What is the meaning of life? Do we have to create our own meaning? \ stacker news ~FiresidePhilosophy

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What is the meaning of life? Do we have to create our own meaning?

246 sats \ 7 comments \ @Mumbo 16h FiresidePhilosophy

Sometimes I think I'm a bit nihilistic, it can make me sad at times, but at times it also gives me ultimate freedom. What gets you up in the morning?

We’re stardust that somehow became self-aware. The odds of existing are astronomically small—every ancestor in your lineage survived long enough to pass on life, through ice ages, disasters, and chaos. You’re the universe experiencing itself.

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129 sats \ 0 replies \ @frostdragon 7h

I think yeah, physically, we’re stardust. We reside inside stardust containers. But I think we are conscious souls that have the ability to use free will. And I think we don’t know what most of that sentence even means.

But I think we know absolute truth and absolute morality exist, outside of our souls and our universe. I think that’s what God is, and whatever we are is a finite fragmented derivative of that God’s mind. I think we’re supposed to seek relationship with and journey alongside that being. I think that’s going to look like many of the things mentioned here. Taking responsibility. Helping others. Being creative. Making everything around you better than it was before. I think all of those things are pieces of the meaning of life, because they’re pieces of the thing that made life.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Mumbo OP 16h

When I do get sad I try to remember that this the only place in the known universe where someone can taste a strawberry or hear a thunderstorm.

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @Shugard 14h

The meaning of life, as I explain to my children in my class, is threefold.

to have meaningful experiences that will challenge/change/last for the rest of your life.
Take responsibility for yourself and beyond yourself, preferably for a loved one. Real responsibility!
Leave something to the world that will add to the waste of knowledge we already have. Basically, leave a mark. Make your life something worthwhile that can be picked up.

All three together create values and standards that you desire and strive for!

The best way to achieve this is to find someone you love, get married and have children. Take care of your children and give them your values to pass on when you are long gone.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @ama 16h

None. Not really, but it's up to you. 😊

18 sats \ 1 reply \ @Aardvark 16h

Arnold Schwarzenegger said that you can have the best ship in the world, but if you don't have a direction, you're just going to float around.

I think you do need to create your own meaning. You have this tiny amount of time to experience one of the most rare gifts in the universe. Pick a direction.