Tom
An Old Friend
Life is the state of being alive.
There is no "meaning" except the meaning derived from personal experience bias and anticipation.
The cold hard reality of life is the fact an organism either persists or perishes.
'Meaning' is always relative to the observer.
Humans, tho we may think so, are not the only form of life on this planet or within this Universe.
We are not the first and certainly will not be the last.
While there is no universal law of a meaning to life there are global realities of life.
Depending upon the type of organism, there are tolerance ranges which cause an organism to thrive or die.
For the human organism, an omnivore, certain realities hold:
1. Breathing the nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere
-if there is no air or the air available is not the correct mixture, we die. Our innovation and technology allow us to construct breathing devices so we don't die but as an organism alone, without assistance, life is terminated.
2. Consumption of organic materials
-not only must we eat, we must eat only the foods which our bodies can digest and metabolize nutrients from to give us what our bodies require to continue living.
3. Water intake
-we must drink water to maintain our bodies. Not just water, clean water. If we drink water with contaminates harmful to us, we die.
4. Disposal of waste products
-Our body processes create waste and much of that waste is harmful to or bodies. Failure to get rid of the waste in our bodies can kill us from toxicity.
Contrary to popular belief, reproduction is not a requirement of life. Many organisms, including humans, survive and often thrive without reproducing. Reproduction is only necessary to pro-generate genetic traits.
A child is born. It lives 7 months and dies. That child existed without the concept of meaning to its life.
The reality is, that child was alive but now is not.
If any life can exist without meaning, meaning of life cannot be a universal truth. It is merely a concept.
In the human social order we place value on certain aspects of existence. Depending upon the source of the assessment, meaning of life has different parameters.
Different cultures and societies of humans have different parameters of life's meaning.
Globally, humans have little common beliefs of the meaning of life.
In some societies/cultures women have little value to life and are treated so.
In some, people believe they have a right to life, yet life can be extinguished by others at will.
Rights are permissions granted to other people by certain people. Rights are not reality based because they can be violated. The right to life is granted, not required.
Individuals assess meaning of life from their personal experiences, observations of other people's experiences and anticipation of their future. Meaning is purely relative to the person's assessment of existence.
Its impossible to tell someone else what the meaning of life means because each person's meaning applies only to them. What life means to me certainly will not be exactly what life means to you.
