Worldview

ILoveFroggies
ILoveFroggies Posts: 120 Member
edited December 2024 in Chit-Chat
Good evening! I know this is a bit random, and I know it's a tremendously cliche question/series of questions, but I don't have any satisfying answers, so I'd like to hear yours.

Okay, so, I'd say I acknowledge there's some kind of "meaning" to our existence, but is it of the kind that transcends the material realm, or is it just a property of matter that passes away with us? Are all of our deepest thoughts and feelings just the result of neurotransmitters and electrical impulses and the like in our brain? I don't know anymore. :( I mean, if that is the case and we are just arrangements of carbon atoms and what have you, without there being Anyone greater who arranged those atoms with a particular transcendent "meaning" in mind, there can still be temporal "meaning", right? What do you think? Foremostly, what do you think is the truth? Secondly, how does whichever view you believe to be the truth affect the way you live your life?

Replies

  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
    LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo Posts: 3,634 Member
    no entiendo
  • Merrychrissmith
    Merrychrissmith Posts: 231 Member
    Cogito ergo sum.
  • ILoveFroggies
    ILoveFroggies Posts: 120 Member
    Sorry, I know I'm weird. And it's late, and I'm tired, which doesn't help. May I ask a similar thing from a slightly different angle, please?

    “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis.

    Please discuss this quote! Thanks. :)
  • ILoveFroggies
    ILoveFroggies Posts: 120 Member
    Anyone...? :)
  • KaiHuk
    KaiHuk Posts: 49
    no entiendo

    Yo tambien .
  • bazfitness
    bazfitness Posts: 275 Member
    There are some awesome books out there looking into these questions from a scientific non-religious point of view. Pretty heaving going some of these books but at least they try to examine the subject with a fresh modern day perspective based on what we actually know and examining all sorts of weird outlandish but quite possible scenarios. For instance it very much looks like that our universe is just one of an infinite number of parallel universes... but hey check it out for yourself.
  • Ian_McC
    Ian_McC Posts: 19
    Life has no preordained meaning or purpose and is just an emergent property of the universe's natural processes. That's both terrifying and liberating, I think--life has no set meaning, so in the absence of some divine purpose decreed from on high, we're free to determine the meaning of our own lives.

    That's not to say that I don't believe in some sort of eternal presence that always has and always will exist, but I don't believe in interventionist deities that act with any sort of purpose.
  • Chipmaniac
    Chipmaniac Posts: 642 Member
    The biggest disappointment of my life was not discovering that no one, not even philosophers, artists, or religious scholars, have the answers to the meaning of life. The biggest disappointment is realizing that there are no answers at all. Asking such a question is only giving an invitation to the charlatans and false prophets to feed you nonsense.

    In a way, knowing the futility of it all can be empowering because it allows you to look inward for self-motivation and understanding instead of seeking it from outside sources. After all, they are all in the same boat as you...mortal, confused, and without a shred of hope of being able to discern the truth of it all.
  • ILoveFroggies
    ILoveFroggies Posts: 120 Member
    Many thanks for the replies, you kind and reflective people!

    Bazfitness:
    Do you have any particular recommendations of books? I get confused about the multiverse theory though... What's your understanding of its implications? Even if our universe is just one of many, where did it all originally come from? Does it need a cause?

    Ian_McC:
    Oh, this is what intrigues me, the concept of "being free to determine the meaning of our own lives." If, say, I don't believe there's any "meaning" assigned to us and the natural world by Anyone greater than us and the natural world, is it fair to say that, ultimately, my alternative is nihilism? I mean, if "meaning" is something I can just make up myself, isn't it a bit... contrived? Not to mention transient (as it'll pass away with me). As much as I may tell myself there's "meaning" in the moment, if it ceases to exist outside of that moment and outside of me, does any "meaning" I make up for myself ultimately (as opposed to just transiently, i.e. when I'm alive) matter? Does anything ultimately matter? As an aside, if you don't mind sharing an example... What have you determined to be the meaning of your own life?

    Chipmaniac:
    A disappointing prospect indeed! :( I very much agree that if you start from the assumption that there definitely is meaning to life, as opposed to being open to the possibility that there may not be, your search for truth is compromised... particularly because we, as humans, tend to long so deeply for there to be a meaning! I wonder, though, why is it that we do long for such a thing? What's the origin of this longing? Can it be explained in purely natural terms without the need to consider the supernatural? This brings me back to the C.S. Lewis quote... “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” I can't get my head around this! I don't know whether I agree with him or not. Are there any other logical explanations?
  • ILoveFroggies
    ILoveFroggies Posts: 120 Member
    Anybody else want to share an opinion? :D<3
This discussion has been closed.

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