What's your beliefs regarding God and the purpose of life?

I'm personally rather nihilistic but curious to see other people's opinions...

Woah. Such a great time to ask this question. I was having a discussion with someone about this earlier and I am currently studying - doing some reading on consciousness for a neuroscience module.

I am so agnostic lol I really have no idea, which is a boring response, but one thing I can't stand is nihilism because it essentially abrogates responsibility. It is lazy I suppose. Because in my mind even if the eternal meaning is not definitive, it does not mean we cannot live truly meaningful things here and now. Dostoyevsky is the great example when in one of his stories (Crime and Punishment - if I remember correcty) the extreme nihilist decides to kill because who cares if there is no meaning? And I loved that book, because it made the point essentially that nobody really believes that there is no meaning. We all fall in love. We all seek to further our education. We all do something to strive forward. We act nihilistic sometimes, but that is just because we don't want to feel bad about the things that we do that are bad. That's my opinion.

We love because we are programmed to procreate. We are programmed to procreate because that's how genes are selected; to not procreate is to not be selected, not to be here. In other words, procreation and love and fellowship are because we are here. They're not why we are here.

Well you can choose to live as if there is no meaning, but you will just be miserable and if you follow through on your sophisticated philosophy, you'd probably just be a damned right pretty horrible person to know.

I don't need a meaning to find happiness or enjoy the life I have.

You have assumed a lot about me based on 8 words.

I haven't assumed at all. My point is that nobody truly believes there is no meaning. You do find meaning in the things you do. They are meaningful to you. That is what my point is ultimately. If they were really meaningless to you then you wouldn't do them. If you really thought "this has no point at all" you wouldn't do it.

If that really was your philosophy that NOTHING has meaning my statement still stands. You'd be miserable and probably be a horrible person.

My point is life has no overriding meaning, you get born and you make do with the cards you are dealt, there is no deeper meaning than that, at least not to me.

I don't have a philosophy because I am not going to waste time making something up that I will never think about again.

That misses the point. Firstly, love was just one example of many things from which we derive meaning. Secondly it assumes that love is purely subconscious. Whilst my point is, is that (whilst there is of course a biological imperative, no doubting that), the conscious aspect goes beyond the biological imperative. We subjectively choose to seek meaning and to derive meaning from things. Thirdly, even if it all was purely because of the biological imperative to propagate genes can we still derive meaning from it on a metaphysical level? I would imagine that would be possible.

I may have missed it, but I am not sure how you linked my point to "why we are here?". I don't know if there is an ultimate meaning, but certainly in the here and now, almost everyone does truly behave like there is meaning. We are having a meaningful discussion (hopefully) for example.

Over-riding meaning is distinct from meaning in the here and now.

Existence is inherently futile. All meaning is constructed, usually as a means to cover up our individual and collective fears - the fear of death in particular. Most people cannot accept the unwavering and fundamental truth - perhaps the only truth - that their existence is for and constituted by nothingness. It is not a 'depressing' or 'miserable' point to make, it is simply the only point. In other words, the point is there is no point. Religion is the most obvious manifestation of this fear - rooted entirely in people being terrified of the nothingness that greets the end of their lives. And, to some extent, nearly every other human-made activity is at least partly rooted in the fact that people cannot face this truth - whether this be entertainment, sport, love, family etc. Distractions and artificial comforts. Another point, though related, is that I believe the act of having children is the most selfish of all human acts, perhaps even more than taking it - forcing guaranteed suffering and pain (as an inevitable part of anybody's life) on an entity (the child) that does not possess the capacity to resist. And, to return to the argument that this is somehow a 'miserable' outlook, I present precisely the opposite view. To know and accept life to be utterly futile and pointless is perhaps the greatest comfort of all - it certainly is to me. Religion and other 'faiths' that people adhere to act as pressures, as extra demands on oneself - do this and don't do that, be good and you will be rewarded etc. It's a constant game of catch-up and of further unnecessary expectation - isn't there enough pressure as it is, without the need for this? So the inescapable fact is that life is pointless, futile and meaningless. But instead of hiding behind your blankets borne of fear, accept the point that there is no point.