2006-10-18 08:52:51 · 23 answers · asked by jdogft 1 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)
* ...to complete your list of life goals
* ...to find something to believe
Wisdom and knowledge
* ...to be without question, or to keep asking questions
* ...to find out the meaning of life
* ...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 find true love
* ...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)
* ...to determine a set of goals based on an individuals belief in the meaning of life and work towards the attainment of those objectives.
* ...a combination of any of the above.
* ...42
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?
* ...because nobody will ever love you.
* ...life may actually not exist, this is all a surreal dream.
But most importantly
* ...not to die.
2006-10-19 04:28:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not to think about the meaning of life.
2006-10-18 08:55:40 · answer #2 · answered by ptolemei_lyabz 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that the meaning of life is to try and make the best of it. What I mean is that you should try to be successful and happy. I know some times it feels pointless, but I know that I am trying to do my best and make a good life for me and my son. I don't know if that helped you any, but hopefully it did.
2006-10-18 09:00:32 · answer #3 · answered by julie_loves_music 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is no meaning other than the propagation of the species. Humans created religion to try to give it a meaning but it seems to cause wars more than anything else.
2006-10-18 09:02:17 · answer #4 · answered by Barkley Hound 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Biologists and many other Scientists say it is procreation and continuation of the species. Our whole purpose is to insure our offspring are better off than we are and equipped to carry on the species. This really isn't at odds with religious precepts which are really formalized ways to control and instruct the social coping mechanism of humans.
2006-10-18 08:59:43 · answer #5 · answered by Perry L 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To ask what it's meaning is? I don't think there IS any specific meaning (I'm not an atheist) I just think we should dance around and do the best we can with the time we have.
2006-10-18 09:02:53 · answer #6 · answered by Jegis H. Corbet 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I´d recommend Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life "
... the only logical reason I can think of is to keep human species lasting.. but of course, we can always do something more than that.
2006-10-18 10:41:42 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
the meaning of life, for me, is to enjoy everyday as if it were my last, try to make the lives of others better if i can, have no regrets when i die, and leave the world a better place than i found it.
2006-10-18 09:15:55 · answer #8 · answered by kelleygaither2000 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Read victor frankl "mans search for meaning", He was a prisonor in a Nazi war camp and somehow survived.
I personally believe it is a simple mathmatical formula that only our pets are aware of and they are not telling us.
2006-10-18 14:57:44 · answer #9 · answered by shuincorp1918 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The meaning of life is what ever you want the meaning to be.
What ever thoughts you choose to have and manifest them.
2006-10-18 10:59:35 · answer #10 · answered by LovingOne 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In a philosophical way (according to Socrates) life is about sort of preparing to die and being in a sort of proper state which is to not care and fear death but accepting it and welcoming it.
But for me, life is about doing what you love and believing in God and worshipping Him.
2006-10-18 09:17:26 · answer #11 · answered by Triathlete88 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋