what is life and what is the meaning of life?

Question

everybody unknown question that hasn't been answered like ever and people wants to know to the answer to this question which i'm seeking and every body is seeking for

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

What is the intended purpose of our lives? As you stated, this is a question asked by many, worldwide! I once did, myself.
The answer is available to any & all who are willing to honestly search for it (without undue bias) ...

Life A Product of Design :
- Copying Life's Marvelous Designs
- Learning From Designs in Nature
- The Great Designer Revealed
http://watchtower.org/e/20000122/article_01.htm

Humans---Just Higher Animals? :
- Who Are We?
- - - What Is the Purpose of Life?
- - - What We Believe Makes a Difference ...
http://www.watchtower.org/library/g/1998/6/22/article_02.htm

What Is Your Life Worth? :
- Life--Precious or Cheap?
- How Precious Is YOUR Life?
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2005/2/1/article_02.htm

What Is the Purpose in Life? :
- Is There a Purpose?
- Who Can Tell Us?
- A Unique Source of Wisdom
- Life Has A Grand Purpose!
- Why So Much Suffering and Injustice?
- God's Purpose Soon to Be Realized
- Live Forever on a Paradise Earth
- If You Could Live Forever ^, Would You Choose To?
http://watchtower.org/e/pr/index.htm

What Is God's Purpose for the Earth?
http://www.watchtower.org/library/rq/article_05.htm

What Kind of Education Can Make Your Life a Success?
- Benefit From the Best Education Available!
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2005/10/15/article_01.htm

True Teachings---Where You Can Find Them
http://watchtower.org/e/20050715/article_01.htm
http://watchtower.org/bible/index.htm

Advanced Search
http://watchtower.org/search/search_e.htm
http://watchtower.org

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.

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 4

Life is a mirror

Yes your entire life is a mirror of what is going on in your counsciousness. It is a reflection of yourself. Each person, each event may be considered as a tool which can help you to know yourself better and better.

If you had a mirror which could perfectly reflect all that was inside of you, what would you see? Would you see a beautiful, magnificent world in the mirror, or would things look pretty much the same as they do right now?

To a large degree, the world around you is a mirror of that which is within you. You see what you look for. People treat you as you expect to be treated. The things you experience come from the actions you take.

Think of the world as a mirror of you, and consider whether or not you like what you see. More importantly, realize that you have the power to change it. Your world is a part of you. It is an expression of you. With your thoughts and actions, you can make it what you want it to be.

Answer 5

Slightly simplified answer: to take a creation, try to understand it, and use it to create (in relationships, art, science, and anything else you either are capable of or can make yourself capable of).
Man was created in the image of God and God, in Hebrew, means "the creator". Man went from being caveman to being modern not by beating down beasts and other cavemen but moreover by being inventive and creative making wheels, electricity, philosophy, etc. Even if you do not believe in God it follows that man ultimately created MONEY as a way of measuring creative contributions of fellow men (although, unfortunately, many greedy people have found ways to take money without creating for greater good and, moreover, greater human ability for others to create).

Answer 6

Life – it has a meaning and loving purpose - you just have to find your purpose and live it.

I believe every person is here for a definite purpose. Each person is special and valuable; that refers to me, you, your family, friends, in fact everybody! There is a loving plan for each of our lives here on earth and there is no such thing as coincidence. I don't believe that anything in life happens by chance and that every aspect of our lives points to something deeper.

You need to decide now to live for God rather than for yourself. You spend your life on Earth preparing yourself (as best you can) for death. I don't see death as a scary, negative experience, but birth into a bliss filled eternal life with God. I believe that this is something you have to consciously choose or not during your life on earth.

The meaning of life is for us to discover that we are true children of an infinitely loving and merciful God, to find out what our responsibilities are to our Creator, and to fulfill those responsibilities. Each of us is called to affirm, accept and develop the talents God has given us. -

Answer 7

In the words of Arunagirinathar, a Tamil Hindu saint, 'Every moment of your existence that was spent on thinking, or doing some good for others were the only moments in which you really lived' !
It is hard to argue with his assessment.

Answer 8

I think the meaning to life is to struggle. To struggle with many things, one of the more meaningful ones that I can think of is being humble. In the Comedy of Dante, I believe one of the purifications in Purgatory is for Pride, to which those who took to it must carry its burden till they've relieved themselves of pride.

Answer 9

the meaning of life is to grow both in mind and body and hope that in the process you become accepting of yourself and those around you.

Answer 10

It is truly an individual experience. There is no correct answer except for one's own decision.