2006-09-26 06:03:15 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
"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?
2006-09-26 13:09:51 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
well he obviously likes his creating, he appears to have done a bit of that in the beginning. Seems like he got bored of that after a while, moved on to killing and destroying. Did that for a few thousand years, but lets face it, once you've flooded the entire world it gets a bit boring just killing off one person at a time doesn't it. I think he's probably retired now, maybe lives in one of them old people (god) homes, would explain his recent absences :P :P
2006-09-26 13:08:58 · answer #2 · answered by Om 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The meaning of life for God is to give you an eternal life....
As when Adam and Eve sinned in paradise the died.. They couldn't live for eternity anymore....
But God now wants to give everyone a second chance to live an eternal life by accepting the salvation of Jesus Christ...
John 3:15-16 "15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
All you have to do is :
Romans 10:9 " That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
2006-09-26 13:08:51 · answer #3 · answered by jmdanial 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Living A Life that is pleasing In His Site.
*
2006-09-26 13:13:15 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
From what people write of him, he seems to enjoy creating and destroying: giving life, and then taking it away. As far as the "point" to his existence: he probably created a God
2006-09-26 13:05:08 · answer #5 · answered by Blackacre 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is the meaning of life. He is Creator and Lord.
Jesus said "I have come that they may have life and they may have it more abundantly" - SO that is abundant life. Blessings.
2006-09-26 13:06:24 · answer #6 · answered by jworks79604 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We are practicing here to behave in heaven. We have time to think here if we want to be with after this life is over. And we are here to help each other out.
2006-09-26 13:07:05 · answer #7 · answered by SeeTheLight 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sort of like an eye for a tooth, but without the happy ending.
2006-09-26 13:07:03 · answer #8 · answered by bonzo the tap dancing chimp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm sure God has so much on his plate that he treats everything equally.. in other words, he let's them take care of themselves.
2006-09-26 13:06:07 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not sure, but I suspect it has something to do with beetles and black holes -- he DOES seem to have an inordinate fondness for both....
2006-09-26 13:06:16 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋