Introduction: The meaning of life

I'm sure you've asked yourself the question: "what am i doing here, why am i alive?" and "what's the meaning of life anyway?" and even though its not a CONTROVERSIAL question that can change the world- oh wait, it can. The way you answer this question actually reflects a lot about yourself, and for the most part there are two very BASIC theories, the Religious theory, and the Non-Religious theory (by the way, i am an atheist, so don't expect god preaching in this book).

-Religious theory- (you: religious person, they/he/she: non-religious person)

For the most part, this is pretty self explanatory, and it is to follow the wishes of whatever god you are currently following is asking of you. For Christianity, you repent for your sins and earn the respect of god to be placed in heaven in the afterlife, because Jesus has died for your sins. This idea is very concrete and solidified, because there is generally no change in the follower's mind because people are very hard set on this idea that whatever god says is final and must be followed (of course, people who follow a religion but aren't very devoted to it can be exempt from this). This isn't necessarily a BAD thing, as it allows the person to focus on the one thing they want to get done and accomplish it, but don't expect to get very far in conversation with a person who's beliefs differ. If you are like this you will probably be prone to negative judgment when you're beliefs become reflected in a major issue (such as global warming) because religious people are reputedly close-minded. I'm not saying that everyone is like this, but this is the stereotype, and i will say this now: everyone is discriminatory. Deal with it, because you are too; stereotypes are made because they're based on generally accurate observations, not because people are just mean and want to make an excuse to make fun of you. Moving on, life for these types of people can probably be considered boring by outside people because all they will see is that you are so closely following your religion that you don't see the awesome prowess of life, or other such similar arguments. You yourself though, may see a great world that has been open up to you by the god in which you believe in, so in reality your life may be awesome because of that god, so even though your life is god-governed, it is still great for you because you feel that god makes it so.

-Non-Religious- (you: non-religious person, he/she/they: religious person)

For whatever your viewpoint may be, the most important part of it is that you have Freedom. You are not limited to anything, and you can do just about whatever you want... well, aside from illegal things, which i will go into later when we get to law. Your may feel that life sucks, life is great, or even that there's no meaning to life and we just are, but all that really matters is that you have control of your life, and aren't tied down by "psh, religion." You are very likely liberal, or if not that, at the very least open minded about things, because there's a lot of things to explore in this world. They may think you're going to go to hell because you are a heretic, but who cares? You're having fun! Well, maybe you might care, if you're agnostic (which i am including in this category), but it probably won't be as big of a deal because you're free to do what you want. They may also think that because you aren't under god, you are blind and therefore are crazy, or at the very least, not going to do well in life because god isn't going to be with you, or because you don't accept god, but for you, that doesn't matter because you don't believe in god. The world is your playground and at your disposal, and what you do with it is up to you.

-My thoughts on this-
Well, My personal opinion about life is that we have absolutely no purpose in being here, and we were just put here with lack of a reason, except to reproduce, like nature intended. Society has created the reason for being successful and making it places, and religion has created the reason that you need to get closer to god while on earth. I can understand society's reason, but don't really accept it completely, and I see the point that religion is trying to make, but i don't buy it. In the end though, the most important thing is that NONE OF THIS MATTERS. Who cares what the reason we're alive is? Everyone has to realize that none of the reasoning crap you try to put in to the concept of existence will change the fact that we are still ALIVE, no matter how we justify it. If you don't like it, Kill yourself (well, finish this book first, then kill yourself), and if you do, then make the most of your life instead of wasting time pondering what you should do in life, and what is wrong with other people for not taking your viewpoint about life. We exist, we're alive, and we're doing okay, so we might as well have some fun while we're on earth, right? Right. So we should really get to it.