IAP Political Forum

I thought up x pssible categories of what the meaning of life could be. Choose one or make your own and defend it.

The Meaning of life is...
1.A self-sustained positive state (happiness)
2.Eternal life (or any other religious creed)
3.Sensual Pleasure
4.Power and control
5.Any self-ascribed meaning (life is what you want it to be)
6.Their is none
7.Their is one but we don't know it.

I believe the meaning of life is a self-sustained positive state. By this I mean that it is happiness which is entirely under the control of the person (self sustained) and furthermore that it must be in accord with universal ethics. Happiness cannot be derived from outside sources because those sources cannot be relied upon, it must come from within the person. Their are many ways by which one can achieve this state, among them include; self-reflection, self-reinforcement (meditation, mantra, prayer), proper categorization of problems, adherence to universal ethics, understanding the world, and pursuit of self-created virtues.

Dude.  You hit it on the nail.  No one could of said it better.  This thread is over.

*Applaud*

I think it is unfortunate when a thread about the meaning of life gets very few responses but a flame-fest about the differences between atheists and christians gets thousands of views and responses.

Maybe because your thread is close to this (http://www.itsallpolitics.com/forum/index.php?topic=116.0) one which discusses the purpose of the universe.

/shrug

Well, I  guess you guys should by now know my first approach...  it depends what you mean by...

Jesus is my Pilot is obviously seeing 'the meaning of life' as indicating the fulfilment of a purpose - someone else's.  So he goes ultimately for option 2.


But philosofear does offer a variation on that, by making the 'purpose' one's own.  And identifying it as the pursuit of happiness, which he then goes on to sort of define and sort of determine how it is to be achieved.  Despite his view that this is option 1, it is of course a variation on option 5.

Me I go for 6/7.  Not even the full Dawkinsian propagation of the gene.  We are just here, at the mercy of our genes our memes our fellow humans past present and future. We can gain reward or pleasure from any of the options and we do.  We mix and match, follow doctrines and break them, indulge our passions and desires, and deny ourselves satisfaction for 'higher causes'.   No overarching purpose, no knowable great goals.

5.5 or 42.