What do you think is the purpose of life/ what keeps you going?

Scientists are in pretty solid agreement that the universe had a beginning. Remember that whole "big bang theory" thingamajig?

 

I don't mean to pick on you...but you're aware this whole thing is nothing but a statement of faith, right? It's certainly valid. And it's reasonable. But a statement of faith, nonetheless.

And you see how absolutely you make it, right? To the point of even saying that anything in disagreement with it is "wrong." You see that right??

Remember this post when you start going off on others who share their views and faith here.

 

We can say our universe had a beginning in relative terms. Scientists can say the universe had a beginning but they can't say what the cause was. That doesn't mean there wasn't one.

 

Everything I stated is directly observable.

We can observe minds observing and labeling.
We can observe phenomenas appearing and dissipating.
We can observe everything to be in flux.
We can observe nothing existing independently.
We can observe everyone wanting to be happy.

 

Meowgi, have you ever considered switiching religions? you would do greater service to buddhism and greater harm to christianity if you accepted JC as your lord & personal savior and staged your campaign of whatever it is from that side, that way everybody would be happy.

 

I thought of what you're saying a couple of times, having explored Buddhism a bit in my youth, but didn't want to offend MR. MEOWGI. I have enough trouble whenever the Texans not drafting Vince Young comes up, which I thought was an insane act of stupidity on management's part. He's a bit opinionated about the subject, as am I. Of course, that's why we're here... to have discussion, some fun, and give our opinions about things. Either here or in the other forums. People often forget the "fun" part of it. Bummer.



D&D. Impeach Bush and His Puppeteer.

 

Pretty good post, MR. MEOWGI. I don't agree with all of it, but it is an argument I can respect.



D&D. Impeach Goofus and The Maniac.

 

it's all illusion. everything you're observing is merely illusion....right?

so if it can't be observed, it doesn't exist?? i don't think that's what buddhism teaches.

 

I don't think there is anyone here who doesn't believe in God. Not believing is
just a coping mechanism to deal with disallusionment.

Science is man's observation of God's universe.

I love how I used to shake my brain at God and tell Him He didn't exist.

Man has the unique gift of taking logical steps to the wrong conclusion.
Just look at the divorce rate.

 

It's about our mind, not about the world. Reality isn't an illusion. It's our perceptions that are unreal. The sense of self and things as independent, permanent phenomenon is what is illusionary. Our everyday perception of reality (relative truth) is incomplete and tainted so we usually do not see things as they really are.



You claimed that my post was a statement of faith. I responded by saying that it all could be observable. Now you are asking "if something can't be observed, does it exist"? Yeah I think so, but it does not exist independently or permanently. And I wouldn't dwell or count on it more than what we observe in nature.

 

And that of course is your own coping mechanism to deal with your own fear and uncertainty.

 

Even without a spiritual soul, you can derive meaning in your existence. Let's say God doesn't exist, would that make your faith and lifestyle any less real? An absolutist might, but I don't think it would.

I fear that some of us pencil in God in too easily as the meaning to exist. I agree with Meowgi's statement that the mere act of living is reason enough to have meaning. Death is common and considering its variety of options, it's an easily attained state. Living a good and purposeful life is much much harder to achieve.

Religion can provide a balance between your inner nature and the civilized world, but if God gave you free will, then you have to use it to define yourself instead of just blindly submitting to religious authority and tradition.

Well, the Big Bang could be light coming from behind a keyhole. All we know comes from EM data dating back from the Big Bang. There's been theories that two universes collided to form ours. So what's behind the door of the keyhole could be even more incomprehensible.

 

Haven't gone through this thread completely but a couple question to those that don't believe in God.

- What about supernatural experiences?
Personal story: One of my aunts was clinically dead for about 3-5 minutes(don't really remember how long), in this time she had an afterlife experience, she was told it’s not your time …this is not a lady who would make stuff up, the doctors had absolutely no explanation for what occurred…there are many things that occur on this planet that can’t be explained…

- Where does this inner desire to worship something come from?

- Qualities such as charity, compassion and self sacrifice – Nature can not explain these characteristics… Where does the value of being a good person come from for atheists? Good and bad should hold zero value...yet it exists intuitivlely...

 

Ummm..here's the trouble then. There's no way to know if your "version" or "perception" of the world's reality is truly real, then. The only way we see the world is through our own perceptions. That includes you.

 

for a very long time scientists said, "there was no beginning...the universe is eternal." from about 1920 through 1965 there was a huge debate among cosmologists on this issue.

now they are in solid agreement it had a beginning. there are very few arguing otherwise. most of the energy is now spent not on deciding whether there was a beginning...but when it happened.

the cosmic microwave background was theorized in the late 40's and was discovered with satellites in the 60's. light existed before stars. gasp. there was what we would probably call chaos...and then there was what we might call order.

 

hey, that sounds like a perception, meowgi!!! and you know what you think about perceptions.

 

Why would anyone suppose that the Big Bang was the ultimate beginning of everything? Or even a singular event. There may be as many Big bangs in the endless black void as there are constellations in our observable universe.
Human beings only have the ability to observe the one but that doesn't prove anything, it's just the limits of our perception and,Big Bangs may just be transitions of energy states. 12.5 billion years may just be a short period in a cosmological cycle.

Here's my goofy laymen's daydream...anti-matter or dark energy black holes reaching a point of singularity reverse themselves in explosions of positive energy that form matter.

 

I thought I explained it but I will try again.

The sense of self and things as independent, permanent phenomenon is what is illusionary.

I can go to a Rockets game and say that I see Tmac holding a basketball. This is correct. There is Tmac wearing #1, not someone else. I also can deduce that he is holding a basketball, and not a football etc. I got that one right too. Where I go wrong is when I attribute 'Tmacness' and 'basketballness' to those things as if they inherently exist.

I think you want to say that people are claiming everything is an illusion and nothing matters etc. That bothers you. But that's not it at all.

http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-That-Cuts-Through-Illusion/dp/0938077511

Book Description
The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusions presents a dialogue between the Buddha and his disciple Subhuti which illuminates how our minds construct limited categories of thought. It offers us alternative ways to look at the world in its wholeness so we can encounter a deeper reality; develop reverence for the environment and more harmonious communities, families, and relationships; and act in the world skillfully and effectively.

 

http://www.chow.com/grinder/2820
at a recent luncheon the Dalai Lama “chowed down” on a locally raised veal roast prepared by Beard Award–winning Wisconsin chef Sandy D’Amato. He “lapped up” everything else as well—a five-course menu that included a cured fish appetizer, an asparagus soup with a chicken stock base, a stuffed pheasant breast, a mixed green salad, an eggplant-and-chickpea entrée, and three chocolate desserts.

http://www.all-creatures.org/cva/th-20070626-d.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_Ethics
The Dalai Lama (who himself tried to become a vegetarian but caught Hepatitis B and was advised by doctors to switch to a high animal-protein diet) once engaged in an amusing ethical discussion with some Theravadan Buddhists who believed that as long as one was determined to eat meat, seafood was preferable to red meat. The Dalai Lama responded that one bowl of shrimp would kill multitudes of sentient beings, but one sheep or cow would feed many people. The Dalai Lama eats vegetarian every second day, so is effectively vegetarian for 6 months of the year

http://www.amazon.ca/Sma-the-Good-Heart-Dalai-Lama/dp/6304884516
In this unprecedented video series, the Dalai Lama examines well-known passages from each of the four Christian Gospels, providing a unique reading of these familiar sources of faith. He insists on the need to see the fundamental differences between Buddhism and Christianity, such as over the idea of God. But he also highlights the "striking similarities and parallels" between the lives of the founders, their teachings on non-violence and the progressive stages of spiritual development.
Day Four: St. John's Gospel: On the fourth day of the 1994 John Main Seminar, His Holiness reads from Chapter 12 of the Gospel according to St. John, elaborating on Faith in Jesus, and from Chapter 20, The Resurrection.

 

My post contains random points ... Because I'm thinking of other points to write everyime I'm about to submit. And I have not read all of the 5 pages of posts, so some of you have probably said what I'm about to and argued against it as well.

Is there meaning to life? Yes. What is it? It'd sound unattractive if I said it: Worship God - Love God, love people, make his Truth known. I believe that our lives are to be a "thank you" to God for giving us a meaning and a hope to live for. Our lives are not our own. We can never earn anything really. We're blessed with things. We don't earn them. Life is certainly not about personal pleasure. And sometimes knowledge gives us pleasure and makes us feel like we're something to have discovered/known something.

I describe faith to have no reason ... As many have said on this thread, so believe a God exists is totally unreasonable. Of course it is to human/wordly reason.

The wordly definition of faith I keep seeing is one of "I trust, I believe this ..." But people try to have reason behind that. I have faith because ... etc.

So ya ... to me, faith is something completely unreasonable to have, yet that's the thing. Faith calls for a certain ... understanding of knowing you'll never understand anything fully.

I am Christian and my meaning of life sounds very churchy. But what gets me through the day? Knowing that God is with me. Talking with God throughout the day. I'd consider my life problems thus far, far more trivial and small. All you guys who have posted have probably been through a lot more things than I have because I'm pretty young and I've read some of your posts about life experiences, but the times I do pose the same questions as many of you have, I am reminded of this dude/being/whatever you wanna call God ... Somehow he just brings me a peace and quiet in a constantly noisy world full of questions and never enough answers. He puts all this uncertainty to rest. I don't know how to describe it.

Though by having faith, does that mean I accept Christianity blindly? Did I just accept it because I was brought up in the Church? Have I looked into all these other religions?

I've been really thinking just what I believe in. Seems like this question of the meaning of life will never be answered. But eventually after some thought, I come to the same conclusion that I know this God I follow is true. Maybe that may sound like I accept him blindly, but at the same time, my eyes have been opened to this Truth.

I do hold onto this promise of hope. That's what Jesus and this whole "religion" means to me. Though life will always seem to be an uphill battle, I cling to this hope, this freedom through Christ. Life's uncertain but life was never meant to be totally understood.

It is kind of interesting how the initial post stated the questioning of the meaning of life and then went on to the debate about Christianity and such. I'm not sure but ... why try to prove Christianity is wrong if it doesn't exist in the first place? I kinda get the feeling that people (I'm not directing this at the topic starter directly) who are the ones that are usually against Christianity, make a lot of cases to point out its flaws to try to reveal to misinformed, naive people (Christians) that what they believe is ultimately wrong. It's like they're looking out for the misinformed and just want people to know the truth ... That there is no God ... Christianity is also meant to inform people of Truth. Thus there's a common ground ... Truth. What is it? That's where the sides differ. I'm losing myself typing this ...

There are a lot of good points and I do respect a lot of the arguments posted in this huge topic, but it just seems to me like those who argue against Christianity the most are the ones who want to believe in it the most ... but they cant?

All my points are jumbled, unorganized and may even contradict each other haha. But I got to go.

Just one thing of encouragement though ... Never give up looking for the meaning of life.

So much for my lil rant.