What is the meaning of life?

Question

What is the meaning of life to you?

Answer 1

A question that has been asked so many times in so many ways.There is no finite answer that human beings at this level would be absolutely satisfied with, because any answer would only lead to another question.

More why's, but...what..how?

If an onimpotent power said to you. The meaning of life is..for each individual to run this obstacle course that the fates have set up and at the end of the road a score board will show how well they behaved or misbehaved on each test. Let's call that the book of life.

The you are told....if your score goes below what we in our infinite wisdom believe is a passing grade.... you go no further, poof all over for you, however if you score high....you shall have the opportunity to advance again and again, providing you don't fail, until you reach true immortality.

How would that affect your life right now if you knew this for certain was the meaning of your existence? Some universal game that as Tony Montana once said " I do it for fun."

Would it make you a better person.. apathetic, depressed, maybe joyous..yah I now know...... yippee!

Perhaps it would reshape your entire personality and make you afraid to take chances, to live, screw up every now and then. Someone who now walks an invisible line created in your mind like a little robot, afraid to lose points.

So instead of living life you are now walking a straight line, no falls, zigs or zags, adventure...you have basically cashed in your free will to make choices good or bad.

Nothing has been gained by you now knowing the meaning other then your mind is now more uptight then ever...trying to walk that tight rope, because you now know for certain what will happen. Gee that takes all of the mystery and fun out of it.

Listen, just live, create, laugh, imagine, cry, be selfish on occasion and silly, hey even be a jerk now and then, raise hell on occasion and every chance you get...be happy. Don't get bogged down on why you are here....just consider it special that you are (smile)

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

Ah! The meaning of life! The human experience is the single thing that ties all of us together. You should read some of the basics existentialism; satre, nietzche. Also absurdism; Albert Camus, in the Myth of Sisyphus, ponders if life is worth living. Though a seemingly depressing notion, Camus argued that the only way to find true meaning is to free oneself of presupposed notions of fate. It's really great stuff. Life is a wonderous thing and the universe is full of possibilities!

Answer 4

When we are young, life just is, and no meaning is really needed. When we get older (in 40's), it becomes apparent that death exists, and life loses its meaning.

But the smell of the rain is the same at any age, and that's what's important. Having had the chance to live up to now and experience its opportunities, have been the meaning of life.

Answer 5

There are a number of defenitions:

Most people follow the biological and natural one:
Build up and groom your physical and morphological traits so that you can attract and be alluring thereby capturing a mate. With this mate success is determined by the fact that you can produce as many children as you can so more of your traits and genes are present in the next generation.Compete and beat fellow males(your gender) and get the most attractive and prize mate to develop more fit childen for the next generation.The capitalist system of America is a prime example.

Intellectual: Become intelligent and gather knowledge so that you are able to perceive beyond the biological will of life, commit analysis on your self and your fellows to help them and likewise yourself, and try to figure your own phychology and try to satisfy these phychological wills, if they are too vulgar to be acted upon then try to rid of them through small manifesting acts.

Answer 6

To end the confusion, sufferings, and hunger of all of humanity, through the study and observance of the 4 Noble Truths, and The Noble Eightfold Path = all found in the Dharma.
As a result of ending sufferings, producing Peace and Happiness for humanity.

Answer 7

Death:

Even though our bodies die, we are made in the image of God, and thus we have souls that are immortal. Our conscious being is going to live forever. Unless God intervened, Adam’s sin meant that we would spend an eternity of suffering and separation from Him.

The only way for us to restore our life with God is if we are able to come to Him with the penalty paid for our sin. Leviticus 17:11 helps us to understand how this can be done. It says, ‘The life of the flesh is in the blood.’ Blood represents life. The New Testament explains that ‘without the shedding of blood there is no remission [of sins]’ (Hebrews 9:22). God makes it clear that, because we are creatures of flesh and blood, the only way to pay the penalty for our sin is if blood is shed to take away our sin.

In the Garden of Eden, God killed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve as a picture of a covering for our sin. A blood sacrifice was needed because of our sin. The Israelites sacrificed animals over and over again; however, because Adam’s blood does not flow in animals, animal blood, though it could temporarily cover our sin, could never take it away. The Hebrew word translated ‘atonement’ is kaphar, which means ‘cover.’

Link:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/death_suffering.asp

Answer 8

The meaning I have found is in the "seed" of life....

We are as seeds... planted in soils diverse.....

Some bloom too soon... some in good soils be deep in emotion and color..... some, too soon pass..... and some will grow with the thorns and thickets or in diverse weeds...... Some beauteous, some not.....

but, in every season is life found for pleasure or not......

For the spring, there is life anew for those planted well.... for the summer, does the sun find us in full bloom and in splendor from our youth..... in the fall, of our time, are we mature of age and our plant does begin to show signs of fade for the weather has begun to beat upon us..... But, in that winter, shall our old plant come to end..... and we shall pass with the season and be found no more here....

Shall we see the next Spring....??....... shall we be plentiful as the newly sprung?... shall we have been sown to return the next time?.......

so it is with life and death.......

We are seeds..... What children call: "Human - Beans".....


your sister,
Ginger

Answer 9

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 10

Having a personal and intimate relationship with God that includes fulfilling the purpose he has for you.

Ask anyone who has found their purpose in the center of God's will and they will be very clear that they have found the meaning of life.

While it is relative in that God has designed us each unique with a unique purpose....it is absolute that a relationship with God is the meaning of life.