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QOTD #42: What is the answer to life...?

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by genuinemommy, Dec 16, 2015.

  1. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?
     
    • Like Like x 3
  2. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    42.
     
    • Like Like x 5
  3. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    Well, it's nothing very special. Try to 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.

    But, seriously, I'm influenced by Buddhist philosophy, which suggests that all phenomena and experiences are ultimately unsatisfying and so we should let go of our craving/clinging to what is pleasurable and our aversion to what is unpleasant.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2015
    • Like Like x 1
  4. genuinemommy

    genuinemommy Moderator Staff Member

    Note the number in the title. I've been looking forward to this one for a while.
     
    • Like Like x 6
  5. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    I didn't notice that!
     
    • Like Like x 1
  6. But first, we need to know the QUESTION to life, the universe and everything!

    /what is 6 x 9?
     
    • Like Like x 3
  7. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Actually, it's easy...
    • Survive
    • Experience
    BTW, Mother Nature would like you to kick out a kid or two to propagate the species (and it would help to raise them too...)
    But if you don't, oh well. Have fun.

    There is no meaning but what you give yourself.

    Even though you are tiny in relative comparison to Space & Time and any other dimension they can come up with (or are unaware of...)
    First, you're alive. (AND for some time!!)
    2nd, you're not a cell...or a germ... You're actually a complex organism.
    3rd, most of us are self-aware.
    4th, some of us are intelligent to a certain extent (and can DO things!!)
    etc and so on...

    Think about it, you likely do more in one morning than a mountain does in a millennium. (wake, digest, walk, breathe, fart, shower, think about bills, have emotions, etc...)

    As I state in my signature, there are 2 things that affect you and you affect...your:
    • Sphere of Awareness
    • Sphere of Influence
    What you're aware of helps you understand what's happening. (but sorry, it can still happen to you even if you're NOT aware of it. The Universe doesn't care.)
    But what you can influence, either by doing or saying or convincing or organizing or taking, etc and so on... You can affect things in return.
    Yet still, there are limits...even for the most powerful or talented of us.

    It's your choice how much to partake and/or particpate.
    It's your choice how to react. (other than what your body and physics allows that is)

    The "good" and "bad"...well, that's just so all of us can get along and live together and get better than just ourselves.
    But if you don't... Well, there may be consequences and some may be pissed at you. Just saying.

    So, stay alive. (because if you don't...then the point is moot)
    And try to absorb some things. (again, if you don't...the point is moot)

    ----

    Does that help??

    ---

    BTW, I'm reading the Hitchhiker's series again at this moment...so this question is a nice "in-sync" moment.
    And what he was trying to say so intelligently and humorously...

    It ALL doesn't make sense...at the size and scope and complexity of it all...it's NOT supposed to make sense.
    Beings don't make sense either. (ex: yourself or other people)
    BUT
    You can try to make sense of it, in a relative manner, and it can help you make a better life for yourself.
    But don't drive yourself crazy (and everyone around you) trying to make sense of it ALL.

    Make sense?? ;)

    **sometimes I think I'm a weird combo of Arthur Dent & Zaphod Beeblebrox (Ford Prefect is just too much of a hoopy frood for me to compare myself with)
    ...And of course, I'm always in love with Trillian.

    C'est la vie. (such is life...)
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2015
  8. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    Laughter... don't take things to seriously.
    Family and friends... keep them close, take care of them and they will take care of you when you are down
    Activity... Keep active both physically and mentally
     
    • Like Like x 2
  9. martian

    martian Server Monkey Staff Member

    Location:
    Mars

    This is why I like you so much. Let's be besties.

    Serious answer: I don't think there is one. Life isn't a question, it's an experience. You decide its purpose as you go along.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2015
    • Like Like x 1
  10. Charlatan

    Charlatan sous les pavés, la plage

    Location:
    Temasek
    Thinking on this, this isn't so much an answer as a coping strategy.

    When it really comes down to it, there is no inherent meaning to life, the Universe, Everything...

    The meaning, the answer if you will is not Universal. It's individual. It comes from you, your choices and actions inform your life with meaning.

    The three things I have listed above are simply shortcuts to finding meaning, especially the latter two.
     
  11. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    I wanted to add this yesterday, but posting in the same thread too soon when on my phone sometimes wipes out the first post (FIIK why!?):

    That pretty clever.


    Edit--And for some reason this post also included a quote that I used in another thread (again FIIK why).
     
  12. ralphie250

    ralphie250 Fully Erect Donor

    Location:
    At work..
    maybe we have to decide the question before we can determine the meaning or the answer.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  13. Levite

    Levite Levitical Yet Funky

    Location:
    The Windy City
    There isn't a single answer. There are many answers, and many of them change depending on the person and the context.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  14. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    I'll be disappointed if someone doesn't at least acknowledge my reference.
     
    • Like Like x 2
  15. martian

    martian Server Monkey Staff Member

    Location:
    Mars

    Sorry, I was looking for my fish.
     
    • Like Like x 3
  16. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX

    Your thinking is too deep for me :confused:.
     
  17. Baraka_Guru

    Baraka_Guru Möderätor Staff Member

    Location:
    Toronto
    [​IMG]
     
  18. Chris Noyb

    Chris Noyb Get in, buckle up, hang on, & be quiet.

    Location:
    Large City, TX
    Oh, I should've added I've only read THGTTG once, and only saw one of the movies, once.
     
  19. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC

    Well, if you're going MP-MOL philosophy on us...then I prefer this theory...



    What was that about hats again?? ;)

    "squirrel!"
     
    • Like Like x 1
  20. ASU2003

    ASU2003 Very Tilted

    Location:
    Where ever I roam
    The meaning of life is to figure out the meaning of life.
     
    • Like Like x 1