Which has the most meaning in life, considering the absurdity of it all?

Lets take a close look at this before your mind gets boggled!

We know religion promises eternal life but lets leave that aside, especially if you’re a non-believer.

But, we mere mortals, who have a finite life, and who try to create meaning for ourselves, and who don’t believe in religion, we ask the question, “What’s the meaning of life?’, over and over again!!!

Us mortals endeavour to be part of something that transcends our biological existence, such as having children or creating works that last past our demise.

This makes us feel MORE than mortal!

There is another question floating around:

“Would you be BORED if you were immortal?”

Some future-minded scientists predict that in a 100 years or so medical science will be able to STOP the aging process!

Would humans be bored with a radical life extension, or indeed, living forever?

Would there be meaning in immortality?

Note that life extension does not imply COMPLETE immortality.

There still would be some traumatic deaths and accidents.

So there would always be some uncertainty about death!

With future technology advancing at break neck speed we probably would never get bored. Our engagement with life would go to new heights!

I am in the midst of analysing the philosophy found in the novel:

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

In the novel the character called, “Wowbagger” has immortality given to him.

To begin with it was wonderful, taking risks and having non-stop fun.

Then things got a little boring for him. He got tired of going to other people’s funerals and smiling!

So, he conceived the purpose of insulting everyone in the universe and that would keep him busy and never be bored.

So, Wowbagger found meaning in immortality.

What about the finite human life? Can we find meaning or is there always the threat of meaninglessness?

We all have things we want to do, projects to finish. The problem is death. The fact is we have many things we want to do and only a finite amount of time to do them before we die.

If we were immortal we would be free from time pressure.

We would have all kinds of time for many, many projects.

But, being mortal, all our good works tend to be wiped out after our death.

Hence, what’s the point?

We struggle with the question of a meaningful life but is this struggle absurd because of our insignificance in the whole scheme of things?

The human condition is absurd because we seek inherent value and meaning in life but we fail to find any in a chaotic, meaningless world.

We can only embrace our existence and meet absurdity with defiance.

Example of absurdity in everyday life:

Get up in the morning, take train to work, four hours work then lunch then four more hours work, take train home, have dinner and go to bed. Monday through Friday- all at the same rhythm. One day, the “WHY” of it all overcomes us and we see the absurdity of life.

Do our lives serve some real purpose?

Or are we just inconsequential specks in the world?

But we still seek some sort of meaning because we cannot stop wanting CLARITY AND COMPASSION AND MEANING from the world, it’s built into our nature.

Why let the question of meaning torture us? Maybe we should ignore the question.

Maybe life itself can restore the balance that has been made chaotic by our continuing questioning.

I will sum up my 81 year old thoughts now:

“I’m old and tired and I’ll probably never find out what is really going on. So the only thing to do is to say the “hell with it” and just keep writing blogs.”