Is life a meaningful concept if Metaphysical Naturalism is true?

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Bahman said:
Meaning has to do with feeling and not thought. Everything is meaningless when it is judged by thoughts.
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It depends on what you mean by meaning! 🙂
**1. **the sense or significance of a word, sentence, symbol, etc; import; semantic or lexical content
**2. **the purpose underlying or intended by speech, action, etc
**3. **the inner, symbolic, or true interpretation, value, or message: the meaning of a dream.
**4. **valid content; efficacy: a law with little or no meaning.
**5. ** (Philosophy) philosophy **a. **the sense of an expression; its connotation
**b. **the reference of an expression; its denotation. In recent philosophical writings meaning can be used in both the above senses.
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thefreedictionary.com/meanings
 
GEddie said:
Gratitude to whom?

I am very appreciative of my mind, my embodiedness, my aliveness. Aliveness is its own reward. To my mind, any “meaning” would be a priori beside the point.

Now, **if **Life Everlasting were somehow out there to be found, it would behoove us to discover its rules ie, “meaning”. But if it is not to be had, then biological human life remains it’s own reward, no meaning required.

IMNAAHO!!

ICXC NIKA.
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Quite a refreshing view.
 
As to your Mill quote, Tony.

Dissatisfaction is intrinsic to being human, as much as breathing or having skin. I see nothing in that quote that requires a search for meaning, via philosophy or otherwise.

Every single one of us born into human life has dissatisfactions and abandoned longings; you’d need to be in a coma not to; and at the end, a darkened head full of regrets. No philosophy required.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
Gratitude to whom?

I am very appreciative of my mind, my embodiedness, my aliveness. Aliveness is its own reward. To my mind, any “meaning” would be a priori beside the point.

Now, **if **Life Everlasting were somehow out there to be found, it would behoove us to discover its rules ie, “meaning”. But if it is not to be had, then biological human life remains it’s own reward, no meaning required.

IMNAAHO!!

ICXC NIKA.
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I am in agreement.
 
ChainBreaker said:
To appreciate something that has no objective purpose, moral value, or meaning, you have to do irrational things like create a false sense of value, meaning, and a purpose.
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False sense of value, meaning and purpose?

You will be able to show how non theists have these qualities I am sure.
 
ChainBreaker said:
To appreciate something that has no objective purpose, moral value, or meaning, you have to do irrational things like create a false sense of value, meaning, and a purpose.
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humans do irrational things. It’s in our nature (materialistically I believe). So, in that sense it is rational, because we are acting on our nature.

Some religions have other terminology for this.

I believe these things in our nature are the result of evolution.

Some people describe evolution as random, heck some people describe the entire Universe as random…which it clearly is not…unless you are unable or unwilling to recognize the order.

I have meaning because I am part of that order.

Others feel they need to go a step further and assign something uncreated beyond the Universe and call that “order” and use it to see themselves as having meaning.

I suppose it depends on how far a person feels they must stretch to find meaning.

The idea that the Universe had to have a creator, but the creator didn’t have to have a creator…makes no sense to me. The Universe has order, has it’s own meaning.

Some say “but WHY the Universe?”

But WHY god?

The reason “why god?” is because people need something to feel meaningful.

The Christian God doesn’t need anything or anyone, was perfect and complete but created the Universe…why? Then all manner of irrational human explanations follow.

Essentially it boils down to God was bored, lonely, wanted someone (but didn’t NEED someone) to love him…oh wait…you mean God needed something in order to be meaningful? So he created…

And thus it is the Universe which satisfies God’s need for meaning…yet his followers claim the Universe itself does not have meaning…unless there is a God who needed it… circling infinitely. Which comes across that perhaps God and the Universe are the same.

The Universe itself comes across as plenty meaningful to me. It didn’t create us, we are part of it, no separation. We are a function of it, not it’s plaything. If there is meaning, we are part of that meaning. We don’t serve it, it doesn’t need to be served. It doesn’t serve us, we are a function of it.

The idea that there must be something that is described as suspiciously human, beyond the Universe in order to give the Universe meaning, seems irrational to me, and certainly self centered, especially when claims are made that the Universe is some sort of stage created for our human drama…seriously?
 
schaeffer said:
humans do irrational things. It’s in our nature (materialistically I believe). So, in that sense it is rational, because we are acting on our nature.
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Behavior is either rational or not. If behavior contradicts the truth, then your behavior is irrational.

If you truly value what is rational you will not behave in such a way that you know would be irrational given your particular worldview.

If ones nature is irrational then unfortunately you must do away with your nature to remain consistent with what is true.

But of course i don’t believe that the desire to survive and being the best one can be is rationally inconsistent with the ultimate nature of reality because i believe in God and i don’t know if the existence of God is untrue. And more importantly i have no reason to think the desire for life and to be the best i can be is irrational. Therefore i have no reason to think that God does not exist.

You cannot have your cake and eat it.
 
The human soma is a rational mind piggybacked onto a large-headed animal.

We should always strive to be rational-minded, but bearing in mind that our animal bodies can often be wiser than our minds.

ICXC NIKA.
 
GEddie said:
The human soma is a rational mind piggybacked onto a large-headed animal.

We should always strive to be rational-minded, but bearing in mind that our animal bodies can often be wiser than our minds.

ICXC NIKA.
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I mostly agree with this. It’s good to be rational enough to understand when to be rational, and when to let it ride…and trust instinct etc.

To realize that irrational behavior is part of the human equation and has much to offer.

Like any tool rationality (and instinct/emotion) all have their place.
 
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