what is the meaning of life?

Answer 1

What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives. Some people believe that the meaning of life is one or more of the following:

Survival and temporal success

* ...to accumulate wealth and increase social status
* ...to compete or co-operate with others
* ...to destroy others who harm you, or to practice nonviolence and nonresistance
* ...to protect one's family, no matter the cost
* ...to gain and exercise power
* ...to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book
* ...to produce offspring through sexual reproduction
* ...to seek freedom, either physically, mentally or financially
* ...to seek happiness and flourish, experience pleasure or celebrate
* ...to survive, including the pursuit of immortality through scientific means (see life extension)

Wisdom and knowledge

* ...to be without question, or to keep asking questions
* ...to explore, to expand beyond our frontiers
* ...to learn from one's own and others' mistakes
* ...to seek truth, knowledge, understanding, or wisdom
* ...to try to discover and understand the meaning of life
* ...to experience anything if not something in this world

Ethical

* ...to express compassion
* ...to live in peace with each other, and in harmony with our natural environment (see utopia)
* ...to give and receive love
* ...to seek and acquire virtue, to live a virtuous life
* ...to serve others, or do good deeds
* ...to work for justice and democracy

Religious, spiritual and esoteric

* ...to achieve a supernatural connection within the natural context
* ...to achieve enlightenment and inner peace
* ...to become God, or God-like
* ...to experience existence from an infinite number of perspectives in order to expand the consciousness of all there is (i.e. God)
* ...to follow the "Golden Rule"
* ...to produce useful structure in the universe over and above consumption (see net creativity)
* ...to reach Heaven in the afterlife
* ...to understand and follow the "Word of God"
* ...to worship, serve, or achieve union with God

Other

* ...to advance natural human evolution, or to contribute to the gene pool of the human race
* ...to advance technological evolution, or to actively develop the future human
* ...to contribute to collective meaning ("we" or "us") without having individual meaning ("I" or "me")
* ...to die, or become a martyr
* ...to find a purpose, a "reason" for living that hopefully raises the quality of one's experience of life, or even life in general
* ...to live, and enjoy the passage of time
* ...to protect humanity, or more generally the environment
* ...to pursue a dream, vision, or destiny
* ...to relate, connect, or achieve unity with others
* ...to seek and find beauty
* ...to simply live until one dies (there is no universal or celestial purpose)
* ...still some do not even think there is any purpose whatsoever

Answer 2

I could never top this excellent answer that I received for a similar question (from YahooGuru4u), so I quote it here verbatim. Of course, I ruled out the answer "42."

"Darn you. You sucked me in with your question, then I get here and I see 42 is already taken. Now we really have to go on a trip and I'm without a towel. Well ok, let me see what I can come up with, shooting from the hip as it were. My best guess is that the meaning of life, the universe and everything is "MORE". The quest for more seems to be at the center of all living creatures. All organizations be they organic or manmade seem to be trying to get "more". The universe itself is expanding, so I am told. As for "everything" anything that should happen to get created instantly becomes part of everything, so even everything seems to crave more. Yes I think I'll stick with the answer "MORE". What? Wait, just a minute, my wife is yelling something from the kitchen...... (long pause).....Hello I'm back again. My wife says the answer is "LESS" She says life is always moving toward death which by it's very nature is less life. The universe is made up of a limited quantity of everything and it is being used up also, so you have less now than in the past, and as for "everything" Well since everything gets used, you must have less of everything now than there was in the beginning. So my wife and I will agree to disagree and say that the answer is:
More or Less, or possibly More and Less. I guess that's pretty much the same as 42 because 4 is more and 2 is less. I'm getting a pain just behind my left eye from all of this thinking. What!? Just a minute, my wife is yelling again!........ I'm back. She said I'd better get off this Yahoo Answers thing and come to the table if I want any dinner. I told her that I'll never have to come back to Yahoo Answers again because I just pretty much summed up life, the universe and everything. I'd better hurry if I want more to eat and less yelling. So long and thanks for all the fishes."

Happy Answering,
~Tia~
Live from the big, purple brain

Answer 3

42

Answer 4

Everyone's meaning could be different and it could change at different stages of life, who knows what the true meaning of life is...

Answer 5

I think the meaning of life is different to all. It is to find your joyful purpose and to provide it to the world with care.


Good Luck and God Bless!!

Answer 6

life is a cereal in aisle 5

Answer 7

Life is just an exam and we're also learning what's good and what's bad here.

Answer 8

To find love and to be loved. I've recently found love is the greates thing that can happen to a person. True love.

Answer 9

the meaning of life is you have a purpose, and you are suposed to find out what it is!

Answer 10

life is a chess game make yo next move yo best.
love live and care for everyone you meet.