what is the meaning of life?

Question

the most logical answer to this question is the question itself.

i think

Answer 1

The philosophical question "What is the meaning of life?" means different things to different people. The vagueness of the query is inherent in the word "meaning", which opens the question to many interpretations, such as: "What is the origin of life?", "What is the nature of life (and of the universe in which we live)?", "What is the significance of life?", "What is valuable in life?", and "What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?". These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations.

These questions are separate from the scientific issue of the boundary between things with life and inanimate objects.
Popular beliefs
"What is the meaning of life?" is a question many people ask themselves at some point during their lives, most in the context "What is the purpose of life?" Here are some of the many potential answers to this perplexing question. The responses are shown to overlap in many ways but may be grouped into the following categories:

Survival and temporal success
...to live every day like it is your last and to do your best at everything that comes before you
...to be always satisfied
...to live, go to school, work, and die
...to participate in natural human evolution, or to contribute to the gene pool of the human race
...to advance technological evolution, or to actively develop the future of intelligent life
...to compete or co-operate with others
...to destroy others who harm you, or to practice nonviolence and nonresistance
...to gain and exercise power
...to leave a legacy, such as a work of art or a book
...to eat
...to prepare for death
...to spend life in the pursuit of happiness, maybe not to obtain it, but to pursue it relentlessly.
...to produce offspring through sexual reproduction (alike to participating in evolution)
...to protect and preserve one's kin, clan, or tribe (akin to participating in evolution)
...to seek freedom, either physically, mentally or financially
...to observe the ultimate fate of humanity to the furthest possible extent
...to seek happiness and flourish, experience pleasure or celebrate
...to survive, including the pursuit of immortality through scientific means
...to attempt to have many sexual conquests (as in Arthur Schopenhauer's will to procreate)
...to find and take over all free space in this "game" called life
...to seek and find beauty
...to kill or be killed
...No point. Since having a point is a condition of living human consciousness. Animals do not need a point to live or exist. It is more of an affliction of consciousness that there are such things as points, a negative side to evolutionary development for lack of better words.

Wisdom and knowledge
...to master and know everything
...to be without questions, or to keep asking questions
...to expand one's perception of the world
...to explore, to expand beyond our frontiers
...to learn from one's own and others' mistakes
...to seek truth, knowledge, understanding, or wisdom
...to understand and be mindful of creation or the cosmos
...to lead the world towards a desired situation
...to satisfy the natural curiosity felt by humans about life

Ethical
...to express compassion
...to follow the "Golden Rule"
...to give and receive love
...to work for justice and freedom
...to live in peace with yourself and each other, and in harmony with our natural environment
...to protect humanity, or more generally the environment
...to serve others, or do good deeds

Religious and spiritual
...to find perfect love and a complete expression of one's humanness in a relationship with God
...to achieve a supernatural connection within the natural context
...to achieve enlightenment and inner peace
...to become like God, or divine
...to glorify God
...to experience personal justice (i.e. to be rewarded for goodness)
...to experience existence from an infinite number of perspectives in order to expand the consciousness of all there is (i.e. to seek objectivity)
...to be a filter of creation between heaven and hell
...to produce useful structure in the universe over and above consumption (see net creativity)
...to reach Heaven in the afterlife
...to seek and acquire virtue, to live a virtuous life
...to turn fear into joy at a constant rate achieving on literal and metaphorical levels: immortality, enlightenment, and atonement
...to understand and follow the "Word of God"
...to discover who you are
...to resolve all problems that one faces, or to ignore them and attempt to fully continue life without them, or to detach oneself from all problems faced

Philosophical
...to give life meaning
...to participate in the chain of events which has led from the creation of the universe until its possible end (either freely chosen or determined, this is a subject widely debated amongst philosophers)
...to know the meaning of life
...to achieve self-actualisation
...all possible meanings have some validity
...life in itself has no meaning, for its purpose is an opportunity to create that meaning, therefore:
...to die
...to simply live until one dies (there is no universal or celestial purpose)
...nature taking its course (the wheel of time keeps on turning)
...whatever you see you see, as in "projection makes perception"
...there is no purpose or meaning whatsoever
...life may actually not exist, or may be illusory )
...to contemplate "the meaning of the end of life"

Other
...to contribute to collective meaning ("we" or "us") without having individual meaning ("I" or "me")
...to find a purpose, a "reason" for living that hopefully raises the quality of one's experience of life, or even life in general
...to participate in the inevitable increase in entropy of the universe
...to make conformists' lives miserable
...to make life as difficult as possible for others (i.e. to compete) -

Answer 2

Is there some law that says we have to have some meaning in life? What if there isn't any meaning? And why should there be?
Actually the question from a yogic standpoint points to an undernourished personality that hungers for something like "Why do I exist" and "Is there a God" etc etc. Questions fulfilled not by more semantic stimulation but some real hard work at avoiding allowing oneself to fall into such depressions in the first place. Once there it becomes a vicious circle where the social interchange becomes more of a "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. But will it replace that space where the feeling of some purpose in life is important for one to feel like one is doing something and the question falls into the ridiculous area of redundancy and boredom were it not for the fact that most people go through life like this. The meaning of life is in the very existence of life itself and has never been absent except for the conscious level that uses these words to maintain control of some reality or other, not really addressing literally the reality.

Answer 3

Eternal question. So here we go ... I think it is a gift. With so much to experience it is difficult to appreciate the complexity. It takes a lifetime.

As computers develop the speed increases over time. Processing speed goes up. But they are still slow. Our brains process so much information in one second it is incredible. We think of it as "normal" .. but as an engineer I think of it as phenomenal. The brain is still the fastest super computer on the planet. We need it to experience the gift.

Why have we been given this gift? I think it is an expression of love by our Creator.

Many people who live do not enjoy their time on Earth. I think somehow - they will have another chance. If not in this life .. then the next.

Answer 4

From the religious standpoint, I'm just making this up, but here it goes:
In the beginning, God created Man. He did this so that we may believe in him and therefore perpetuate his existence and allow him to grow.
Belief in God is spread through religion. Religion is spread through war. History progresses through conflict (war), therefore, history progresses through religion.
Basically, God created man so that we may perpetuate his existence through war-like means. That sounds weird, but okay.
Alternatively, according to George Carlin, in the beginning, when the Earth was formed, the great Gia wanted the Earth to have a little bit of everything in it's ecosystem. However, Gia couldn't figure out how to make plastic. That's why Gia put us on the Earth. Gia knew that we would be able to figure it out, so that in a few million years, when we go extinct, all of our plastic will be left behind and the Earth will have everything. So why are we here? Plastic.
From a scientific standpoint: No reason at all.

Answer 5

Personal opinion: I think the meaning of life is to make at least one person feel as best as possible. I'm not talking about love, I'm saying we should all try to make one other person's life better than our own. That way, the world will be slightly more happy. Of course it isn't all that simple, but I like this idea the best.

Answer 6

.....This this classic big question of all time. But there is no universal answer out there that everyone should know about.

The truth is, you're responsible for your own life. A part of that is, you have to discover for yourself what you want your life to mean. The answer will come to you based on what's important to you, what you want to do with your life...which, by the way, is relatively short, as you will discover. You don't want to waste it, so choose well! But it's up to you. You have to answer this question for yourself, as well all do.

Unless, of course, you decide to let one of the religions give you the answer, instead. Many, many people do that, you know.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Life is pointless so get used to it. Just see mine now as an exercise in hedonism. Keep your profile low so you don't upset any of the other silly sods around you and just get on with it. Don't worry, it probably won't last to long.

Answer 9

To survive and reproduce. Any other emotions, feelings or interests are derivisions or the innate drive to survive and reproduce.

Answer 10

It's whatever you want it to be, but the answer is just as pointless and meaningless as the question itself.

TRUE TRUE TRUE

Answer 11

* To survive
* To contribute something to society, that will help future generations
* To make mistakes, and learn from them