Meaning of Life

We ask ourselves everyday if our life has meaning. We view our lives and others' lives in different ways. I agree with life being viewed as a game, and life as learning is adding meaning to our life. I disagree with life having no meaning at all. Every human being views life differently and believes your life is influenced by different ideas and lessons.

Life as a game creates a theory that we can't just take our lives too seriously or else we won't be happy and feel as if we have fulfilled our lives and/or our purpose on earth. In our textbook it says if you believe your life is a game, you must pick the type of game you wish to play in your life. You can play games that are purely for fun, for superiority, social, hurting your opponents, or to help others.

If you pick to have your game of life to be played just for fun then this could possibly be the happiest way to play your game of life. When being able to play a game for fun it excludes the worry of being judged and having to conquer other opponents to become the "winner" in your game of life. Your opponents could be your friends, family, co-workers, peers, mentors throughout your life and this could make you a miserable person if they turn their backs on you, or fight against your game of life.

If we pick to play our life in a game to hurt our opponents then do we decide who our opponent is? Our opponents could be people in our lives who we do not like. They could become our friends and family and if we disagree, then do they become an opponent to us because we don't see eye to eye?

There are so many different ways you could pick to play your game of life. And only you can pick your game, but others around us do influence our choice of what we choose for a game. We don't want to pick a game to which we are setting ourselves up to become targeted as a "loser". We all want to be the "winner". I believe in our game of life we should be able to choose if we are going to be the "winner" in our game of life and who the "losers" will be. Or should everyone be a winner?

Some games in particular could cause chaos in our lives. If we choose to play our life as a competitive game then this could end up giving us enemies, and then what is life really about when you have people against you. In a competitive game it is hard to see the ending outcome of the game, so it is always a gamble to what your life or even the next day might bring.

When you don't know what the next day will bring, does the rules in your game of life change? It is possible when playing a game, the rules will change and new ones can be created and taken away. As little kids playing games, when they don't like a rule, or merely forget a rule, this changes the game. And these changes affect the outcome of your ending result. Unfortunately I think the rules of your game can change because you learn new things and new technology comes out every day.

Life as learning is something we all are introduced to throughout our lives. But do we pay attention to the things life is trying to teach us? Our textbook refers to having a bad experience and turning it into a situation we can learn from. I think we take all situations we are put into and get some kind of lesson or moral meaning out of it. If you view life in different ways then it could change how you react to your life lessons and the idea you should get out of the story. I believe we should all try everything once if it is presented to us and it is morally right. If you can't live your life to the fullest, then are you actually learning everything you can from your life?

Do we encounter things in our life because we should learn from them? Is life supposed to have flaws so we can become a better person and make ourselves better prepared for the next time the problem arises? We can ask ourselves all theses questions and if we listen to the ending result and want to understand then we will take something out of the issue as a life learning situation. But can we shut the ideas and ending decisions out, and ignore the life lesson?

I think that each and every event that happens in our life was presented to us to teach us a new life lesson and prepare us better for the next time if it comes up in our life again. These life lessons can hurt us but if life was perfect all the time, then when faced with a flaw in our life we wouldn't know how to respond and cope with the problem. Some people in life can't face their flaws of life and walk away or give up. People might do this because they can't deal with the pain and suffering they believe they are being faced with.

With the two philosophies above I do agree that our life is a game, and life is learning. We pick what we want to believe and understand. And in our life we play a game where we can pick the "winners" and "losers". We believe that we make the ending decision in our life and pick what our life stories and experiences actually mean. When we are surprised with conflict and a sudden problem, we might not be able to control our life until we can understand what is going on. And if we take time to understand, then aren't we still controlling our life? We could always walk away and ignore the new problem.

The idea I disagree with the most is life has no meaning at all. Albert Camus said in his book The Myth of Sisyphus that "the absurd had become a widespread sensibility in our times." He also relates life having no meaning at all to atheism. If there is no external meaning, then he believes there is no point in life.

If life had no meaning then wouldn't we careless about our future and live for that moment. If life has no meaning then would we be in school trying to receive a