What is the meaning of life?

Question

What is the purpose of life, ultimately? Surely there is a reason for existence?

Answer 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.


To be or not to be? "To be" is temporary and "not to be" is inevitable.....

Answer 2

OH it all starts with you. WHERE are you? How is your life related to others? DO YOU have any standing there? IS it something you want to do? Many of lifes answers are there for you if you seek them. OK so sounds real philisophical huh. NO just look. IF you are a country person then see where you are there. Are you the one that feeds the critters and takes care that they can begin a new life? DO You accept that they are agriculture or pets? Just decide there who you are. IF you are the feeder. THEN feed them the proper food and continue with all their maintenance as you should understand it or ASK questions to someone who knows. USUALLY an older person who has been country for a while can tell you these things. Critters depend wholely on you for their life. THEY cannot exist unless you help them. THEY were given to us to take care of. SO DO THAT. Now if you are a city person. LOOK at where you are there. Are you in a job where you feed people or take care of their money or clean up what they have done??? These are questions you can see. YOU know where you are. IF you are unsure of how to proceede again ASK an older person. KNOWLEDGE has been acquired from many years of experience. An older person has this. The one that is there cooking for many people knows how to cook and how much is to be served.... ask without a qualm. THE one making your paycheck change or input into the bank knows what you need to do to make that work. ASK questions if you are unsure. IF you are unsure of how to clean up what others have left then also ask questions.... THERE are many older persons there who have had these experiences. THEY have learned already how life is handled doing these things. LIFE is only what you make of it. IF you laze around and do nothing then you are a nothing... but Laze. IF YOU push forward and find all the answers as you do things you will be a somebody in anything. JUST DO IT. No pun intended. REALLY you can do anything if you set your mind to it. Have fun doing it. Enjoy what was given to you to do with. LIFE is not a bunch of fun and pleasure by itself. YOU have to work at it. ENJOY. Help others enjoy too. THAT is what lifes meanings are. Help others and you help yourself.

Answer 3

The Islaamic answer is to serve God. But that might not make sense to you, so I'll clarify. How do Muslims serve God?

Islaam means to submit to God's will in peace with gratitude. What is God's will? Here is the easy part. It is to appreciate all the beauty on this earth, and not to destroy things, people or places.

Of course as Muslims the first thing we must do is recognize that God is one and has no partners and that he has sent prophets to guide us.

But advice to a non-Muslim would be really similar. Why? Because if the purpose of life for a Muslim is to praise the beauty and glory in life always, always, always, and be grateful for the good we experience and also for the bad and the lessons and humility that we learn from it, than why not the same for you?

So be grateful for what you have and what you don't. All of this can make you a better person or give you a reward for being humble and kind.

Don't worry about looking for THE purpose in life because there are so many. My mom obssesses with that wondering what God's purpose for HER is. It's so simple and life is meant to be simple.

Just follow the good advice some have given about giving to those who need, whether people or animals or whole communities. And don't do evil. Avoid doing evil things like robbery, rape and murder. (Parking tickets are annyoing but not evil. Don't worry about things like that in terms of good and evil.)

Because there are so many bad doers out there that just avoiding the worst things and pursuing the simple good things in life can give you such bountiful rewards. And don't get bored with it. Be grateful that you have running water and heat in the winter and remember some people who are worse off than you and think about them and their lives really deeply in order to put your boredom in perspective.

May Allah, The Most Merciful, Gracious and Bountiful guide you.

Answer 4

Yes and no...we will all die in the end but if we die too early or too late (according to the theory that everything has a purpose) it will affect someone else...I believe the purpose of life is to find a way to b and stay imortal...for that is the only way u can answer any question...stay alive long enought to gain experience to find a reson for life...but if u r asking this question just remind urself of three things that u should put on ur to do list...

get out of bed,
survive,
go to bed...

Answer 5

This question has been around since the beginning of life I am sure, and If there is one thing I do know and that this question cannot be answered with just one answer.

I say this because life have different meanings to different people, we are not all the same, So I would say that we are all here for different reasons, which makes the meaning of life different for us all.

Once you have figured out what it means to you, then you will be one step closer to knowing what life means to you and why you are here.

I have not figured out why I am here just yet but, the one thing I have figured out and that is that I was put here to meet, fall in love, and marry my husband that has two little girls who needed me as much as I needed them.

I may be helping a famous doctor or lawyer to be in my step daughters.

Answer 6

'The Meaning of Life' is a film by the British comedy troupe Monty Python. It is one of their three feature length films (the other two being 'The Life of Brian' and 'The Holy Grail'), and the only one to be primarilly composed of shorter sketches, rather than a plot driven narrative.

'The Meaning of Life' takes a look at the progression of life from birth to death, including funny takes on all range of things from overeating, to sex education, to organ donation. It is also well known for its soundtrack, which includes many original songs by Monty Python, most notably the 'Every Sperm is Sacred' song.

Answer 7

Well, we all have our own notions of what that reason is. For me personally, I believe it is to grow spiritually and learn for God. I do believe in reincarnation, and the principle of reincarnation is about a person purifying their soul by learning life lessons, helping others, learning from mistakes, going through punishment (once the law of return, a.k.a karma catches up to them). All of us make mistakes, and some of those mistakes is what leads us to keep reincarnating until we pay off our debts, so to speak, and when we do, and the soul is purified enough to be considered "worthy" of transcendence, then we go back home to God. Ultimately, it's about leaving this earth in a better shape upon our departure, through selfless service, charity, and random acts of kindness; we're all one consciousness, and we're all in this game called "life" together, so it's our job to ascend and accelerate human consciousness.

If you're really interested in this topic, I would highly recommend you read some books by Sylvia Browne, who is a world-renowned psychic and a great spiritual teacher.

Answer 8

Not in a position to state any one answer, but in my humble opinion I think our existence is to breed, so that the human race continues to be. The meaning of life is different from one person to another. There's no right or wrong answer, as nobody truely knows.

Answer 9

I've said this before, but I'll try to put a different spin on it;

Learning plays alot in the game of life, because (Again) everything we do, from the time we are born, until the time of death, we learn about ourselves, about the world we live in and the society that it holds. When you wake up and turn on your tv, you learn about current events.(I.E. "What's happening in your world?") And even in conversation, you learn a tid-bit about something.( I.E. "Did you know that "Racecar spelled backwards is still racecar?") So, in general this plays into the meaning of life.

Answer 10

Humans assign 'meanings'...
everything else lives by instinct or inner drive.

Since intellect is a recent addition to life, we have to look at life without intellect and identify it's main activities. Currently our universe is expanding and every organism has a drive to become more complex.

The eternal activity of our universe seems to be a continuous cycle of expansion and contraction ( see 'The Eternal Cycle' http://repetition.freeservers.com/cycle.html ( my writings ).

In a true sense the meaning of life is to be active.