Viewing Thread:
"Meanings of Life"

The Meaning of Life, something that people have spent countless hours, weeks and years pondering and never figured out. Something that even the most accredited scientists, religious leaders and masterminds cannot prove. It is the biggest question that will probably remain forever unanswered yet is the thing that can drive people to insanity. Why are we on this earth? What is our purpose in life?

I am not going to attempt to answer these questions but I am going to present you with a few ideas that came to me during my intensive pondering. Things I have scribbled down in moments of brief inspiration that seemed to make sense when I was stoned, drunk or half asleep. I don’t believe there is one generic meaning to this life we are currently living, there is perhaps an abundance of reasons for us being here, evolution and suchlike – but not one that appeals to everyone. I think perhaps everyone has an idea of the meaning of life that suits them, and this becomes something they believe – whether it is ‘right’ or not. Although I fail to see how there is a right and wrong on such an unanswerable question. So, why are we here? Here are some of my ideas:

The most common, and perhaps the oldest, theory is that we are all here because we were created by a God. If you were a God and created a planet and life you wouldn’t do it just for a laugh now would you? We were either created as companions for God or as entertainment, some lifelong edition of Big Brother if you will. Since we aren’t often chatted to by the almighty I can only assume we are in place to entertain the ‘lord’ with our everyday activities. In short, our lives are just an act to entertain our creator. Our menial lives provide some simple kind of amusement in a voyeuristic kind of way and our everyday affairs are observed from above. I don’t get any comfort from this theory – but there is the more religious approach to this same theory, which says we live our lives out as a sort of test and when it comes to a halt then we go to one or two places. If we’ve been good and nice, we go to heaven with God and Jesus and Co. however if we’ve been bad we go to hell and live in eternal torment. This, to me, isn’t believable – but then again I am not religious, im sure this theory appeals to some.

A lesser-recognized theory is one that states, “We were placed here to advance our race through time and space.” This rhymes so I like it a lot but it does generally make sense. From the first indication of mankind we have made such ridiculously amazing discoveries. The wheel, fire, electricity, engines, languages, civil law, social hierarchies, currencies and space travel. The earth was a place with fields, mountains and trees and humans have turned it into a world full of cities, travel routes, technology and different cultures. We are, as far as we know, the prime species here and have come a long way in the 5,000+ recorded years of history we have. We have advanced from simplistic creatures that grunted and bashed rabbits against rocks for food to civilized people that are no longer hunter-gatherers and can pick up a meal from our local supermarket. Whilst other creatures are living in the same ‘habitats’ as they did since they evolved into whatever they are – humans continue to create new and arguably better conditions for living in. We have come from caves to skyscrapers – this could be our goal, but could also be our end when we blow up all we have strived to create with nuclear weapons. This seems to fit in with my idea that there is a key species every X-thousand years, and they eventually wipe out so another species can take over. Makes sense, sort of.

A theory favoured by scientists is that we are all simply here because micro-organisms generated by the ‘big bang’ adapted to the earth and over many years we generated into humans. This theory would mean that we have no reason for being here, we are here because we are and there is absolutely no reason for our being. We are just organic matter in a temporary living state until we die or the world implodes and goes off to make some other fanciful organisms. We are just ‘science’ and sooner or later we will cease to be. We simply do not have a purpose here and nobody is more important than anyone else. We are just the divine will of countless calculations and formulas that make up the fabric of the earth. I dislike this theory as I think there must be some reason or way for us to exist and to control our fate.

My own personal theory is that each and every person is born to fulfil a destiny. Our goal is to follow a set route in life and certain events are inevitable but others can be determined by our own actions. I like to think I am in control of my own destiny but I also like the comfort of knowing certain things are meant to be, like when something bad happens you can blame it on destiny – there are always things that are out of our control. This theory places us all into a storyboard setting and we are basically improvising a pre-written script. This shows us that we have freedom but straying too far from our set plan will cause something bad to happen. Our reason for been here is that we are meant to be here as it is written in the ‘grand plan’, some events are simply meant to be (i.e. death and birth) and this can bring comfort to us knowing that there is nothing we could have done to change things. I assume you may think this theory is quite morbid in that we don’t have control over everything but it makes a lot of sense to me.

The final theory I am going to mention is a version of reality shown in the film, ‘The Matrix’. Everyone sees their world how they wish and nobody else in your world actually exists. Events and conversations are simply concocted in our minds and reality is recognizing this. If you have ever known what someone was going to say before they actually said it, that is because you already invented what they were going to say in your mind. In this theory nobody is real and people only look/feel/smell/etc as they do because you wish them to in your mind. If this is true then I am writing this but nobody else will read it, because you are fictional characters in my own created world. Comments I get from this post will simply be created in my own mind and fed back to me. If you are reading this then I could be your subconscious giving you a subliminal message as to your own reality, you already wrote this in your mind and you are just beginning to understand this. This is strange but I am willing to believe it, bizarre as it may well be.

So there is the culmination of many hours of thoughts, compressed into a few paragraphs for your reading pleasure. Perhaps you now have a theory you can relate to and some sort of meaning you can hold onto as a reason for your being. Perhaps not. Life is an improvised play; make your own meanings that appeal to you – you never know, you could become a great philosopher.

*with dislexia*

*puntches*

Thanks for sticking to the thread :-)

Lil Ginge wrote:
> *puts on ready and 'ard suit*
>
> So *sniffs..grunts..* Where are ya from then.. bor-at?

over here!

*waves*

*puts on ready and 'ard suit*

So *sniffs..grunts..* Where are ya from then.. bor-at?

Lil Ginge wrote:
> *slaps with suitable slap*

heh, for a minute there I thought no-one was taking me on.

If you can't take the mick out of peeps who live too far away to get you, what use does this forum have? :D

*slaps with suitable slap*

Lil Ginge wrote:

> or from essex... hmmm
> interesting.

there are tell tale signs

*trawls mind for suitable essex girl joke*

...yes yes they will

It will be funny

I wonder if they will hear that I am ginger... or from essex... hmmm interesting.

Paradox wrote:
> I didnt give the last number! Nobody will ever guess!

I reckon it's a number between 0 and 9