This quote taken from Amarilis's paper about wiccian opinions on the meaning of life: "One essential scripture is Doreen Valiente’s “Charge of the Goddess” as it expresses the set of eight virtues that many Wiccans cultivate. “Let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.” The essence of the Valiente’s poem is not only that Wiccans value these things, but that they reflect dualism." I found this quote interesting because i find the religions views on dualism to provide insight into their opinions about how life should be lived, and also on the dualistic values on which wiccans live their lives.

This quote, taken from Casey's paper on Hasidic Jeudism offers us an insight into that religions perspectives on the meaning of life; " Hasidism emphasizes four other main points: one, that the Torah is infinite, and man can gain infinite wisdom from it. Two, that there is divine providence: every action is determined by God, every detail is essential to the perfection of the world, and divine purpose is what gives meaning to life."

Scientology and the Meaning of Life

Scientology, which means “the study of truth”, is a religion that was born out of a self-help program called Dianetics established by L. Ron Hubbard. He first published his ideas in a self-help book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. This self-help program covers the three parts of man; the mind, the body, and the spirit and goes in depth into how to balance your life. He founded the first Church of Scientology in 1953 after the publishing of his best selling book and now the church claims to have 10 million members world wide. Because Scientology was first started as a self help program they have many practices that help a person live a meaningful life and survive. Some of these beliefs are The Dynamics, which are the eight areas in which human’s urge for survival breaks down to. There are also the two triangles, the ARC triangle, affinity + reality + communication = understanding, and the KRC triangle, knowledge, responsibility, and control. All these things help people live a more meaningful life. Along with the more personal meanings of life scientology also incorporates a bigger picture meaning that is called the “Space Opera” and involves Xenu the ruler of the galactic confederacy who brought billions of people to earths volcanoes and then proceeded to blow them up with hydrogen bombs.

To reach the state of Operation Thetan is the ultimate goal of all Scientologists and all these things like the ARC triangle and other doctrines of Scientology all lead to reaching the state of Operating Thetan. In Scientology 8-8008 L. Ron Hubbard says; “A thetan who is completely rehabilitated and can do everything a thetan should do, such as move MEST and control others from a distance, or create his own universe; a person who is able to create his own universe or, living in the MEST universe is able to create illusions perceivable by others at will, to handle mest universe objects without mechanical means and to have and feel no need of bodies or even the MEST universe to keep himself and his friends interested in existence.” This is the ultimate result of reaching the state of Operating Thetan, when one’s thetan becomes ‘enlightened’ so to speak. This is the goal of a thetan (or life) in Scientology. To reach this level one must follow all of the doctrines of Scientology.

One of the doctrines of Scientology is the Dynamics. The Dynamics are mans urge to survive broken up into eight different sections. The Dynamics are: Self, which is the individuals urge to survive. Sex, which is the individuals urge to reproduce and create a family. Group, which is a group’s urge to survive. Mankind, which is mankinds (or any specific species for that matter) urge to survive and evolve. All living things, which is all things that are influenced by life. The physical universe, which is all things that exist. Spirits, which are the source of all life. And the final dynamic is infinity, everything. “According to Scientology doctrine, these areas are used to understand one's life, and to improve one's solutions to life by bettering one understands of the different areas of life.” (Wikipedia) A balance created between all the dynamics helps a person understand their life more and further survival along the spiritual path that one is reaching for in scientology.

Happiness is also important to reach the level of Operating Thetan. L. Ron Hubbard stated in one of his speeches that “happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe.” This is saying that happiness is the one of the most important things in Scientology and one must strive towards happiness. According to L. Ron Hubbard the best way to achieve happiness is to follow the doctrines of Scientology.

Happiness can be brought around by understanding in Scientology. Understanding is brought about by the ARC triangle. Happiness is good for the spiritual path in scientology and because of this the ARC triangle is very important for living a meaningful life by scientology standards. The ARC stands for: Affinity, Reality (agreement), and communication. According to scientology once you have a balance between these three things you achieve understanding. In a recent interview with practicing Scientologist, Andrew Orner, he stated “the ARC triangle helps Scientologists communicate emotions.” Scientologists often refer to the ARC triangle in conversation with a meaning of love or happiness. Balancing the ARC triangle is happy because in Scientology the happier you are the more positive your thetan is. According to Orner “The Thetan is the creator of things, the actual person, not just the body or the mind, and the Thetan must be trained.” A person can reach the level of Operating Thetan, which is that of an enlightened spiritual state, to reach this level is important for the creation of a meaningful life.

Scientology’s views on the meaning of life focus more on each individual person and the bigger picture ideas are mostly just there to give framework on which each individual persons life can be given meaning. We understand that the ultimate goal of life is to reach the final level of Operating Thetan and to obtain a sort of enlightenment. To reach this Scientology has set down a number of doctrines that include ideas such as happiness and understanding to help a person live a more meaningful life and eventually reach the level of Operating Thetan.

When we first started the unit and discussed the meaning of life, I understood my meaning of life as being part of the bigger picture of life that I had to succeed in. Now life to me is less about the big picture but more about the smaller things of the goals of my own personal life. What I say what is meaningful tome on a personal level I am not talking about the petty things like drinking/partying but the more about the things that would affect the ultimate goal of my life.

This end goal for me is to accomplish something that will change the world and something that will have me remembered. For me this could be anything, this anything is not restricted by moral bounds for me, but as a person I doubt that the end goal to get remembered would venture out of moral bounds just because of how I am now. Possible examples of this “end goal” would be a doctor who discovers some genetic code or prevents a new disease from spreading or a world leader who creates a huge amount of change in the world. These are all things done to be remembered for after I have passed away. On my first opinion I talked more about being a good person and making a change that would help many people, now I feel that my opinion has changed and I believe I wish to be remembered after my death as well.

It may seem selfish to those who see my opinion from the outside but it is what would make my own life meaningful in my own eyes, which is what a meaningful life is. My thoughts do not include a bigger picture besides the bigger picture within my actual life that dictates the decisions I make. One could say this is a personal version of a big picture theory because it does meet and explain almost all of the criteria.

Not only do people have many different view points on what the meaning of life is, they also tend to have different view points on what the question “what is the meaning of life” mean. For how can you answer a question that you do not know the meaning of? You cannot and trying so is like trying to tell a rock you are hungry in hopes of it giving you some food. Any people have tried to understand the meaning of the question of the meaning on life and three major points have arisen.
First, you have the two branches of the question: “We long to know the secrets of the universe and what it means, in itself, apart from human interests.” (Singer 58) This is the overarching question of what the universe mean does, why we here, and what are the point of our existence. Then you have the more personal branch of the question; “We seek a meaningful way to live our lives, whether or not we can find a separate meaning in the cosmos.” (Singer 58) This is asking how we can make our own lives more meaningful. The third opinion that sprung up over time is the idea that the question itself does not have any meaning and people should not even attempt to answer it.

The first overarching question about the meaning of the universe and everything is usually translated into a simple “Big Picture” question, which is: What is the big picture of life? This question asks us what the big picture is that our lives play a part in. Individually our lives seem very meaningless alone, but when part of a big picture they become meaningful. An example of how a single thing can be given meaning by a big picture is sports; “Were you to observe a player on a team, let us say the shortstop on a baseball team, if you did not know baseball you would probably this actions were totally screwy and meaningless. He runs this way and that, tries to catch the ball and sometimes does not, runs to the base and takes a throw from another player . . . all perfectly unintelligible, unless you know what you are watching is a baseball game.” (Ellin 77) Life is just like that according to the big picture question. Each of our lives do not make sense, but when put into the framework of a big picture, our lives have meaning. Therefore, what the big picture is is what this for of the question of the meaning of life is asking.

The sort of answer that is needed must follow a certain criteria: It must explain the purpose of our lives, enable us to explain the major events in our lives, justify suffering, and explain the purpose of life in a very positive way, as to make people happy. The big picture question is one of the major questions that are thought to be the meaning of the question of the meaning of life, because it is able to provide framework for everyone’s lives. The main example that we see everyday for how people answer the question like this is religion, which is the perfect framework for an answer to the big picture meaning of life question. Let’s look at Christianity: Does it explain the purpose of our lives? Yes to get to heaven. Does it explain the major events in our lives? Yes, it explains our birth, our marriage, our death and it even provides framework for how these things should happen and what we do in between. Does it justify suffering? Yes, for example Jesus, he suffered and died and Christianity justifies it as an act of bravery to help us atone for our sins. Finally, does it explain this all in a positive way? Of course, who does not want to go to a place of eternal bliss? This is one prime example of the idea of a big picture meaning of life. Christianity is not the only answer that the big picture question generates, which is why this form of the question is so appealing, because it can provide a multitude of frameworks that someone can live their life by.

Now that overarching version of the question has been covered, we move onto the more personal rephrasing of the question of the meaning of life: How can we make our own lives meaningful? This question is broken up into a multitude of questions that help us “answer questions about the nature of a meaningful life. Is it something we find or something we create? How is it dependent on purposes, values, ideals? How is it related to happiness, and does it give us assurance that men and woman can face up their predicament as finite creatures.” (Singer 58) These questions are all about the personal branch of the meaning of life question, where you have to find meaning in your own life. This question is controversial because it deals morality. If someone finds their life meaningful by slaughtering millions of people at a time, does that mean they lived a meaningful life? Or does this question have to be answered within society’s moral bounds? These are questions that a person has to answer by themselves to find out how they can make their own lives meaningful, for there isn’t an overarching idea that makes someone’s life meaningful but it must be determined by the person whose life it is. They have to decide whether a meaningful has to be within society’s moral standards.

Now that we’ve seen the two major questions that make up the question of the meaning of life we now look at the third major opinion, that the question itself is meaningless. People argue that every word has a meaning, for example the word book has a meaning because if you say book you are talking about a physical book, same thing with other words like house or car, when you say them you can point to a car/house, they have a physical meaning. “But if that is the explanation of meaning, it is perfectly clear that it makes little sense to attribute meaning to life, for life is not connected with some other thing in such a way that, when you think of life, you are thereby led to think of this other thing that is its meaning.” (Ellin 99) Because the word life doesn’t connect with anything when said or thought over, its is clear that it becomes meaningless to ask what the meaning is, therefore, the question itself is meaningless. While with book it connects directly to the thing that is a book, where with life it has nothing to connect to, you cannot point at life, and therefore, it is meaning to ask the question about the meaning of life.

When you look at these three major opinions about the questions of the meaning of life you are forced to wonder if this is all there really is in the question. You cover the big picture of everything and you cover the small things about how to make your own life meaningful. But while these two questions that come out of the question of the meaning of life it also makes you wonder if these two questions serve any meaning anyway. Is it necessary to know how to make your own life meaningful, or is your life meaning just because you are enjoying it? Is it necessary to have a big picture or can our lives still be meaningful without serving part in some bigger framework? All these questions must be answered before the true question of the meaning of life can be answered, or even attempted to be answered, which may in fact be impossible if the question doesn’t have any meaning at all.

What the hell does that question even mean DRAFT ONE

There is the big picture idea about the meaning of life. That means that all our lives are just “players” in this big picture and all our lives serve the bigger picture. To be a big picture meaning of life it must do all of the following: Explain the purpose of life, enable people to explain major events in their lives, “justify” suffering, and explain everything in a positive way. But when you think of all of this you need to find out is if the meaning of life question is meaningful to start with. For example the meaning of words is what they are, the meaning of dog is an animal dog, but you cant define the meaning of life, because life is not connected with other things that can be used to define life. So if the question has no meaning, and life has no meaning because the question has no meaning, then all there is left to do is making our own lives meaningful, even if life as a big picture doesn’t have any meaning. Ways to do this are by “engaging in worthwhile activities”, and having goals and friends. Then you must also think of having a meaningful life within moral bounds, meaning that while we need to engage in worthwhile activities, we must also do it within societies moral standards.

Other Peoples Meaning of life

“So, what’s the meaning of life?” “*Sighs* what a stupid question.” “Well now, that’s a question alright.” “What? I don’t know, why?” “Eh?” “Well, the meaning of life is to, you know, live.” People around you are all living their life, but how
often do they think about it? How often do these people think about the meaning of life? And what do they think? Through a series of interviews with close friends and family, a school wide survey, and a bunch of casual conversations, we have come to an idea about what these people in our lives think about life and its meaning. Throughout the research many patterns arose, it seems that most people view what is most important to them as the meaning of life, such as family and personal happiness. Results from the survey cross into the casual conversations and interviews, all sharing common thoughts about happiness, friends, family, or about basic human instinct and human evolution. There were also responses beyond those a personal happiness and family that contrasted what it seemed the majority thought.

Happiness was one of the major patterns that arose when people were asked what they believed to be the meaning of life. The survey results had several questions on happiness that revealed that the majority of the school believed that happiness was one of the most important aspects of the meaning of life. 67% of the students attending School of the Future believed that happiness is almost always the most important aspect of living a meaningful life. While 22% percent did not say always, they still believed that happiness has to do with the meaning of life and said that it is sometimes true that happiness is the most important aspect of life. All of these percentages are drawn from a survey taken of 6th-12th graders that attend School of the Future, and these results are probably drawn from the fact that they haven’t really though about the meaning of life, and draw their answers from what is most important to them at the present time, which for middle and high schools is to be happy.

Much like the surveys the personal interviews and casual conversations revealed similar things about what people though about happiness and the meaning of life. A good friend of mine, Taylor Moore, had similar responses to those in the survey about the meaning of life and happiness: “Living happily. I think that is pretty self-explanatory. One should enjoy themselves within the bounds of situational morality.” His personal belief was that each person should live their life to be happy, and that they do this by living each day in the present, and not worrying about the future or the past. What h says about situational morality is basically that while you should live a happy life, you should still base your actions on the consequences. For example, if a certain action would make you enjoy life, but would cause others harm in the end, it would be out of bounds for situational morality. What Taylor said about happiness relates back to the survey, who like Taylor, believe that happiness is one of the most important aspects of life. Like Taylor, another one of my good friends, Kyle, had similar thoughts about the meaning of life: “I’d say it’s to find and live for something you love and something that makes you happy.” Kyle believes that the meaning of life was to find something that would make you happy, and then live for that. His ideas are much like those of Taylor’s and those from the survey that happiness plays a major roll in life.

While it may seem that everyone believes happiness is the most important, there are other opinions that have a different outlook on life. For example, there are people who believe in the Darwinist views on the meaning of life. My mother, Geraldine Engel, has this to say about the meaning of life: “We live to survive, to reproduce, and to further the evolution of human beings. That's the meaning of life in my opinion, it’s to survive and reproduce.” Another student at school of the future phrased the same idea in a more blunt fashion; “Eat, sleep, fuck, die. That’s life.” (Dean Merrit) These are both drawn from the fact that why should the meaning of human life be different then the meaning of life for all animals, which is quite simply “eat, sleep, fuck, and die.” Both these views take the side of evolutionary views of life, that life is just to survive, reproduce, and further the evolution of mankind.

Another idea that sprung up over the surveys and in people’s interviews was the idea of friendship and family. A good amount of people believed that the meaning of their lives is to live for other people. One of the survey questions asked students what was most important in their lives at the present time. 52% of the entire student body claimed that friendship was the most important aspect of their life. This and happiness were the two major trends that sprung up on the survey results. Many students probably chose this as the most important aspect of their lives because that is what they are surrounded by day after day. They are surrounded by their friends, so it just makes sense that they would be the most important aspect a student’s life.

Most of the trends that appeared in the survey are skewed because the survey was only given out to high school and middle school students thus lacked the opinion of adults and people who have already graduated school and now work for living. For example, the question used above: What is the most important aspect of your life at the present time? This question depends highly the current state that your life is in. While we know that 52% of the students said friendship was most important, would we get the same results if we questioned the occupants of an office building? Probably not. These errors surround all of the survey questions and, while the surveys do provide good information, it would still be good to get a wider opinion of more people in different stages of their lives.

The information gathered from the surveys and interviews gives us a glimpse into people’s beliefs about the meaning of life and generate interesting results. We see that the majority of students believe that happiness and friendship are some of the most important aspects of life. We also see alternate views on life such as Dean and Gerri’s ideas about evolution and Darwinism. Further investigation is always necessary for a topic as broad as this. Like stated before the opinions of middle age adults and above are lacking in the survey and in the interviews and that would be the perfect step to further the investigation about what people think about the meaning of life. In conclusion, while the amount of sources may be slim, it is still clear that being happy and having friends and family is one of the most popular beliefs about how to live a meaningful life.