2006-12-01 12:15:15 · 54 answers · asked by paul c 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
smiles on the faces of my twins
2006-12-01 12:17:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
dude, humans have been asking this since the dawn of time. i dont think there is "one meaning of life". everyone has a different meaning, even if theyre in the same religion. for most creatures in general the meaning of life seems to be to create more life.. cos thats all anything actually does - live for a while, make babies, then die. thats the only thing consistent with all living creatures. im not religious, so i dont believe that serving god is the meaning of life. actually i think there would be a hell of a lot less problems in the world without religion! anyways, my personal meaning of life is to make people happy and have a unique and positive influence in the world through what i do (a big part of this is writing, recording and performing music.) also i want to have kids. i think you should work out whats important for you and what satisfies you, then youll have youre own meaning of life.
2006-12-04 03:55:57 · answer #2 · answered by john9999999 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thank god you specified cause I was about to give you my neighbors opinion on the topic :)
I have always felt that the meaning of life is to discover the meaning of life.
2006-12-03 13:51:58 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The meaning of Life is in helping others. It is a simple answer and the only one which I have found meets the test of Time. Sent with good energies from Chris in South Portland, Maine, U.S.A. (I am 63 years old, so have had a few years to consider such things.)
2006-12-01 12:32:44 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
To live however we think is right, so in my opinion, the meaning of my life is to get married, have his children, go and live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and be the best wife and mum ever. Then when I die I will go to heaven and hang out there a bit.
2006-12-01 12:27:36 · answer #5 · answered by floppity 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm not sure human beings are equipped to answer that.
The goal in life should be to make the world a better place and improve the lives of others, while improving your own life too. A lot of that is done by your work and how you raise your kids.
The "meaning" of life, or "Why am I here?" is not something anyone really knows the answer too. Perhaps there is no meaning, we are just here by random chance. Perhaps the only meaning that counts is the purpose we devote our lives to.
2006-12-01 12:23:38 · answer #6 · answered by Uncle Pennybags 7 · 4⤊ 2⤋
You could argue that meaning is something that living things assign to their existence, with varying degrees of awareness that they are doing it.
When I think of Life as a general thing, as in all living things and also whatever it is about the universe that spawns them, I think it's purpose (meaning if you want) seems to be to change (with a tendency to complexify) and expand into all available space. What for? Who knows? Life as a mas concept/entity does not think these thoughts, people do.
On the scale of people in general I suppose the answer is 'to have their material and mental needs met'. Everyone has their own list of what these needs are, we all share the basics. Meaningful behaviour gets the needs met.
2006-12-01 15:08:51 · answer #7 · answered by mince42 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
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.
2006-12-01 12:19:47 · answer #8 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 2⤊ 5⤋
To learn how to love, share, to attain humility and compassion for all insentient beings.
For when the inevitable moment comes when we slip into the void of death, we must amount to great spiritual merit and leave something of hope and of a peaceful idealism behind, for the living to believe in and take courage from.
2006-12-05 07:36:59 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I once kinda asked a Zen master similar question and he told me this "it's not for you to know". I went home and chew on this sentence forever. These days, i took his answer as "it's not important to know the meaning of life, just live contently and fully and the meaning of life will reveal to you from within."
2006-12-01 15:39:49 · answer #10 · answered by xyz 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This is a really good question, and you have cleverly understood that life means different things to different people.
To me, the meaning of life in general is to pursue happiness, nobody really goes around looking for sadness. Specifically in my life, the meaning of my life is to fulfill my life's purpose and to have tackled my goals to the best of my ability. My other meaning of life is that life is there to be lived.
I'd like to know what your meaning of life is...
2006-12-02 04:37:10 · answer #11 · answered by Missy 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋