man on the corner with a "will work for food" sign - can enjoy their existence even more than they could without me.

Religious or not, it FEELS much better to help others than to help yourself. Maybe that makes it selfish, IDK, I just know that it took me a long time to figure that out.

One day right before Christmas a few years ago, it hit me like a ton of bricks that the excitement of watching my daughter open her Christmas gifts was 100 times more intense than opening my own. I thought about that a lot, and decided to see if I could apply that to other parts of my life.

It worked.

You just have the wrong concept of selfisness. It's a pretty innocent mistake. When you daughter opens her presents on Christmas, you derive selfish pleasure from watching her excitement. Your loved ones' happiness makes you happy. That's a form of selfishness. Selfless would be to deny your children any presents so that you could give the money to charity instead.

Mister Freud wrote:

"Meaning" is a contextually-based, goal-oriented self-created psychological construct.

Meaning is what you make it.

The best devices to give life meaning involve goals that remain static for years, decades, and generations.

Religion is a wonderful meaning device because 1) its goals are never quite achieved, so 2) it can be passed through generations, which 3) generates cultural identity.

Running is a bad way to give your life meaning because 1) you set and accomplish goals every year and 2) most runners quit the sport after a few years.

Psychologically, something about the human brain craves order to alleviate the pain of chaos. Every person creates their own meaning (whether it be running, religion, or something else).

Meaning does not have to be rational. See: runners.

So what does one do when they have tried to be religious, but just cannot fully accept that that is the way to go about validating their existence or making it a little more fulfilling? Some people just cant make the decision to be a 'believer' no matter how much they would like to be.

I personally find running to be better "meaning device" than church ever could. Say you do set, and achieve your yearly goals, but there is more to be said about maintaining that level of achievement on a long term basis (i.e. getting out to run 70-80 miles EVERY week knowing that the minute you let up, you're back to square one).

A is A wrote:

You just have the wrong concept of selfisness. It's a pretty innocent mistake. When you daughter opens her presents on Christmas, you derive selfish pleasure from watching her excitement. Your loved ones' happiness makes you happy. That's a form of selfishness. Selfless would be to deny your children any presents so that you could give the money to charity instead.

selfishness

A is A, you just have the wrong concept of selfisness (sic). It's a pretty innocent mistake. When the charity receives their money on Christmas, you derive selfish pleasure from knowing their appreciation. The people's - who the charity helps, happiness makes you happy. That's a form of selfishness. Selfless (sic) would be to deny the charity any money so that you could burn the money to avoid people calling you selfish.

If the tool does not accomplish the job, choose another tool. It is important to realize that religion is a popular tool to create meaning, it is not the only way. If, after weighing the costs and benefits, a tool (religion) is not giving you the intended outcome (meaning), then choose another tool. Like running.Let me observe your running is more about the process and discipline, than the outcome. That is good; my original statement was meant to distinguish process from outcome. We can do process regularly, outcome, however, is not guaranteed.Both running and religion can give meaning. Your commitment to weekly mileage is an active way to reinforce your beliefs and values, very similar to religous-based service work. Also, you talk about "knowing that the minute you let up, you're back to square one", this fear/guilt factor is similar to the sin concept held in religion. It is neat to find practical similarities between various methods of ascribing meaning to life. This says to me that there may be a logical explanation for 1) why we need meaning and 2) how we go about satisfying this need.

I like to get the morning news wrote:

So what does one do when they have tried to be religious, but just cannot fully accept that that is the way to go about validating their existence or making it a little more fulfilling? Some people just cant make the decision to be a 'believer' no matter how much they would like to be.

I personally find running to be better "meaning device" than church ever could. Say you do set, and achieve your yearly goals, but there is more to be said about maintaining that level of achievement on a long term basis (i.e. getting out to run 70-80 miles EVERY week knowing that the minute you let up, you're back to square one).

A is A wrote:

You just have the wrong concept of selfisness. It's a pretty innocent mistake. When you daughter opens her presents on Christmas, you derive selfish pleasure from watching her excitement. Your loved ones' happiness makes you happy. That's a form of selfishness. Selfless would be to deny your children any presents so that you could give the money to charity instead.

Not really. Whatever you do, you do it because you want to. Whether it is giving that gift to the daughter or giving money to charity or ...

It is simply impossible to act against oneself. Hence all acts are selfish and noone is capable of acting selflessly (but you and I are not).

A is A wrote:

You just have the wrong concept of selfisness. It's a pretty innocent mistake. When you daughter opens her presents on Christmas, you derive selfish pleasure from watching her excitement. Your loved ones' happiness makes you happy. That's a form of selfishness. Selfless would be to deny your children any presents so that you could give the money to charity instead.

I am not sure what you are trying to say. I admit in my post that it is selfish. It makes me feel good. Were you just emphasizing that point?