(October 24, 2021 at 1:17 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Well, @snowtracks, is not correct. The lives of the dead can have meaning. It’s just that people have to be alive to enjoy that significance. He makes the same mistake that nihilists do – confusing the enjoyments of life from any meaning(s) it may have. For example, married sex is pleasuarable. For some however, physical intimacy is interpreted as a sign of intangibles like commitment and affection within the relationship.
The meaning of a sign is found in the relationship between the sign and what the sign signifies. The meaning of a painting is not inherent in the canvas or colored globs; but rather, by reference to something external to it, i.e. the subject matter depicted. So when someone asks what the meaning of life is, he or she isn’t just looking to something within life that makes life worth living. Instead they are asking to participate in a relationship with something larger to which their lives refer.
A broad range of christian expression strikes me as superstitious nihilism. There probably is something to physical intimacy signaling commitment and affection, though. Neither of which seem intangible.
I think that when we consider meaningful relationships...our very meaningful relationships with other people immediately come to mind - but I've never met anyone who felt that this was the entirety of life. There may be people out there, obvs. It just seems to me that most of us feel that something as meaningful as that is still only a part of the fuller relationship we intend (or hope) to have with a larger thing, to which, as you put it so well, our lives refer.
Intuitively, it seems like it would be possible for a person to participate in a relationship with something larger to which their life refers. I know I try. I assume other people have a similar experience.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
