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)
4 days ago - Report It
2007-09-22 05:03:30
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answer #1
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answered by Jayaraman 7
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To live. To express your being. To have physical experiences and react to them. The reaction then gives you a result. You decide how it relates to you. Then you either move on or you gain wisdom. This wisdom collects throughout your life.
When you die. Your karma or life force has been shaped due to these experiences on Earth. You then add your experiences to the collective consciousness called creation.
You are a piece of that puzzle. And the darkness and pain experienced on Earth can either break you or make you stronger. When you rise above these lessons that are taught. God will ask you if you are through. And if so, you will move on. Or you may decide to try again because you felt that there were more lessons to learn about yourself. Hence, reincarnation.
Without physical interaction your spirit will not grow. Experiences help you understand more about love and evil. Dark and Shadow. You get a miracle of free will and eternal life.
The meaning of life is self discovery. The meaning of spirit is your relation to God and the Universe.
2007-09-22 10:17:48
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answer #2
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answered by Kevin Dellinger 3
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Meaning of Life is = Live for yourself & Give Life to someone & Let others to Live.
2007-09-22 04:05:32
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answer #3
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answered by Rama Krishna 5
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odd question to ask, i have been told the best meening of Life is right there in the middle.....IF........., but would say live your life clean, help those in need, forgive those who bring darkness, respect all for one day you be repayed a thousand times, an last manners!, we are all here on this planet, not sure why but here just the same, so while where here we mite has well dance! god bless!
2007-09-22 04:02:32
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answer #4
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answered by close_my_eyes2002 3
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Being free?
But at the same time prison for a life time?
2007-09-22 07:32:36
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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life is ones chance to live in love.
2007-09-22 04:13:16
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answer #6
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answered by Marcus R. 6
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life is like a drawing that never ends and you will be the one holding the pencil
2007-09-22 04:20:46
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answer #7
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answered by jedi kilo 1
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Life's all about, learning, adapting, changing, and evolving.
2007-09-22 14:16:20
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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To live and learn
2007-09-22 03:58:38
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answer #9
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answered by lexy 3
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the purpose is to go Thur life and to choose the creator or satin-------you go thru ups and down's and good times in order to choose
2007-09-22 04:54:47
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answer #10
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answered by Anonymous
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