h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"The amount of meaning an individual gathers from life is in direct variation with the amount of knowledge he has, or the broadness of his view, and his comprehension capacity for that knowledge"

I enjoyed your entry, it was well written and gave me lots of food for thought, however I think I would dispute the above statement.

I think if you were to substitute 'understanding' for 'meaning' then that would be ok, but I don't believe any of the great spiritual leaders were particulary knowlegeable about the world, and yet had a profound understanding of it's 'meaning'.

Chris Swift

As one of my favorite writers, and an alter ego of mine, Harold, would say... "Meaning suffers from a terrible lack of itself".

This statement implies two things. First. Meaning (if it were to exist) would have a consciousness. 'Meaning' suggests a purpose, which suggests a will or intelligence. This intelligence might be synonymous with 'god' if you will. Second. This statement also implies that 'meaning', or if you will, divine purpose, does not exist. A dismal, and controversial view.. but hey, that's the type of guy Harold is. Harold believes purely in inner conscience and will, in control over his own perceptions. Some people call that insanity. I'm sure that most of the people who would be reading this are not strangers, or soon won't be strangers to such ideas, however.

I'm sure that Harold is not the first person to make this statement... but it is most definitely something that he would say, be it his or just something he heard somewhere and liked it.
I'm quite fond of it, however, because it defines what meaning is, or would be, and also at the same time nicely deletes the word from our vocabulary, so that we never have to think of it again.
-Bob of the "there" dimension. (reminds himself not to cut and paste from word anymore)