Thread: Not the meaning of life, but the meaning of everything

Alright, so a friend and I got into a huge debate (He's a devout Christian for the record), and I just wanted to know your guys' opinion on this.
I'm just going to paste a tid-bit of what I said here..

"What I'm trying to say is that everything is the product of an infinite number of possible random events, meaning that nothing has a meaning, but at the same time everything does. It just so happens that everything aligned for us to be here, but it could be anything else, and for all we know, it may be everything else, there may be an infinite number of other universes where other events happened, even one where there is no universe. But we're a creation of pure chaos, and pure chaos is a creation of random events, at least or conception of it is."

Sorry for the informal post, but I'm trying to post it while getting ready in the morning

Every person has their own "meaning" to what their life is about. That's free will . Some believe in God while others believe in themselves. There's no right or wrong way to believe as long as you are happy with whatever you choose and don't try to convince others that your way is the only way because it isn't to millions of others around you.

and as simple as the above,the meaning of life is also everything to some people.and everything meant life....so your view and another is different.

If there is meaning in(of by for, etc) life
then one must presuppose a guiding influence, theistic, ecological, or just a limited number of patterns of potential

if there is no (pre existant) meaning then you have complete free will

Originally Posted by WilJake

"What I'm trying to say is that everything is the product of an infinite number of possible random events, meaning that nothing has a meaning, but at the same time everything does. It just so happens that everything aligned for us to be here, but it could be anything else, and for all we know, it may be everything else, there may be an infinite number of other universes where other events happened, even one where there is no universe. But we're a creation of pure chaos, and pure chaos is a creation of random events, at least or conception of it is."

Is choosing a wife/lover a random thing? To a degree it is but also free will plays a part. Theres a lot of free will exercised in adapting environments within the animal kingdom also.

It doesn't seem like pure chaos to me. Life is not chaotic in it's biology, everything is very well ordered from atom upwards. Everything has evolved to be in synchonisation with it's environment.

There surely is a chaotic aspect somewhere but over all it can only be described as 'ordered', imho.

Your ideas about other universes etc are beyond the realms of science to answer, for certain.. at present... to the best of my knowledge.

Pure chaos creates random events. Random events don't create pure chaos. There is no way that 'what is' can be described as pure chaos. The synchonisation is epic. It's more like pure harmony than pure chaos imo.

I suppose seeing life as chaotic/ordered or both might come down to personal taste, bit like seeing a glass as half full, half empty or both.

Who knows though.

Originally Posted by WilJake

Alright, so a friend and I got into a huge debate (He's a devout Christian for the record), and I just wanted to know your guys' opinion on this.
I'm just going to paste a tid-bit of what I said here..

"What I'm trying to say is that everything is the product of an infinite number of possible random events, meaning that nothing has a meaning, but at the same time everything does. It just so happens that everything aligned for us to be here, but it could be anything else, and for all we know, it may be everything else, there may be an infinite number of other universes where other events happened, even one where there is no universe. But we're a creation of pure chaos, and pure chaos is a creation of random events, at least or conception of it is."

Sorry for the informal post, but I'm trying to post it while getting ready in the morning

I think everybody has to figure out the meaning of life for themselves. Whatever you come up with, don't expect it to make logical sense. It is not something that lends itself to logical analysis.

life is the existence of a being which is both material and immaterial....the universe can be said to be alive in its own physical way...imo...

ultimately only god will remain

I agree with most of the posts above. Every person has their version of "the meaning of life". Every creature has It's life, that will end once, but until it ends, it has a purpose. You must find your purpose in this big, beautiful universe.

life is not independent/spontaneous/automatic in this universe. it needs input and produces output.

The human race may be the only sentient species in the Universe. The meaning of the existence of our species, to me, is to comprehend fully our place in the universe. To build our understanding of reality. For the individual human being, the interaction with other conscious beings, and aiding in the progress of our species.

Originally Posted by shlunka

The human race may be the only sentient species in the Universe. The meaning of the existence of our species, to me, is to comprehend fully our place in the universe. To build our understanding of reality. For the individual human being, the interaction with other conscious beings, and aiding in the progress of our species.

Until we all die off and the universe carries on as if we'd never existed...

I'm repeating myself but if we are discussing why humans are here I agree with the American academic, and biology professor, George Wald. He believed that we (humans) could be described as an attempt of the universe to understand itself and that that is our main purpose as a species.
That does not mean we have been "put" here for that purpose.

so much for understanding.

The first and most important thing is that we are connected to every living thing and every inanimate object in the universe. Not just our families, not just the other billions of people, everything. Remember the biology version of Happy Birthday.

Happy birthday to me
I evolved from the sea
I’m a cousin to plankton
And the rat and the bee!

But it's more than that. Along with everything else we can see and can't see, we are literally made from stardust.

It places us squarely at the heart of all the processes of physics and of biology. I think that's wonderful.

Its an amazing connection. A human being is just a small part of the whole called the universe.A part limited in time and space,we experince ourselves as something separated from everyother thing.But this is an optical delusion of our consciousness,our task is to free ourselves from this prison by winding our window of passion and accepting all of nature in its natural beauty-einstein's idea

I am gonna be really bummed, if i come back as a squirrel...