- Marcus Yong
- Kota Kinabalu/sabah
- Malaysia
This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »
Will we ever find the true meaning of life?
As my question states, we are on a journey, to find our own meaning of life. But is there actually one true meaning of it? Life is a journey, not a destination. Is it fair to say that life has not one, but, a lot of different meanings and purposes? How do we define life? Different emotions give us different perspective on life. Different ways of thinking makes life different for each and everyone of us. The way we think changes through experience. Each day we live gives us new experiences. So, what do you think? Will we ever find the true meaning/meanings of life? Is it permanent or ever-changing? Please share your thoughts, and also tell us your meaning/meanings of life today.
Thomas Jones 100+
Dylan Gonzalez
Jaime Lubin 10+
Peter Law 30+
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.
{Westminster Confession; Shorter Catechism.}
:-)
Thomas Jones 100+
brian herring
Marcus Yong
Denis Fitzpatrick
Here is a link that may or may not address your question. When I was about your age, one of this author's books entitled, "Man's Search for Meaning", touched me very deeply... and still does.
http://www.ted.com/talks/viktor_frankl_youth_in_search_of_meaning.html
All the Best !
Denis
Linda Hesthag Ellwein 50+
Orlando Hawkins 20+
But since most people cannot deal with this reality, religious traditions are created. Immortal systems created by society and culture also plays a role in this. All and all, we (human beings) create meanings through our various actions and the vicissitudes of our experiences.
From an existential/subjective perspective, we can create our own meaning for life and this may indeed be fine but this is not what most people do. What is done is that the experiences that one has and the significance of these experiences are then imposed on other individuals and passed off as truth. Meanings through subjectivity does not get one closer to any real meaning of life and if subjective meaning and the significance that comes out of it happens to play a role on the true metaphysical nature of the world, this is certainly almost by accident.
Sorry to sound almost nihilistic but I really do not believe that there is an objective meaning to ones existence. This is not to say that ones life does not matter (at least to the individual) and this also does not mean that ones experiences do not matter. They do matter, but they have nothing to offer to the world objectively (at least in this context).
Jaime Lubin 10+
Adriaan Braam 20+
Personally I see human life as a higher life than the 'life' of a fetus, but also with only one goal, birth.
A fetus is not in the womb for anything in the womb. It is there to develop and grow a body.
We are not in this life for any-THING in this life other than to develop and grow a spiritual body. A spiritual body exists of what we love, also called our character.
And what we love is in our will, which determines our eternal, spiritual state.
We are not given a cookbook type of life's instruction, Now take your wive in your left hand and stir.. :) We have been given instructions that we can follow, laugh at, ridicule or totally ignore. We are left in complete freedom to form ourselves into any life-form we want. From angelic to worse than beasts.
"Every good person, of whatever religion, enters heaven." ~ Emanuel Swedenborg.
Heaven is like a perfect picture of humanity, where the more different the pixels are, the better the picture.
Mireille Chéry
Superbe, la langue de Molière ! C'est beau le Français n'est-ce pas !
Je persévérai jusqu'à mon dernier souffle à être honnête, loyale, intègre, et d'apporter quelque chose à autrui, que je le ou la connaisse et je vais contribuer largement dans ma société : le monde.
Je reçois vos vœux très volontiers!!
Paix, amour, joie et passion....sont à vous !
Bill Burns
Maybe the question should be to each and every person as an individual, "will you ever find the true meaning of your life?"
It is up to each individual to create the meaning for their own life. Yes?
Bill
Random Chance 30+
It's "if" "e" (iffy)
Life is experiencing everything we once knew,
But never had to go through.
So,
Find yourself.
Love yourself.
Share yourself.
Die yourself.
Because at each step:
The mind creates the abyss,
And the heart must cross this.
And above all:
Be present.
Because,
Now the present is,
isn't.
Mireille Chéry
Circumtances, situations, difficulties, happiness, loyalty, blessings,....it all part of life, just live what's in your path, this is your OWN experiences. There will never be another November 26 2011, never again, so better freakin enjoy it when is there!
Meaning of life : JUST LIVE IT, and you will see at the end, the meaning of it. Give your 100% in all, even when you are doing the dishes, give your 100%.
For me the meaning of life, is to go after my passion and conquer over my fears and become the best human being I can ever be. It hard to change habits etc., we all know what good and bad within us, I believe we are here to change, that thing within us, to become better. If you have anger as in issue, you have to do the work to change this within yourself, to become a better person, by doing so, new doors, opportunities come your way, to have it more easy, more peaceful life.....
Embrace it, enjoy it, cry it, dress it, bless it, give it, share it....live it for somebody else's life to be better !!
Peace
Juliette Zahn 50+
Mireille Chéry
Juliette Zahn 50+
Jaime Lubin 10+
Colleen Steen 500+
The meaning of life is whatever meaning we give to life...don't you think? I agree with you that we are on a journey to find our own meaning. I also agree that life is a journey...not a destination. To me, life is an adventurous exploration in which I will be the best that I can be in each and every moment. That is the meaning life has for me, and it takes in a HUGE scope of possibilities:>) For me, it is ever-changing because one of the most important elements in an exploration is that it may be constantly changing.
You may have noticed that many people here on TED define the meaning of life in many different ways? Different perspectives? That's what makes life interesting to me:>)
Beste Arslan
Denis Fitzpatrick
Debra Smith 200+
lynn eschbach 30+
Giusi Storino
Everyone began this journey for someone else's will/wish. It's the strangest and fascinating of all journeys for which it was not you to pay the ticket.
I never tried to find a "true meaning" in my life, I don't think there is. The only true meaning, in my opinion, is living: discovering new feelings, emotions, doing new experiences, learning new things...and like any journey it has a begin and an end. :)
Jozef K
Gerald O'brian 50+
And they have no purpose.
Glad this whole "meaning of life" problem is out of the way. Let's get back to what we're chemically rewarded to do.
Bozena Zgrzywa
Gerald O'brian 50+
Niches for replicators add a perspective, I feel, to this discussion. This is why I brought it up.
I find it particularly interesting to know that I'm not in charge, that my happiness is a by-product of chemistry. That the reason why I'm typing all this is that both my parents went from a single-cell organism into adulthood, had a mutual desire to have children and take care of them. Amusing to see that I myself have grown into an adult with the same goals and am taking care of children of my own. Funny how the reason why I take care of them is that they need to become adults and need my help for this, they need me to help them out in becoming reproducing adults themselves.
I accept (and this gives me infinite amounts of pleasure) because their maturity will produce children, and because these children will be 25% of my genes, of me.
All this life, all these parties, argues, sleeping, sex, meals, friends, carreer... In the end, my existence is an explosion initiated by the cell division and which purpose is the ignition of another explosion.
I'm part of a chain reaction, and I'm loving every minut of it.
Pocahontas Water
Gerald O'brian 50+
The way genes survive is reproduction and to do that, organisms need to reach sexual maturity.
This I will teach my kids as soon as they may understand it.
However, this has nothing to do with "real values" as you say correctly. It's just interesting facts everyone should think about. Gives you a perspective on things.
Don't worry, I am encouraging creativity in my kids as much as curiosity, kindness and seeking simple pleasures. I believe that a good person is a happy person and I believe in happiness.
Yet, on another level, I know that I'm being tricked by a bunch of genes. But who cares, if being fooled makes me happy?
It's the selfish gene and the happy fool, isn't it?
Pocahontas Water
Do you think that you are a good person (i.e May your actions now and in the past bring you to a conclusion that you are a GOOD person, who may give a proper example to a child)?
Thank you in advance for your response.My comment to follow
Gerald O'brian 50+
I wish I could answer YES, but I don't know what a good person is. I know what an altruistic deed is, I know what self sacrifice means, I know what kindness and compassion mean...
So before this one answer, one single question for you ; what is a good person?
Pocahontas Water
1. to realize that we all have feelings, and those feelings should be treated with respect and not just respect but greater than respect.
2 A person has two hearts: one that loves to do the right thing, and one that prefers to be selfish. I have preference towards people who prefer doing the right thing than to be selfish. To be selfish is a weakness for me. Unfortunately, people prefer to be selfish coz it is easier. The good person has the strength to face the difficulty and save the other people who love him/her even if that means to hurt himself/herself. This for me is the meaning of a GOOD PERSON.
Gerald O'brian 50+
I don't understand why self sacrifice has nothing to do with selfishness. Don't you feel happy when you give money to someone in need? Is that not self-interest, then?
Anyway, I guess you would consider me to be a good person, since I seem to go out of my way to make people around me happy, and never do anything to hurt their feelings. So my answer is yes.
Pocahontas Water
Peter Law 30+
So millions of miles of DNA, Tens of thousands of miles of blood piping, tens of thousands of miles of nerves, & trillions of cells as complex as a city all just happened to get together to reproduce. Once together they set about repairing & replacing themselves at tens of thousands per second, so that after 10yrs or so we are brand-new again. Does it not seem as though maybe someone has thought this through ? Does it never cross your mind that just maybe there is a plan ?
:-)
Gerald O'brian 50+
And indeed, the odds required to luckily assemble all the pieces that make a living organism are against it.
So we have elegant theories that successfull explain all the wonders you're talking about, which have nothing to do with chance.
But still. Chance is a better explanation than intelligent design. If you know anything about nature, it is obvious that there is no plan at all. Also, it's poor philosophy to think that creation is explained by the existence of a creator without a creator.
Peter Law 30+
An eternal creator would not require; indeed couldn't have; a creator. I cannot explain that, but it's logical. Also requires less faith than the 'natural forces' route.
:-)
Blake Ekelund
Maybe if this "creator" was truely omniscient, he would know how to make a system where we could drink the salt water! It is called nature...
Blake Ekelund
I don't believe that there is a plan. Who would plan us to be on a planet with only 1% of drinking water? while the other 70% of water is not drinkable? Whoever planned it must have been pretty stupid. We are here due to Natural Selection, or evolution. No one created anything, it just happened!
Peter Law 30+
if 1% is drinkable, & 70% non-drinkable, what about the remaining 29% ?
Seriously, water is water. To get clear water it has to evaporate & fall as rain. It then gets contaminated by salt on it's way to the sea. If it didn't go round in the cycle then once it got contaminated it would be lost.
What process would you expect a 'smart' god to use in order to keep us supplied with fresh water ?
:-)