Can there be One Supreme Meaning to Life?

[Sunstone]

Is it possible for there to be one supreme meaning to life? And, if so, what is the logic or reasoning that would support the assertion there was one supreme meaning to life?

Put differently, on what reasonable basis, if any, can someone claim there is one supreme meaning to life? Or, is the notion there is one supreme meaning to life just an unfounded assumption?

 

[S-word]

Is it possible for there to be one supreme meaning to life? And, if so, what is the logic or reasoning that would support the assertion there was one supreme meaning to life?

Put differently, on what reasonable basis, if any, can someone claim there is one supreme meaning to life? Or, is the notion there is one supreme meaning to life just an unfounded assumption?

The supreme and only meaning to Life, is life itself, for the life that was, has become the life that is, which life is in constant search for the eternal life which will always be. Prove me wrong.

 

[Makaveli]

If there is a supreme meaning to life the world would likely implode out of sheer amazement at its discovery.

 

[Sunstone]

Prove me wrong.

Why don't you bother to provide some reasoning for your position?

 

[Naturalist_Atheist]

I don't know if there is any meaning to life. I'm interested in why people feel a need to ascribe a significant intention to life. I think the notion that there needs to be a supreme meaning to life is unfounded. I have discovered no reason to believe there is any such meaning.

 

[whereismynotecard]

I think there are zero meanings.

 

[methylatedghosts]

The one meaning to life is the one meaning you give it.

 

[Riverwolf]

The one meaning to life is the one meaning you give it.

Arrgh!!!

You beat me to it!! Curses!

 

[methylatedghosts]

Awww...

It's because I'm in NZ you see - we're waaaaay ahead of you... you'll forever be behind until you move down here

 

[crystalonyx]

The supreme and only meaning to Life, is life itself, for the life that was, has become the life that is, which life is in constant search for the eternal life which will always be. Prove me wrong.

This doesn't really make any sense. Sorry.

 

[doppelganger]

Yes. The Supreme Meaning of Life is breaking the habit of asking what the Supreme Meaning Life is.

 

[Caladan]

The Meaning of Life

Why are we here? What's life all about?
Is God really real, or is there some doubt?
Well, tonight, we're going to sort it all out,
For, tonight, it's 'The Meaning of Life'.


What's the point of all this hoax?
Is it the chicken and the egg time? Are we just yolks?
Or, perhaps, we're just one of God's little jokes.
Well, ça c'est le 'Meaning of Life'.


Is life just a game where we make up the rules
While we're searching for something to say,
Or are we just simply spiralling coils
Of self-replicating DNA. Nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay.


In this 'life', what is our fate?
Is there Heaven and Hell? Do we reincarnate?
Is mankind evolving, or is it too late?
Well, tonight, here's 'The Meaning of Life'.


For millions, this 'life' is a sad vale of tears,
Sitting 'round with rien nothing to say
While the scientists say we're just simply spiralling coils
Of self-replicating DNA. Nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay.


So, just why-- why are we here,
And just what-- what-- what-- what do we fear?
Well, ce soir, for a change, it will all be made clear,
For this is 'The Meaning of Life'. C'est le sens de la vie.

This is 'The Meaning of Life'.

 

[S-word]

Why don't you bother to provide some reasoning for your position?

Were I to give you reasoning, I would give to you the words of Kahlil Gibran, "Life is a flame spirit in you ever gathering more of itself, While you, heedless of its expansion, bewail the withering of your days, It is life in quest of life in bodies that fear the grave. __________ You are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the mountains and roves the wind. It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety, But a thing free, a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether.

If these be vague words, then seek not to clear them. Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end, and fain would I have you remember me as a beginning, Life and all that lives, is conceived in the mist and not in the crystal. And who know but a crystal is mist in decay.______Forget not that I shall come back to you. A little while and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body. A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.

 

[Sunstone]

Were I to give you reasoning, I would give to you the words of Kahlil Gibran, "Life is a flame spirit in you ever gathering more of itself, While you, heedless of its expansion, bewail the withering of your days, It is life in quest of life in bodies that fear the grave. __________ You are not enclosed within your bodies, nor confined to houses or fields. That which is you dwells above the mountains and roves the wind. It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety, But a thing free, a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether.

If these be vague words, then seek not to clear them. Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end, and fain would I have you remember me as a beginning, Life and all that lives, is conceived in the mist and not in the crystal. And who know but a crystal is mist in decay.______Forget not that I shall come back to you. A little while and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body. A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.

Beautiful, but worthless as reasoning.

 

[BucephalusBB]

Is it possible for there to be one supreme meaning to life?

If life was created, it could be created with purpose in mind. In that case you'll have one huge purpose of life, with millliions of personall added meanings..

And, if so, what is the logic or reasoning that would support the assertion there was one supreme meaning to life?

Purpose would mean meaning. It is very logical that if we were created, it was not without reason/purpose/meaning..

 

[BucephalusBB]

If life was created, it could be created with purpose in mind. In that case you'll have one huge purpose of life, with millliions of personall added meanings..


Purpose would mean meaning. It is very logical that if we were created, it was not without reason/purpose/meaning..

O wow, look at my millions!
Those are waaaayyyy more than 1.000.000

 

[sandandfoam]

Is it possible for there to be one supreme meaning to life? And, if so, what is the logic or reasoning that would support the assertion there was one supreme meaning to life?

Put differently, on what reasonable basis, if any, can someone claim there is one supreme meaning to life? Or, is the notion there is one supreme meaning to life just an unfounded assumption?

I think Viktor Frankl is right in saying "The more comprehensive the meaning the less comprehensible it is. And if it comes to ultimate meaning, also, it necessarily is beyond comprehension." (Man's search for ultimate meaning p.143)
He goes on (p.145) that "Ultimate meaning is scotomized by science". He argues that religion (in it's broadest sense) is the fulfillment of the "will to ultimate meaning"(p.153)
Ultimate meaning is missing in the world science describes, but science Frankl says is just one cross section through reality and should acknowledge that other cross sections are conceivable (p.145)
I think it is reasonable for me to believe in a supreme meaning because that's how I feel. Frankl says we are most human when we forget ourselves,(Man's search for meaning, p115) I have felt that. I think this is why ultimate meaning is beyond comprehension but not beyond experience.
What about self actualization as the one supreme meaning?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Is it possible for there to be one supreme meaning to life? And, if so, what is the logic or reasoning that would support the assertion there was one supreme meaning to life?

Put differently, on what reasonable basis, if any, can someone claim there is one supreme meaning to life? Or, is the notion there is one supreme meaning to life just an unfounded assumption?

I think it is an unfounded assumption to say that there's a single supreme meaning to life. I think the term is vague enough that it would be hard to pin down what you mean other than the idea that you can look up the word "life" in a dictionary and it will have a "meaning" listed there.

However, just because something's an unfounded assumption or a vague statement doesn't necessarily make it false.

 

[S-word]

Beautiful, but worthless as reasoning.

I know! But I need no reason for life, I am because who I am always was. that which was before time and space were separated_________ the invisible singularity that has become all that is, has become who I am and who I am is joined to his beginning by an eternal and unbroken genetic thread of life. Who I am has never experienced death and nor can who I am with who I am one ever die; even so, in this eternal present, I am not who I was, nor who I will be, for who I am is the name that was given to me. So get behind me you charlatan priests and you shams, for I am true to my God, to My God, 'Who I Am.'

 

[Masourga]

It is interesting how everyone always looks for the "magic bullet" first. The thing that can explain whatever is happening in one, fell swoop. Whether it's a question about the meaning of life, which belief set is "right", what's causing the economy to tank, why is my child so rebellious, how do I lose weight, etc. etc.

In my experience, few (if any) issues boil down to just having one, root cause or answer. It must just be in our nature to want the "quick-fix". It's what we always go for first, and only when that fails do we admit to ourselves that we need to broaden our search.