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The Meaning of Existence (Original)

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Dawn Moline
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« on: December 12, 2007, 11:00:19 pm »

The Meaning of Existence

This, to me, might be the greatest ancient mystery of them all.

After the mystery of God, the question asked the most often tends to be, "why are we here?"

There is no easy answer, and, for me, at least, all the old ones I had no longer have any meaning.

I don't believe we are here to find and worship God, and I certainly don't believe that we were put here to take care of each other. I used to believe that, now I think I no longer will. Also, I don't believe that the whole thing is some sort of test, for if it is, most of us would be failing, whether we'll admit that or not.

The world isn't getting better, if anything, it's getting worse. Money has become more important than love, and people are no longer important at all. This world has become one of utter madness. In my opinion, we have learned to value all the wrong things. Violence is acceptable, and love is now seen as a sign of weakness. With each generation, rather than living better than the last, many of us are living worse, not just financially, but morally, and with far less happiness.

We have lost whatever connection we had to one another, see each other more as obstacles as opposed to human beings. Our days drift aimlessly, one into the next, until we get old and die, and then our children carry on, continuing that same aimless path towards merciless oblivion.

Perhaps it's just a mood that I am in, but I almost feel all my best days are behind me now, and I see only a bleakness ahead.

The question comes to me more and more these days, not just what my own purpose is, but why any of us were even put here in the first place? I am open to suggestions, because these days, I seem to have none.

Perhaps it's all some sick joke, and I didn't get it until recently. Well, I think I get it now.

http://forums.atlantisrising.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000306;p=1
« Last Edit: December 12, 2007, 11:01:39 pm by Dawn Moline » Report Spam   Logged

"The unexamined life is one not worth leading."
-Plato

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« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2007, 07:06:54 pm »

Carolyn Silver

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   posted 05-18-2005 12:21 AM                       
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Wow, Dawn, what a downer! No offense meant, but I liked your earlier "work" a lot better, it was much more positive. I'll have to think about this one, but off hand, I'd have to say we were put here to suffer. Not the best answer, but it is the one that seems to fit the best at the moment! 
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« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2007, 07:08:05 pm »

Aristotle

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Dawn, no offense intended, but why should any of us even care why we are here? We are here and that is enough. We must make the best of a bad situation, so to speak.

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"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
- Aristotle
 
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« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2007, 07:08:28 pm »

Jade Hellene

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Rather than concentrate on why the human race is here, Dawn, as each of us is apt to do from time to time, I believe we are each better off concentrating on our own individual purpose in life. Mine, for instance, derived from my work. Throw yourself into your work, and it is often purpose enough. I believe in the message I spread, and I don't often ask questions that involve the bigger picture of humanity, for often it is the smallest ones that matter the most.

In other words, there is no one purpose for the human race. Each of us must find our own unique purpose and it is in that where we are each made whole.

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« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2007, 07:08:48 pm »

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Dawn,

It is a sick joke, I have always tried to tell you.

You cannot go around, believing in the innate goodness of others. You cannot believe that they will always treat you well and that your kindness towards them will always be rewarded. I have always admired you, Dawn. You are pure and open-hearted, and gentle to a fault. But your innocence will always be your downfall. The whole thing, as it is now, is set up more like a competition as opposed to what you have always wished for, a society where people actually do help one another. We are all like rats in a maze, each of us competing with one another for whatever this planet still has left to give to us.

It's odd that the one thing I have always admired about you, your sensitvity, has also always proven your undoing. How greatly must your disillusionment now feel, the depths of your despair..?

It is still the same world that you woke up to yesterday, and yet you must feel as if you are seeing it for the first time.

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"The sleep of reason brings forth monsters." - Goya
 
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« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2007, 07:09:09 pm »

Proteus

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My purpose is to f*** over shameless, hypocritical, right wing fanatics. And I do that very well.
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« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2007, 07:09:38 pm »

Heather Delaria

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Hi Dawn, I agree with some of those here, like Jade, who say that Christianity isn't a good religion for women (my opinion, at least). But there are other belief systems out there that tend to give you other answers, better ones. If not Wicca, than one of the eastern religions. All of them have something to offer to promote inner peace and harmony. Everyone has the feelings you do at some time or another. I've found that believing in something higher than ourselves is often the answer to many of our problems.

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"An it harm none, do what ye will."
-the Wiccan Rede
 
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« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2007, 07:09:59 pm »

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Dawn:

You have to stop viewing the universe with such Earth-centric views.

God does have an ultimate purpose for all the sentient beings in the universe. Our jobs is to find positive fulfillment and spiritual growth while trying to figure it all out.

Think in terms of Star Trek and Quantum Leap.

Just cuz Earth humanity hasn't risen to much you'd be suprised how many other planets with humans travel thru space and are quite enlightened with their spiritual surroundings and are just as in awe about God's ultimate plan.
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« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2007, 07:10:30 pm »

Volitzer

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Baphomet:

Now you're reducing the human race to just Darwinistic animals.

Come on I expect better than that even if you are Earth humanity.
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« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2007, 07:11:04 pm »

Aristotle

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Heather, welcome aboard.

But...

Yes, let's use one of the myriad number of belief systems in the world as a crutch again. The meaning each of us is meant to find lies within ourselves. Baphomet is right in that it can be a competition, but the things we are competing with are not other people, but when our worst selves and best selves collide. The worst self is the one with feelings of doubt and angst that tends to hold us back. All humans have that side. The best side, which all human beings also have, includes your sense of purpose, of belief in yourself. You can't let other people affect you. You can't let your circumstances bring you down. You have to learn independence and have the inner conviction to simply be who you are.

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"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
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« Reply #10 on: December 16, 2007, 07:11:32 pm »

Aristotle

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quote:
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Just cuz Earth humanity hasn't risen to much you'd be suprised how many other planets with humans travel thru space and are quite enlightened with their spiritual surroundings and are just as in awe about God's ultimate plan.
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Volitzer, there isn't any proof of any of that.

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« Reply #11 on: December 16, 2007, 07:12:03 pm »

Baphomet

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quote:
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Baphomet:

Now you're reducing the human race to just Darwinistic animals.

Come on I expect better than that even if you are Earth humanity.
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But human beings are animals, Volitzer, it is only in our imaginations that we become more. It is when we try and separate ourselves from our basic nature do we even think to ask questions like this, and so, run into trouble.

Point is, there is nothing wrong with being animals. We have been animals throughout our existence and our behavior towards one another is proof of this. We must accept the fact that we are animals and become comfortable with it.

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"The sleep of reason brings forth monsters." - Goya
 
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« Reply #12 on: December 16, 2007, 07:12:34 pm »

Anassa

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Come on Dawn. I would never have taken you for a quitter   Smiley
You worry too much about the state of the world and why other people are what they are and do what they do. Focus on you. As long as you continue to seek answers sincerely, and I believe you are very sincere, that is what is important.
You can care about others and the world but you can't change them. You seem to think that if the world and others change it will make you happier to be here when in fact it's the other way around.
If you lived on a paradise island but were unhappy inside it may not appear like such a paradise after all.

I've been seeking answers for more years than I care to count and I still didn't find them all but it doesn't matter because at some point I realised that it was the journey that was important and I wouldn't change the journey I've had for anything.
It's a journey into yourself.

You said: "There is no easy answer, and, for me, at least, all the old ones I had no longer have any meaning".

In one way there is actually an easy answer but sometimes we have to take the long way around to understand what that is.
You are already blessed with a loving heart and what would you say if I told you that that is all you really need?
Take the long way around and I guarantee that is the answer you will arrive back at, and you will learn so much else along the way that might explain a little about the hows and whys.
Each time you get an answer or you think you have found an answer, something else will come along and contradict that answer.
So you check out the possibilities in the new answer, which will lead to more questions and then more answers until something somewhere starts to make sense. Just keep on asking. As your signature quote says: "The unexamined life is one not worth leading."
The way you feel right now seems to me is that your inner self is telling you, not so much to give up, but to look for new answers and sometimes the best ones come during a time when you feel low. Try to look on it as maybe having outgrown the old ones.
When we are happy and joyful we tend to go with the flow and are perhaps not listening because we feel there is no need, that we have found the answers when maybe we have just found part of it so you get a little prod telling you it's time to move on

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It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
 
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« Reply #13 on: December 16, 2007, 07:13:00 pm »

Ishtar

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  posted 05-18-2005 10:40 AM                       
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Age old questions, dawn..............Man has been contemplating them forever, imagine.


Quote
The world isn't getting better, if anything, it's getting worse.

Second Tim.3:2
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

Second Tim. 3:3
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Quote,
Money has become more important than love, and people are no longer important at all.

Jam 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Quote
This world has become one of utter madness.

1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Quote
In my opinion, we have learned to value all the wrong things.

Ezekiel 16:49 (New International Version)
'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Quote
Violence is acceptable, and love is now seen as a sign of weakness.

Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

Quote
With each generation, rather than living better than the last, many of us are living worse, not just financially, but morally, and with far less happiness.

Mat 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. nd, the same shall be saved.

We have lost whatever connection we had to one another, see each other more as obstacles as opposed to human beings. Our days drift aimlessly, one into the next, until we get old and die, and then our children carry on, continuing that same aimless path towards merciless oblivion.

the day that Noah lived we can look in the book of

Genesis 6:5-13: 5

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.

Quote,
With each generation, rather than living better than the last, many of us are living worse, not just financially, but morally, and with far less happiness.


We have lost whatever connection we had to one another, see each other more as obstacles as opposed to human beings. Our days drift aimlessly, one into the next, until we get old and die, and then our children carry on, continuing that same aimless path towards merciless oblivion.

Dan 12:7
And I heard the man clothed in linen, which [was] upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that [it shall be] for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these [things] shall be finished.


Dan 12:8
And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what [shall be] the end of these [things]?


Dan 12:9
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words [are] closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

[ 05-18-2005, 10:42 AM: Message edited by: Ishtar ]

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« Reply #14 on: December 16, 2007, 07:13:25 pm »

Ishtar

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  posted 05-18-2005 10:54 AM                       
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Quote
We have lost whatever connection we had to one another, see each other more as obstacles as opposed to human beings.

Oh couse we have lost our connection with one another, the farther we drift from a connection with the divine,the farther we drift from love of one another.

3:12
If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

3:19
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

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