2006-09-23 16:19:20 · 20 answers · asked by Chris M 2 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
"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?
2006-09-24 18:25:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
ha! ya right! I don't think anyone knows what they were meant to do on this earth completely and wholey until they die. Until then it's just a best guess. I would keep doing whatever it was I was meant to do... that is if I knew. The meaning of life has to be something we do or are. Otherwise there is no meaning. And it has to be predestined and personal. Everyone's meaning of life is different. That's my take.
2006-09-23 16:34:05 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
probably jump off a building. knowing the meaning of life means it would give people direction right? Im horrible at directions.
2006-09-23 16:37:27 · answer #3 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i think that the moment you find out the meaning of life, you wont be able to handle it and you die. thats why no one knows the true meaning of life, cuz no ones ever lived to spread it. everyone has to find out on their own. thats my theory.
2006-09-23 16:34:12 · answer #4 · answered by Gina Smile 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pray for the strength to continue teaching about the Good News . That referes to teaching about Jehovah and all the things the bible tells us to teach.
2006-09-23 17:46:13 · answer #5 · answered by ~♥ L ♥~ 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The meaning of life is to procreate...that's it.
So go get to it!
Well, you have to have a job, and be of age...and don't have too many. We are already overpopulated.
2006-09-23 16:27:38 · answer #6 · answered by powhound 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Try to figure out a platypus. Something really bizarre happened there and I want to know what! If it takes me to my dying days, I swear to God!
2006-09-23 19:25:32 · answer #7 · answered by taboobiker73 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Share what I have learned and do better, since I now know better.
2006-09-23 16:27:48 · answer #8 · answered by MSA2004 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would praise god for the chance at the "Great Commision". We are here to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (That is, if He is your Lord!)
2006-09-23 17:00:31 · answer #9 · answered by Delta Charlie 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Live it for God. Since that is the meaning....
2006-09-23 17:16:16 · answer #10 · answered by mommaof4 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
try to be meaning full and better others
2006-09-23 16:27:18 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋