2006-09-12 14:56:04 · 13 answers · asked by J.R. 8-2-86 2 in Health ➔ Other - Health
The question "what is the meaning of life?" means different things to different people. The vagueness of the query is inherent in the word "meaning", which opens the question to many interpretations, such as: "What is the origin of life?", "What is the nature of life (and of the universe in which we live)?", "What is the significance of life?", "What is valuable in life?", and "What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?". These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.
Popular beliefs
"What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives, most in the context "What is the purpose of life?" Here are some of the many potential answers to this perplexing question:
Survival and temporal success
* ...to accumulate wealth and increase social status
* ...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 compete or co-operate with others
* ...to destroy others who harm you, or to practice nonviolence and nonresistance
* ...to die having succeeded in your purpose
* ...to gain and exercise power
* ...to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book
* ...to live
* ...to produce offspring through sexual reproduction or asexual reproduction
* ...to protect one's family
* ...to pursue a dream, vision, or destiny
* ...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 expand one's perception of the world
* ...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 understand creation
Ethical
* ...to achieve a supernatural connection within the natural context
* ...to achieve enlightenment and inner peace
* ...to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land
* ...to become like God, or God-like
* ...to be rewarded for your deeds
* ...to experience existence from an infinite number of perspectives in order to expand the consciousness of all there is (i.e. God)
* ...to express compassion
* ...to follow the "Golden Rule"
* ...to give and receive love
* ...to live in a way that you don't harm yourself and don't harm your environment
* ...to work for justice and freedom
Religious and spiritual
* ...to be a filter of creation between heaven and hell
* ...to die and become a martyr
* ...to live in peace with each other, and in harmony with our natural environment (see utopia)
* ...to produce useful structure in the universe over and above consumption (see net creativity)
* ...to protect humanity, or more generally the environment
* ...to reach Heaven in the afterlife
* ...to seek and acquire virtue, to live a virtuous life
* ...to serve others, or do good deeds
* ...to turn fear into joy at a constant rate achieving on literal and metaphorical levels: immortality, enlightenment and atonement
* ...to understand and follow the "Word of God"
* ...to worship, serve, or achieve union with God
* ...to disprove the existence of a or all all gods
Other
* ...to achieve self-actualisation
* ...to contribute to collective meaning ("we" or "us") without having individual meaning ("I" or "me")
* ...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 have fun
* ...to participate in the inevitable increase in entropy of the universe
* ...to make the conformists' lives miserable (see non-conformism)
* ...to participate in the chain of events which has led from the creation of the universe until its possible end (either freely chosen or determined, this is a subject widely debated amongst philosophers)
* ...to relate, connect, or achieve unity with others
* ...to resolve all problems that one faces, or to ignore them and attempt to fully continue life without them, or to detach oneself from all problems faced (see Buddhism)
* ...to seek and find beauty
* ...as there is no intrinsic meaning to life, to each individual, the "meaning of life" is whatever he/she decides it is. In that sense, every point above is potentially valid.
* ...an answer to the question "What is the meaning of life?" is that it is just simply being able to ask the question, "What is the meaning of life?" (see Sri Sri Ravi Shankar below)
* ...a combination of any of the above.
No purpose, and therefore...
* ...to simply live until one dies (there is no universal or celestial purpose)
* ...just a series of events
* ...just nature taking its course
* ...the wheel of time keeps on turning
* ...the cycle of life
* ...whatever you see you see, as in "projection makes perception"
* ...there is no purpose or meaning whatsoever (see nihilism)
* ...who cares?
2006-09-14 02:12:47 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no meaning of life that fits every person. The meaning of life is to give your life meaning. The meaning of death is to make us hurry up.
2006-09-12 15:02:53 · answer #2 · answered by noname 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Life is the beginning of this world. Death is not the end, but the beginning to know more about our creator.
2006-09-12 14:59:27 · answer #3 · answered by jessie 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life is the abilities of people, animals and plants to breath, to grow and to reproduce. Death is a status of lifeless.
2006-09-12 15:03:54 · answer #4 · answered by pyj 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Did you ever see the movie St. Elmos Fire? If not i suggest that you try to get a copy of it. It is a real old movie but the dude was trying to figure that out through the whole movie and still couldn't figure it out neither can i.
2006-09-12 14:58:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The meaning of life is to multiply meaning to have kids so the human species never dies...if everyone stopped having kids then there would be no more humans and we would be extinct.
2006-09-12 15:05:07 · answer #6 · answered by Kendra 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God evolving into both non-physical pure Love and physical pure Love in one sphere. We are bringing Love where Love seems not to be. There are no sins, no mistakes, just teachers and God/us bringing Love to where Love seems not to be. All else is us bringing comfort or non-comfort to our lives while we are in are present costumes.
2006-09-12 15:11:50 · answer #7 · answered by Richard15 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life you live ( and please live it to the fullest it goes by quickly and you don't know when it will end)
Death, cesation of life, thats it done, dead, your lights are permanently out.
2006-09-12 14:59:29 · answer #8 · answered by vivib 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, but only on Tuesday!
2006-09-12 15:04:47 · answer #9 · answered by F 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
See my question here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqGcor8kcE3YmwgSo9QChnLsy6IX?qid=20060831213406AA26RrS
And I guess it depends on how you define life and death.
2006-09-12 14:57:55 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
to live
to learn
to work
to earn
to love
to cry
to pay your taxes and say goodbye
2006-09-12 14:59:18 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋