Ben Bet Beh
Member
Please give me the who, what , when, where, why, and how from your perspective. Please indicate your religion.
Thanks!
- Ben
Thanks!
- Ben
-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Meaning of life.
- Thread starter Ben Bet Beh
- Start date
Solitarius
New Member
Hi Ben,....Reality expressed in action is what makes life both beautiful and meaningful. To be who you are and live in accord with that reality is the sole purpose of life. Being who you are of course is not the same as the person you think you are. Who you think you are is just imagination. Who you are in reality is the whole of existence, not simply the part. The universal, loving Self - not the individual, selfish one.
I follow the heart of every religion - the path of love.
I follow the heart of every religion - the path of love.
elmarna
Well-Known Member
While a man's religion is the sum of his beliefs; I do not think writeing a book on this thread will be wise. If you ask 1 question at a time I may be able to respond in a more reasonable manner.
I will start by saying in the basis & foundations of my beliefs there is 1 God. Defined in my way as "the essence of life."
I will start by saying in the basis & foundations of my beliefs there is 1 God. Defined in my way as "the essence of life."
IsmailaGodHasHeard
Well-Known Member
I am a Christian and I believe that the meaning of life is to live and we do that by serving Jesus.
Gaura Priya
IRL
Love Krishna/Jehovah/Allah/Abha/Shangdi/Amitabha/the Divine,
and try to serve Him.
and try to serve Him.
agnostic theist. Meaning is whatever you choose
No religion,does life have to have a meaning
I don't believe life has any intrinsic meaning if you are thinking of a philosophical or theological meaning. In the case of both philosophical and theological meanings, life has the meaning each one of us gives it -- although some of us apparently prefer to tell ourselves that the meaning we choose to give life is chosen for us.
On the other hand, there are certain existential conditions to being human that are of such consequence most of us find ways to deal or cope with them. And, in most cases, the ways we deal or cope with those existential conditions involve our giving meaning to things.
For instance, there is the existential condition or challenge of our own mortality and the mortality of those we love and cherish. Again, there is the general impermanence of all things, which is the problem of mortality raised to a broader level. And there is the issue of how we deal or cope with the self -- also known as the ego or consciousness. Those three human conditions or challenges are -- like many other human conditions or challenges -- things that each of us much face and that have consequences for us depending on how we face them. And in each case, we are prone to give meaning to those things as a way of facing them.
Of course, giving meaning to life can be a form of psychological escape from facing life as it is. But we usually ignore that fact in favor of pretending that some psychological escapes are higher, more worthy, or more noble than others.
Thus, if we spend our lives praying to a god sixteen times a day, or spend our lives seeking enlightenment, we might consider those escapes from life as it is to be more worthy than if we spent our lives trying to be fashionable or cultivating our sexuality.
In the end, however, life has only the meaning we give it, and all the meanings we give it are ultimately arbitrary. Last, because of the nature of the brain, it is far easier to give meaning to something -- to see something as meaningful -- than it is to give no meaning to something. To chop wood and see it as important work is far easier than to simply chop wood.
On the other hand, there are certain existential conditions to being human that are of such consequence most of us find ways to deal or cope with them. And, in most cases, the ways we deal or cope with those existential conditions involve our giving meaning to things.
For instance, there is the existential condition or challenge of our own mortality and the mortality of those we love and cherish. Again, there is the general impermanence of all things, which is the problem of mortality raised to a broader level. And there is the issue of how we deal or cope with the self -- also known as the ego or consciousness. Those three human conditions or challenges are -- like many other human conditions or challenges -- things that each of us much face and that have consequences for us depending on how we face them. And in each case, we are prone to give meaning to those things as a way of facing them.
Of course, giving meaning to life can be a form of psychological escape from facing life as it is. But we usually ignore that fact in favor of pretending that some psychological escapes are higher, more worthy, or more noble than others.
Thus, if we spend our lives praying to a god sixteen times a day, or spend our lives seeking enlightenment, we might consider those escapes from life as it is to be more worthy than if we spent our lives trying to be fashionable or cultivating our sexuality.
In the end, however, life has only the meaning we give it, and all the meanings we give it are ultimately arbitrary. Last, because of the nature of the brain, it is far easier to give meaning to something -- to see something as meaningful -- than it is to give no meaning to something. To chop wood and see it as important work is far easier than to simply chop wood.
Last edited:
Ben Bet Beh
Member
I'll take this as the "who" as being one God. My follow up then is what is the meaning of life for that one God?
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
The only thing that can be construed as an inherent "meaning" of life, is to survive long enough to reproduce and pass along your genes, in order for life to continue.
Any other meaning that humans try to apply to life are basically our clumsy attempts at trying to deal with the minimal amount of self-awareness we have as a side-effect of evolution.
Any other meaning that humans try to apply to life are basically our clumsy attempts at trying to deal with the minimal amount of self-awareness we have as a side-effect of evolution.
Ben Bet Beh
Member
It seems (at least to me) that I am here for a specific purpose whether I have a belief in God or not. The meaning of a worker ant's life is to provide work for the community of ants (for example).
The Sum of Awe
Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
From my perspective? Life is meaningless. I belong to many religions, mainly a Deistic form of Nihilism.
What is the specific purpose of an African Child with AIDS that is starving to death
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
HIV viruses need a place to live too.
Well they have plenty of real estate in Africa to choose from.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
The Lord shall provide.
How benelovent can the Lord be.
BruceDLimber
Well-Known Member
I'm a Baha'i, and according to the Baha'i Faith, our purpose here is twofold:
· As individuals we are to acquire the spiritual virtues we'll need both here and in the Next Life.
· In aggregate, we're to carry forward an ever-advancing, spiritually-based civilization.
And the purpose of religion is to show us HOW to go about this!
Best!
Bruce
· As individuals we are to acquire the spiritual virtues we'll need both here and in the Next Life.
· In aggregate, we're to carry forward an ever-advancing, spiritually-based civilization.
And the purpose of religion is to show us HOW to go about this!
Best!
Bruce
Alex_G
Enlightner of the Senses
I think the meaning of life will ultimately be down to the individual who holds that life to discover. I think it is beyond a person’s right to define the meaning of another’s life, in such a way as if they held some ownership over them. However, this doesn’t mean that everyone is always correct in their interpretation of their lives, and the meanings and values that go with it. There will be plenty, at many points in their life feeling utterly lost, misguided or tragically acting out a life that isn’t truly their own or what they could and would hope to aspire to had they the perspective, but of course it wouldn’t be my place to preach any wrongdoing to others.
I remember hearing a talk on Nietzsche a while ago, which was my first exposure to his work. I remember that his ‘Uberman’ character resonated much with my thoughts and feelings, and that longstanding unease I had with so much of society and life around me, without being able to quite articulate why I was so bothered.
I feel in me the desire to be like this Uberman character, to be the authentic artist in all that I am. To be wholly and legitimately me, and full of integrity. So much of the world and the people I see are tame conventional creatures, committed to a life of comfort, staying out of trouble, keeping their noses clean, doing a good days work, behaving themselves and wanting to be nothing more than a nice boy or a nice girl all the days of their lives. A society of essentially servile, mechanically living people whose lives are empty, pointless sets of distractions one after another.
Now I know that might seem a little strong, but it is the language of meaning for my life, and my desire to rise above this, and live an authentic life that is my own burns in my heart. Nothing more tragic than to wake up at the closing years of your life only to realise that your life was not your own, or that what you did wasn’t what you ever really wanted. Perhaps on some level to never wake up holds even more tragedy. For me, this is what it means to be truly liberated and free in life, and to be authentically and proudly myself in all that I am and do, is the greatest honour I can do myself, and only in such a mind-set can I hope to truly tackle the question of meaning.
Alex
Last edited: