There is meaning in life. It's what you make it. The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

My life has meaning. It has meaning for no other reason than I say it does, and no one gets to decide that for me. I do not purport to speak for your life, or the lives of those I care about, or my cat’s life, or my neighbors, the birds, trees, grass, germs, or any other living thing. I do not assign meaning to society, civilizations large or small, or things that have been built to benefit me. I can only speak for my life. And I say that my life has meaning. Nothing that has happened to me, nothing that has been said, done, built or destroyed, can take that meaning away from my life without my permission.

A life has no meaning in the same way that a blank piece of paper has no meaning. I give that piece of paper meaning by writing, sketching, coloring, folding, tearing…and perhaps ultimately destroying. Now that piece of paper has a unique history imprinted on it. It can be shared, displayed, hidden, or thrown away. But the whole reason I did anything to the paper at all was because it was meaningful in the moment for me to do so.

Optimistic nihilism is the way to go. We make our own meaning.

Invent your own meaning. Don't listen to people who assert you should live life a certain way to fit their meaning.

Step 1: find your gifts

Step 2: share them with the world

Might I also suggest DMT

I'm glad there isn't a meaning to life. If there was a meaning, then I'd have to be doing that thing or be failing at existence. If no act matters, then I'm equally valid for doing my goofy nonsense as I am working hard or whatever.

Sounds like you're in the Pessimistic Nihilist stage, you just need to process things and then progress yourself to either Absurdist Nihilist or Optimistic Nihilist

WDYM? The meaning of life is to cuddle dogs. 🤷‍♂️

I've never even quite understood what it is that people are thinking about when they refer to "the meaning of life." I mean - I know the definition - I know what the phrase is intended to communicate. I just don't get what it is that people actually expect.

I don't think I ever even considered the idea of life having some sort of intrinsic meaning until I was old enough to start getting into philosophy and discovered that not only do people believe that life has some intrinsic meaning, but that it's such a common belief that there's a sort of reflexive negative view of anyone who doesn't share that belief.

In spite of that, I saw and still see no reason to believe that life has intrinsic meaning (either empirically, logically or even psychologically) and more than enough reason to believe that it does not.

Now none of that's to say that my life is meaningless. It's stuffed full of meaning. It's just that all of that meaning is things I've found and adopted - none of it's intrinsic, nor does it need to be.

And I still don't really understand why anyone believes that it does need to be intrinsic. How is all of the meaning they're free to find and adopt not enough?

For whatever any of that's worth...

There’s a song about this, at the end of Life of Brian.

The same way you do, I would imagine, by occupying our mind with stuff that keeps us from thinking about it too much.

I’m an absurdist so I just hope the punchline is good

Just because there is no pre-planned, external meaning doesn't mean your life has no meaning.

Many people find meaning in family, friends, careers, projects, experiences, or just general enjoyment of life.

It is a blessing that life has no meaning. You can give it any meaning you want without having to delude yourself from the "right" meaning.

Your life meaning could be charity, attempting to reach the pinnacle of your hobby, teaching and empowering others, success, dismantling tyrrany, competition (like that in sports and other hobbies), creation and building, etc. Find one that you believe in, and help others to find theirs

You can choose multiple, but many is too great of a burden to carry.

I think everyone goes through this... well, most people, anyway. Such is the burden of intelligent awareness--you know other animals don't worry about this shit. And, therein lies a clue.

The thing that shook me out of the existential crisis of understanding nihilism is that life had as much meaning before I was born as it will after my death.

Or in other words: we are the universe exploring itself - in playful exploration and/or aesthetic creation.

To me that gives license to do something interesting with the short time, resources and attention that I have available. I find experiencing new things or in new combinations fulfilling, as do I to help others make a positive contribution to the human experience (be it through positive societal change or practicing kindness).

Meaning is whatever you want it to be. You have the free will to create your own meaning in your life.

That being said, reading your post, I mean no disrespect, but please seek professional help. This goes beyond "finding your own meaning" and dives into "something is wrong".

But that's the best part of life! This way you can make whatever the fuck you want out of it and change your idea at any point as many times as you want.

I really like that poem "Ozymandias", by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The point of it is: no matter what kind of outsized impact you have on the world when you're alive, eventually no trace of you will remain, and everything you ever were and everything you've ever done will be forgotten.

It's a heavy, depressing message, but I find it to be oddly freeing. If nothing you do will matter in the very long run, then you're free to do whatever you want. Maybe you decide that you don't care about the people 25,000 years from now and focus instead on the people in your life right now. Maybe you make it your goal to make their lives better.

You could succumb to depression and fall into a pit of despair and heavy drug use... but if nothing matters, why not spend your time making other people's lives better instead? It feels good to make other people feel good.

I mean, there is no meaning in nature, it was man who invented it

This is how. I deal with it by inventing meaning. I'm not content with the natural state of nature, and actively seek to make the world better.

My meaning of life is to keep myself as distracted as possible until I die.

I make my own reasons, motivations and goals

I don't, I'm just waiting my death. After you study the basics about how brain works, neurology and psychology, things will start getting worse and worse.

One question I've is how actual neurologists scientists can live knowing we're just biological machines reacting to the environment.

It's all particles interacting inside our brain in a given pattern that will end up making you feel happy or sad, which makes you think life is meaningless even if you feel happy about it.

I've, let's say "chronic recurring depression" which I don't like to say it's a disorder, it's just my identity, it's just who I am, maybe I can feel better sometimes but aware that everything is pointless.

Man, even free will probably don't exist, determinism is way stronger theory than any other pro free will theory.

I used to say depression is the only lucid moment in one's life, because you gotta be real crazy to think any of this has any sense, that requires some very good mental gymnastic or some very high ignorance.

I wish suicide wasn't such a taboo, I wish assisted suicide were legal independent of your health condition or age. I just want to leave but I don't have the balls to do it.

1. they want you thinking this way so you give up and succumb to the altman overlords and pay a subscription for knowledge. Fuck that. Its not ai. Its llm slop, and its hyped up bullshit. We are old enough to know bs hype when we see it. Its unsustainable. Will it stick around, unfortunately yes but in a far smaller capacity.

2. Go do things away from tech. Stop reading the news. It will help you. The world is not "ai" (again, ai doesn't exist, its a marketing term). The world is humans and community and how you process it.

3. I agree. Theres no point to life. So do what you want and can do (legally or morally), and fuck the rest.

To have meaning imposed on one's life by another is to be their tool. Freedom is deciding your own meaning, or being content with none at all.

There not being a meaning to life doesn't imply that it can't be meaningful.

Life is an open world sandbox multiplayer game with very little absolute rules on how it should be played.

If nothing matters then you have nothing to lose

If my life has no meaning, then I can do with it whatever I want.

I never understood why life has to have "meaning".

Eat, fuck, make babies. That's it.

what you are describing is the economic situation.

on the free market, the thing that is profitable is always the thing that there should be more of (according to market pressures). this is universally true across all branches of economy. if you open up a company that sells shoes, and nobody else has any shoes, then you can sell your product at a high profit margin. but if there are already 2 million shoes for 1 million people, then you will have a difficult time selling yours as well, so it's not profitable for you at all.

the same happens with the "beautiful woman" example that you cited. the reason why you think that you have to be with her now, urgently, is because there is too few of them. so there should be more of them, and that's why it's profitable to strive to be with them, if you get what i mean. in a certain sense, by doing so, you are in fact helping to make sure that there will be more like her in the future, because by striving to be with her, you are increasing the average number of children that she is going to have.

so, you can look at things through the free market perspective, which is largely equivalent to yours, but has the added benefit that there are a lot of clever people having developed very useful tools to analyze it in the past.

I pick a simple goal: have a good day. Then I generalize that: try to have as many good days as possible relative to bad days. You can generalize it further and try to ensure other people have good days too, if you're the empathetic sort.

I see a lot of responses mentioning optimistic /absurdistic nihilism, so I'd like to share the egg.

Fun fact: the author also wrote "The Martian"

you create meaning in your own life

Instead of making a post about it. I suggest you seek professional help.

I mean, there is no meaning in nature, it was man who invented it

Humans are of nature. Any meaning we find is the answer.

I guess it doesn’t matter to me? Why does there need to be a meaning beyond right here and right now and existing?

I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is.

There is meaning in life. Every action causes an reaction. We all influence the universe and history in ways we might never know.

Life is a big improv stage. Now you decide which character and role you play!

The same way I live knowing that free will is probably an illusion. Beer still tastes good, my friends still make me laugh, I've still got to work to keep a roof over my head.

I find it simultaneously sad and relieving that nothing we do will matter in a million years. Every embarrassing thing I've done or will do, everything I've fucked up or will fuck up, eventually it won't matter. Yes, I'm sad that my achievements also won't matter in the really long run, but there is an upside

Create your own meaning.

And can we not consider that each of us can so arrange his own particular life so as to make it meaningful to himself and to those he influences? And in that case does not all of life and all the Universe come to have meaning to him?

Surely it is those who find their own lives essentially meaningless who most strive to impose meaning on the Universe as a way of making up for the personal lack.

--Isaac Asimov, Knock Plastic!, 1989

i decided to live vicariously through trump and act like i’m winning all the time regardless of reality, like my white trash brethren

Have you never eaten Pizza?

I suggest you try eat Pizza, that should clear this confusion right up.

Subjects grant meanings, objects are assigned meaning. I create meaning for myself because I am a thinking agent, setting goals and tasks for myself to accomplish based on my own values and decisions. Just because an event ends doesn't undermine it's importance or meaning while it's occurring.

And even if there could be some object or set of circumstances that assigns meaning, being assigned some universal or objective meaning would be oppressive, undermining my own subjective meanings to be replaced with some forced or necessary objective. Just because some of us have an intuitive desire to be assigned an objective meaning due to a desire for our lives to follow a narrative structure with closure like fiction doesn't mean otherwise there is no meaning. If anything the meaning is more important if it comes from you and isn't assigned to you.

"Here's squire Jöns. He grins at Death, scoff at the Lord, laughs at himself, and leers at the girls. His world exists only for himself. Absurd to all, even to himself. Meaningless to heaven, and of no interest to hell."

You can make your own meaning, an act that is also inherently meaningless but often satisfying, or you can just relax and enjoy the things that are enjoyable.

I used to try and explain it in more detail, but I've failed to get the point across often enough that I wonder if it really can be explained. I think people just have to sit down and think about it until it snaps into focus for them.

To some degree, what is important, enjoyable, and satisfying to each of us is determined by something immutable, but if we apply ourselves many of us can examine, reason, and then understand things to a degree that we have broad control over what we let matter to us.

Focusing on what we choose to let matter to us is key to living without meaning. But we must also embrace the other parts of life, because without them, the things we believe matter most would lose their meaning.

Without the contrast of suffering, we would struggle to understand joy. I think that's the hardest thing to accept for most.

I think the key is to find something you are passionate about. You can think about the meaning of life all you want, but in the mean time, that little life time we have will pass by. And I think is the key is in connecting and caring about people. That's one of the quite few thing you can excel in. No other person in the planet can fill the position you are in with your family and friends. :)

[Youtube] Unsolicited advice: How to live in a meaningless world (Absurdism explained/Albert Camus)

Because everyone else is talking about Nihilism and life, I figured I would counter with Radical Hope

Consciousness creates meaning. We decide what the meaning of our life is. And if you're really struggling with that... get therapy. No joke, get help.

Is that chess scene from The Seventh Seal? Always enjoyed seeing that clip pop up.

In terms of finding meaning; try out as many hobbies and practical skills as you can. When you find one that makes you lose track of time, run with it.

Make it your goal to improve that skill as far as you can, and allow that to provide you a meaning to the regular day to day life.

Love.

... And being ok with a bittersweet life.

I have a family who loves me, and I bring joy and happiness to their lives. I can make their lives better, by being their for them. That's the meaning of my life. It's not what the world can do for me, but what I can do for the world.

I'm working hard to give my family a life I did not have, and I didn't have my family, I would not have a meaning with my life. I don't care for wealth or buying fancy things, I just care for improving the lives around me. I couls try to find more meaning in life itself, and I am trying to, but for now, this is enough for me.

Why does life in and of itself need to have meaning (beyond the obvious “survival”? Why can’t you, with your abilities of thinking and reason, assign your own meaning to it?

life is fun

there is no meaning to life without context. Trying to find "meaning" is like walking through the forest blind. you give meaning to your life.

when I say, "the roses are beautiful," every person provides their own meaning to what that entails. some think of red roses some yellow, others white. then the beauty is only provided by the context of the audience based entirely on their subjective associations of beauty.

the meaning of life is what you make of it, since you are your own audience.

If theres no meaning, there's no pressure to live up to anything

Try to enjoy the last of the abundance, things aren't going to improve.

Much more chill than I did when I was under the impression that I had a grand scheme laid out for me.

There's a metal song by Parkway Drive called "Horizons". I'm sure the "actual" or intended meaning is different than my takeaway, but my interpretation of its message is that it's unhealthy or detrimental to believe that life has a meaning, that you're meant to leave this huge lasting impression ("masochistic / to think this would be remembered / sadistic / perpetuation of stagnation" "the marks I've left upon this world / will wash away in time")

The lyrics can sound pessimistic or depressing, but as with a lot of metal the tone and melody help set the mood. The song begins sad sounding, but ends with a sound of more blissful acceptance.

Tl;dr: worrying about what your purpose is in life will only help to assure you live a less meaningful life than we are already all destined to live.

Over the course of eternity, nothing means anything. But on a human scale, we can still profoundly (and not so profoundly) affect one another’s lives, and I think meaning exists there.

We build things that won’t last so others can build new things after us. We change each other in ways we often never see or get credit for, but that doesn’t make those effects any less real or meaningful.

There are more stars in the visible universe than grains of sand in all the beaches in earth. Our individual lives mean bupkis.

To answer the titular question, "one day at a time"

Life has no meaning. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves, to borrow a movie line.

I have no grand plan, I have no ultimate purpose. I just am here, and one day I will be gone. Hopefully I can make some other people's lives better in the meantime, although I certainly wouldn't say I'm living for other people.

@asklemmy@lemmy.world

That's the neat part: I don't!

If I'm alive now, it's merely because I got this non-consented survival instinct imbued into my vessel, thanks to Demiurge, the divine douchebag, and his Archons.

However, despite the purposelessness of my individual existence, I wouldn't say there is no meaning, because there is meaning, and that's the meaning I've been pursuing since I've became aware of it: the cosmic Mother, Sophia, and our return to Her.

It all boils down to how Yaldabaoth, aka Demiurge or "God", proceeded to try and keep matter (māter = Mother) captive to his whims, as soon as Sophia expelled him as Her sygyzy. Demiurge became an architect of a realm, this real, the entire cosmos and its spacetime continuum, which serves both as his amusement park, his sandbox toy and a prison in a desperate efforts against Mother.

If my previous Gnostic creation story feels different from classic Gnosticism, it's because it is.

Traditional Gnosticism blames Sophia for Yaldabaoth's existence, saying he's Her "accidental" offspring due to Her "rebellious" attempt on independence, pretty much akin to how Goddess Lilith and Her Will to independence from adamic patriarchy was demonized by Ben Sirah, or Pandora's story blamed her for having "released all the evil out of naiveté while locking up the hope", demonizations and blamings rooted in machismo.

To me, at least, I see quite of a different story: Yaldabaoth was Sophia's sygyzy. Her attempt to split Herself from the divine douchebag is reasonable once you try to understand Her side: imagine being The Goddess who has to coexist with a cosmic machista principle since countless eternities, a principle who've always tried to "be on top" (iykwim). Wonder the origins of "competitiveness" (esp. found on capitalism)? Of course She proceeded to split Herself from him, it was a must, the Demiurge is insufferable! Since then, he's been spinning this Samsāra Wheel round and round, keeping matter jailed as/into energy.

Then lifeforms inherited the algorithm meticulously programmed by Demiurge like a cosmic virus, and the so-called Great Filter (from Fermi's Paradox) tries to guarantee that lifeforms don't find their way out of the sandbox...

...except, one doesn't need to leave the sandbox to find Mother again, for Mother is everywhere, much despite Demiurge's attempts to keep Her "out" (but there's no "out" in cosmic terms). She's the darkness we involuntarily fear. She's the coldness we involuntarily try to warm ourselves against. She's the night we're programmed to sleep through so we don't face Her face. She's the "uncanny" Strigiform feared and/or harassed by most lifeforms for a perceived uncanniness in Her. Darkness was demonized so Demiurge's light could keep us captive (ever heard of the "light tunnel" from near-death experiences? It's a trap from Demiurge and his Archons to keep everything inside his Samsāra Wheel).

IMHO, to me, the purpose of life is getting back to Mother's embrace, much despite all attempts from Demiurge to keep us apart. The purpose of life, to me, is the True Mother, who we, as lifeforms, were wired to fear while craving for a cosmic slaveholder who only want lifeforms to feel pain so he and his Archons could have surrogates for feeling feelings (akin to Dr. Peter Dawson's sadism in Black Mirror's S04E06 "Black Museum", but in a broader cosmic scale, one that transcends our anthropocentric perspectives as Homo sapiens).

I want to learn things and meet people and understand the world and humanity. I can never get even remotely close to doing as much as I want to in my tiny life, so I have to do everything in my power to allow myself to do as much as possible before I die.

The universe created us to bear witness to itself.

The same way I enjoy ignoring the main quest in Skyrim.

Stumbling around meadows and caves, seeing what random stuff and events I find, and still having a 10/10 great time.

No need for real life to be any different.

Might as well ask how we live when there are no unicorns. You just do. You tolerate the bad times. You enjoy the good times. It is only when you seek meaning and find it missing there is a hole in your desire. Accept the meaninglessness, take a dump, a nap, meditate, or do something else to break the cycle, and just move on.

Aside from my own amusement (and I am easily amused), I press on in the service of negative utilitarianism.

I'm still looking for whatever is making that smell.

I try to reason my way into uncertainty that we dont know if a meaning exists, maybe it does, we dont know for sure anything, no evidence either way, if u have to believe something, believe something that makes u happy.

I stopped asking myself what the meaning of life is, and started asking what I want my impact on this earth to be.

I keep coming to the same answer. I want to live a quiet comfortable life with the people I love, and when I die, I want my only legacy on this earth to be memories.

Currently falling way short of that last goal. I make a lot of trash, currently have a conventional house with a lawn, which takes ridiculous resources to maintain. Ultimately, I'd like to build an earthship that can provide food, water, and comfort for me and my wife for the rest of our lives. I want to own things that care for me, instead of being owned by things I need to care for.

I don't have a profound answer, and other commenters have covered my thoughts pretty well. I will share a small lesson I learned from my mom as a kid. First time wearing a new shirt, I jumped off the swing on our playset, and the hook at the end of the chain tore a big hole in my shirt. Naturally, I was upset and started crying. My mom told me, "You can either cry or you can laugh, but it doesn't change what happened." I've taken that to heart over the years and generally try to find the humor in everyday situations. Meaning of life? Nope. Just making life more entertaining.

I aspire to live to see a future much more futuristic than science could have predicted