The deep end

[Tex -USMC- 0]

I dont think that there is an overriding meaning to life (beyond procreation), and I think people really dont like thinking about that

[FetishFool 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (nordin dk @ May 06 2002,09:37)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Do you think the creation of man was a mistake?

That would be a long line of continuous mistakes then?

Or, if you believe the word of the Bible, God created all the plants and animals, but then by an extreme fluke happened to create man, instead, perhaps, of the nice dry martini he had be trying to make??

Or do you think the creation of life was a mistake?

I'd rather call it a coincidence. Mistake implies that there was a will behind the action, and that the will was attempting something else than what actually did happen.

You might say creation of life was a conincidence, but what would then be the meaning of a universe void of life? (assuming that can be considered an alternative...)<span id='postcolor'>

What about things like toys?

Maybe we were God's toys at first.

Then he wanted to have more fun, so he gave us intelligence.

[Tovarish 0]

Ok seriously now, I think humans just couldn't cope with the possibility that life was meaningless, so they created God in our image, and not the other way around, and made up a nice comforting fairy tale about Heaven, and a boogeyman who will get you if you are a bad little boy or girl, in the form of Satan.

Really now, why of all living creatures, are humans the only ones deserving of a soul? We are the ones who are killing off the planet.

[nordin dk 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (FetishFool @ May 07 2002,02:29)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I think that all species used to die after giving birth at one time.

Right now, if a creature gave birth too many times, they'd eventually die because of it.

So that leads to the assumption that creatures used to be weaker at one stage of evolution.  A time when it was a 100% chance that the female would die immediately.<span id='postcolor'>

So you believe God created us to procreate and nothing else?

That we are an experiment at the hands of an allmighty deity, who wishes to see what happens if we continue to procreate without any other purpose?

We are a sort of science project?

Then you reduce God to a geek with too much time on his hands...

What is God trying to achieve? What does he wish to learn from this little experiment then?

[FetishFool 0]

You tell me, Nordin. You're the philosopher.

I don't even believe in God.

It's easiest to explain life when using God as a symbol.

"God created Satan so people wouldn't blame everything on him.

Then God created lawyers so that not everything would be blamed on Satan."

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"Why is it every time something good happens, it's 'Thanks to God', but when something bad happens 'He works in mysterious ways?'"<span id='postcolor'>

[Bosun 0]

Life is about love and passion... whether it be your god, your cat, your redheaded sweetpee. We search for some sort of love our whole life...

[Tex -USMC- 0]

hey Tovarish, you and I seem to be on the same page about this...

Existentialism kinda keeps you up at night if you think about it too much

[Assault (CAN) 1]

The answer to the question: 'What is the meaning of life?' can have any answer, noone can say if it is right or wrong becasue noone knows the real answer, maybe we find out when we die?

Here's my answer: 'The meaning of life is life itself'

Allow me to explain. Can anyone here imagine a world and a universe devoid of any forms of life? I can, and I cant help but think that that universe would be a complete waste of space. I think life (in any form) gives the universe a reason to exist.

Think about it...........

Tyler

[LauryThorn 0]

Man's mission as an animal is to spread his DNA.

This is pretty clear; if it wasn't so, then we won't

have such a strong urge to "get laid".

But there is much better and more efficient way to

spread your DNA.. sperm banks!

But then, why doesn't everyone feel a unresistable urge to

give their sperm to banks?

Again, just my two cents..

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tovarish @ May 07 2002,03:47)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Ok seriously now, I think humans just couldn't cope with the possibility that life was meaningless, so they created God in our image, and not the other way around, and made up a nice comforting fairy tale about Heaven, and a boogeyman who will get you if you are a bad little boy or girl, in the form of Satan.

Really now, why of all living creatures, are humans the only ones deserving of a soul? We are the ones who are killing off the planet.<span id='postcolor'>

Stop reading my mind now please, thank you very much.

That's very much the way I think about religions.

[Bart.Jan 0]

I think life is meaningless because whatever what can physical happen it hapened, it's hapening and it will hapen. So there is no reason to enjoy,angry,love,live... There is everything designated by physical laws. If you don't do something, you do it in another pararel existention in many ways or you have no thought about to do that thing.

There are infinity of pararel existentions. You could imagine that like at any time another paralel existention is grow, in that existention everything is same as it was in previous one but something has changed (even from move of one atom). If you look back to your life, you can see it as a continuous curve in infinty field of existentions, but you can not say "I'm lucky, I have happy life, not like that guy who looks like me in adjoining existention." becaue it's not some guy, it's you.

it's annoying my english is not so good for explaining my philosophic opinions about life and existention  

[R. Gerschwarzenge 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Bart.Jan @ May 07 2002,10:31)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">it's annoying my english is not so good for explaining my philosophic opinions about life and existention   <span id='postcolor'>

I have the same problem.

My meaning of life right now is to have fun and entertain (mostly in a musical way) other people.

[Hilandor 1]

Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy stated that the meaning of life was indeed " 42 "

[nordin dk 0]

Aargh! Don't make me slap you Hil.

And besides you are wrong, THGTTG stated that a gigantic computer was asked to calculate the answer to "the question about life, the universe and everything", and the answer it came up with was 42.

Back to the thread

@Bosun

Although I like your sentiment, I can't help but ask for a more specific definition. Are we just supposed to love anyone or anything, or is it predestined who we love?

Maybe "love" is a mechanism incoporated in man, to ensure that he continues to procreate. Since man evolved into a state of universal selfawareness (and with that, the concept or idea of God emerged), we've become so selfabsorbed that it might have helped us stay focused on the job at hand: procreation. Sort of natures way of saying "Stop looking at the sky, and get back to doing the naked pretzel!"

Then to speculate about the purpose of procreation.

With every generation of man, we evolve slightly. And as we do, we forcefully change the world around us, or so it seems.

Following the current trend, one might imagine mankind to be permanently attached to computers some time in the future.

Perhaps we will be able to upload our consciousness (as sf writers and scientists are already suggesting) and merely exist as streams of data, but then how do we procreate?

We don't, we can only then clone our consciousness, and transfer it from cpu to cpu. If that is a viable outcome of current developments, it means that procreation is not the purpose of man.

Another possibility, is that we adapt more to the life with computers but remain mostly flesh. Then perhaps computers are ultimately here to assist us in reaching our destination, our procreational apex, if there is such a thing.

With the help of computers, we can calculate the best and most efficient ways of procreation, we can rid the planet of disease, we can genetically engineer 'perfect' humans.

In a billion years, if we manage to stay alive, man will be a very different species.

We perhaps become beings of extreme intelligence, and ultimately a God, that is to say, a singular being powerful enough to comprehend and control every action in the universe.

More later...

[Supah 0]

The evolution idea i agree with. The generation our fathers belonged to didnt talk about their feelings. It was seen as weak. My mother taught me that that isnt true. That its ok to talk about your feelings. And overall, being able to talk about our feelings, i think we are happier then our fathers were who just bottled everything up. Mb thats not evoltion but it is a good thing.

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Tex [uSMC] @ May 07 2002,07:36)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Existentialism kinda keeps you up at night if you think about it too much<span id='postcolor'>

Exactly,I don't agree with much of what Karl Marx said anymore, but when he said "Religion is the opiate of the masses" I think he was right on. It's just a nice comforting drug to keep people from going insane over the possibility that they are irrelevant.

[LauryThorn 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">It's just a nice comforting drug<span id='postcolor'>

After all this shit that I've been through, when I die, I would go to hell for all eternity..

Comforting? HARDLY! But this is not what you or mr. Marx meant, of course..

[Shabadu 0]

I think religion is one of the worst things that ever happened to humanity. The reason we exist is because we don't not exist. Without existence there is no-one to worry about why we exist, therefore the point is that there is no point.

Damn, I wish could explain this better.

You know thst saying "I think therefore I am" well one doing the rounds among physicists is not exactly this but in a simplified way "I think therefore the universe is".

The universe doesn't really exist untill sensient life is able to contemplate it.

My interpretation of this is the maybe the idea of the unierse is just another construct, like the concept of time.

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (LauryThorn @ May 07 2002,14:11)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">After all this shit that I've been through, when I die, I would go to hell for all eternity..

Comforting? HARDLY!<span id='postcolor'>

Well, I don't know much about other religions, but the "beauty" of Christianity, is supposedly that it is never too late to repent, so.....

REPENT SINNER!!!!!!!

[LauryThorn 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">My interpretation of this is the maybe the idea of the unierse is just another construct, like the concept of time.<span id='postcolor'>

Oh yeah.

Your biggest feelings = signals in your brains

Van Gogh's paintings = signals in your brains ( because colours don't really exist outside our brains )

Operation Flashpoint = 0's and 1's in your CPU

You can reduce and ridicule practically anything like this.

It's really cool to just think about things, when it is a

silent day at work..

[Shabadu 0]

Nah sorry mate you've lost me, what's your point?

[LauryThorn 0]

My point is that nothing really exists, but still,

because we are stuck to this, you can still try to have good

time..

Maybe I didn't quite get your idea, maybe that's because

of my bad english..

[Shabadu 0]

No I thought we were on roughly the same wavelength I just needed to check you weren't being patronising. Happens to me a lot.

[morbid 0]

The purpose of life for animals seems to be simply to survive, procreate and ensure the continuation of the species.

Seems reasonably obvious given that just about everything an animal does is geared towards eventually procreating, for some this is indeed the very last thing they will do.

In some species of spiders the female eats the male just after mating, then after giving birth to 1000's of offspring the female is then also eaten by them.

Some fish return to their birthplace in order to mate.

Most animals are ready to procreate at the peak of their developement and fitness and then after that time passes they become older, their health and fitness may decline.

This is even true for humans.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, human intelligence is simply a further stage in evolution which has allowed us to propagate our species in as many diverse environments as possible.

Our intelligence allows us to survive in just about any place on earth and so enable us to spread our species and ensure its survival almost anywhere.

(btw - I'm not a biologist, I'm a physics student so this isn't exactly my area of expertise...)