What is your answer to the question 'what is the meaning of life?'?

Question

How would you try explain the 'meaning' of life to a person from outside of this world?
-and-
How it is perfect for you?

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

If you were trying to explain it to someone else, not of this world... wouldn't they be living as well, and would already have their own ideals as to what the meaning is?

There is no perfection in life, it just is. Unless you believe in Divine intervention or creationism. And even then, God apparently is not perfect either. Look at the Duck Billed Platypus or George Bush, Jr. Who would create that kind of crap??

:o)

Answer 3

There is only one answer, I don't know why this question is sooo hard. Our purpose in life is to do what we were created to do.

Our purpose is to glorify God. In this alone will you find true happiness.

People say that the meaning in life is to be happy, yet nothing of this world will make you happy.

Does money make you happy? Are rich celebrities happy? NO! They die of drug overdoses and have lives much more screwed up then our own.

Does knowledge make you happy? You will never be able to know everything, so your purpose will never be complete and thus you will not be happy. Your only chance is for you to act on your knowledge.

Will religion make you happy? True Christians have an inner peace that the Holy Spirit provides, which is the only way truly happiness exists. Some other religions boast of happiness, but the God shaped hole still exists inside of them.

So in effect, it circles around. You will only find true happiness when you fulfill your purpose in life, which is to glorify God will your entire life. Any other fleeting pleasures are just that, temporary illusions of mindless pleasure.

Answer 4

Why are we here? What's life all about?
Is God really real, or is there some doubt?
Well, tonight, we're going to sort it all out,
For, tonight, it's 'The Meaning of Life'.

What's the point of all this hoax?
Is it the chicken and the egg time? Are we just yolks?
Or, perhaps, we're just one of God's little jokes.
Well, ça c'est le 'Meaning of Life'.

Is life just a game where we make up the rules
While we're searching for something to say,
Or are we just simply spiralling coils
Of self-replicating DNA. Nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay.

In this 'life', what is our fate?
Is there Heaven and Hell? Do we reincarnate?
Is mankind evolving, or is it too late?
Well, tonight, here's 'The Meaning of Life'.

For millions, this 'life' is a sad vale of tears,
Sitting 'round with rien nothing to say
While the scientists say we're just simply spiralling coils
Of self-replicating DNA. Nay, nay, nay, nay, nay, nay.

So, just why-- why are we here,
And just what-- what-- what-- what do we fear?
Well, ce soir, for a change, it will all be made clear,
For this is 'The Meaning of Life'. C'est le sens de la vie.
This is 'The Meaning of Life'.

credits to Eric Idle and the rest of Monty Python

Answer 5

There are two completely different concepts. One is philosophical and the other psychological.

The philosophic question is "what were we put on earth to do?". The psychological question is "what will give us good feelings about ourselves?"

Self-deception is an essential element in our acceptance of self praise and the praise of others as evidence of meaning and worth. That is basic psychology.

But if you want to talk about the philosophic concept, then consider this:

“Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.” –Bertrand Russell (20th century philosopher, mathematician and Nobel Laureate)

Answer 6

Its all in the question, "What" IS the meaning of life. by this i mean the notion of what is the meaning of life, to ask or to find out, and to bring about something from this. Basically, to be constructive or build constructs in many ways: Religion could be deemed good because you are building a construct in your mind that is suppose to benefit mankind, or simply building your own ethical construct. every creature constructs things but humans have the choice to be positively constructive or negatively constructive. This difference of knowing what is going to be positive is what separates us from the animals. I have not written this to clearly sorry.

Answer 7

I think life is to expereince different things. Our soul gets stronger when we are dealt with challenges. Who really knows for sure what is afterwards, but if our souls move onto Heaven, another world, demension or whatever, what we expereinced here must come into play somehow. I guess it depends on what religion you follow or if your an athiest. We will all find out eventually.

Answer 8

there is no meaning. we are just here. we try and enjoy our stay. then we die. life is perfect when you can honestly say you have cried, laughed, feared, hoped, dreamed, and all the other emotions. because that is the true experience of being here. to find oneself before we are lost again. hahaha good question but i can never explain things well. i just smile =D

Answer 9

Definitely 42.

Answer 10

The meaning of life is to find out who you are, where you came from , and where you're going. This is a lifetime pursuit of learning, and just when you think you have it figured out, the rules change.

Answer 11

The meaning to life is the procreation of the species,,the same as it is for every living thing on this and all planets