Do Your Life Have Any Meaning?

[goodlife]

Take a man in his 80’s thinks: ‘My life is nearly over. It’s gone so fast. So little is left. Where did it all go? What did it mean? It’s all behind, nothing’s ahead. Except the grave. Yes oblivion. How pointless it all was! No wonder the cynic says, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

‘Well, I lived a full life, you may say. Supposedly this means death is now acceptable. But does a full life that is past make dying easier to accept? Or does it make it harder? Would it not be easier to leave an empty life than a full one? No one says, “I’m so happy I’m going to kill myself!

[naomi24]

sandyRoe, //If we're wrong and there is no God, humanity will have profited a little from our efforts.
That should be reward enough. //

It's going to have to be.

[sandyRoe]

But if we're right, O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

[naomi24]

Fine .... if you want to spend eternity in quivering sycophancy. Me? I'm going to die with my self respect intact. Sod God. :o)

Night all. x

[choux]

Well, there is meaning to my life as, I hope, there is in everyone's, irrespective of age. My life is what I make of it and that is a result of what ever effort I put into the things I do and try and achieve.

Like most people, I have had my failures but I no longer dwell on them. I prefer to have a philosophical outlook on life. There are so many who are worse off than am I. I think of that and am grateful for what I have.

If I am lucky, tomorrow is another day and I shall do my best all over again.
Really, that is enough for me to look forward to and enjoy. I wish you could feel the same, goodlife.

Death is always acceptable - we have no choice :) Night night.

[pugwashjw]

What do you mean? nothings ahead!
Scripture says otherwise.
(Revelation 20:12, 13) And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. The dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead in it, and death and the Grave gave up the dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.

The chosen ' few' [ 144,000] have a future in heaven
Rev. 7:4 & 14:1

[mibn2cweus]

Is it any wonder the meaning of life alludes you when you've invested your hopes and define your values in terms of an illusion of that which lies beyond the grave?

[goodlife]

You know People all around the globe can relate to your words; but when they personally face a severe crisis, they still might cry out to God for help.

We feel useful when we help others. It shows we have something to offer, and as Jesus said: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” (Acts 20:35) Useful lives become meaningful lives, viewed so by others as well as by ourselves. Serving mankind can in itself become a goal and impart meaning to a person’s life.

[vulcan42]

// Serving mankind can in itself become a goal and impart meaning to a person’s life. \\ Very true goodlife but it doesn't require sanctimonious claptrap to achieve it.

[sandyRoe]

Indeed. When I'm about my good works I try to do them discreetly.

[jomifl]

Maybe Sandy but there is still that prospect of a reward, however elusive or should I say 'delusive'.

[Old_Geezer]

How can one claim to give life meaning ? One can delude oneself in believing what one says is right, but that is as far as it goes. If it had no real meaning before it has no real meaning after you decide to claim it has one. Life either has meaning or it has not. One can debate what meaning it may have, but can not really give it meaning it hadn't already had.

Anyway the word "meaning" in the question is unclear. Does it mean "a point" ? Or hidden "information" ? Or something else entirely ?

[beso]

I try not to be mean in my life.

[atalanta]

I've just done the Turing test on Goodlife. You know the one - where you have to decide if you are having a conversation with a human being or with a robot/smart piece of software. Guess what Goodlife comes over as ?

[AB Editor]

"Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."

- Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

^^ from the category introduction: http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Society-and-Culture/Religion-and-Spirituality/ - you must have skipped that bit Goodlife :)

[sandyRoe]

Ab Editor, that Monty Python seems a goodly sort of bloke. Those words of his could serve as a guide to us all.

[AB Editor]

Atlanta, when pushed Goodlife will respond like a person. Sadly it's all C&P for the most part.

Ideally GL wouldn't do this as the copy & pasting can effect us negatively in Google rankings (as duplicate content). I should probably run an SEO for Jehovah's Witnesses to avoid such issues!

It would also be a shame for GL as the content posted here will be lost in the Google rankings if deemed to not be legit, meaning all the hard work one into these disucssions will be buried pointlessly.

[SirOracle]

Sounds like a great idea Ed.

[modeller]

GL The bottom line is you can't prove that any gods exist.
You can't see them ! You can't touch them !
You can't hear them ! You can't smell them ! You can't taste them !

Well that's used up all our senses !

You can pray to them but your prayers are never answered, if what you ask for doesn't ever happen naturally. No one has ever regrown a severed limb. Not even a little finger ! The same thing applies to all major organs of the body , once badly damaged they can't be regrown. A Pope with a billion followers praying for him several times a day has no more chance of growing a new heart ( or a little finger ) than a dedicated atheist who has never prayed in his life. .

What is significant is that if a non believer wants to test God by prayer or otherwise, theists say ." You Mustn't test God ! " We all know why !

[bibblebub]

Living is a cliché, it's all been done before, death is the only thing we've got left to live for.

[naomi24]

//death is the only thing we've got left to live for. //

I trust you're joking.