The Meaning of Life, Other Than 42

''The following is an excerpt from a conversation I recently had with some friends online. It is a philosophical reflection on humanity and the reason for its existence, and yes it is from me.''

Who? Humanity What? Existence When? Before, now, and in the future Where? The universe (I refuse to limit myself to just this chunk of space-rock we call Earth)

And the two most important...

How? As Hojo mentioned, we have no idea how we came to be. There are no ancient species that we know of that we have evolved from (despite the widely-believed speculation of a "missing link"). And unfortunately, without knowing where we came from, we cannot truly know where we are going, it's like we were brought to the center of a crossroads of thousands of routes blindfolded, then spun around left and right randomly until we were fully disoriented, then left alone with no map or compass, in a place where the sun never moves from the center of the sky.

Why? THIS is the question we have struggled to answer for centuries. WHY are we here? What is our purpose? Do we even HAVE a purpose? These are questions that, so far, we have been unable to answer. From a strictly biological standpoint, we exist solely to reproduce and die, but as humans, we aspire to something more. Are we wrong in that aspiration? Are we, as a species, delusional to think there is something more to us than just organic, biological matter?

Or IS there a higher purpose?

Religions have sought to answer this with stories of heavens and hells and purgatories, or with a transcended form of unity or some other afterlife mumbojumbo. But the thing they have never addressed is the truth of whether or not there even IS something after death, something we must work towards, they simply say it is, but do not offer proof or an explanation as to why it is there. It makes one wonder, did we perhaps make up the entire idea of an afterlife, just to comfort ourselves? Make up a higher purpose to mask our uncertainty and to relieve the fear of death?

I offer no answers, for I search just as we all do, and I fear that in the ether of thought, as I write this, I have lost track of my original intention, my original message. So I leave you with this rambling of philosophical reflection, in hopes that you can make sense of it better than I can.

--Sangheilioz 01:18, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

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