Is that all there is?--peggy lee

[last.fm]

gotta be really old to remember this 1. but she sums it up pretty well, imo.
not gonna break out the booze but will have an excellent craft brewed IPA with my open oven pizza this evening.

Buwahahahahaaaa! Good one!

Everything has been answered: the answer is 42.

No. That's coming from the assumption that there must be a "god" or "higher meaning". You're putting the (nonexistant) cart before the horse. This crap is old and tired. Can't y'all find some arguments that are at least original or somewhat interesting?

i don't understand what believing in a god has to do with having a purpose. if one believes in a god that actually wants something, then that would be god's purpose, right? and since believers don't all believe in the same god, god's purpose is STILL subjective. so what? i have read both sartre and camus but not enough, and not recently enough, to comment on what they believed. i will not agree or disagree with them based on second-hand argument. i can say that it is possible that absurdity is not the right concept here. anyway, i am tired of people speculating that only god could give an objective purpose when, as i have said, that would be as subjective as anything else.

g

I basically agree but it's my view that most people who have a malfunction or concern with this do not understand the problem domain. The concept of the absurd (or actual nihilism for that matter) does not equate to meaninglessness and despair. And subjective meaning and purpose are quite sufficient to find life interesting and compelling.

The real problem is that religion has promoted learned helplessness for so long to so many that we can't let go of the idee fixe' that life must have iexternally defined and bestowed meaning. The truth is that the only meaning anyone actually has is the meaning they decide is important to them. Absorbing meaning from some imagined being is just a cop-out, not a solution.

Meaning has the duality of the objective and the subjective. Objectively, if there is no god to give us a meaning and the universe does not care, then there is no meaning. Subjectively, we human beings care about things. So we give our life meaning.

The nature of ultimate reality is a vast and impenetrable mystery. Whether you slap the god word on it or not, the fact remains that we humans are abysmally ignorant.

Yet we enjoy self-awareness. The nature of this self-awareness is also a very deep mystery, but given the overwhelming implications, I think that without doubt there is both objective and subjective purpose of enormous value when looked at as a unified whole.

Objective and subjective are actually not opposites. In a sense it’s all subjective IMO.

Objectively there is no purpose to life other than reproduction so that life my continue. This is deeply ingrained. The subjective purpose of life can be anything that you want it to be. The pleasures and joys of one person may bore another to tears.

Replace god with 'a purpose ' and I would agree.. I think many humans need a god so they can convince themselves they are alive for a reason.
if we exist because of pure accident then it does seem a bit absurd lol