waht is the meaning of life?
2006-10-18 14:16:26 · 13 answers · asked by ctruth 1 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)
* ...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 04:28:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think there is an exact true meaning to life and it's something very difficult to define. I do believe, however, that everyone does serve a purpose in life, and perhaps if you search deep enough you will find the true meaning. We are all sent here to learn lessons and grow as people. I think it's something you would have to figure out on your own, so good luck with that.
2006-10-18 14:30:59 · answer #2 · answered by Dink 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Live life with meaning.
2016-03-20 09:33:30 · answer #3 · answered by Edison 1 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Forty Two
The Meaning of Life is to live it.
The Choices you make will have an impact.
May GOD richly bless you.
2006-10-18 14:20:12 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
No one can answer that question. Why do you need someone else to tell you what the meaning of life is? Can't you decide for yourself?
2006-10-18 14:35:26 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Somebody asks this at least once a day. Why don't you check some of the answers to earlier questions?
2006-10-18 14:20:56 · answer #6 · answered by The Gadfly 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter,manifested in functions such as metabolisms,growth,reproduction,and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism.
2006-10-18 14:27:58 · answer #7 · answered by jackiedj8952 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there is no meaning in life
2006-10-18 14:24:12 · answer #8 · answered by george p 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
we were created by God because He wanted to share a good thing with us. So he gave us the Earth to cultivate it, take care of it, and enjoy life.
2006-10-18 14:21:35 · answer #9 · answered by sunny4life 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To live life, and to learn.
Learn from everything that happens.
Learn what you shouldn't do from people who have bad lives.
Learn that without the bad times, there are no good times, and without bad times, good times aren't appreciated.
Just. Live. And. Learn.
- 16 yo Pagan
2006-10-18 14:17:55 · answer #10 · answered by Lady Myrkr 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yahoo! answers.
2006-10-18 14:23:47 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋