what is the meaning of life?

Question

It is not 42

Answer 1

just to be kind and grateful for what you have..I think

Answer 2

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.

So the bottom line is, we only have a temporary meaning to life, to reduce pain and increase pleasure, other than that everything is lost to oblivion.

Answer 3

My belief is that life has meaning only to those who believe it does. Sure, many argue that the purpose of life is to achieve success, create a new generation or possibly even reach the religious notion known as heaven. Yet, if one suggests that the purpose of life is to create a new generation (give birth) then one is suggesting that life is pointless and simply a means by which to create another life, which is in itself, unmeaningful.

However, romantically speaking, the meaning of life is to divorce yourself from the institutions of the world and to achieve an inner "nirvana" or a transient state of happiness and joy.

Personally, i believe that the meaning of life is to change the world and society for the better. This may mean a variety of things such as helping the poor or donating to a charitable fondation, or it may mean such things as starting a revolutionary idea, by which to progress or expand the knowledge of mankind (such as Galileo's theory that the sun is the center of the solar system).

Answer 4

Hoefully not, thats my age 42.

Answer 5

Well, There are two ways of looking at life:

1. Humanistic. We are spiritual beings endowed with free will, a capacity that no ordinary animal posseses and that allows us to circumvent ordinary laws of cause and effect. This includes all religious and spiritual looks at life. For most people this is desirable because giving up freedom (free will) and accepting that we are animals and are subject to laws of cause and effect is very difficult. If you take this view of things, than the meaning of life is simply the awncer to a question. That question is "Why dont you kill yourself" the awnser is the meaning of your life. Some people say god, kids, family, friends, love, material possesions, activities, etc. These are thier meaning of life.

2. Scientific. We are animals subject to determinism and the laws of cause and effect. We evolved from great apes and the only thing that seperates us from them are our cerebral cortex which allows decision making and cognition. The evolutionary trends are to stay alive, reproduce, and make sure offspring survive. This created the illusion of love, the children that are "loved" are the ones who survive to love thier children. If you subscribe to this view of life, the meaning for all people are to simply survive and reproduce. This view is depressing because we are striped of freedom and reduced to animals

Answer 6

This one question "meaning of Life" is the most asked question on the Internet. Why?

Every Human Being wants to know and understand the Philosophy behind the meaning of Life! Why are we here... what is the purpose of our living on Mother Earth... what is the real meaning of Life? The queries are numerous... there has got to be a justification for our living. What is the basis of existence of Life on planet Earth?


Before we indulge into knowing "the meaning of Life" we need to understand Life itself. How do we differentiate between a mortal (living being) and an immobile material (having no Life within)? For this we need to start from the beginning of the Cosmos itself... The time of the big bang!

At the time of the big bang when God, the Almighty Creator which is but the size of half a thumb explodes itself... all Atmans (Souls) get scattered all over the cosmos and in doing this they lose their pristine purity and as a ball coated with honey gathers dust while rolling... these Atmans (Souls) also get impregnated with impurities. This is the fundamental cause of Life... if these Atmans (Souls) had remained pure all the time... the need for Life in whole of the cosmos would not have arisen.


These Atmans (Souls) in their cosmic journey now need a body so that they can purify themselves and come back to their original pristine form. These Atmans (Souls) do not have the power to purify themselves without the aid of any external body. They need a body to work out its Karma and in the process the dross within the Atman soul shall get removed.


Let me explain this further but before that I need to explain the definition of God.


At the time of pralaya as we call it in Hinduism (the time of complete dissolution of the cosmos)... the total cosmos which consists of many universes dissolves back into its original pristine form... this is the form we know as God, the Almighty Creator! The size of the whole cosmos at this moment of time is half the size of a thumb, which is nothing else, but the collection of all purified Atmans (Souls) in the cosmos.

For purifying themselves why do the Atmans (Souls) need a body? This feature can be explained further by the example of mining.


If I need to extract one KG of pure gold (say an individual purified Atman in its pristine pure form) from a lump of hundred KG of gold ore then I need to pass the lump of hundred KG of gold ore through the requisite mining process. It is absolutely clear that this one KG of pure gold can not on its own separate itself out from the hundred KG of gold ore without the help of an external medium... it needs requisite machinery to remove the 99 KG of dross within the ore.

Similarly, the unpurified Atman the soul within cannot on its own remove the dross within... it needs an external medium... a body in order to come back to its original pristine form. And in the process... this so-called impure Atman is required to manifest a body, which consists of a long chain of manifestations... a total of 8.4 Million manifestations and a Life cycle of 96.4 Million earthly years... a long journey indeed! More on life here- http://www.godrealized.org/what_is_the_meaning_of_life.html

Answer 7

The meaning of life is found when a person creates a life of meaning. In other words, the purpose of life is a life of purpose (Robert Byrne). When you find and serve your life's purpose, you find meaning in your life.

Best wishes.

Answer 8

The truth meaning of life is YOU.
Only you are the meaning of life, and this comes with Love, Health and Faith. If you have these three then you can work on any other materialistic things you want, such as progress in your professional life, personal life, etc.
The truth meaning of life for each of us is oneself. If you believe in God, God is in you and nowhere else.
This is the way I see the meaning of life.

Answer 9

to me it is to go through life doing all you can and be who you would want to be and know, then look back on the past without any regrets.

Answer 10

There is no meaning of life.(my opinion)

Answer 11

making the lives of others happy