Musings on life's big question

[FSM_scot]

Life is what you make of it. It only has meaning if you give it meaning.
Like the_observer said "those big "why" questions are mere a byproduct of humans as a social species." Part of being a social species is knowing your place in the group. You just need to look at the animal kingdom to see that usualy an alpha pair leading the group. We still have that in a way but instead of fighting it out for the biggest and strongest to lead we pick who leads us. One of the few differences between us and animals is that we can question our existence we can ask why knowing we won't get an answer just an opinion.

[Zatamon]

Think about it. We humans live on a planet orbiting a star that is just one among billions of other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is just one of billions of galaxies in the known universe, which may be just one of billions of universes. Our recorded civilization goes back a few thousand years on this planet which was formed about 4.6 billion years ago, in a universe which is 15 billion years old (give or take a year). And it may be just one of billions of Big Bang - Big Crunch cycles. And we know it, for a fact, that we are equipped to understand everything?!

Admitting the possibility that we may not be able to understand everything does not require us to give up science or the scientific method. It only means that we keep an open mind and do not reject any reasonable suggestion out of hand.

[advancedatheist]

(31-07-2011 04:24 PM)Peterkin Wrote:  Why do humans want their lives to have 'purpose' and 'meaning'?

I tell christians that I hope I can go to hell when I die so that my earthly life will have had meaning.

[Hughsie]

(31-07-2011 03:50 PM)The_observer Wrote:  I use to chew on the big "Why" questions a lot.
Why are we here, what is my purpose,...

I can imagine everyone has these questions, and everyone fills them in according to their own needs.

The last days I took a different approach.
I asked the why question on the why question...
Why on earth do people ask themselves these why questions?
Out of philosophical interest? Sure. But that answer is just more inclined toward semantics then a real solution. The next logical question would be, why are people interested in philosophical thoughts anyway.

I came to the following hypothesis:
As a member of a social living species, I have to be aware of my position in the group. Translated to humans: "I have to know my place inside society". Now if you think further about that, the leap towards, "I have to know my place inside the big picture" is not so much further away. This leads me to the conclusion that those big "why" questions are mere a byproduct of humans as a social species.

That doesn't really answer the "why" but it does put the question in a whole other perspective where a hypothetical, solitary living, but thinking creature could consider this question a whole lot more mundane then us. Quite a sobering thought.

What are your thoughts about this?

You're 'place in society' theory is very interesting but I think only half answers the question. I think that most creatures, as they evolved, had to become natural statisticians to survive, a creature had to be aware of things like 'when I go in this direction I see danger whereas when I go in this direction I don't'. This behaviour is observable in most animals today, they will not repeatedly engage in behaviours that cause them pain. However this leads to animals seeing order where there is none. I first heard this point from Richard Dawkins who quoted an experiment done with pigeons. Pigeons were put in a cage and food was randomly released, if a pigeon had engaged in a particular behaviour (for example looking over it's shoulder) and then food was released, and by pure coincidence it happened to engage in the same behaviour and food was released again then it then would continually repeat the behaviour even though most of the time it didn't get food afterwards. The same ascribing of order when it isn't there exists in humans. It can account for superstition. There is nothing about breaking a mirror or the number 13 that causes bad things and I can imagine that these beliefs came about in the same way as the pigeon in the experiment, someone broke a mirror and happened to experience bad luck, by pure chance they broke another mirror and had some more bad luck and the belief was set. The same phenomenon that leads to this irrational beliefs leads to us asking questions about the meaning of existence, as a species we have a very strong tendency to ascribe meaning and purpose to random events and this causes us to ask the (objective) 'meaning of life' or our 'purpose in life' even though there clearly is no (objective) meaning purpose, like monkeyshine89 said, the only meaning and purpose in life is the meaning and purpose each person subjectively ascribes to their own life.

Quote:I ask myself am I real or is this a dream?

Don't follow that thought too literally, you'll become another Descartes! His ideas were interesting but damn I found it annoying just how ridiculously far he went!

[tazmin98]

Quote:I ask myself am I real or is this a dream?

Quote:Don't follow that thought too literally, you'll become another Descartes! His ideas were interesting but damn I found it annoying just how ridiculously far he went!

Don't worry I am not! I had a weird body experience/dream that kind made question if I am real or not. Some I had dreams so real and vivid they made me feel as though I actually woke up and got ready for school, it was until my mum woke up me the fifth time(I was in that much of a state). I also had an Inception!

[Hughsie]

(15-08-2011 07:58 PM)tazmin98 Wrote:  Don't worry I am not! I had a weird body experience/dream that kind made question if I am real or not. Some I had dreams so real and vivid they made me feel as though I actually woke up and got ready for school, it was until my mum woke up me the fifth time(I was in that much of a state). I also had an Inception!

That sounds interesting, what was this weird dream thing that made you question existence if it's not too personal a question (if it is just tell me where to go ).

On the topic of dreams I was REALLY pissed off the other night because I was having this great dream (can't remember what it was now ) and in my dream I stopped what I was doing and thought to myself 'this is just too good to be true, is this a dream, nah you only question if somethings a dream if its real, that never happens in a dream' and then just as I carried on what I was doing, safe in the knowledge that it was real, I woke up !!

[tazmin98]

(15-08-2011 08:08 PM)Hughsie Wrote:  

(15-08-2011 07:58 PM)tazmin98 Wrote:  Don't worry I am not! I had a weird body experience/dream that kind made question if I am real or not. Some I had dreams so real and vivid they made me feel as though I actually woke up and got ready for school, it was until my mum woke up me the fifth time(I was in that much of a state). I also had an Inception!

That sounds interesting, what was this weird dream thing that made you question existence if it's not too personal a question (if it is just tell me where to go ).

On the topic of dreams I was REALLY pissed off the other night because I was having this great dream (can't remember what it was now ) and in my dream I stopped what I was doing and thought to myself 'this is just too good to be true, is this a dream, nah you only question if somethings a dream if its real, that never happens in a dream' and then just as I carried on what I was doing, safe in the knowledge that it was real, I woke up !!

Yes because I kinda knew this was not real but at same time it was, it kinda got to the point where it was so vivid it felt real to me. I got hurt at some point in the dream that when my mum woke me up and I felt the pain but the thing is that my mum waking me up was a dream?(Inception??) Sorry if its too confusing, I had what you call Lucid Dream..well times 100.

I think you had some sort of a lucid dream. The thing is with normal dreams, you don't have any control over them whatsoever but with lucid dreams since you are aware you are dreaming so you can obtain some control of your dreams(or all of it, if you keep practicing).

[Hughsie]

(15-08-2011 08:27 PM)tazmin98 Wrote:  Yes because I kinda knew this was not real but at same time it was, it kinda got to the point where it was so vivid it felt real to me. I got hurt at some point in the dream that when my mum woke me up and I felt the pain but the thing is that my mum waking me up was a dream?(Inception??) Sorry if its too confusing, I had what you call Lucid Dream..well times 100.

I think you had some sort of a lucid dream. The thing is with normal dreams, you don't have any control over them whatsoever but with lucid dreams since you are aware you are dreaming so you can obtain some control of your dreams(or all of it, if you keep practicing).

I think I did have a lucid dream once. I was dreaming (I can't remember what about) and I remember thinking 'this doesn't seem right, I thinking I'm dreaming'. I was an amazing feeling, like being God in my own little universe. Pity it only ever happened once.

I did though once do the opposite as well. I woke up, as in fully conscious, walking round except I was still dreaming or possibly hallucinating, I'm not sure. That was probably the weirdest experience of my life, especially as it wasn't a good dream.

[tazmin98]

(15-08-2011 08:48 PM)Hughsie Wrote:  

(15-08-2011 08:27 PM)tazmin98 Wrote:  Yes because I kinda knew this was not real but at same time it was, it kinda got to the point where it was so vivid it felt real to me. I got hurt at some point in the dream that when my mum woke me up and I felt the pain but the thing is that my mum waking me up was a dream?(Inception??) Sorry if its too confusing, I had what you call Lucid Dream..well times 100.

I think you had some sort of a lucid dream. The thing is with normal dreams, you don't have any control over them whatsoever but with lucid dreams since you are aware you are dreaming so you can obtain some control of your dreams(or all of it, if you keep practicing).

I think I did have a lucid dream once. I was dreaming (I can't remember what about) and I remember thinking 'this doesn't seem right, I thinking I'm dreaming'. I was an amazing feeling, like being God in my own little universe. Pity it only ever happened once.

I did though once do the opposite as well. I woke up, as in fully conscious, walking round except I was still dreaming or possibly hallucinating, I'm not sure. That was probably the weirdest experience of my life, especially as it wasn't a good dream.

Maybe you had out of body experience?
or you were confused(brain fart?)

[Hughsie]

(15-08-2011 09:05 PM)tazmin98 Wrote:  Maybe you had out of body experience?
or you were confused(brain fart?)

Maybe