Thought experiment: meaning in life

[_Kishkumen]

Life is a dance. The cosmic dance. Dance on.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

1. Would you choose to hug your loved ones before the 24 hours were up?

2. Would hugging your loved ones have any meaning 24 hours later?

3. As a variation, you are out by yourself somewhere and cannot contact anyone else before 24 hours are up. If you go to watch the last sunset ever by yourself, does that experience have any meaning?

("Meaning" = you decide how to define that)

Bonus: what do you think this experiment is really exploring? (what you think, not "try to guess the right answer")

Yes
Yes. A second before the water in my body vaporizes I will know at that moment that my experience as a living being was completed when I embrace the other beings that I felt love for.
Yes, while I watch that last sunset.

Life is a one time roller coaster ride. Revel in it. Feel the warm sun on your skin and the cool wind in your hair. Feel the climb up and take in the rides to the bottom. Don't spend the entire experience preparing and fretting for what others in the line told you about the exit and what they think comes after, otherwise you will miss the entire experience.

[_Polygamy-Porter]

What I'll say is this, if I could know with absolute 100% certainty that life truly had no meaning, impossible, but say I really believed that, then I would dedicate every power of will that I could muster to resisting my natural inclination to care for others. I would strive to become a sociopath.

Interesting expression. I guess we should be grateful for any religion which keeps would be sociopaths in control.

Care to expound on the activities that you would engage in whilst striving to be a sociopath?

[_palerobber]

What I'll say is this, if I could know with absolute 100% certainty that life truly had no meaning, impossible, but say I really believed that, then I would dedicate every power of will that I could muster to resisting my natural inclination to care for others. I would strive to become a sociopath.

god, what a freak you are. if we were neighbors i'd tell my kids they're not to talk to you or open to door to you when i'm not home.

[_Abaddon]

“‘What is the meaning of life?’ is a stupid question. Life just exists. You say to yourself, ‘I can’t accept that I mean nothing so I have to find the meaning of life so that I shouldn’t mean as little as I know I do.’ Subconsciously you know you’re full of s***. I see life as a dance. Does a dance have to have a meaning? You’re dancing because you enjoy it.” – Jackie Mason

Great quote. Reminds me of Joseph Campbell recalling a religious scholar conversing with a Shinto priest in Japan.

"We've been now to a good many ceremonies, and I've seen quite a few of your shrines, but I don't get your ideology. I don't get your theology."

The Japanese priest paused and slowly shook his head. "I think we don't have ideology. We don't have theology. We dance."

[_Darth J]

What I'll say is this, if I could know with absolute 100% certainty that life truly had no meaning, impossible, but say I really believed that, then I would dedicate every power of will that I could muster to resisting my natural inclination to care for others. I would strive to become a sociopath.

The OP doesn't say that you know with absolute 100% certainty that life truly has no meaning. It says you know with certainty that there is no life after death. You are the one who thinks that means no meaning of any kind, even in the present moment.

What you are saying means that you uncritically accept the LDS dogma that the only alternative to the grade-school theology and vapid platitudes of the LDS Church is nihilism. That the ridiculous straw man character of Korihor in the Book of Mormon is actually representative of philosophical thought outside organized, authoritarian religion. One wonders why people who actually do believe what the OP posits do not all go out and "become" sociopaths (you evidently don't understand what a sociopath is), if nihilism is the only alternative.

And Water Dog, let me help you out here: your continually demonstrated ignorance of, and lack of curiosity about, any metaphysical, ethical, or philosophical ideas other than the ones coming from your church pretty well demonstrate that you're simply a standard rank-and-file Mormon, but think you're deep-thinking and cool because you give lip service to rejecting the more laughably untenable trappings of Mormon culture, while still holding unwarranted beliefs underpinning those same trappings. It's essentially the same immature mentality of, "I hate you, Mom! Now drive me to the mall!" Except in an ecclesiastical setting.

Unfortunately, your condescending affectation of being counter-culture while remaining neck deep in that culture doesn't make you awesome. It makes you a hipster.

[_palerobber]

What I'll say is this, if I could know with absolute 100% certainty that life truly had no meaning, impossible, but say I really believed that, then I would dedicate every power of will that I could muster to resisting my natural inclination to care for others. I would strive to become a sociopath.

god, what a freak you are. if we were neighbors i'd tell my kids they're not to talk to you or open to door to you when i'm not home.

So emotional. What I'm hearing is that you don't actually believe your own b.s.? Maybe this is a good thought experiment after all. Scratch any atheist and you'll find the most passionate of god-fearing men!

"don't mind him, kids, just smile back and get in the car... no, i don't know what he's talking about either"

[_Sethbag]

So you have a Mormon, a Roman Catholic, a Jew, an Atheist, a Muslim, a Hindu, and as many other different faiths or non-faiths as you wish on that last, final day of Earth's existence, in this thought experiment.

I won't go through what each person does, but suffice it to say that each of these people live that last day to the fullest while making a final statement of deeds and faith in their own religious (or non-religious) worldview. Each of these people stands up and faces their doom knowing that they have stood for their religion (or whatever principles) as well as they could.

They each are destroyed fully confident that the actions they took on their final day will stand as a shining statement to Elohim, God, Allah, Vishnu, Jehovah, or whatever deity they believe in of their faithfulness to him/her/it, and fully expectant of going to Heaven, Paradise, get the 72 virgins, become one of the 144,000, be reincarnated (somewhere, though of course not on Earth) as a cow, or whatever.

If we except that a maximum of one god actually exists, did the lives of all those whose choice of god or gods was the wrong choice have any meaning?

What if the atheists were right, and there is in fact no God? Did any of their lives have meaning?

The thing that gets me is that to most religionists other than hardcore universalists, the lives of almost everyone else, who believe in false gods or non-existent gods, or who believe in the right god but incorrectly, should have either no meaning, or else a very sub-par or unpleasant meaning. The hardcore Mormon would say congrats and welcome to the Terrestrial Kingdom suckas. The JWs would say welcome to annihilation bitches. The Hindus might say have fun being a dung beetle!

Yet each person there in that crowd is absolutely convinced that their life had meaning.

[_Jesse Pinkman]

1. Would you choose to hug your loved ones before the 24 hours were up?

2. Would hugging your loved ones have any meaning 24 hours later?

3. As a variation, you are out by yourself somewhere and cannot contact anyone else before 24 hours are up. If you go to watch the last sunset ever by yourself, does that experience have any meaning?

("Meaning" = you decide how to define that)

Bonus: what do you think this experiment is really exploring? (what you think, not "try to guess the right answer")

Yes
Yes. A second before the water in my body vaporizes I will know at that moment that my experience as a living being was completed when I embrace the other beings that I felt love for.
Yes, while I watch that last sunset.

Life is a one time roller coaster ride. Revel in it. Feel the warm sun on your skin and the cool wind in your hair. Feel the climb up and take in the rides to the bottom. Don't spend the entire experience preparing and fretting for what others in the line told you about the exit and what they think comes after, otherwise you will miss the entire experience.

Dude, QFT

[_Res Ipsa]

1. Yes.
2. No.
3. Yes.

Bonus: I haven't the faintest idea.