The meaning to life...

[BasilRathbon 10]

Was it Einstein who said "Life is a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it"?

[nigsmig 10]

maybe life is a temporary hiccup in nothingness. sort of an aberration in the runnings of the universe. but don't worry there are enough forces at work to rectify the problem in the forseeable future.

 

p.s. anlabystreet- if you survived a trauma wouldn't you be prone to flash backs/ ptsd / being back in nam etc that would make the rest of your life anything but beautiful. and, do you come from hull by any chance?

[anlabystreet 12]

i had cancer about 5 years ago and i still get flashbacks to how close i came but if you think negatively about it then it just takes over your life...i was given 18 months to live which would be debilitating as time went on ...but i was fortunate to live in a country with a wonderful health service and thanks to the skill of sheffield hospitals i feel almost as good as ever...when i say almost i mean psychologically almost because i never thought it would happen to me and healthwise i had always felt invincible...never had a day off work...and now i feel a little vulnerable...but i'm lucky..i am even back working full time ...it really hurts me when i see people smoking..especially young kids....i feel like tearing the cigs off them ...they just dont have a clue what its doing ...and all the time benson and hedges and all the other ciggie firms are making a fortune...no i dont come from hull....i used to live on the abc streets now demolished where easterbrook allcards (presto tools)now stands on penistone road...anlaby cottam,brough and driffield streets were named after places in hull...probably because whoever built them came from there

[nigsmig 10]

hi anlabystreet, i used to live just off anlaby road in hull hence the question.

i dont know whether its impolite to continue my ptsd qs but your 'discomfort' at seeing other smokers sort of strikes me as a mechanism youd rather not have. and wouldn't you say that smokers know the risk they just choose to ignore it in pretty much the same way that you choose to not think negatively.

and if smokers smoked in full consciousness of the damage they're doing to themselves they would have to admit they're suicidal, but unfortunately denial spares them this truth. so maybe death is the point of life but we dont want to see it.

[CherryNicole 10]

Re dying, that it's not the destination but the journey there that is important.

 

But the only reason one would make a journey is to reach a destination

[Duffer 10]

Why does their have to be a meaning to life? We just exist in space and it is our own minds that cant handle this so we try and come up with a meaning that doesnt exist. Yes even i at times like to believe their could be somethign more but if their isnt then is that really so bad?

[scarby 10]

Was it Einstein who said "Life is a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it"?

 

Nooo, that was Ronan Keating.

[peterw 10]

Why does their have to be a meaning to life? We just exist in space and it is our own minds that cant handle this so we try and come up with a meaning that doesnt exist. Yes even i at times like to believe their could be somethign more but if their isnt then is that really so bad?

 

Unfortunately we’ll never know the answer until we’re dead, and even then we’ll only know if there is something. We’ll not know at all if there isn’t.

[johnbradley 10]

the meaning of life?

 

well death isnt actually 'part' of life at all, by definition...its the cessation of life, the full stop after the life has expired.

 

therefore the 'meaning' of life cannot involve the death itself.

 

equally, it may be 'meaningful' to a CEO of a giant corporation to accumulate vast wealth over a short time period, but equally 'meaningful' to somebody to try and halt that process. which one of these people has grasped the 'meaning' of life more successfully?

 

one of them may be simply manipulating his influence in a pragmatic, darwinian way, the other is operating from a more social, 'ethical' basis...both ways have 'meaning'.

 

i suggest the focus should not be about 'meaning' as such, but more about the idea and application of Quality.

 

Robert Pirsig wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance, and Lila - two excellent books, which have developed a system easily capable of discussing the notion of existential 'meaning', within the all-encompassing framework of [the metaphysics of] Quality.

 

Well worth reading.

[anlabystreet 12]

hi anlabystreet, i used to live just off anlaby road in hull hence the question.

i dont know whether its impolite to continue my ptsd qs but your 'discomfort' at seeing other smokers sort of strikes me as a mechanism youd rather not have. and wouldn't you say that smokers know the risk they just choose to ignore it in pretty much the same way that you choose to not think negatively.

and if smokers smoked in full consciousness of the damage they're doing to themselves they would have to admit they're suicidal, but unfortunately denial spares them this truth. so maybe death is the point of life but we dont want to see it.

...yes but every smoker thinks it wont happen to them...and it will..all i want to do is to let them know that it will....and young teenagers just dont think...i didnt at that age..and we all take good health for granted and never think one day it wont be there

[Guest]

the meaning of life is to have children and pass on your genes....... that's what nature intended anyway!

 

OR

 

the meaning of life is to devote yourself to following God and never have sex.

 

HHHmmmmmm? surely they can't BOTH be true?

[nigsmig 10]

hi anlabystreet, don't want to be picky but not every smoker thinks it won't happen to them, not every teenager doesn't think and not everyone takes good health for granted.

perhaps if life has no point other than setting you up for death then you've got time on your hands which you'd probably rather spend doing something vaguely fun or pleasant than not. and doing anything has a cost, whats that saying from the cotton plantation slaves... "you gotta take the pricks with the kicks"