Quote:
Originally Posted by Trey
You are just an animal like any other. The meaning of life is stay alive as long as you can... or want.
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It is true that the human body is exactly the same as the animal body. As an animal is sick, so is a human. An animal dies the same way a human dies. However, the mind of mankind is not the same as that of an animal.
In sanskrit, the word hu means God. The sanskrit word for man means mind, or to think. In this way, the word human can be translated to mean God mind, or to think of God.
An animal can not contemplate its ways. It can not contemplate death. It can not conceive of God. It can not question the meaning of life. This is what makes the human different than the animal. The human looks into space and must contemplate its existence. We must ask questions. Furthermore, our life is governed by the concept of good and evil. We must also question what good is and what evil is. The animals strive to survive. They have no concept of good, evil or God. This is not true for a human being.
Paul has said, Satan is the body, and God is the mind. This is wisdom. Therefore, if you pursue the animal body, you are no better than an animal, and you pursue sin; but if you pursue your mind, you are pursuing what is divine. You will pursue wisdom, and true happiness will be given to you. The same is taught in the east. If you pursue the body, you will become an animal in the next life, which has a body with better senses than you own, to feel more pleasure than yours, but its mind is not developed. It is also said that animal life is miserable, but they cannot conceive that it is.
The teaching of the east also makes note of these existential questions being unique to human beings, and describes them as the reason why you are a human being. In this respect, we can say that the meaning of life is to advance the mind, and to understand existence and God.
However, the mind is an abstract and ambiguous term. What is it's meaning? You could argue that the brain is the mind, and therefore part of the body. Alternatively, you could argue that the mind is something transcendental, like a soul. It is also not clear how one should advance his or her mind. Is it through academic study? Is it through spiritual practice? Can not one advance his or her mind to do evil, instead of good?
Perhaps, we are a soulless, mindless amalgamation of billions of molecular machines, that are merely obeying the laws of physics. Laws that were constructed the moment of the big bang, which predetermines our every thought and action. But, why is the universe constructed in such a way? Why is the speed of light 3,000,000 meters per second? Why is the elementary charge 1.602 x 10^-19 Coulombs? If a single fundamental constant were changed, there would be no composite particles in the universe, no planets, stars or life. What is the point of it? Why did it happen?
And, we are back where we started.
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