wynn
As I am not advocating that Buddha was a god or had any special insight unavailable to any other human, it is irrelivant to the point. He did teach that enlightenment comes from within, I think that is a wise insight, therefore I incorporate that into my world view. I'm sure he said other things that were not so wise, those I would discard as unworthy of incorporation(the same can be said of Jesus, Confusious, Mohammed and any other human).
But that job DOES become a part of who they are, it reflects their interests and what they are curious about, it gives their lives meaning. Just as with a person who wishes to heal people and becomes a doctor(thus giving meaning to their lives, self-chosen meaning)scientists want to know things about the Universe, it becomes their purpose and their meaning. And success brings them happiness. As I said, game, set and match. ALL meaning to be found in this Universe is self chosen, there can be no other source.
To you, maybe. But not to them. And understanding the Universe is the most meaningful of endeavors, it drives away superstition and ignorance that masquerades as truth and replaces it with knowledge that logic can be applied to, evaporating the non-sense supernatural explanations for how the Universe behaves. Such understanding is the basis for your easy and relatively long life, where you have the luxury of contemplating the meaning of existence instead of having to struggle to survive every minute of every day of your short, brutal life(assuming you survived birth and toddlerhood, as most did not). Statistically, if you own a computer(and you do), it is highly unlikely that you have ever gone truly hungry, toiled in fields because if you didn't you and all those around you would die, fought off any large predator or lost a child to same, suffered from any number of now easily treated or cured diseases and parasites, fought other humans in deadly combat over land and resources, had to let old or infirm members of your family die because there was not enough food to last the winter, etc. All of these things were things pre-civilization humans have had to deal with and we would still be dealing with if not for those who made understanding the Universe their purpose in life. And their lives had meaning to me, as I really could not still be alive without those meaningful contributions. And even knowing the atmospheric composition of other planets has infinitely more meaning than contemplating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Your point is non-sense. Not everyone has the job they want, in that case they are not their job. But Einstein wanted to understand the Universe and his whole life is a story of pursuing that purpose. He was a theoretical physicist from his head to his toe, so your generalization is way too broad to be taken seriously. And who told you that you automatically succeed in your goals or fulfill your purpose? This is several times you have brought this bon mot into the conversations on these threads. Purpose does not gaurautee you will succeed in that purpose. Happiness is likewise not certain, even if you succeed in your purpose. Some people can never be happy, it's a mental state that may or may not have anything to do with outside events or circumstances, often because of imbalance in brain chemistry. The Universe could not care less if you are happy, it cannot care at all.
That's an entirely different question. I said the only possible source for meaning, purpose and happiness is from within yourself, I didn't claim to know the path you must take to reach them for that is different for each person(the astrophysicist finds it in knowledge of the Universe, something you say is of no worth). And parts of things often do things that other parts do not do, it's really, really common and simple. You seem to think the end of a stick cannot be on fire unless the whole stick is burning and that isn't necessarily true, we call them "Matches". Matches burn, but not all parts of the match is on fire, yet the burning and the non-burning parts are contained within the match. Not all parts of our Universe have meaning, yet parts of it do because we create that meaning. So the Universe does have meaning even if it is our own self-chosen meaning.
Yes, you most certainly did, as others have pointed out. Your example of the astrophysicist finding meaning and happiness in a field you find useless is a perfect illustration that we create our own purposes and meanings and these can lead to happiness. Universal meaning is non-existent(other than to survive to reproduce), so the only source left is ourselves and our self-chosen meanings and purposes. And those meanings and purposes will be different for each individual. Looking outside of yourself for meaning is a huge waste of time, if you can't find it in yourself you are susceptable to others using you for their own purposes, you become a sheeple accepting what you are told to believe, accepting what others think is meaningful mindlessly. Not often a good outcome.
Grumpy
As I am not advocating that Buddha was a god or had any special insight unavailable to any other human, it is irrelivant to the point. He did teach that enlightenment comes from within, I think that is a wise insight, therefore I incorporate that into my world view. I'm sure he said other things that were not so wise, those I would discard as unworthy of incorporation(the same can be said of Jesus, Confusious, Mohammed and any other human).
But that job DOES become a part of who they are, it reflects their interests and what they are curious about, it gives their lives meaning. Just as with a person who wishes to heal people and becomes a doctor(thus giving meaning to their lives, self-chosen meaning)scientists want to know things about the Universe, it becomes their purpose and their meaning. And success brings them happiness. As I said, game, set and match. ALL meaning to be found in this Universe is self chosen, there can be no other source.
To you, maybe. But not to them. And understanding the Universe is the most meaningful of endeavors, it drives away superstition and ignorance that masquerades as truth and replaces it with knowledge that logic can be applied to, evaporating the non-sense supernatural explanations for how the Universe behaves. Such understanding is the basis for your easy and relatively long life, where you have the luxury of contemplating the meaning of existence instead of having to struggle to survive every minute of every day of your short, brutal life(assuming you survived birth and toddlerhood, as most did not). Statistically, if you own a computer(and you do), it is highly unlikely that you have ever gone truly hungry, toiled in fields because if you didn't you and all those around you would die, fought off any large predator or lost a child to same, suffered from any number of now easily treated or cured diseases and parasites, fought other humans in deadly combat over land and resources, had to let old or infirm members of your family die because there was not enough food to last the winter, etc. All of these things were things pre-civilization humans have had to deal with and we would still be dealing with if not for those who made understanding the Universe their purpose in life. And their lives had meaning to me, as I really could not still be alive without those meaningful contributions. And even knowing the atmospheric composition of other planets has infinitely more meaning than contemplating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Your point is non-sense. Not everyone has the job they want, in that case they are not their job. But Einstein wanted to understand the Universe and his whole life is a story of pursuing that purpose. He was a theoretical physicist from his head to his toe, so your generalization is way too broad to be taken seriously. And who told you that you automatically succeed in your goals or fulfill your purpose? This is several times you have brought this bon mot into the conversations on these threads. Purpose does not gaurautee you will succeed in that purpose. Happiness is likewise not certain, even if you succeed in your purpose. Some people can never be happy, it's a mental state that may or may not have anything to do with outside events or circumstances, often because of imbalance in brain chemistry. The Universe could not care less if you are happy, it cannot care at all.
That's an entirely different question. I said the only possible source for meaning, purpose and happiness is from within yourself, I didn't claim to know the path you must take to reach them for that is different for each person(the astrophysicist finds it in knowledge of the Universe, something you say is of no worth). And parts of things often do things that other parts do not do, it's really, really common and simple. You seem to think the end of a stick cannot be on fire unless the whole stick is burning and that isn't necessarily true, we call them "Matches". Matches burn, but not all parts of the match is on fire, yet the burning and the non-burning parts are contained within the match. Not all parts of our Universe have meaning, yet parts of it do because we create that meaning. So the Universe does have meaning even if it is our own self-chosen meaning.
Yes, you most certainly did, as others have pointed out. Your example of the astrophysicist finding meaning and happiness in a field you find useless is a perfect illustration that we create our own purposes and meanings and these can lead to happiness. Universal meaning is non-existent(other than to survive to reproduce), so the only source left is ourselves and our self-chosen meanings and purposes. And those meanings and purposes will be different for each individual. Looking outside of yourself for meaning is a huge waste of time, if you can't find it in yourself you are susceptable to others using you for their own purposes, you become a sheeple accepting what you are told to believe, accepting what others think is meaningful mindlessly. Not often a good outcome.
Grumpy
