Just so you know, I really am looking for a serious answer.
2006-09-16 05:12:10 · 21 answers · asked by kylaspop 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
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?
2006-09-17 00:34:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you look at it from a biological point of view, then there isn't any meaning -- it's just biochemical processes with a bit of physics thrown in. Even reproduction isn't the purpose or meaning of life, it's just the process by which life continues. See the difference?
BUT we've managed to evolve these complex brains capable of asking these sorts of questions and ergo they now have meaning. The best answer I've ever come across is from Albert Camus who arrived at the conclusion that because life has no inherent meaning, it is up to us to find meaning and purpose for ourselves.
That's an enormous responsiblity. A lot of people would rather hand it over to their beliefs in God, country, or social norms. But not all of us think that way.
2006-09-16 05:55:41 · answer #2 · answered by The angels have the phone box. 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the blessing and the malediction....life has parameters that a we cannot set on our own. Why are so many sad that they cannot do bad things without punishment and repercussions...they are not guided by the general good of all people....Life is a journey that is never suppose to end. Life is love of neighbors without selfish motives. If you give me 100 presents your happy...if I return a thousand presents I'm happy. Random acts of kindness are a great start.
The very knowledge of being happy is lost today and reward is a reason for giving...well then what reward has the Creator of the planet been given? What can you give to The Creator that He cannot give himself? Life and all things that are good are from One powerful Creator. A great start would be appreciation from the top ( God ) down to the lower life forms (us) for planned gifts of love.
2006-09-16 05:37:09 · answer #3 · answered by kdwcnliz2 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good question though I would prefer to say " Why were we created?"
Allah created jinni and mankind to worship Him
How to worship Him? This is the question.
Of course Allah does not like us to worship beyond Him something or someone else
Of course He gets angry when we worship Him in a different way than what He likes
Of course He refuses any share .Meaning even the share in the intention itself if we practice good deeds to be known as a religious person and not for Allah 's sake
Allah created us also to build the earth . To repair and not to destroy
To breed , Is for occuping the earth and this is why Allah command for marriage
2006-09-16 05:35:42 · answer #4 · answered by TheTruth 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is no meaning to life. People invented it, because they believe that they are more than just clever mammals. They want to believe that they are here for a 'purpose'. I say, forget all of the wondering, and enjoy life while it lasts!
2006-09-16 05:17:26 · answer #5 · answered by Agne 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It can be anything you want it to be. For a universal answer, I would say that it's accomplishing the goal you set for your life.
If you set a goal of being very religious and perfectly obedient to god, then that would be your meaning of life.
For others it would be happiness, service to others, intellectual improvement or accomplishment, winning an Oscar, or whatever. For some, it's just living through another hard, dreary day as best as they can.
Think about famous people who've died, like Steve Irwin. What was his meaning of life?
2006-09-16 05:14:18 · answer #6 · answered by Catspaw 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No breeding. Then you must want the other answer: To know, love, and serve God in this world. There are only two possible answers to that question, and you eliminated one of them.
2006-09-16 05:22:53 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. KJV. Your question reminds me of a cleaver thing I saw on the Internet last week, it goes like this:Cant feed em, don't breed em.
2006-09-16 05:19:04 · answer #8 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
There is no official meaning of life. Every person has to give meaning to their own life.
2006-09-16 05:15:00 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
The Meaning Of Life is to live it.
How we live it is up to us.
We will make choices.
Those choices will effect many people.
Thats a start!
GOD bless ya
2006-09-16 05:14:30 · answer #10 · answered by Bye Bye 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
life has no meaning or aim. Unless you create one for yourself. You should find a sublime thing to devote your life to make your life meaningful. Otherwise how can you expect something which has an end to be something full of meanings?
2006-09-16 05:22:42 · answer #11 · answered by Nameless 1 · 1⤊ 2⤋