So the meaning of life?...?

Question

When this question is asked you receive many answers does this mean everyone has a differnt meaning (im inclined to think so) or that everyone is wrong and they havent found it. Or perhaps one of them has found it, and if so how do you know which one it is.

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

Real meaning comes from living for a real purpose.

“Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.” –Bertrand Russell (noted philosopher, mathematician and Nobel Laureate)

So no God, no purpose, no meaning, no point to life. There is nothing out there to be found.

I see some answer that there is no meaning to life and we can say that but we can't live without a purpose. We just can't bear such a superficial existence as to live for our own selfish happiness. So if we can't have real purpose, we invent our own and pretend that it is important enough for our life. So what these people out there are telling you is some behavior that brings them good but meaningless feelings.

But if we admit that God might exist, then that changes everything. If God exists, then He must have put our great need for meaning into our nature to point us to seek Him.

So seek God or seek meaningless feelings. Those are the two choices open to us.

Answer 3

It may not be about finding the "true" meaning, but making your own meaning.

Find the angle with which you are most comfortable, fulfilled, and happy to look at life. I think that everyone's different ideas about truth and meaning are all just looking at the same thing from different perspectives.

Answer 4

There may well be some objective, external "meaning" assigned to our lives by forces beyond our comprehension. Even so, the only meaning we can ever know for our lives is the meaning which we, ourselves, assign to them. Whatever machinations beings beyond our ability to perceive may have in store for us, we cannot know them, and so can only do the next best thing - and that is to plot our -own- course in life. Gods and supreme beings notwithstanding, it's all we have - even if our sense of control is illusory, it is all we really can glimpse of the full picture.

Answer 5

Everybody lives their life differently, so naturally their perception of it will not be the same.
Me, I believe we are alive just so we can exist.
It's been argued that I only think this 'cause it's easy to believe, that I'm always overly simplifying everything.
But, what if everyone else is just taking things too seriously?
It's impossible to say who is right and who is wrong,
So we all have to rely on our beliefs, our mules.

Answer 6

this question has been asked over centuries!!!

i believe that, yes indeed, everyone does have a differnt meaning of life...

or, at least, a different purpose... a different purpose for each individual... thats how i see it...

but, does meaning mean purpose? well... it really does depend on how u look at it... huh?

truthfully... it all depends on ur view of things... of ur view on truth, religion, and just about everything else...

Answer 7

My meaning of life may be different to yours. I doesn't mean either of us are wrong. I just means every one is different!

z

Answer 8

You put all the answers to that question on a dart board and throw a dart to pick the best answer............

Answer 9

raised by your parents, cared for you, worked for you and they say if you're bad, you're dumped in hell..what do you think?..what's the meaning of life if that's so?..life is meaningless..

Answer 10

That there is no meaning

Answer 11

You are born, you live , you die..
Enjoy it while you can..
There is no meaning...