the meaning of life?

Question

obvious question. what do you think?

Answer 1

"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?

Answer 2

Does life have to have a meaning? Are we just here to procreate and keep our species going? I guess you can give your life meaning by the actions you choose.
Perhaps we are simply overgrown bacteria who have capabilites more developed than the ones that live in our bodies. The ones in our bodies know their purpose and live it, we more developed ones are always ruminating instead of getting on with it. Most animals come into this world with certain instincts and genetic memory and fulfil their destiny. Perhaps we have the same instincts but are not paying attention like our hunter/gatherer ancestors would have. Now we are too caught up in our heads and made things too complex.
Nike summed up the meaning of life very well: JUST DO IT!

Answer 3

Pretty decent movie, though not the best Python film. My favorite bit was the neighborhood singing about every sperm being sacred.

Oh, the OTHER meaning of life. The meaning meaning.

I think each person is free to invest life with his own meaning and decide for what purpose he will dedicate his precious handful of days on earth.

Answer 4

Difficult that one. I would like to say there is no specific meaning. But. Things count. Truth. Love. Hate. There is no meaning to life, life is for living and everyone is diferent, and lives it diferently. sees it diferently. Thank goodness. Life is a gift from evolution to all creatures from minnows to man. we are born, we die. Anything we try, and the word is TRY to mean in the meaning of lifetime, seems to be the meaning of life...in answer to your funny question.

Answer 5

The meaning of life to Mother Teresa is summed up in her own words, "To serve God". If you are also a religious person then you believe that God gave us life, and it is reasonable for us to use it in ways that please Him. Hers was a special way that not many of us would try to emulate, but there are so many other ways. They all involve the virtues set out in the Holy Bible, but in particular those mentioned in verses 22-23 of Chapter 5 of Paul's letter to the Galatians, viz. love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control.
I hope you will find the meaning for your own life.

Answer 6

I think that you are right. It is an obvious question.

Answer 7

Life is a meaning in it's self... There is nothing else.
Death is a look at what's been and the future is a possibility of what could be.

Answer 8

Obvious answer. Life has no meaning, but that doesn't matter.

Answer 9

The meaning of life is to discover what the meaning of life is.

Answer 10

Mystery

Answer 11

the meaning of life like it says but what dose it carry in regards to u us me others every one has there differs on the thing its what you make it that's the key u don't need to ask really its Ur life Ur asking about if they no u witch the don't so choose wisely