Read through all the answers, all very interesting.
My own views seem to differ.
Basically I think that life is meaningless, and as individuals and infact whole populations, we have no purpose. I say this in the most general terms, of course, occasionally some of us have a purpose, but the way I see it, that purpose is usually short term.
Just to avoid confusion, I say this as a Christian.
Because you explained what you meant, I agree with you. But if you didn’t, then I would have said that there’s a lot worse than being lazy, infact some lazy people are also some of the most intelligent ones. Because to be lazy in a ‘proper way’ you have to be.
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Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
22
Wowwwww! I ain’t never done that before. But doing engineering draughtsmanship at the same time tends to drown it out! I’ll have to read proper. Or read AND listen. Which is much slower…
@SkovandOfMitaze I intended this to be a PM to you as I’m taking a break from posting in open forum. But it doesn’t seem to have worked. I wonder if that is because you’re not accepting PMs? I’ll have another look later to find a way to change it or else I’ll just delete it.
I’d say finding sufficient meaning in line life is helpful toward being more productive and caring enough about one’s relationships with others and nature to be motivated to do something for them.
As far as I Know I can get PMs. I get them every now and then. I’ve noticed sometimes it says someone is not getting them and I just assumed either I was blocked from them somehow or they turned them all off. I’m not waste of messing with the settings but I’ll look at it later .
Little children don’t talk about it. They’re too busy enjoying it, with its relationships, novelty, beauty and science (Why? How? ; - ).
Which reminds me of this:
Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.
There’s no call to participate in a discussion you find pointless.
Or to insult those of us children who find the question and discussion of value. The topic comes up often enough among all sorts of participants it is clearly important to a large part of this group.
I’m sorry you took it so negatively and don’t recognize the truth in it. It is something that deserves some reflection, however. The discussion is not pointless and my point is part of it.
That was answering one insult with another. Bait and switch.
In my mind thoughtful, circumspect and probing are biblically valued qualities. The writer of Ecclesiastes was asking the same questions as were Job and David.
So I literally skimmed the introduction and found a lot of heady talk about meaning. The author did reference Charles Taylor, who is a favorite of James Smith, so that was a plus. But I didn’t find anything definite. It felt like he is only interested in defining the question.
Is that a fair take away? Like I said I really skimmed it.
Dale,
It’s unfortunate that I needed to remind you that biblical authors have grappled with the meaning of life, and that you chose to think the worst of those here who do as well.
If you’re ready to participate thoughtfully and productively in the discussion in the OP and that other people have responded to, please do.
If you are only interested in controling it or taking pot shots at participants in this discussion, please excuse yourself.
Mike, sorry. It’s been a disjointed day. Intro to which?
Feel free to pull in some meaty quotes, if you can. THat will help get us all on the “same page.” [yeah, that was bad]
Got it, thanks. I thought the discussion on the pages I mentioned (3-10?) was interesting. About the way the English structure of the word Meaning affects what and how it means “when we talk about meaning.” I’ll type it up tonight, if I can carve out the time. I don’t have a digital copy I can just copy and paste from.
