meaning

To re-iterate from another thread: I have no answer to this question. Whatever we mean by 'awareness' it seems that it must include attention. But is attention alone necessary or does awareness include other aspects? I would like to avoid dualism from the outset, so we will need to be...

I've noticed that when theists criticize atheism, they get hung up on the idea that in the absence of gods, life lacks an externally imposed "meaning," usually interpreted as the "eternal destiny" (ED) chosen for you by a god. Maybe someone can clarify this for me, because if christians...

Christians tend to argue that god's existence and activities give life meaning and purpose (M&P). I wonder if they extend this idea to their belief in hell. Would life lack M&P if eternal punishment didn't exist?

Let's say that your life has a "meaning", a "purpose". It either comes from within, or from without. A purpose, an intent, is not something that dumb material can have. Only a person, or something much like it, can have an intent. So we are back to a God, a very very big person, finite or...

I am constantly being told that life can have no meaning for me because I don't subscribe to some or other belief system. So presumably the people saying these things know the meaning of life, if they are sure their life has meaning? So come on, what is the meaning?

Well, I couldn't resist staying away, not entirely anyway. ;) Just a couple of things here to set things on "simmer" a bit. From the thread, God versus Evolution ... What point would the word "mystery" serve if we had no soul? This is the soul's "quest" for meaning. Try looking Iacchus up...

Your life has no more meaning than that wasp you squished last summer. Deal with it.

I posed the question "who determines the meaning of anything?" in one of the religion threads, and thought it might be worth opening a separate discussion on the topic. I haven't been keeping up with the latest trends in semantics and semiotics - all that Post-post-modern, Derrida and Foucault...