2006-09-21 00:32:18 · 52 answers · asked by Claire 1 in Health ➔ General Health Care ➔ Other - General Health Care
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?
2006-09-21 03:43:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whoa big question! This one has been argued over for quite a while so I don't know if we can answer this one.
Personally I go by the description at the End of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
Something like: Try and be nice to people, read a good book every now and then and basically try and enjoy life. Well, either that or people aren't wearing enough hats. I think.
2006-09-21 00:38:38 · answer #2 · answered by bearos3000 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To give life a meaning
2006-09-21 00:34:18 · answer #3 · answered by gerbilisimo 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The meaning of life is to understand life.
2006-09-21 00:40:20 · answer #4 · answered by Presea 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi Claire,
This is a daily question on YA.
but the answer remains the same.
There isn't one, we are just animals cursed with the ability to freethink.
Sorry bobcat, 43 would mean your still not living life to the full, you need to be aiming for 46.2
2006-09-21 00:49:17 · answer #5 · answered by Michael H 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life is what you make of it!
For extreme cases:
Hitler left his country to go rule Germany and tried taking over the whole world and yet the current US government is ruled by a former C student. Anything is possible as long as you think it is. Michael Jackson proved that you can turn from a young promising handsome black man to a rich ugly and depressed white woman!
2006-09-21 00:38:49 · answer #6 · answered by kope k 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
42
2006-09-21 00:36:11 · answer #7 · answered by dopeysaurus 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
42
2006-09-21 00:34:21 · answer #8 · answered by Azalian 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
42
2006-09-21 00:34:11 · answer #9 · answered by Michael 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Different people have a complex view of life it is always a none ending cycle. It continues to revolve and multiply. Life is what is beautiful because it is life and we as humans can't change that because we are here to stay until GOD changes it. Try to enjoy it to the best of your ability. BB
2006-09-21 00:43:10 · answer #10 · answered by ocieb627 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Watch Monty Python's "The Meaning of life"
Its great
2006-09-21 00:42:35 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋