Simple question folks.
But one that has major implications on your outlook on life.

Turtle why does the answers have major implications on our lives? namaste sheri

I said false to all.

We choose are own life path, and it is not meaningless not if you dont want it to be.

Well mine is not anyway.

Until just recently (like in the last few months) I would have answered no to the first two that God has no input at all to our lives. But since I have had some amazing and miraculous coincidences it has definitely changed my life view.

There are too many to list, but let's just say that the Universe is helping us out...

I picked false for the first two and true for the third.

Sheri.

If we are to believe that God prepares us for the path, then God has implanted in us all we need to circumnavigate this reality, and our journey is to unlock and use these gifts to the benefits of others.
The way I see it, we are the products of our parents. many aspire and become just like their parents and follow similar patterns in their life, but this is not your life.
To me, I love the quote from Nachman of Bratzlav
" the most important thing in the world is to be willing to give up who you are (thanks to parental teachings) for who you might become."

If you were to believe that God prepares the path for us, then free will is a misnomer and does not apply.
If one believes their life is fated, then one only has to sit back and let life come to them.

False for all three.
For me life DOES have meaning.

I am surprised! You feel life has no meaning?

Absolutely. There is no meaning of life, no moral code you should follow to be rewarded in some afterlife. Such a concept was created by weak people who were scared of being here for no reason.

Humans are animals. The purpose of all life is to pass on their seed and die. We are no different.

With this comment then you should have voted false on the last question.

"I believe Darwin in that our life is meaningless with no pre-planning"

Am I wrong?

I have read it in a religious standpoint. Pre-planning means intelligent design by a higher being, and a meaning as in we have been given a destiny or fate rather than just floating in the breeze like leaves.
Technically Darwin never said life has no purpose; Survival of the Fittest is the purpose to life he proposed which is of course passing on your seed.

This is true, but his ultimate conclusion was that life was spiritually meaningless.
I am curious then Burnsie, whether you then believe that the earth is your oyster, and put here for your taking.

And that is the context i took it in. There is no spiritual meaning.

The earth is here for all creatures, not just one. We are all equal.

So life does have a purpose.

As i've said a few times now, and as Turtle pointed out, that was the question. I took it as meaning in religious connotations. Spiritual meaning, no.

Okay i understand you feel at this time that this is a very significant question for you and want others input or support?? Namaste sheri

I believe we all have latent abilities which spontaneously show themselves sometimes. Other people are born with working talents, like mediums, etc.


In order for these gifts to be within us, it certainly does imply intelligent design of some type. Unless in the distant past these abilities were dominant genes which have now recessed somewhat.

And... who says that the leaves are not exactly where they are meant to be?

Yes to the first, no to the last 2..

no to the first 2 yes to the last one.
we have no purpose, only to survive and breed

but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy life

According to the poll most people here think life is meaningless!

If I knew there was no purpose to life, I'd be one jackass.

Interesting that people are writing NO to all three.
Did I miss a question?

Are these the kind of people we're suppose to watch our backs when we're around them? XD Just kiddin, I always do that anyway. Before you think "paranoid" think "prepared to kill to preserve my life". =)

Hi guys, I am back. Been battling demons of late, but I seem to have the best of them, so I thought I would make some wave here. Good thread Turtle, but I had a heard time with the choices. I ended up with true on the first one, false on the second and true on the third.

My Path is my own. Is it meaningless, no, it is a learning experience. Is it laid out before me by a supreme being, no, there is the element of chance. Do I have guidance by a supreme being, yes, but my decisions are my own to make. People in my life of late keep telling not to look into that crystal ball; it might not be as bad as I think. They are right, no one not even the Gods know how it will turn out in the end. It is all up to me and chance. So I roll the dice and decide grits or cold cereal for breakfast? It is cool this morning I say grits. Bacon or plain; plain, bacons not good for me. My choice.

The last question is asking if you feel life is meaningless.
If you answer true then it means you feel life IS meaningless.
If you answer false then you feel life HAS some sort of meaning/purpose.

Third question was a half right question. Life is not pre-destine, but it still has meaning. All life has meaning. Even the cockroach's life has meaning to him. That is why he runs when I chase him with my shoe.

the only meaning life has is the meaning that the person living it gives it, i chose that there is no meaning and no preplanning because i took the question as a broad question about the universe, and purpose outside of our selves.
for me i live my my own meaning, but i know that it will have little or no effect on the world or the future. There is no such thing as fate to me and there is most certainly no higher power.
The biggest reason i chose to live is to enjoy what time i have, to experiance as many things as i can, and to know and love the people i share my time with. so to me life has purpose on a personal level, but certainly not on any bigger level, and it was certainly not planned out by anyone other then my self

Do you believe that you have a gift, a truth to offer the world (even if it is only your little corner of it).

This is a good post.
Considering what man today is doing to the earth, is the philosophy behind an increase in the meaning of life having an effect on how we treat our earth home.
If many choose to believe that life has no other meaning other than to enjoy themselves, is this the root cause of disrespect for our earthly home, and a mindset that we are entitled what we need and damn the consiquences?

a gift? the fact that we exist i guess i could concider a gift... from natural processes...
if by living my life they way i feel is right and meeting my own standard it helps someone else then i'm all for that
as for a truth... the pnly truth i see is that were here, and someday we'll be gone...
I don't have a need for a purpose... accepting that there is no creator, and no purpose seems like it would be a very hard thing to do i guess, but infact it allowed me to accept things as they are and to live my life for me not someone else... i dunno how to explain it any better... sorry

Aw, man. It's really troubling to me sometimes that the vast majority of people on both sides of the spirituality/materialism divide in this culture are so ignorant of basic spiritual information. Materialists say that all spirituality is arbitrary and made up and most Christians have no argument beyond, "Yeah it was made up--made up by God!"

Anyone who has practiced past-life regression for any length of time will encounter all sorts of things that are constant from person to person; there actually are spiritual matters that are not totally up in the air and subjective. For those who haven't done it, past-life regression is a method of accessing memory from before this life time. It's pretty amazing the level of detailed memory you can uncover. I'm not talking vague, wispy fantasies but vivid emotional and visual information indistinguishable in clarity and authority from the memories you carry from when you were 10 years old. It can be a real eye opener.

One thing you will encounter when you are regressed is that we choose our parents (and no, this is not a plant because everyone who is regressed has read books on the subject; the first several times I was regressed I had no foreknowledge of what to expect and I got a lot of details which I later read are par for the course). We have certain things we want to accomplish, certain wounds we wish to heal, certain matters we wish to learn and that's what propels us into our next incarnation. God, the intervening personage with which so many are obsessed, is totally unnecessary to the equation. Preplanning, therefore, does not mean intelligent design other than your own. Of course reality has a flow, a general bent that we can choose to accept or to fight, but to call this "god" can be very misleading indeed.

So, yes, Turtle, you missed a few questions as far as I'm concerned. Transcendant meaning does not require centralized authority.

"life is meaningless" IMO another perspective could be" the meaning anyones life has is the meaning they give it ",( be it religious or otherwise,) the wisdom lies in that sentence, thats where freedom lives, in deeply understanding that namaste Sheri

i completely agree

I voted identically to you and for the same reasons.

We have freewill and a conscience so we can personally try and plan our lives and go in the directions we want but I believe only we decide that in our minds.
Am I depressed for thinking we live and die and thats it? no not at all I happily live my life thinking of thats how it is.Things people do in life is meaningful but life as a whole is just a cycle.

I voted all three false also.
I dont get how the first two are any different from each other.
And the third is a horrbile answer also.

Yes ULTMATLEY life is meaningless, but there is tons of pre-planning of life before you are born by none-other than YOU. YOU decide who your parents are, YOU decide which lessons you will learn in life, YOU decide to forget these things upon entry into this life too make the discovery process more fun. Ultimately YOU decide which lessons to learn in order to further your growth and evolution. Some people decide to take things slowly , other wish to take things quicker its all a matter of prefrence. Some people are really gung-ho and choose too much for themselves and burn-out or die, but thats ok, they will LEARN from that experience. It takes many lives to learn things sometimes, especially if your stubborn and wont open your eyes, so you will repeat the lessons until you learn from them. For some it takes a really,REALLY long time. Mayby multiple lives.

wow that's an interesting view on the subject
thanks for the post i enjoyed it

Unfortunately in the generalities and limitations of the polls here, I had to broaden the identifications.


I believe that we are prepared for our life path by God/spirit/dietytrue?

Being the budding scientist you appear to be, your answer could have fit into #1 since what you postulate requires you to be part of the Godhead when making these determinations before you incarnate here.

I believe that our life path is prepared for us by god/spirit/deitytrue.

This section was meant to be for people whom identify with a higher form that controls their life while incarnated here . They believe that they were born and will be judged on their actions once their earthly sjourn is complete.

I believe Darwin in that our life is (spiritually) meaningless with no pre-planning.
This again was a generalization and did not take into account that natural selection is the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process of nature, with its many adaptations which help in its survival and reproduction.
For this I appologize.
I should have used no example, other than:
" you are born and you die and you are here to party".

While I realize this poll is not up to generally acceptable scientific dictorum, I would be interested if you would start your own poll with what you consider the correct questions.
I learn best by direct experience

I took the first to mean we are prepared for our journey by God. He gives us what we need, prepares us for the trials to come, that sort of thing. We are free to choose where to go, what to do, or even to use the gifts that God gave us. But if we wish it, God's help is there.

The second is that our life is pre-planned. Where I walk I have no choice but to go because it has been planned out by God milennia ago. I have no free-will, just acting on a pre-supposed script created by God.

That's my take on it anyway.

Regards, PA