What is the meaning of life?

Question

I've sat down for ages at a time trying to figure it out and sometimes I get close to a reasonable idea.... but then I always come back to the point that there isn't a point!!! It's pointless!!! What do you think?

Answer 1

There are two different concepts involved, real meaning and the feeling or illusion of meaning.

Real meaning logically can only come from living for a real purpose and real purpose can only come from our Creator. The word purpose answers the questions, "why was I put on this earth?" and "what am I supposed to do here?". If we reject the idea of God, then we have no more real purpose than let's say a rock on Mars.

Evolution is a mindless natural process just as weather is a mindless natural process. Evolution can no more grant us purpose than a storm can grant purpose to a rain drop. So neither life nor death nor reproduction nor survival are purposes.

Here's what the atheist Bertram Russell tells us about purpose:

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


But our human nature demands that our lives have worth and that requires living for a purpose. If we reject the idea of God, we will invent some purpose and imagine that it is real. So while we can't create real meaning, we can create the illusion. Here is how that can work:

>Do something worthy of praise such as volunteering to mentor inner city youth.
>Next, give yourself praise and imagine others giving you praise.
>Your mind will automatically connect praise with self worth and self worth with purpose (mentoring inner city youth). Presto, the illusion of a purposeful life.

I don't know if God exists or not but I'm not willing to deceive myself and try and create my own purpose for being here on earth. I would rather seek God even not knowing if He exists.

Answer 2

Whoever said life was supposed to come with a pre-decided meaning?

This isn't a fair question, since it's really a distillation of all sorts of other questions about life. People asking it are really asking, what is the 'good' sort of life to lead, or what am I supposed to be doing with my life to succeed in every truly important aspect of it; and those are not questions where one answer will ever satisfy everyone, because we're all so different.

The good news is that when you find meaning in something, you can make it a bigger part of your life. People often choose the careers they do for that reason - for some, it's helping others. For others, it's expressing themselves. Sartre argued that we must learn to cope with the bleak realities of a universe that doesn't actually care one way or another if we live or die, and certainly doesn't provide an instruction manual or a prescribed "point". But that also gives us a large degree of freedom in determining just how we will spend the time we have in life.

Answer 3

There is no universal meaning of life (except maybe 42.) It's up to each person to decide what they think they are supposed to do with their life.

I used to think the point of my life was to go places, find out things, and wherever possible, to tell people about it. Now I have a daughter, so that's been modified to learning different ideas and skills so I'll be able to bring my daughter up to be an "accomplished" woman. I guess what "accomplished" entails is going to vary between people too.

Answer 4

That's actually a good question I don't have an answer for I mean you only life once so how come not all life can be good not so painful difficult and no early death....good question

Answer 5

The Meaning of Life is Meaning of Us.

Answer 6

the meaning of life can be found on every page of yahoo philosophy. just scroll through every page and you will find a whole host of answers...most of which are profoundly inane, moronic and a clear indication that there is very very little intelligence on yahoo answers!

meaning of life for me? identical blonde twins. need i say more?

Answer 7

I think we find out or get a good idea in our death beds. Only God knows truly.

Answer 8

the answer is 42

Answer 9

to evolve, one persons life is meaningless, it is the survival of the species as a whole

Answer 10

the period during which something is functional