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Fredsnephew

Everything:
The Universe and all events that occur within the Universe. 

In the absence of conclusive evidence to confirm otherwise. I find it very difficult not to support the proposition. 

Can anyone convince me that everything has meaning.

agsr

@Fredsnephew, "meaningless" is a matter of perspective.  Long term everthing ceases to exist, and will likely not be part of any memories.  However, our experience is really about the journey itself and it would be unfair to say that it's meaningless.

Pogue

It is true that the universe will die out and so will all life, but, and this is a big one, your experiences now have meaning and the eventual death of the universe do not take away from the emotions and feelings you experience. Like death does not give happiness meaning, happiness is meaning full in itself. 

Evidence

Fredsnephew said:

Everything:
The Universe and all events that occur within the Universe. 

In the absence of conclusive evidence to confirm otherwise. I find it very difficult not to support the proposition. 

Can anyone convince me that everything has meaning.

You're a Big-Bang Evolutionist, correct?
In that case you are correct, nothing has meaning. You thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, your pains and your joys are just hallucinations caused by your environment and the banana you ate. Plainly put, you're screwed, and you last thought on this earth as you take those few last breaths will be of fear and confusion.
I seen this. And seen atheists in those last days struggle for answers, as a little girl struggles to find her lost favorite doll.
Only in the case of the Evolutionists, they don't know what that doll even looked like? All they know is that they lost something very precious and now they have to find it.

The ONLY way everything has a meaning, .. not everything, but ANYTHING has a meaning is if you take responsibility for them, acknowledge the value in them;

Like your car, your house, your wife and kids, those have meaning because you put a lot of work in them. In other words, everything has a meaning if you acknowledge that they were created, meticulously designed and acknowledge how wonderfully they were put together. But better yet, when you actually meet the One who did all this work, .. especially when you find out that it wasn't that He needed anything, but for the sheer joy of watching his creation, His children enjoy it all.

I have seen a father of a poverty stricken family of six starving children living in rich peoples cemeteries, in the tiny houses they built for their dead loved ones, .. come home from picking in the garbage, and his wife washing and seasoning the bones with the packet of soy sauce he found, he gathered the kids in a circle and put the food in the middle of them so they can eat. Then he sat back and watched in excitement as his children dug in.
When asked if he ate yet, he smiling signaled a no with his head.
It's this kind of love God has for us, only enjoyment He gets is watching us be happy.

Evidence

Pogue said:

It is true that the universe will die out and so will all life, but, and this is a big one, your experiences now have meaning and the eventual death of the universe do not take away from the emotions and feelings you experience. Like death does not give happiness meaning, happiness is meaning full in itself. 

Happiness is meaning full in itself, .. lol, you are a cosmological accident buddy, .. so what the hell that supposed to mean to an animal, and evolving ape who is a result of the cold unfriendly dark vacuum of an infinite space? Didn't you see where you are? @Erfisflat shown you that picture of millions and billions of stars, and the "you are here" pointing to that one tiny speck of light in the cold vacuum of an infinite unfriendly dark post-explosion.
You think that your emotions had anything to do with the chaotic Big Bang? That when the cold dark space expanded and all them meteors were smashing together to create your inferno molten lava earth, you think it had you or your emotions and feeling in mind? LOL

Buddy, you are a chaotic accident, your hopes and dreams are nothing but delusions. You walk and work because of the spasms your environment is causing on your brain.

I love how atheists try to put some meaning into life, and I'm not going to stand by and watch this. If you believe in BB-Evolution, stick with it, don't try to give some "meaning, and happiness" to your hopeless existence, that is for us who were created in our Creators own image. We know what is happiness and joy, and best of all "hope".

Fredsnephew

I accept the big bang only as a theory, just as I accept god as a theory.

I accept material evolution as a recognised process.

I regard life and life's memories with varying emotional responses, just as we probably all do.

I was really questioning the significance of "everything", not just the significance of humanity and life on Earth.

If everything is meaningless, then obviously so am I and so are we all.

Grenache

Only you can convince you that your life has meaning.  

Any evidence anyone would present only holds weight if you want to believe it is evidence, and odds are you came to this debate ready to counterargue those major points.

Any belief people present (like a religious belief) will merely be dismissed as just a belief.

It's like if a suicidal person concludes they have nothing to live for even after you point out the aspects of life which would make you yourself want to keep living.

In comparison, there are people who are the opposite.  There are people who face impossible odds and ridiculous suffering and will likely die and vanish without anyone ever noticing yet they find deep meaning and purpose in life and carry on.

You may say this isn't actually an argument.  But I would say this is informing you that your argument is with yourself, and if you yourself conclude it has no meaning then that's your loss.  @Fredsnephew

Evidence

Fredsnephew said:

I accept the big bang only as a theory, just as I accept god as a theory.

I accept material evolution as a recognised process.

I regard life and life's memories with varying emotional responses, just as we probably all do.

I was really questioning the significance of "everything", not just the significance of humanity and life on Earth.

If everything is meaningless, then obviously so am I and so are we all.

Fredsnephew- I accept the big bang only as a theory, just as I accept god as a theory.

Those are two completely different realities, one; the big-bang is a story based on star-gazing gone bad that evolved to star worship. Just like all the other man-made gods, the stars were immortalized, given a story much like Odin and Thor, only in this case it's Venus, Jupiter and Mars. There is no theory here, it's a story made up of deified stars. The Bible teaches on this.
What is really interesting is that this goes way back to, .. well, from all the crazy things that Flat Earthers have noticed and pointed out, this may go back before Genesis 1:2, .. Gap theory, but not from a religious, or preconceived perspective, but from a fresh new look perspective (if that makes sense to you?)

But God on the other hand, again looking at it from a fresh new perspective, not what religion made of our Creator (the tens of thousands of gods, .. actually, I Googled; how many gods in Hinduism, and I found this:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/gadadhara-pandit-dasa/the-33-million-demigods-o_b_1737207.html

- The 33 Million Gods of Hinduism. Why Hindus worship so many gods and goddesses is a real mystery for most people. In the West, where the mass majority of people are part of the Abrahamic faith tradition with one God, the concept of polytheism is nothing more than fantasy or mythology worthy of comic book material.

Now I can understand to accept these gods as a theory! Why would men even come up with so many gods? Is there a need to fill a void, this expanding vacuum they believe they are in?
But our Creator is self explanatory, obvious, simple yet absolute:

God is "Infinite", in another word, "Infinite IS God" .. and Infinite is conscious. Think about this for a moment, this explains EVERYTHING, it is that "Big Picture" philosophers have been searching and philosophizing about.

Fredsnephew - I was really questioning the significance of "everything", not just the significance of humanity and life on Earth.

What is your definition of "everything"? .. do you believe there is more than the physical universe? I do.

Fredsnephew - If everything is meaningless, then obviously so am I and so are we all.

If you mean "everything" as in the physical universe/creation, because that is meaningless from an evolutionary perspective. But once you know who your Creator is, well then this here creation has purpose. Where you are no longer the victim of your environment "Mother Nature and Father Time", but there is great plans for us humans, awesome plans, all we have to do is be a part of it.

What's beautiful about this is that we don't have to know it all, the One who is doing the planning will do it for us. And He is asking us to take part in it with Him, through His son Word.
So seek God, then everything will have meaning and purpose.

someone234

One of the hugest errors people make with nihilism is they assume that the meaning of your life must be the meaning of a bee's life etc.

The wheel of a car has a very different meaning of existence to the car-seat. You make you meaning as you go along. One's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. One's annoyingly strict teacher is another's one of few smart and fair teachers. It's all about perspective.

The idea that you are even alive and that you are in the present tense is an illusion. You've already died, you are in the past of the future and the future of the past. Time is a cycle and you are trapped in it.

jcm2214

Life is a book in that the entire substance of it is what gives it meaning, not individual parts of it. Whether one believes in a God or not one must create one, unconsciously or consciously, in order to create meaning. Some  lives consist of stories intent on discovering all meaning within the epilogue. In these lives everything is meaningless.