what is the meaning of life?
2006-09-21 22:35:34 · 21 answers · asked by Kestas N 1 in Health ➔ Alternative Medicine
"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?
2006-09-22 02:17:40 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Live life with meaning.
2016-03-20 09:34:02 · answer #2 · answered by Edison 1 · 5⤊ 0⤋
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2014-01-21 19:45:01 · answer #3 · answered by Andreas 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life is a huge learning curve the purpose of which is to train us , teach us, make us useful, prepare us for eternity. All the time God the Father is seeking our friendship and is waiting for us to ask for help to live in the best way. Who we are, what we learn, what our unique special talents are, all we have gone through ...make us into the person we are...able to help others because we have been through similar circumstances to others. Everything can make or break us, make us better people or bitter people. All our experiences are not wasted...God wants us to live and laugh and get to know Him. We have choices and we reap what we sow. Some problems come along to develop us and some are our own doing. Life is a gift...yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the "present." Its all learning about love...real love that cares about others above ourselves and wants what is best for others. Life lessons...We graduate when we have grown up.Though at times we think there is no purpose and things are out of control...God is still working out everything for good. As soon as we ask God to reveal Himself to us ....He will. In His own way.
2006-09-21 23:31:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The meaning of life is a struggle for survival and I think ultimatlely every action we do as individuals and as a whole are for our survival.
2006-09-22 08:54:03 · answer #5 · answered by christianstrauss51 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The animals don't have to go through life wondering what it's all about. Aren't they lucky?
2006-09-22 09:27:49 · answer #6 · answered by Bill 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life has no meaning, save the one you give it!
Free will...
2006-09-21 22:39:12 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why do people keep asking this question over and over? There is no answer to it. Oh, on second thought there is an answer: a very good song by Disturbed.
2006-09-21 22:45:19 · answer #8 · answered by DawnDavenport 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Life is a game which u are playing for whole life.
Its just giv a take.
Nothing else!
2006-09-21 23:11:56 · answer #9 · answered by Dr. Joe 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sintertainment amongst sheheisuscrys
2006-09-21 22:38:41 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Read Sylvia Browne's book "LIFE ON THE OTHER SIDE". It explains why we're here and where we go when we die.
2006-09-24 09:19:36 · answer #11 · answered by ♥cinnamonmj♥ 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋