what's the meaning of life?

Question

what's the meaning of life?

the hitchhicker's guide to the galaxy is a good movie and the answer is 42. NOT 8 or 32.

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

Many, upon asking themselves, answer this most important of questions with an inspirational statement or two that has applied to their own good and bad experiences in life. While many of these sayings like "be happy", "try your hardest", "never be discouraged" and so forth are ways to help make life more meaningful, they will still leave the question of life nagging indefinitely. As many words as one can say will never bring closure to the question, for the answer is not a logical conclusion that one can share with others.

The "answer" to the meaning of life can only be found within oneself, appearing through the experience of realizing the connection of the core of what makes your being with that of the universe. If you truly want to reach this understanding, you must be willing to disregard all that has come between the pure essence of your existence and the person you have become to function in the world. The door to this journey has been left closed by many more than have opened it, for the idea of making changes and seeing the world in new ways is frightening for those who have made themselves comfortable in their place. When these people are asked your question they will give you a quick and unsatisfying answer.

Try to isolate the feeling that led you to ask your question in the first place and discover where it came from. Only you can find your own way to the one answer.

Answer 3

42

Answer 4

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Answer 5

A book could be written trying to answer this question. Oh, wait - many books HAVE been written trying to answer this question.

Seriously, I believe that there is no ONE answer - it's a personal thing - everyone has to discover the meaning of life for him or herself. And when you find the answer, or think you have, you will likely modify that answer many, many times before the end of your life.

It will take you your entire life to figure out what the meaning of YOUR life is ... and that in itself can provide meaning for life :)

Answer 6

There is no meaning to life unless there is a Creator/God. Meaning comes from living for a purpose and without God, there can be no purpose for purpose requires a plan and a plan requires a planner.

“Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.” –Bertrand Russell

So no God, no purpose, no meaning. Whatever people say about finding it, without God there is nothing to find.

If there is a God, seek Him to find purpose instead of making something up that gives you some meaningless good feeling.

Answer 7

A brilliant film
an even better book,
both with the same title.


Unless you mean what the Hitchhiker through the Galaxy discovers... what was it? Eight?? Thirty two???

If there is a meaning, I'm pretty sure you won't find it on answers.yahoo.com, sorry.

Good luck anyway,

Anna

Answer 8

there is no secret to living. just keep on walking

if you like the movie, the book is a thousand times better. and there's a whole set of them.

Answer 9

Experiencing constant change and evolving to meet the challenges, good or bad.

Answer 10

"Make Your Groove-in-the-Wax Usable for Future Generations"

Answer 11

Everyone wants to be happy, but life is full of suffering. That's it.