> > > > > What is really the meaning of life? Why are we here?
> > > >
> > > > Second question: By chance.
> > > > First question: There isn't one.
> > > >
> > > > Throughout history, people have come up with many excellent life purposes and goals for themselves and others. To live without doing this to some extent, at least for oneself, would be ridiculous. But given my answer to the second question, I don't believe it makes any sense to believe there is an ultimate meaning/purpose to life which we are supposed to discover.
> > >
> > > I should have added this -- asking "What is the meaning of life?" IS a religious question and can never be anything else. The question assumes that life, and particularly human life, is here for a purpose. Asking for non-religious answers to a religious question just isn't something that can be done.
> >
> >
> > I never said it could not be spiritual. I said not religious. By religious, I would be taking it to mean "According to religions, or doctrines which say that the ultimate goal is God's". So I want to get away from saying that life exists because someone made it and said "exist". That's all.
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> > Melanie
>
> That was what I was trying to get across. In this context (though not in most other contexts), "spiritual" and "religious" are pretty much the same thing to me. You are asking a question which assumes life has an ultimate meaning. Life having an ultimate meaning, in turn, assumes a purposeful creator. There is not way it can't. Do you see what I'm saying here? It's not a question which can be answered according to the restrictions you have placed upon it.


I don't believe that that is true. Why can something only have value if it is valuable to someone else? Why do you need God to give your life a purpose? Why can't it be valuable because it is valuable to you? Or to the universe? Or to chaos. Or, I don't know, atoms? Why can't the meaning of life be based on its creation by the big bang? Why is God so different from these things?
I don't understand why you think the only way to have a purpose in life is if someone says, "This is your purpose. I decided. You figure out what I decided for you.". Perhaps my definition of purpose is different. You say that only a supreme being could give the universe a meaning, and make it work. But you also say life is random. So why can't the purpose of life be random? Or randomness? Or maybe to ultimately not exist. I don't know. I want to find out.

I'm just saying that if you give up, say that there is no way to know the purpose of the universe, that the whole argument becomes moot. If you say that there is a way, then you can argue it. And that is worthwhile, because you can find the truth by arguing. Just accepting something will only leave you with what you have already.

Anyway, I'm not very clear. Post more if you disagree with me. This is a good kind of arguing too, although I think it will probably be ultimately deleted.

Melanie