Meaning of Life and What it is to be Human
 

This is overly cogitated, but read on.
It may no make sense.
First we must evaluate logic distinct from love and all other intangible factors.
Throughout History:
Philosophic:
The embodiment of love through the meager confines of verbal rhetorical have all been expressed; thus exemplifying the lack of necessity for me to redound. It is the constant restatement of love devotions that keeps us from falling towards the other end of primal discrepancy.

LayMens:
If we don not strive for love, we deny the very essence of what makes us Human. Beasts and animals rely on their primal instincts to guide them to survive, but we have the luxury of love. We can choose to love, or we can choose not too.

The Big Three:
Philosophic:
Within life, three inconsistencies and radical variables arise: Hope, Faith, and Love. It is these illogical applicants that drives men from sanity. They plague, yet they respectively retain the other half, the ying of the yang to what makes us human. Intellect and Love is what essentially proves our humanity. The discrepancy between man, and beast.

LayMens:
The only way to truly be human is to accept the two gifts that are given to us. One is intelect, we must learn, the other is love. They are both Ying and Yang. Also, you cannot add logic to love, faith, or hope, and vice versa.

Concludingly, What is the meaning of life everyone asks? There is no meaning, that is the meaning. Just accept life. 99% of it is personal preference, or what you make of it. There is no right or wrong. It's all what you make of it.

If anyone rebukes, I'll be glad to debate.

Please allow me to probe your mind a little further in order to find out what you are truly striving for. Is this theory an exclamation or anarchy or a mantra of peace? On the basis of anarchy, I guess that I can't really find anything wrong with this theory because any actions of humanity, be it practicing a religion or raping your neighbor's wife, could be viewed as accepting life and making something out of it.

The only flaw I see is if this theory was meant to inspire intellect and love in which case I would have to ask: What happens when someone goes against their mind and heart and harms another person? Wouldn't this go against your post?

I'm simply saying that we need to strive for intelect and love (ect.) solely because they are the things that separate us from the animals. There's a rift in between what we as humans poses and what the animals poses. We can think and undergo extreme emotion where as animals just sink into lust and plain survival.

It's slightly chaotic because in order to see the entirety of life it is essencially necessary to accept the good and bad within us. It is the choices we make that truely define us as good or evil. Everyone has the basic potential, but it is the choice that separates.

If someone were to go against their mind and heart to harm another person, it is simply a choice that person makes that further plunges him into the pool or animals. I'm saying that if we let ourselves fall into crime, sin, call it what you will, we can never truely develope what makes us human.

I hope that helped you out, thank you for your insightful post.

I'll keep it simple

We are here for two things...
Survive & Experience.

those are the basics.

there is no meaning, but what you give yourself.

It all depends on faith and whether we are hear for purpose. Think about it, there are too many coincidences for us to be here. Somethings not right. But when it comes to basic primal aspect, yes we are here to survive and experience. But so are all the other animals, but it is the gifts given to us by whatever accounts that seprarates us. You are very right, there is no meaining to life, that is the meaning because as I said 99% of life is personal preference and what you make of it.

Thanks for posting.

.
it's not about you.
.

Well, I was in elementary school and I found some books a friend's father had of Holocaust pictures from World War II.

At that moment, I discovered what it is to be human.
I haven't seen any reason to change my opinion since then.

Ever since I have had an opinion, my opinion of humans is that we are the most brutal, savage, cruel, vicious, and muderous animal ever to have walked the earth.

My goal has been to not be like that.

That's the meaning of life as far as it matters to me.

I believe that we must embrace all the evil and good within man. Yes the holocaust was a horrible experience in history, but we must also look at the good aspects of man and all the progress we've made, not just all the flaws and errors that we've made. We're human we are bound to make errors, and if need be to progress, it's all part of human process.

Your goal should be to strive not to be inhumane, but the truth is that we are brutal, savage, cruel, vicious, and murderous, but we also bring good to this earth, we love, we live, we hope, we cry, and we die. I guess your view is that of nihilism or cynicism.

Thank you for your post.

If you can lay on your deathbed (bottom of lake, shallow ditch, burning car, whatever) and say to yourself, "That was a pretty good time", then you have not only discovered the meaning of life, you have fullfilled it.

Fireshiru1, not at all.
People who know me know me as a positive person with a totally positive view of living.

I just don't need to deny the truth in order to create a positive life. In fact, for me, any other way would be delusional.

lol if you think about it we are just fish in God's aquarium.

ask Brad Pitt he seems to know
no, im not gay or obsessed with him, its just that he's made a discovery that i think humans will come around to understand maybe in about 100 years. just watch his films

Brad Pitt always plays a philosophical character, he's pretty cool. My take on life and what it means to be human... well, I know that someone is going to browse through this thread, read my post, and become angry or offended (the likliest case), or simply disagree, so here it goes anyway: the purpose of everything is for it to do exactly what it is doing right now. In other words, if a gun is killing someone right now, it was meant for that purpose and that purpose alone, at that instant. If a fork is being used to eat a potato salad, then that is the only purpose that the fork could possibly have ever served... at that moment. Everything that is, simply is. Whatever happens, it was meant to happen, regardless of how tragic these events may sometimes be. I know that someone who has recently had something bad happen in their life is going to get on my ass about this just because it doesn't help them feel any better, and they're going to inform a moderator/adminstrator and have my post edited/removed, but before you do, just think about what I said, it might actually help you cope with whatever it is that happened. The meaning of life is to live, and what it means to be human is everything that you do, and nothing else. "What does it mean to be human" does not have a "one size fits all" answer, it is simply the product of one's own actions that defines that individual's purpose as a human being.

To crush your enemies, have them driven before you and hear the lamentation of the women..............hold on, I'm sorry, thats whats BEST in life....nevermind

This question can only truly be answered by the infertile.

Why do we humans exist?
 

Okay think about this long and hard. Why are we humans here? What purpose do we serve? In my view, the human species is nothing but a virus, using up the earth's resources to eventually? move on to ravage another planet and so on. We do not serve any great purpose, nor do we contribute to the day to day running of earth. Hell, Earth would be a much better place if we were still squatting in our caves, scared shitless of our own shadows. If we were put here by some omnipotent being, the question again is....why? Are we nothing but a source of amusement? This is where i believe in evoloution - we were an accident, we were never meant to get this smart. With knowledge comes power. With power comes arrogance. Arrogance eventually leads to disaster. We are bringing about our own doom, and yet we refuse to do anything about it as a whole. Space exploration is still in its infancy because the nations of the world will not pool some of their resources into one space agency. Humans are greedy and arrogant. And there is still the question - why are we here?

i've thought about this for a long time and nothing has struck home. if you believe in christianity then why would god make men after making angels. angels have free will and can love god or leave him so why us?

if you believe in a perfect god why would he create anything? doesn't perfection mean that you don't need anything else. and if we were always a part of the perfect plan then we weren't created just gestating.

i don't know about a virus. but def. a product of the weird world of evolution.

Why are humans here? What purpose do we serve?

No reason. No purpose. Welcome to the real world.

Do you wake up wondering why the sky is blue, or dirt dirty, or why a lemon tastes sour? Some things just *are*, regardless of reason.

If you really desperately need a reason for your existance: to procreate and survive as a species. That's why.

pretty much agree with the other posters. We're just another speices who want to survive and procreate, as Dragonlich siad.

to survive & experience

we are another sample to test.

Re: Why do we humans exist?
 

. . . . . . . . . you say it like its a bad thing!

no no no... you aren't thinking about this in the right terms at all. You based your question on the implicet asumption that good and bad exist, which isn't really true at all in the cosmic sence. Good and Bad are concepts used to express the social acceptibility of an action, they are not real. To say that what humans are doing is to the earth today is bad, or, as your put it "Hell, Earth would be a much better place if we were still squatting in our caves, scared shitless of our own shadows.", is to make a moral judgement.
The real problem is that you are not considering humans a natural event: i.e. we are actually products and parts of our environment, and mammals besides. Just because we have inteligence that no other creature has, we have been able to strongarm our way into a dominant position, but we are still part of the system. To put it another way: if there was some earth-like planet out there where insect's DNA could mutate and adapt faster and lead them to dominate all other speces in terms of strength and survivability, that system would also colapse as the insects then bread out of control, exasusted their food supply (which overlaps the food supply of other animals as well), and left their planet a lifeless husk. So, distrying ones planet is a possibility for any speces that can get and maintain an advantage over other lifeforms, inteligence or sellf-awareness dont even come into it.

We are products of nature, anything we do is therefore natural. It might be "bad" in the sence that its undesireable, but it is totally natual for a planet to exist without life.


As for why we are here........ um....
just another evolutionary thing, i think. Though, when you really really look at the physiscs that our universe is based upon, it seems allmost perfectly designed to cultivate life somewhere...
After all, the universe has allmost no curvature, just enough gravity to form stars and planets but not enough to colapse it right away, just the right frezing point for water such that oceans wont freze over, things like that. If there is a god, i think he just setup the inital conditions, i dont think he would actually form anything by hand.

woah, i thnk i got a bit off topic there.

Why should there be a "why"? It's kind of sad that people don't see the beauty in the randomness of our existence. It's every bit as beautiful as a divine plan, but possibly a bit more frightening to concieve of.

Re: Why do we humans exist?
 

To quote George Carlin: "PLASTIC".

:D

Why do we humans exist?


We don't, you're the only one. Goodnight.

Why Does Mold Exist?

It goes forth trying to improve and replicate itself and adapt to its environment creating efficient breeding grounds, shielding itself from 'bad' things trying desperately to fit in. To impress the other mold spores that mating with it will enrich their lives and produce excellent offspring that can go to mold Harvard or be the first mold to survive a 20% chlorine solution in the corner of a bathroom ceiling. Or to nurture young molds to a point where they can appreciate their existence and continue their great species.

Haha. :D

to enjoy. that is why.

Dragonlich gave the complete answer in his first paragraph.
The second paragraph was a concession - and unnecessary.

Cosmic accident.

suchness.

Sure sure, but I think a lot of the previous posts are all based in a very pseudo-scientific manner which argues that evolution explains everything, there is no meaning, no god, no good, no bad, and that really devalues the possibility of human meaning. On some level, such posts are right, but they deflect from the real question which is: what meaning CAN human life have?

For example, I think that one of the most important things that humans can do is create beauty in the form of art, architecture, literature, poetry, or film. This appreciation of what we see around us and ability to recognize the world around us, our separation from it OR inclusion within it, provides us with a(n albeitly self-created) purpose.

Ah! Well thats a different question altogether! The question that was originally proposed implied an inherrent reason. An objective universal purpose. A "meaning" of life.

To answer YOUR question, I'd say that a persons purpose in life is whatever he/she makes it.

why not

To keep the universe from diluting into whatever is outside of our dimensial 'zone' through our collective will. Seriously though, I don't think that it really matters regardless of what it is. Life is what we have, no one gets out alive, so why bother spend time pondering things such as that?

i hardly think a purpose is required. i'd like to agree with whoever it was (don't feel like looking up and checking) who mentioned the nature of morals and of moral judgements of existence in general. the fact of the matter is that humans aren't any different than anything else, we aren't any different, in practical terms than the mold spores everyone seems to be mentioning.

and remember that diseases are a necessary part of any ecosystem. so what if humans are earth's disease. everything has an achille's heal. otherwise, nothing would work properly. it would throw out the concept of survival of the fittest. though i have my own thoughts on that and its relationship to humanity. someone can start a "what makes us human?" thread and i'll comment there.

the "why" isn't nearly as important as the "how"

as put by jlickx with his wonderful analogy and Omagus pretty much answers the "why" well, at least to me. Ask "how" are we here.

This is an easy quesiton. Humans are the product of evolution. It seems as though you mean what is the purpose of 'life, living, etc'. Well, that depends on a number of things. If you're religious, your purpose is to live up to die. If you are non-religious, it your inner purpose could vary. For me, the purpose of my life is to experience intresting things, challange myself (physicly and mentally), and explore the worlds cultures.

As I said, we are just the product of evolution. We are on top because of 'survival of the fittest'. The only hard question is how the UNIVERSE was created. Something has to come from something, and it makes sense up until the begining -- how nothing because the infinite zone that is the universe.

If we managed to understand the creation of the universe, the rest is elementary. Evolution isn't anything special, it's jsut the exploitation of natural error. During growth and devision, mutations occour. The advanced species of today are the product of billions of years worth of mutation.

not to be taken seriously, but maybe it is

God was bored.