What is the meaning of life?

Question

Im 23 and ive yet to figure out the meaning of life?

Answer 1

Life actually does have an intrinsic meaning, but to get to it we're going to have to progress a little sideways. So bear with me...

Before we can talk about the meaning of life, I think it's productive to first ask the question, "What IS life?". This is a bit easier to answer, if not perfectly clear, because biologists obviously have to be able to explain what, exactly, the bio- part of their name refers to.

Biologists themselves often approach the question backwards. Instead of defining life as a whole, they instead consider the number of things that we generally consider to be 'alive' and figure out what qualities they all seem to have in common. This gives us a handful of properties that all living things we know of seem to have, including growth, reproduction, and the ability to make long-term adaptations to the environment.

Okay. So what does that MEAN? Again I think we need to break down our question with another one: "What IS meaning?" I'll take the same approach as the biologists on this one and consider examples. If a boulder fell on someone's house, and one observer asked another, "What does that mean?", what would acceptable answers be? I can think of a number of them ("It means that was a bad place to build a house"), and what they seem to have in common are that they describe greater implications and intent. Or in other words, given the event, process, or object, what will happen in the future, what led to it in the past, and what effects and intents does it have in the present?

So what does life do? It changes things. We know from the definition of life that it grows, consumes, spreads, alters its environment and alters the ways in which it does all these things. Having living things around means things are going to be different later, and probably were different before. Any time we imagine a place where nothing is ever different the only way that image works is to make it completely devoid of life. So that is something.

But it's not everything. Life doesn't produce just ANY change, but a certain flavour of it. Simply put, living things want to live. The changes living things make, generally speaking, either help them do so or kill them off. So life is not just about change, but change ideally for the better, even if practically it falls short sometimes.

This, then, must be the meaning of life. To change for the better.

Curiously enough, a quick survey of major philosophies, religions, and systems reveals that almost all of them seem to integrate this concept. Change for the better. There may be other important things, as some of the above systems would suggest, but to 'change for the better' is, at least, is the one thing implied by the very nature of the way things are. So do it!

Answer 2

This question has been asked so much now, and we always answer it differently I think. The more I have seen the 42 in the answers the more it has become apparent that the meaning of life is time. 42 maybe just the age we discover wisdom maybe or find peace within but 24 (digits switched round) represents 24 hours to the day=The day=time.
Time is precious-the day-life, made from the digits 24-42 =The hours and its opposite
Nothing can exist without its opposite and there you see them both

In my work the 24 or 42 also represent February (2) and April (4) and between is March=3-Christ was conceived in March (shown in charts in my 360

Answer 3

80% of humanity, the religious folks, don't need to ask the meaning of life, the church tells them....the supernatural explanation. But the rest of us can't swallow religious dogma, because there's no evidence. Nobody can prove that there life after death, that people are tortured or rewarded after life or that there's invisible spirits running around.

I've come to two conclusions recently:

1. Life has no meaning
2. Life has a million meanings.

First, there's a certainty that death and annihilation awaits not only you, but the Earth in general. It's an astonomical certainty that our sun will supernova and leave the earth a burnt crisp, not to mention all the other extinction level events around the corner.

Second, the million things that give us meaning are the pleasurable experiences we can conjure up during the short period we are here on the earth, in the form of the relationships we have with our kids and other people, and the 'housekeeping' types of purposes. What i mean by that are the curing disease, ending hunger, improving literacy, reducing crime, preventing war, helping other kinds of things.

Answer 4

You are very young, but asking a profound question. I don't know if you are ready for the right answer or not. But the meaning of being here is to develop a soul and evolve to the next sphere of development. This is a low planet and those here are working out karma. Want to know more write to me. Free too. Take care of yourself. Keep looking and always have an open mind....

Answer 5

The meaning of life is to teach someone else something. Everybody teaches someone something, like the author of Go Ask Alice. She was addicted to drugs and died at the age of 15, but so many people have read about what happend to her and learned about how horrible drugs are.

And wouldn't the answer to life be 14 b/c 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything??? Life is only a third of "Life, the Universe and Everything" and 14 is a third of 42

Answer 6

You're 23!!! Why are you wasting your time with this? The meaning of life is something to be pondered as you drift into dreams or on the day you retire and realize that death is not too far away.

Answer 7

You are young, yet everything could end tomorrow for you. We are all put on this earth to make a difference in some way or another. How you make the difference is up to you. Some never pursue the dream and die unhappy while others pursue a dream and have the time of their life the entire trip. Go for it!

Answer 8

it will depend on what life means to you. it's different for everyone & as you get older it will change as things become more or less important...to me life is a series of constant changes & i have to be able to flow with them. people come & go & things never stay the same. the only constant is change & the ability to accept those changes..

have i confused you yet? sorry if i did. but think about what i said, it may make some sense

Answer 9

I am a lot older than you and nor have i.. maybe you should have asked..what is the meaning of your life.. smile.. if I was answering that i would say.. I still don't know.. but guess my Mum and Dad had ideas.. just try to live as honestly as you can and be kind to others... best wishes

Answer 10

confident i think of that existence for repeat offenders is sweet.I mean reason maximum of those murders could have been prevented if the killers could have stayed in detention center. i'm able to relate to the victims families. My pal grew to become into killed in 1997 and that they have no leads.An i understand in some cases the jury we could them off yet come on if the guy or lady killed greater desirable than as quickly as you already know hes going to do it returned.