do any animals ever ask themselves whats the meaning of life?!?

Answer 1

Nope they already know.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 2

I can simply say no, and the discussion will end here. But there is something more interesting to be found through thinking like this. And I can take this as an arbitrary situation where I can allow myself to think like animals about life, as if this has never been tried before! The fact is that life to animals is not a question at all, and whatever the meaning to their life may be they know so well that there is no room for questions; they just live it all out. The reason we ask questions about life, like what is the meaning of life, or what is the purpose of life, is that we are displaced a little by our own thinking. We for example, unlike animals, are capable of thinking something else and doing the other later. We can change the way we think about things and this is what makes us capable of duplicity in our thinking; sometimes we think old times were good, or sometimes we hope for better days to come. We compare different ways of looking at the same thing, our life. Sometime we are unable to decide what is good for us and what is bad, making us ask questions about life, what is it after all?

Answer 3

I'm going to assume that you mean 'non-human animals'.

It's not really a philosophical question. Philosophy deals with questions that humans ask themselves. Animals may ask themselves what the meaning of life is, but nobody has yet observed them doing so, so we just don't know and it's therefore pointless to speculate about it. Even the most intelligent chimps, trained in the use of sign language, have still not been able to ask questions much more complicated than 'Can I have another banana?' It's a fair step from there to 'Why am I alive?'

So the answer is, we don't know, but it doesn't look like it.

Answer 4

I find this a very patronising question. Of course I want to understand the meaning of life but Monty Python is only available on Bravo late at night, well past my bed time. There has to be more to life than chasing a half inflated basket ball round the garden, chasing trains and eating dog food. I mean, what is the point of it all. I'm a Border Collie, working dog and I live in a house where the only sheep I see are Shaun and his mates, if I'm lucky. I'm not even allowed to watch my favourite programme, 1 man and his dog, because I bark at the telly when the whistling starts.

Answer 5

That is one of the main indicators that humans posess a soul/spirit; we are able to worship, to question our existance and to wonder what will happen after we've gone.

To the best of our knowledge, we are the only creature capable of this ability. There has never been a single case of a non-human animal building a shrine or altar and yet in every archeological dig, something similar to the above has always been a focal point of every settlement, village etc.

Answer 6

How would we ever know the answer to this question unless we could communicate with the animals verbally? To my knowledge there are no such people, if there were, they'd be well famous don't you think. Everybody would go to them instead of going to the vets to find out how their pets etc were feeling etc. I do think it's a pity as some animals are a lot wiser than a lot of people.

Answer 7

I think animals mostly live "in the moment" and don't ponder things like the meaning of life

Answer 8

I can't document what animals ask themselves; nor what they ask each other; but my guess is YES, they do ask themselves and each other what is the meaning of life !!

Answer 9

If humanity knew animals were capable of rational thought then we could answer that question with clarity but until then I think your going to have to wait.

Answer 10

Humans are considered animals, so yes. You will have to find some four legged ones and ask them , I bet you'll get no response.

Answer 11

My pet fish did... In fact, he set off on an adventure to discover life's true meaning. He jumped out of the tank and died.