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Interesting Response to a Quote

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:55 am
by MarcusOfLycia
Someone I know on Facebook posted a quote from a movie:

"The trick is to enjoy life, accepting it has no meaning whatsoever."

What I found interesting was that a bunch of their friends 'liked' this quote. Is it just me, or is a life without meaning tantamount to hell? Why would someone 'like' this? I would think if you ever actually had the cognitive connection between lack of meaning and reality, you'd become the most depressed person on earth. Then again... the people who seem to like this quote certainly act like life is all about getting whatever you can out of it and acting like nothing matters at the same time...

Re: Interesting Response to a Quote

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:05 pm
by Maytan
Agreed entirely. I'd say most people in today's society would 'like' that quote.

Re: Interesting Response to a Quote

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:18 pm
by Silvertusk
MarcusOfLycia wrote:Someone I know on Facebook posted a quote from a movie:

"The trick is to enjoy life, accepting it has no meaning whatsoever."

What I found interesting was that a bunch of their friends 'liked' this quote. Is it just me, or is a life without meaning tantamount to hell? Why would someone 'like' this? I would think if you ever actually had the cognitive connection between lack of meaning and reality, you'd become the most depressed person on earth. Then again... the people who seem to like this quote certainly act like life is all about getting whatever you can out of it and acting like nothing matters at the same time...

I think you answered your own question there. :(

Re: Interesting Response to a Quote

Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:27 pm
by Seraph
People who like that quote probably believe that life has no objective meaning, but that it has the relative meaning that you assign to it. In this world view, whatever you set out to do for yourself is the correct thing to do and nobody can judge you for it. This is why they like it. And on one hand, it would have its perks in that there would be no need to show any restraint in this life.

However, the flip-side is like you said. Life would seem much less grand, standards of morality would be completely baseless, Christianity would be false in that worldview, and when you die it would be as though you never existed at all since they don't have any eternal impact.

I'll take the Christian worldview.

Re: Interesting Response to a Quote

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:00 pm
by CeT-To
Yeah I here a lot of this Stuff too tbh it makes me giggle cause it annoys me quite a bit, it makes me want to respond to those silly quotes so badly but people will think you are being a jerk and would not understand anyway .. Although sometimes I do go around telling em how meaningless the quotes are >.>

Re: Interesting Response to a Quote

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:31 am
by Proinsias
As the quote says, it's a trick. May as well declare that the meaning of life is enjoyment.

Not really surprising that other people like this notion, if you don't believe in heaven, hell or any sort of existence after death then enjoying this life is the closest you're gonna get to heaven. Perhaps worth it even if you've got to trick yourself into doing it.

Re: Interesting Response to a Quote

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:56 pm
by MarcusOfLycia
Another aspect of it that makes it interesting is that it is delusional if what you say is the case. And yet, prominent atheists get accolades for declaring Christian theism to be 'delusional'. If it takes delusion for mankind to be human, something is severely wrong with nature itself if nature itself is all there is.