What's the definition of life?

reply to post by queenofsheba


I remember having these questions too, but I always heard through my family that it was gods doing.

It takes a tiny, tiny bit of research to see what a fallacy this is.

Unless of course you take everything that has ever been said about god and exchanged the name for the universe. Then it makes better sense.

I always hated using god for an explanation of anything.

Pred...

As a nihilist, there is no objective meaning to life or no logical way of explaining it. Similar to the concept of God, there is no evidence to prove it or deduce the possibility of it. Truth be told, it would be impossible to prove the existence of a deity. As Stephen Hawking once said, "we cannot see back before the Big Bang, so there is no point in discussing it" - the conversation and study will be based on assumptions and no scientific fact.

Going back to the definition of life, is there a universal meaning to it or just individual reasons? We are an imperfect species, evolving over time, on a cooling planet. In other words, there is no real moral purpose for us being here. The chemical environment reached an equilibrium with the host, that allowed us humans to evolve to where we are.

You can't define it, because defining it would be restricting it to an idea, but how can you do that when life is absolutely EVERYTHING you can ever imagine and what you cannot imagine. It is infinity, there is no end to it, there is no one thing it means. It means everything. If i asked you the definition of "everything", how would you define it?
Eeh perhaps i'm confusing life with existence...

Good thread anyway

Life is the realization that you are; things non living are not aware of their existence.

I have wondered what it would be like to be the first self aware creature. Not the first biological unit, but I mean the first thing to look around, realize that it was alive, see all others of its kind, and realize that it knew and understood something that non of them do.

reply to post by predator0187


Life is any self-contained, self-replicating system.

That was quick.

Maybe cracking open a biology textbook would help people with such questions.

The Earth breathes, it consumes, and reproduces, maybe not in the way you think we do but it still does.

...um, the Earth may 'consume' but it doesn't reproduce.

In fact, all you seem to be doing, as so many other pseudo-philosophers on this board seem to do, is redefine something and then present it as an inspired comment.

You can't change a definition and act like you didn't.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
reply to post by predator0187

 

Life is any self-contained, self-replicating system.

That was quick.

Maybe cracking open a biology textbook would help people with such questions.

The Earth breathes, it consumes, and reproduces, maybe not in the way you think we do but it still does.

...um, the Earth may 'consume' but it doesn't reproduce.

In fact, all you seem to be doing, as so many other pseudo-philosophers on this board seem to do, is redefine something and then present it as an inspired comment.

You can't change a definition and act like you didn't.

The OP was not talking about Biology but MetaBiology or MetaPhysics.
To say Life is Biology is just the Atheists Definition. The spiritual definition is biology is the result of consciousness.

While the Feeling of Being Alive arises in Biological Organisms, that is not proof that it is the same thing as the biological organism.

Some Biological Organisms (Enlightened Beings) claim otherwise and appear to others as not having that sense of being Alive.

The Ghost in the Biological Machine thinks it is Alive but it is Only the Sense of Fear or Death that gives it that feeling.

Life is Fear.
Life is the Illusion of Being Separated from everything else in Fear.
Life is the Feeling Consciousness has when it is Avoiding Being Already Entirely in Relationship.
Life is the Action of Separating Oneself from Oneself.

Life is Consciousness in Fear that it is Creating Moment by Moment.

When the Fear is transcended there is only Consciousness without that sense of Life. There is a Death declared in all the Great Spiritual Traditions.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


If we are the Earth and we reproduce, then the Earth reproduces does it not? Simple stating of facts here buddy.

Next time you come into a thread try not to be so condescending. Please do tell what I do or not know as well, that's just rude.

Geez, we were having and intelligent conversation about what life actually means.

If that is your definition of life, then do viruses fit into that equation, because micro-biologists are not sure, but since you seem to have then answers please inform us.

Pred...

reply to post by Vilkata


Ahhh so you think self awareness is what life is?

Ok, then do you think plants are self aware? What about bacteria?

The thing is even if we use that as a definition then how can we possibly be sure to know what actually knows that it exists.

Are we even sure we exist?

Pred...

howdy folks iam currently new to ats. iam a teen but unlike your average teen iam a big thinker i over analyze things all the time. so from what i see i must have struck gold. i like to tear my self apart to see what makes me tick( not literally of course) one of those things is feelings the human being and all other life supposedly has feelings. so is the definition/meaning to life have something to do with feelings
just throwing that out there for brain food

Originally posted by gingersoulsucker22
howdy folks iam currently new to ats. iam a teen but unlike your average teen iam a big thinker i over analyze things all the time. so from what i see i must have struck gold. i like to tear my self apart to see what makes me tick( not literally of course) one of those things is feelings the human being and all other life supposedly has feelings. so is the definition/meaning to life have something to do with feelings

just throwing that out there for brain food

I 100% believe that no. I will explain. Electrons move around core of atom. Point from electrons is to exist in order to form atoms. Now atoms point of life is allso to exist in order to form cells. Cells exist only to form live organisms, like animals etc. Now animals exist for other animals to eat them, so food chain woud not break. "Food chains" point of life is to exist so planet coud exist.

Every next "step" is more important then previous one. There is "multiverse theory". Basically it means, that everything is part from something bigger. We can assume, that our universe is only one atom from some bigger creature. Reading my previous statements, that every next "step" is more important, then previous one and that previous steps exist only because next "steps" coud exist, I can claim, that our (humans) point of life is simply to exist, because there is something bigger then us and we are here ONLY because that bigger creature needs us n order to exist. It means, that there is no diference are you a seriall killer or priest, as long as you simply exist and as long as you use all options nature have given to you, you are doing what you was suppose to do.

Some coud think, that it means, that there is no point for being good person because of this, but it is not that simple. Yes, you're meaning is simply to exist and if you are good person or bad person basically doesn't change anything, since point of life is simply to maintain this "chain" or "cycle", but since we can do whatever we want (eaven sick things) and we still will be doing what we was suppose to do doesn't mean we have to be evil. We have conscious and subconscious. Because of them, we can control our lifes (and it still woud be good against our point of life, since we can do whatever we want to, as long as we simply exist). Because we can control our lifes as we want, we can make them like we want. That explains, why there are good people and why there are bad people. If you want, to be good person, then be good person, but if you choose to be bad person, then it's allso ok, from "higher creature" point of view.

This means, that there are allso individual points of life. Since you can do whatever you want, there must be explanation, why you are doing exactly what you are doing. This meaning of life is not so important looking from global(higher creature) perspective, but it concerns us all as individuals, but it does not concern this "higher creature" we are forming. It will take very long to explain this second part and it is very very complex to understand. It took me months to understand it, so I will not start to explain this "smaller meaning of life". I think you allready have you're answer.

P.S. Sorry for my bad gramma.