general Your take on Life, The Universe, and Everything Else.

[Xylosian 140]

Have you ever asked yourself: “Does life have meaning?”, “What's the point of the universe?”, or “Why do I exist?” Recently I've been try think. of an answer to these questions and I thought what are your guys' personal beliefs in a subject such as this?

 

My take? I believe that life has no meaning, our lives are pointless, the universe is pointless, and our existence as a species has no purpose. Sounds pessimistic or nihilistic doesn't it? I may be a bit of a nihilist but I am no pessimist. On the contrary I also believe that if the universe is pointless then we give it one. We give our lives our own meaning, our own purpose, a purpose to exist as a human being. We give our lives a reason to exist, and that's why I live day by day doing what I do. I accept that my life and life in general has no meaning, my life has no point, and I am here for no reason. But does this philosophy affect me? No, and neither should this philosophy affect you, I live my life the way I want to, I give my my life a purpose, a meaning to exist and I believe that you should too.                                                

[Anneal 2,197]

Have you ever asked yourself: “Does life have meaning?”, “What's the point of the universe?”, or “Why do I exist?” Recently I've been try think. of an answer to these questions and I thought what are your guys' personal beliefs in a subject such as this?

 

My take? I believe that life has no meaning, our lives are pointless, the universe is pointless, and our existence as a species has no purpose. Sounds pessimistic or nihilistic doesn't it? I may be a bit of a nihilist but I am no pessimist. On the contrary I also believe that if the universe is pointless then we give it one. We give our lives our own meaning, our own purpose, a purpose to exist as a human being. We give our lives a reason to exist, and that's why I live day by day doing what I do. I accept that my life and life in general has no meaning, my life has no point, and I am here for no reason. But does this philosophy affect me? No, and neither should this philosophy affect you, I live my life the way I want to, I give my my life a purpose, a meaning to exist and I believe that you should too.                                                

 

You're not alone on that philosophy and it's been shared by quite some amount of people: Fyodor Dostoyvesky, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, and even Friedrich Nietzsche, the "nihilistic" philosopher. What you have mentioned it what is called existentialism and was a reaction to fatalism, more extreme forms of nihilism (makes more sense with Dostoyvesky's case, since Russia had a nihilist movement in the 1860s and some nihilists took it a step further to permit themselves to use violence because they apparently didn't need to follow moral values or authority – this complicated mess partially led to the Tsar's assassination in 1881), and pessimism.

 

I don't think we need to give anything meaning; I'm alright with living a meaningless life. I'm not out here to get anyone to like or remember me, and I usually have to acknowledge that there's not much of a chance to be noted for anyways. I don't like jumping into pessimism – pessimism just sounds irritating and unhelpful, if anything at all.

[Magic Rasin 180]

Life is completely and utterly pointless, but knowing that doesn't stop me from enjoying it.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,315]

"Life...Don't tell me about life..."

 

- Marvin (The Paranoid Android)

 

The late Douglas Adams answered the question very nicely. 

[crispy fries 432]

Life is entirely pointless, but I don't care because I can play video games and eat mega stuff Oreos.

[Justin_Case001 4,903]

Well said, [@@Xylosian.  Couldn'ta put it better meself.  I believe that there is no grand purpose to anything.  The universe, and everything in it, exists because the law of physics allow it to be so.  The big bang happened, and everything is here because there is no alternative.  That's it.  No more, no less.  One day, it will all be gone.  Thus, nothing has any true meaning.  But just like you said, that doesn't have to be negative.  Life has every bit of meaning that we give it, and that makes it special and meaningful to each and every one of us, and everyone that comes after us.  Life has no meaning other than the meaning we give it, but that counts for an awful lot.

 

Oh yes, and of course:

 

42

 

[Invincible 2,091]

Mine is basically;

All matter in the universe interacts with itself. Some clumped together and deluded itself into thinking there has to be meaning to everything.

[captainborgue 343]

Have you ever asked yourself: “Does life have meaning?”, “What's the point of the universe?”, or “Why do I exist?” Recently I've been try think. of an answer to these questions and I thought what are your guys' personal beliefs in a subject such as this?

                                       

 

Why I exist is easy enough- the culmination of millions of years of evolution combined with the genetic inheritance of untold numbers of ancestors led to my existence. Any single variable changed even slightly and I wouldn't exist as I am.

 

The purpose of Life... that's tougher.

 

Having actually been dead- even if only briefly- I find it has radically altered my outlook on life. To me, I think a worthy goal is to try and make the world a little less shitty for as many people as possible. That's what I'm in my chosen field- despite all the flagrantly idiotic people and utterly ridiculous use of our services, we do, in fact, saves lives, businesses, families, etc. Good stuff. It's also why I tend to either ignore outright, or care so very little, about things like celebrities or sports or gossip or any of that crap. Your team won or whatever? Ok. Good for you. I don't care even the slightest (assuming I am not hostile at the massive fortunes being made by taking merciless advantage of absolutely everyone, that is).

 

I care about people as concepts, but very little about any specific person outside my social circle, because after having died, I came to realize just how much time and effort is utterly WASTED on crap that won't matter even the slightest bit in a year, a month, a week, or even an hour... but things like "a widow of a WWII vet not getting to vote because suddenly she needs all these ID documents that didn't exist sixty years ago" or "a black kid gets shot and killed for having a toy gun while a mob of white bikers- already known for violence- shoots the shit out of each other and gets a stern lecture" rile me right the hell up.

 

There's a scene from a show called "God, the Devil, and Bob" where Bob- a regular blue collar schmuck- asks God why his dad was an abusive piece of shit asshole, and God's answer is one of the most insipid, sappy, and utterly brilliant pieces of writing I have ever heard on television.

 

 

 

“Picture a long line of fathers to sons stretching from Adam all the way down to Andy [bob’s son] and they are all passing down this punch from one generation to the next, from father to son, and the trick is to pass on a softer punch. Your father passed on a softer punch.”

 

That's the jist of it, right there. Make the world a tiny bit less shitty, and that's enough for me.

[Lisa 5,553]

Life is suffering and death is the relief of the suffering.

*flicks emo fringe*

 

But really, I believe there is no true purpose to life. We just suffer and wait for our eventual death to stop the suffering.

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

I live life for others, and that is enough meaning for me.

If I can make one person laugh or be happy, then I'm contributing to making someone's day better.

 

One person can't change the world. But you can change someone else's world.

 

 

Although this is an overly optimistic view. It doesn't matter how crappy the world is, because you can always contribute to bettering it.

Edited April 20, 2016 by The Crimson Cross

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,732]

In the grand scheme of things, life to me has no real point. We are here, we live for a tiny while, and that's it. The universe doesn't care, it just moves on. However, this is something to me that might seem depressing, but it is actually comforting. It is something that shows that we don't need to acquire this or that to be happy, we don't need to attain some kind of greatness to be happy, because in the end, what does it matter? As long as one is happy with their own life, that is what counts. 

 

The whole concept is also rather humbling, since the human race tends to puff its chest out a lot about how amazing it is, yet we are basically ants on a tiny rock in this galaxy. Again, I actually prefer it that way.

[Anneal 2,197]

In the grand scheme of things, life to me has no real point. We are here, we live for a tiny while, and that's it. The universe doesn't care, it just moves on. However, this is something to me that might seem depressing, but it is actually comforting. It is something that shows that we don't need to acquire this or that to be happy, we don't need to attain some kind of greatness to be happy, because in the end, what does it matter? As long as one is happy with their own life, that is what counts. 

 

The whole concept is also rather humbling, since the human race tends to puff its chest out a lot about how amazing it is, yet we are basically ants on a tiny rock in this galaxy. Again, I actually prefer it that way.

Depending how you look at it though, we're still the tiny amount of life possibly several light years away from any other speck of life (or millions of kilometers if you believe that there's life on other planets and moons). And things more complex then we can possibly imagine happened on these specks of life, and for each genocide there are achievements that we've done that (mostly) compensates for it. I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to think we're amazing either way.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

What is life? Is it nothing more than the endless search for a-

Okay not really. Life doesn't have much of a purpose, it's what you make of that life. So do whatever potential you have in life.

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,303]

I more or less agree with the OP.  While nothing has an inherent, objective meaning or purpose, anything and everything can have an applied, subjective meaning or purpose.  Expressed in song form, that might sound something like this:

 

I'm reminded of Maud (I actually am).  Rocks probably aren't the most important thing to most of us - or to most ponies, for that matter.  However, to Maud, rocks have been the inspiration for countless poems and seem to represent a course in life that she genuinely wants to take.  Meaning and purpose.  Rocks.

 

And this isn't nihilistic thinking; it's existential thinking.  "You're nobody till somebody loves you, so find yourself somebody to love."

[cmarston1 5,959]

I can't really say that I believe that the universe has some grand, inherent, objective meaning or purpose.

As of right now I am rather content with how my life is and I don't really feel the need to go on some kind of existential ego trip.

I believe that the meaning of life is one of the most subjective concepts to ever be created, and that it is only what you really want it to be.

Either that or the meaning of life is humanity's endless search to find out what the meaning of life is.

And all of what we have accomplished trying to do so.

Edited April 20, 2016 by cmarston1

[LHfunk 422]

I believe in God, and so believe we all are part of some big plan of his. I personally like this approach, because it provides a purpose for those who need it (not me), but doesn't require you to have to try to get something out of life, it just gives a meaning to it without trying to accomplish anything. Sure, Christianity has things you should and shouldn't do, but they aren't needed for God's plan. It's also good because I just get to life how I want without having to want to achieve whatever life mean, because there isn't anything to achieve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, 42.

[BastementSparkle 20,328]

Life is pointless, meaningless, worthless. I have about as much worth as a piece of trash.

 

 Course, that's fine. I don't think life needs a big important meaning, making your own sounds better. But even that fails once I consider death. My life's meaning is pointless after death, my memories are, my personality is, my friends are. Nothing lasts forever, and once it's all gone, it might as well have never existed. Happiness doesn't even matter, love doesn't, pain doesn't, hate doesn't.

 

 Best thing I can do in life is to try and ignore these feelings, pretend I never thought of them, then I can feel okay for a bit. Once I remember though, I pretty much just hate everything. Myself, my family, my friends, the world, life, death, everything.

[Phanact 333]

All of my life, I have spent in churchs and following religion as that is supposed to be the answer to life and the universe and everything.

 

But I disagree, so I'm spending my life finding out. I'm here to figure out the universe. I really want to be a physicist and learn about that kind of thing so I can answer that question, so ask me again in 50 years and i'll see what I can say

[EpicEnergy 23,224]

I hold a Christian view on life, the universe, and everything else.

[Splashee 28,566]

My life is within the scope of what I need to know. Anything outside that is making my brain melt. And I can think about many advanced theories and ideas. But just trying to get a grasp about sizes of things, just makes it feel like there is not enough room in my brain to store it all in.

[Lucky Bolt 35,085]

I'm not really sure what or how I view all that anymore if I'm to be honest with you. I'm just here to make the most out of my life and have fun. I won't let myself worry about it. 

[TotallyNotNyx 15,566]

Well we live in a multi-verseeeeeeee 

[Splashee 28,566]

We don't really need to know much about "what's out there". Just keep living our insignificant lives at a level where it becomes significant to us.

[Mini 453]

life doesn't have a purpose, so u should spend the time mastering something

try to become the best at something, like a sport, or an instrument, or writing, or any other hobby

[AppleButt 8,676]

I don’t know what life is and not sure I really care anymore. 
 

I’ll never find out more than likely. Im here now for whatever reasons, and I’ll die someday.  That’s all I know. 
 

So I just roll with things and hope for the best.