So what's the meaning of life?

Answer 1

It means that if you have to ask you are not living well

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.


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

Answer 3

A lot of information on this can probably be found at the link below, though you'll have to do some digging.

The meaning of life is whatever you define it as. You can believe that you were pre-destined to do something upon birth, you can believe that there is no meaning to life at all beyond death, you can believe that it's to procreate, you can believe that your meaning will be defined as you move along in life, believe whatever you want. It all depends on what works for you and what works for any specific beliefs you may have (e.g. religious and philosophical beliefs).

As far as meaning of life that can be proven, universally and for every individual, there is none, just as there is no religion that can be definitively proven universally. It's all a matter of what you believe, so you have to find all of this out for yourself.

But it certainly doesn't mean you're not living well or correctly if you have to ask this question.

Answer 4

According to Victor Frankl, the lack of meaning is an "existential vacuum". Dr. C. George Boeree paraphrases Dr. Frankl saying, "if meaning is what we desire, then meaninglessness is a hole, an emptiness, in our lives. So we attempt to fill our existential vacuums with “stuff” that, because it provides some satisfaction, we hope will provide ultimate satisfaction as well: We might try to fill our lives with pleasure, eating beyond all necessity, having promiscuous sex, living “the high life;” or we might seek power, especially the power represented by monetary success; or we might fill our lives with “busy-ness,” conformity, conventionality; or we might fill the vacuum with anger and hatred and spend our days attempting to destroy what we think is hurting us.

"...(M)eaning is something to discover rather than to invent." (1975, p. 113) It has a reality of its own, independent of our minds. Like an embedded figure or a "magic eye" picture, it is there to be seen, not something created by our imagination. We may not always be able to bring the image -- or the meaning -- forth, but it is there. It is, he says, "...primarily a perceptual phenomenon. " (1975, p. 115 Frankl, V. E. (1975). The Unconscious God: Psychotherapy and Theology. New York: Simon and Schuster. (Originally published in 1948 as Der unbewusste Gott. Republished in 1997 as Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning.)

Answer 5

You need to know the meaning of life, fine then. It means to live with what you have got, even if it bothers you. Life is a mixture of JOYS as well as SORROWS. So live life as it comes. Life need not be defined, for each one has an opportunity to experience it and understand it on their own. Take care.

Answer 6

There has no meaning if you search it in other people lives...it comes from deep inside of you. Don't ever search by comparing...don't ever think your neighbor is much more happy than you are ...you will get lost in watching other;s lives and not yours. "The meaning "is different for everyone...think of the ascetic people that found their meaning in that search of becoming one...one with themselves...one with the nature...one with God...for most of us sounds like a huge sacrifice ...
I say the meaning is ...TO EXPERIENCE what you already know...you know that you can be compassionate but if you don't do any acts of compassion you will never really know what that is...i know about love but if you don't feel is is useless... first is the general knowledge after that is the experience and that the change in you or in other's life. The meaning is to create that person you want to be...not to discover yourself but to create it.

Answer 7

The question implies that life was created with some intention, but that presumes a purposeful creation.

If by 'meaning' you are thinking of significance, then just being alive is, in itself, significant. Especially since we don't know how it all began.

Answer 8

The meaning of life is to live your life to the fullest it can be.

Answer 9

42, according to A Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, lol.

To be serious I believe the meaning of life is to enjoy it while you have it as best as you can.

Answer 10

To grow up, go to school, become an adult, work, get lucky and have a couple of kids, pay taxes, pay more taxes, get divorced pay taxes, child support, pay more taxes, get a second job because all your money is gone from your fist job, pay more taxes, put your kids through school, pay taxes, hope one day you can retire, pay taxes on your retirement money, go back to work because you cannot live on your retirement money, pay more taxes, then die.....and leave your family paying all your bills and your taxes because you still owe money for dieing.