whats the meaning of life?

Question

anyone have any ideas?
and id is true if your not catholic you dont go to heaven?

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

Life just is. As humans, we are less connected to life because we can think and have all this complex crap to deal with. So, we have to try to become more like nature, become more connected. We have to search for the meaning in each little and big thing going on. Everything in our lives reflects our souls so we should understand how. That is the meaning.
I don't believe in religion. It is spirituality for the masses. To me, anything that makes a profit really can't be trusted. Don't you think? If I had the truth, I would not sell it. Anyway, I do like Jesus. And did he ever say any of that brainwashing "won't go to heaven" stuff? No, he never did.

Answer 3

1. Life is the summation of all our choices, actions and interactions with people, nature and the universe.
2. See #1
3. The Catholics think so, but I don't.

Answer 4

Who said it has any? If you want some, you'll have to find or invent your own. It can be just about anything you want it to be.

Catholics and heaven? Just for them? Someone's been filling your head with crap, probably a Catholic.

Answer 5

scripture says all things were created for God's pleasure.
we are to glorify Him in all things... whether good or bad...
b/c " we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are THE CALLED according to his purpose." (rom.8:28)

don't believe the lie that you must be catholic to enter heaven.
that's not what God or any of the apostles said.

you will only enter heaven if you are born again according to scripture. you must obey the Gospel for your name to be written in the Lamb's book of life.
Jesus is coming back for a chaste virgin bride (the saints) ... one without spot.

the LORD does have a warning for those in false doctrine ...

"Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." (rev. 18:4-5)

also, to become a saint of God (a son of God), you have to be born again. all who are born again are saints.

a saint is not someone the catholic church votes into sainthood.
i am sure that greatly grieves God that the catholic church has changed so many things about His truth.
hence, the warning in rev. 18:4-5.

Answer 6

Joy, love, all those squishy emotions. Get the most out of your experience.

So the catholics say. I wouldn't bother taking someone else's word on it. These people have as much experience with a god as you do.

Answer 7

Why does everyone think it has to have meaning at all? There is no heaven, only catholics. I think "42" is the best answer.

Answer 8

To find yourself and God (whatever that is for YOU), and your purpose in the puzzle
Oh yeah and I always thought there was a special section of hell for Catholics

Answer 9

To be best the person you can be in whatever you choose and to know that true happiness comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!

Answer 10

What the recent document from Rome addresses is the more subtle question of the relationship between the Catholic Church and other Christian churches and ecclesial communities. The Church Fathers of the Second Vatican Council taught in Lumen Gentium article # 8 that the Church of Christ "subsists in" the Catholic Church rather than "is" the Catholic Church. This means that the Church of Christ is found in the Catholic Church and is comprised of all those rites that confess the Church to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic, as proclaimed in the Creed, and recognize the Pope as the successor of Peter.

This distinction also recognizes that while the Catholic Church possesses all the constitutive elements of the Church founded by Christ, other Christian communities that have broken communion with the Catholic Church retain many of these same elements of sanctification and truth, including baptism and the transforming presence of Christ in Scripture. As such, the means of salvation in the Lord Jesus are available to non-Catholic Christians since they too have been baptized into the Lord's death and resurrection. This distinction also reminds us, as members of the Catholic Church, that while we have maintained unity with the apostolic church established by Jesus Christ, we are always in need of conversion and repentance both as individuals and as a community of faith.

This observation leads to another important distinction that the document tries to clarify. What is the difference in meaning and application between the terms "church" and "ecclesial community"? In order to understand this distinction, we must remember that there are two essential elements that are necessary to constitute the existence of the Church. They are a validly ordained priesthood that is a necessary prerequisite for a valid celebration of the Eucharist. "Validly ordained bishops, i.e., those who are in the line of apostolic succession, validly confer the three degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1576). If these two essential elements do not exist in any community of Christian believers, they do not form a Church but rather an ecclesial community of Christian faith. Thus, many of our Protestant brothers and sisters, whose communities were formed after the Reformation of the 16th century, are called ecclesial communities because they did not maintain apostolic succession, many do not celebrate all of the seven sacraments or believe all that is maintained in the Creed as handed down to us by the apostles. They remain, however, communities that are vibrant, alive with faith in the Lord Jesus and committed to the Gospel message to evangelize the world.

It is unfortunate that many have understood these recent documents from Rome as representing a retreat in the work of ecumenism. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Pope Benedict XVI, in his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, had this to say about ecumenism and the progress needed to be made, "Union with Christ is also union with all those to whom He gives himself. I cannot possess Christ just for myself; I can belong to Him only in union with all those who have become, or who will become, His own. Communion draws me out of myself towards Him, and thus also towards unity with all Christians" (article #14).

The clear desire that Jesus had at the Last Supper was that all would be one. Perhaps, the Lord foresaw the divisions that would occur among those who would follow Him. How important it is for us today to work for this unity and understanding among ourselves. Unfortunately, human words and theological concepts seldom bring us together. It is the lived relationships of love and acceptance that make us one in Christ and recognize that our faith in Jesus Christ many times goes beyond our theological understanding.

The work of ecumenism, which seeks unity among Christian churches and ecclesial communities, is something that we cannot shy away from. It is to "put out into the deep" and recognize our isolation and work toward the unity that Christ sincerely desired. Pray with me that the work for ecumenism in our own Diocese here in Brooklyn and Queens will bear fruit as we witness the mutual love, concern and respect for all who bear the name of "Christian."

Source(s) Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio

Answer 11

To fulfill a purpose