“What is the meaning of life?” The question has been pondered by countless philosophers for centuries. It makes me wonder why… because I think it’s a pointless question. It’s pointless because the question assumes that there should be a general standard for meaning and that it has to be defined external to the person asking the question.
Let me make a point. One may say that the purpose of fire is to give us warmth or to heat our food. But fire didn’t come into existence to serve man. Fire existed and then man found purpose for it. But that purpose only exists to those with minds to see benefit from fire. From fire’s perspective, it doesn’t care what man does to it. Fire itself has no intrinsic purpose for existence except for the subjective interpretations of purpose that man assigns to it.
The question just doesn’t make sense in a secular forum because it assumes that we were put here for a purpose that preceded our capability to define it and that everything (the birds, lions, whales, humans, etc) is a pawn fulfilling a purpose that was devised by a mind that is capable of intent. By asking such a question, you are already assuming the existence of a creator.
The religious who can’t see meaning or purpose in life without god bother me. I just don’t understand why some people can’t grasp any concept of meaning or purpose without god. It seems like they’ve surrendered so much of their thinking process to their chosen deity that they’ve forgotten that purpose could also be defined from the first person perspective. They believe that they have a purpose, I believe that I have a purpose. The difference is that I don’t need other entities to define that purpose for me.
It’s not just believers who think this way. Some atheists/agnostics claim that according to evolution, the meaning of man’s life is to spread his genes. I think that “meaning” is not the most appropriate word here. Evolution is a mindless process that is incapable of purposeful action thus it cannot ascribe meaning or have reason for anything that it “does”. Evolution gave us the capability and the motivation to procreate. Whether that will be the purpose of our existence will be determined by the individual who has the mind to conceive a purpose for it.
The question “what is THE meaning of life” makes as much sense as “what is THE favorite color” which cannot be answered unless you have a reference point. For the question to make sense, you have to replace “THE” with “you” or “my”. So instead of asking: “What is the favorite color”, ask what is your/my favorite color. Instead of asking “what is the meaning of life”, ask: “what is the meaning of your life?” “What is the meaning of mine?”
Once we are able to answer that question, we are then able to live our life according to our own purpose. Life becomes more exciting and is lived to it’s fullest because we don’t have to fulfill a purpose preordained for us. We now live it according to what we define our individual lives should be. That changes everything. And there’s really nothing wrong with that.
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