Question 7:The ultimate "meaning and value" of lif

Mr. Pessimistic

Armstrong insists that modernism, despite all of the material benefits that it bestowed upon humanity, was not a complete replacement for religion and spirituality. "Human beings find it almost impossible to live without a sense that, despite the distressing evidence to the contrary, life has ultimate meaning and value," she writes.

What is your own view of the "ultimate meaning and value" of life in the modern world? Do you find meaning and value in life through religious observance?

Mr. P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out ya seat and jump around - House of Pain

HEY! Is that a ball in your court? - Mr. P

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

Edited by: misterpessimistic at: 1/16/05 2:39 pm

Jeremy1952

Meaning is something human beings create. This does not mean that it isn't real; we create real paintings and real music. The meaning that comes from religion is also made up entirely by our own human minds. Is it in any way superior? I think not. How can a life of learning and discovery be meaningful when there is some critter out there who already knows all the answers, who in fact wrote them?

My life is full of meaning because I choose to make it so. Relgion would only lessen and demean that.

If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984

PersonOfFaith

I agree with Karen Armstrong - life is meaningless if indeed we evolved. Consider: If we evolved, then Life is an accident – the right elements, temperature, and a spark of energy from lightening or some other electromagnetic force accidentally, or better coincidentally building amino acids, tha eventually evolve into life as we know it – Such an evolved entity (mankind) can not really define right and wrong; good and evil; love or hate. (reply: fullerming@hotmail.com)

Jeremy1952

Whether life has meaning or not is a question of fact, not opinion; that is, it either does, or else it doesn't. So an if/then… if we evolved then there is no meaning… is not really appropriate, because it address a different question: "If there is meaning, what, if anything, is the source of the meaning". It does not address the reality of whether there is meaning or not.

Meaning has evolved, along with everything else we cherish. If there is a creator, then life has no intrinsic meaning; it only has such meaning as said creator made up. "He" made us for a purpose? What purpose is that? Do we know? Can we know? Do we agree with whatever the deity produced? You see, ultimately it still comes back to our choice. Meaning is inherently internal, not external, because you have to care about something for it to mean anything.

If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984

Mr. Pessimistic

Quote:
Meaning has evolved, along with everything else we cherish. If there is a creator, then life has no intrinsic meaning; it only has such meaning as said creator made up.

Excellent Jeremy! I feel the same...if a being created us, then we have no meaning other than that imposed upon us by some egotistical know it all!

I find MORE meaning in life because we evolved...because we should cherish the fact that if we rewind the tape...we may not be here. That is very deep and should make us all realize that we are in this together...that finding the best and most efficient way to kill each other is a waste of the chances we have been given, not by a sky daddy, but by nature and chance.

Winning the lottery is a chance occurence...but that money would mean ALOT to me nonetheless!

Mr. P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out ya seat and jump around - House of Pain

HEY! Is that a ball in your court? - Mr. P

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper


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