Life

[Emadyville]

So through much random thought of my own I have decided to bring this topic to you great people: What really is life about?

When I ask this, I guess I sort of am asking what the meaning of life is, but at the same time, am disregarding all religion, and am focusing solely on life itself, so I'd hope this can be void of religion and focus on what I'm about to discuss.

One thing that has recently gone on in my head regarding rough times, simple mishaps that go on daily in everyone's lives, to things that make us mad (other people, problems with your car, the cable going out, etc). To me, I have been answering these "problems" or difficulties in life simple with "Well, I'm alive, so how can I really complain?"

So to me, life has become more of a journey that I know will eventually end, and have found some sort of comfort in trying to always remember that I am alive, and because of that, I can't really complain. I'm almost 23, just graduated college, and have tried to understand what life is really about in this somewhat odd stage I'm at in life. With graduating (and missing school, my friends, the atmoshpere, the good times), looking for a real job (which is impossible in the US right now), and realizing I'm soon to completely be an adult, I've been trying to figure out what life is about, yet all I can conclude is that I need to not let things bother me, to basically make sure that even when things around me are bad or become stressful and confusing, to remember that I'm alive and that I can't complain, and from that I find myself content and basically worry free.

With that said, I'd like your opinions, to debate this, tell me what you think life's about. If the drama is good, if what I'm saying is brilliant, stupid, ignorant, pointless, wrong, or whatever you'd like

[mrjizzbomber]

You will fail by trying to keep religion out of this. The reason religions catch on is people need an answer to all the questions you posed... and religions claim to have the 'answer'. All the worry associated with 'what is life' and 'why am I here' and 'what happens after' evaporates if you believe in a religion - they hand you a book that tells you that after life you will float in the clouds and play in fields of dandelions, so there is nothing you must worry about.

Unfortunately for me, I do not believe in any religion (I really, truly, and honestly wish I did). I am a very scientifically minded person, which means I see life from a physics point of view...

To me, life is the result of eons and eons of interactions between individual particles and the forces that attract and repel them. As a result of wildly amazing, yet absolutely inevitable events 'you' exist. Any feelings, emotions, thoughts, spirit, or whatnot you experience is simply a meta-reality. There is no 'you' . 'You' do not exist outside of the collection of molecules of which you are composed of. Once you are dead, that is it. All the molecules of the universe continue on with their amazingly wild, yet absolutely inevitable interactions, and whatever eventually happens to the atoms which 'you' were once composed of is anyones guess...

...

... See, I'd much rather believe I will be frolicking in sparkling, beautiful meadows with my ancestors and shit after I die.

***
EDIT: Since that sounded super depressing, there are a few things I should add. First of all, I do think everyone should enjoy life. Even if science tells us (if you choose to believe it) that what we experience as 'reality' is really just some meta-reality, concepts such as that are so far beyond our real comprehension that they are not worth 'taking too seriously'. I think there are a lot of things that are worth thinking about - as long as you can first appreciate that those things are far beyond what you could really ever understand. From that perspective, I find that I can be happy contemplating life, while still being happy LIVING it.

And, well, good luck finding a job. Thats my second thing to add. As long as you put the effort in, you WILL get one. Don't have the wrong attitude / mentality about it. Don't say 'its too hard right now, the job markets bad, the economy is down'... say 'there are jobs out there, and I'm going to get one'.

[Saajid]

I was burdened by this question years ago and went on a long, devout journey to find the answer. In order to find what the meaning of life is, it seems one has to look at the origin of man. Why were we created? How did we get here? What is right, what is wrong? What happens when we die?

You really can't keep religion out of this because the nature of the question is religious itself. To say we're here for no reason is a religious statement and to say the purpose of life is to worship God is a religious statement also. I, personally, found Islam to answer all of these questions, providing more proof and evidence than any conjecture, philosophy, or ideology I have ever come across.

[Emadyville]

well jizzbomber, instead of just not mentioning religion you start with it

Thanks geno for a solid answer

[mrjizzbomber]

well jizzbomber, instead of just not mentioning religion you start with it

Thanks geno for a solid answer

Yes, because I think my 'meaning of life' opinion is directly tied to my atheism. While not a religion by conventional standards, it does define a set of beliefs for myself. It is hard for me to separate the question 'what is the meaning of life' from the 'ism' I follow.

Just like Saajid said, the answer for each person stems from asking questions such as "Why were we created? How did we get here? What is right, what is wrong? What happens when we die?" My answer to those questions takes a quite literal, scientific approach - someone who is Christian will take a more philosophical approach, either way, you can not talk about life without mentioning religion, so I got it out of the way. Look - even the question Saajid asked "why were we created" has religious overtones, without doing so intentionally. Created?

[Saajid]

Yes, because I think my 'meaning of life' opinion is directly tied to my atheism. While not a religion by conventional standards, it does define a set of beliefs for myself. It is hard for me to separate the question 'what is the meaning of life' from the 'ism' I follow.

Exactly... The idea that we can separate how we live or what we think from our religious beliefs is impossible because what we believe deep down effects almost everything about us. If someone thinks otherwise, they just haven't dug deep enough within themselves to consciously acknowledge their beliefs in my opinion. A lot of people might just worship their own desires and live chasing whatever makes them feel good, which would be a religious belief in what I understand the word to mean.

I believe the meaning of life is to worship God and I am directly influenced by my religion as a Muslim to believe that, while mrbomber is an atheist which directly influences him to believe there is not really a purpose to life. We really can't answer the question regarding the meaning of life without acknowledging these facts about ourselves.

In a secular society like the U.S., this division of life and religion has been attempted but really all it does is encourage people to stray away from their traditional religious beliefs and submit to what the society, or those who try to shape society, wants, thereby replacing their old "religion" with a new set of beliefs which can just as accurately be called a "religion" because it replaces those old beliefs with new ones. Those beliefs always exist, they don't just disappear. Rather, they are replaced by a President instead of a Prophet, for example.

So if a society preaches democracy, then there may be laws passed by men of that society that contradict a religion, and therefore, the people of that religion submit to those men over God, and this is considered idolatry. This causes someone to replace their religious beliefs with democratic beliefs, and before you know it, there is a whole country of people who adhere to a new religion: democracy, or a new version of their previous religion at the very least, which would in many cases mean someone has apostated from the original religion.

I think secularism has conditioned us to try and separate certain traditional religions (ex: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism) from everything else (Atheism, Socialism, Democracy) when really they are all based on belief and all in the same category of "religion" in my opinion.

[mrjizzbomber]

I agree with you, Saajid.

However, I may not fully understand my beliefs. Although I do believe what I do - mostly in determinism (everything is pre-mapped out), and hard science... I do not use that as a reason to not live a 'good life'. I still enjoy life as much as I can, work as hard as I can, and try to help other people / the world in whatever ways I can.

I find it interesting that I am motivated to do those things, which would seem to follow a religious influence (religions tell their followers to live a good life, so that in their afterlives they will be rewarded). Although I have no 'afterlife' to look forward to, I still live a good life. I can not really find the source of those beliefs I have.

But anyway, like me and you have said - I can't say 'to me, life is about living to the fullest' without identifying some underlying ideology to that belief.

[Emadyville]

I think I just did a bad job in my original post to get through what I really meant by this topic, so my bad I guess.

[Hubub153]

I think life is simply meant to be enjoyed, and I don't mean just party hard and get stoned. Just be a good person, take life as it comes at you, and you'll get through it just fine. People trying to have it all make sense with religion and science miss out on the most important aspect of life, living

[<Stiiccy>]

In my honest opinion I think life is a mission to find ones inner self.

To find a purpose and live it and enjoy everyday.

Laughing makes days so much better...Life is funny...Like one big Comedy show. Don't believe me?...Go to Wal-Mart lol


Seriously life is meant to be to be enjoyed...

Hail Saten

[gutawafang]

To me,

life is about helping others. My ultimate goal, no matter what I'll be in the future, be it a rapper, actor, cleaner, cameraman, dishwasher, beyblader, pokemon master... is to help the people who are unfortunate. Those born in unfortunate places...

The simplest way to phrase it...

Life is about how signifcant you are in other people's lives.

[Dani911]

Life is about love. It's not about how much goal did you get on the world cup. It doesn't make you a better person.

Without love, this world would be dying and suffering even worse.

Your life is a message. don't forget this.

I truly believe that life is about finding out God's plan with us, and try to succeed. and what Jesus taught to us is that love even your enemies, being able to forgive to others and basically the 10 commandment.

He died for you. And even while he was on the cross he was praying to God to forgive his killers, they don't know what are they doing



I hope one day there will be true peace on this world. Without pain, that's impossible.

[Epidemik]

What is life? Life is like a big obstacle put in front of your optical to slow you down. And everytime you think you gotten past it, it's gonna come back around and tackle you to the damn ground. What are friends? Friends are people that you think are your friends. But they really your enemies, with secret indentities and disguises, to hide they true colors. So just when you think you close enough to be brothers they wanna come back and cut your throat when you ain't lookin. What is money? Money is what makes a man act funny.Money is the root of all evil. Money'll make them same friends come back around swearing that they was always down. What is life? I'm tired of life...

Life is about love. It's not about how much goal did you get on the world cup. It doesn't make you a better person.

Without love, this world would be dying and suffering even worse.

Your life is a message. don't forget this.

I truly believe that life is about finding out God's plan with us, and try to succeed. and what Jesus taught to us is that love even your enemies, being able to forgive to others and basically the 10 commandment.

He died for you. And even while he was on the cross he was praying to God to forgive his killers, they don't know what are they doing



I hope one day there will be true peace on this world. Without pain, that's impossible.

you just had to bring god into this...

[Dani911]

yes I had to.

[Weather Man]

I don't really know what life is about either, but I know for dam sure that it isn't fair, life can be ruff sometimes life can fuck you up and life can ruin you, your family, your friends, anything.. The only thing I have to say to this is "live" I had a friend who came to me with problems but I didn't care, he was under a lot of pressure ... But I helped out gave him advice, the only thing I think that's dumb and really retarded about "life".. is your spending 8 HOURS doing something that YOU DONT wanna do like for example: why waste your time working, getting paid, going to school, what's all this gonna prove.. it's retarded I hate it, Life should be fair have people do what you wanna do I mean jesus christ you can't even say bad words to parents or to anything you can't fucking smoke weed, i mean why have these things if u can't use any of them it's pointless, but I don't know why we all are here, I think the only person who has the real answer to this is God, but I guess we will never know..


Sorry if my opinion wasn't helpful, it was just an opinion ..(If you put it that way.)