Have you ever pondered the meaning of life? Do you believe that there is something more to life? Maybe you are a Christian, Muslim, or Jew and believe the meaning of life is how well you practice your religion and believe in god in order to get to heaven or hell eventually. You could be an Atheist and believe that the meaning of life is to be filled with an abiding love of being and thinking only, believing that the current world we live in is all that life has to offer. Another option you have is doubt and uncertainty. Simply not knowing what the meaning of life is. This is what Bill Maher is trying to promote in his documentary, Religulous, about doubting the belief of religion. In the move Maher actually goes on to say that, “He preaches the gospel of I don’t know.”
Maher argues in Religulous that religion doesn’t make sense, is ridiculous, and extremely dangerous. He sort of makes fun and mocks religion in a way. He focuses a lot on the Christian faith more than half of the movie, which is unfair to movie’s name in my opinion. He tries to make the other religions look bad in a rushed manner. The religions Maher rushes, Islam and Judaism, are a lot more complex than a few interviews with random Sheikhs, Rabbis, or people off the street from who knows where. Maher asks questions that he already knows the answers to, as well as knowing what to say back in the documentary. This is an unfair advantage for Maher. He uses stereotyping a lot to make all people that follow a certain religion seem unreasonable, bad, or just plain crazy. For example, when the footage of the Christians protesting against homosexuality is stereotyping all Christians and making it seem as if they all think in this manner. Although, this is not the case ma...
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...spectable religious people and activity he shows. Even though he had a pleasant sense of humor about it, I don’t think that by attacking, mocking, disrespecting, or being biased about religion the whole time in the documentary is the solution and the way to persuade people to stop and think deeply about their faith or change the beliefs that Maher wants to be changed in Humanity. The documentary was entertaining though and I think that Maher is humorous, but it just could have really been better. Maher could have gone in with a more sincere attitude and open mindedness, but really I think religion is a complex topic and you need a lot more than what’s on the film to truly be persuaded or informed whether you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, or any other religion.
Works Cited
Religulous. Starting Bill Maher. Dir. Lanny Charles. Lionsgate, 2008. Film
Richard Taylor, an American philosopher and author of, “The Meaning of Life” believes you can live a meaningful life as long as you realize your will and are completely involved in it and enjoy it, then you are no longer needed and your life was a successful one. “This is surely the way to look at all of life- at one’s own life, and each day and moment it contains; of the life of a nation; of the species; of the life of the world; and of everything that breathes” (Taylor p 27). He proves this through the ancient myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus was sentenced by the Gods to spend an eternity rolling a stone repeatedly to the top of a hill and once it reached the top, it would roll right back down once again. Taylor calls Sisyphus’ life as an “endless pointlessness.” Taylor relates human life to Sisyphus’ life. He believes that both of our lives can have meaning. Taylor asks us to look at Sisyphus’ story in a different way. For example, while the Gods sentenced him to rolling this stone up a hill for an eternity, what if they gave him a “strange and irrational impulse” to roll the stone repeatedly. Now, according to Richard Taylor, Sisyphus’ life would now have meaning and if we were to be as invested as Sisyphus in rolling the stone, then our lives have meaning as well.
... and our sense of guilt with his documentary. Which, while is not the most admirable technique, it causes the audiences to start thinking about what they are doing to help or hurt the educational system, and what our kids are receiving from the educators around them.
matter. Bill Maher fails to persuade religious followers to doubt their religions, he has made a poorly
The book I decided to read is called Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. He wrote this book because of what he went through while in the concentration camps. He told about how it psychologically messed with his mind and how he used his education in psychology to make it through what he was going through. The main idea of the book is to show people that you have to have a meaning to life. A person has to find the meaning in life, love, and suffering. This book taught me how to search for the meaning of my life, love, and sufferings.
Finding a meaning to life and to nature is something all people try to do, but is there really a correct answer? Maybe the purpose to life is actually finding the purpose to life, or it might just be to enjoy living and all the experiences that come with it. Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, brings this up in his novel. Throughout the book, the theme nature and its meaning is shown through the knowledge that the main character accumulates.
The meaning of life is to find the meaning of life. Is it not? We all go through each day trying to figure out which road out the infinite amount of paths will lead us in a better direction where happiness is prominent and society is flawless. However, not every single human being is going to fit on that narrow, one-lane highway to success. Bad choices, accidents, fate, family matters, society, temptation, anger, rage, addiction, and loss of hope can all be deciding factors in opting to choose that wrong path to self-destruction. The adverse thing is, once you've traveled so far down the road, you get so discouraged that you feel like you can never turn back or make up for the "lost time."
...s apparently never informed of Muzamill's arrival (455, 456). Not only was it a nuisance for the researcher but upon seeing Muzamill being escorted by a Chaplain the respondents can potentially have a swayed view of Muzamill, something it seems he desperately tries to avoid. This is suggested because he refuses to partake in any leadership roles such as an Imam(456).
In “Meaning of Life”, Richard Taylor begins with questioning the meaning of life. He mentions this is rather hard to do and decides to define what meaninglessness is in order to understand the exact opposite: meaningfulness. Taylor asks the reader to recall the famous myth of Sisyphus to come about the definition of meaninglessness. He states that Sisyphus was condemned to roll a large boulder up a hill, only to have that boulder roll back down the hill, forcing him to repeat the task forever. Despite all his efforts, his existence amounts to nothing more than endlessly repeating the same task, which itself contributes to no greater goal or purpose. This, Taylor suggests, is the very image of meaninglessness. He defines meaninglessness as the following: “Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite” (270).
"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...." Joseph Campbell made this comment on the search for meaning common to every man's life. His statement implies that what we seem bent on finding is that higher spark for which we would all be willing to live or die; we look for some key equation through which we might tie all of the experiences of our life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. He states, however, that we will never find some great pure meaning behind everything, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. We seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade our every thought, our every deed, with the coldness of reality as the unemotional eye chooses to see it. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is an icy thing to view; we have no desire to see it that way. We forget, however, that the higher meaning might be found in existence itself. The joy of life and the experience of living are what make up true meaning, as the swirl of atoms guided by chaotic chance in which we find our existence has no meaning outside itself.
On average, about 1.21 million abortions are executed annually from unintended pregnancies. Many people believe that a woman should have the choice to abort the life that she created. But they do not take into consideration that the word unintended essentially means accidental. Most people do not look ahead before they do something. Why should a baby’s choice of life be taken away when they did not have the choice to be created. It wasn’t their mistake that they were created. Once life is established, it should not be destroyed. Abortion should be illegal because it is a form of murder, there are lots of alternatives to abortion and many ways to prevent pregnancy, and because a woman’s physical and psychological health can be damaged in and after the process.
Many people wonder: what is the meaning of life? What is the human purpose on this earth? At least one time in our lifetime, we all look at ourselves and wonder if we are living our lives the way we were meant to live them. Sadly, there is not a definite answer to the principles of human life. Every human comes from different backgrounds and different experiences throughout their existence.
He believed that religion should not be a matter of thinking or concepts, it should be about feelings and our love and devotion to God. Schleiermacher thought that it doesn’t matter about the complications of how our devotion to God came to be, just that God does exist and we do love and worship him. His views contrast with the radical Enlightenment because Schleiermacher believed that no matter what happens, faith will persist and continue to exist because it isn’t based around logic but feelings. However, even though he did feel this way, he perceived that the radical Enlightenment posed a threat to the very basis of religion (Handout #1). Schleiermacher saw religion positively since he viewed it as being more emotional and sensory which would not be agreed upon by Kant. He believed that it is essential to use feelings to find out where humanity meets the spiritual and supernatural which agrees with religion and supports his positive view of religion (Handout #1). He also states that religion should be almost like a second nature to us and that every action we make should be followed by a thought of religion as
What is meant by Metaphysics? Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, fact and value.
The meaning of life is a very confusing question but to be able to answer it you must realize that it differs for everyone. There is never only one real answer. Everyday it can change for each individual. Everyone has their own way of living; they have their own thoughts and beliefs so therefore each persons answer to the meaning of life will be their own private version.
The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life and death. The movie Blade Runner has taken this exact approach in its attempt to finally define life and death in a logical and un-spiritual manner. By taking the position that death is a concrete idea that can be explained, Blade Runner accomplishes the task of interpreting the idea of life in terms death. Through this approach, the meaning of life is redefined to accommodate for the existence of the replicants. Also, as a result of this novel notion of life, it is apparent that humans and replicants never actually live, even though they are alive.