Reconsidered Essay Final

Throughout the entire course, my opinions have change, about every other day. Now you can say that sounds sort of absurd, but studying a question like what is the meaning of life takes along time and sometimes the answer is not found. That is what has happened to me. In the beginning of the class, I first thought that the meaning of life was to find happiness but I know in my opinion it is so much bigger than that. I think that finding the meaning of life is actually something that takes a lot time and patient to find. In fact in some ways, there may not actually be a meaning to life. The meaning of life has so many definitions that there is no actual way to answer the question head on. There are so many signs, emotions and things that can define the meaning of life depending on what you want for yourself. Like I said in my first essay the question of what is the meaning of life is by far one of the most difficult but great questions of all time. It causes so much thinking that it causes you to want to give up on actually finding out the meaning of life. I also believe that the meaning of life is like a fine wine it gets better as you get older. As you get older the understanding of the meaning of life may be better and more worthwhile.
At some points of this class I thought that I had actually conquer the question After having a conversation with my younger brother the opinion I had began to change. He told me that he believes that living life as you please and letting fate take care of the rest was truly the meaning of life. After having the conversation with him I began to wonder, if what he said was in fact the meaning of life. It sounded so correct and well thought of that it just had to be the right answer. However, my opinion again drastically changed a few weeks later when we read an article on someone’s opinion on the meaning of life. The author of the article wrote that the word “ dog” is not an animal and the animal dog is not a word. The animal has no meaning and the word means the animal. He uses this concept towards the meaning of life. Stating that “ life just is “. Therefore, I thought if life just is what is the point of living it. My brother had told me that it to live as you please but then the author of the article said that life just was. After this, I was unsure of the meaning of life than before.
The next part of getting my answer to the question was asking myself what the hell the question even meant. We read article by three philosophers. The first being Irving Singer. He believes that the meaning of life is if the answer to the question of what is the M.O.L is found or created. After reading about this I began to wonder which could it be. Throughout our lives in school, we usually research all our answer but this question has so much more depth to it. Could you really find an answer to a question with such depth? The second article we read was by John Wisdom believes that the meaning of life is just a large, complex, bewildering question, which may have no meaning to it at all. After reading on John’s idea, could what he is thinking be what was happening with my thoughts on the meaning of life. Was it just a question t confuse people. In addition, the last article was by Joseph Ellin. He believes in the idea of seeing the big picture and not just the little one.
We also studied how religion factors into the meaning of life. I am catholic but myself but I do not hang to religion like others do. I do not allow it to control what my life is all about. However, I do know that religion does play a role in many peoples lives an example of that would be my uncle. Before he became a Christian pastor, he told me that he was very materialistic. He only wanted things for himself. He was into drugs, money, and whatever else he could get for himself. Now he says that he lives for god and nothing but god. He believes that he lives in a dying world and that god is the only thing for him.
Now after looking at everyone’s perspectives on the meaning of life I thought I could probably come up with some sort of understanding. I knew it would not be to great of an answer but it would be the best I could come up with at this time. I was working on my paper when I decided to take a walk outside. As I was walking, I notice a handicap man walking down the street. He talking to himself and as he walked everyone would stare at him and whisper as he passed. When I got home, I began to think that man had almost no controlled over his life so what is the meaning to his life. Therefore, if you do not have control over your life what can your meaning of life be? Now with that experience I began to make a new definition of what I think the meaning of life is. I think that there is no significant meaning to life but in fact, you make a choice of your own meaning to your life, but it does not necessarily mean that it shall always stay the same. It can differ in what ever situation you are in. I think that life is somewhat like a game of card, sometimes you draw a great hand, and sometimes you draw the worst.