What is the meaning of life?

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

I think this answer is different for every individual. I must however consider the only two answers that are most common.

1. Some people answer that there is no meaning to life. That we are here due to cosmic chance & probability and that because of the infinite universe the combinations are endless. Now these theories are all but proven. Somebody that discusses these ideas will have proven facts, intelligent theories and also aknowledge that the answer is ultimately unknown.

2. Some people will say that there is a meaning to life given to us by a creator. When people discuss these theories they refer to scripture from documents that are considerably dated. They will not have any proven facts or intelligent theories. The grounds they base their theories on are from magical occurences and mysitcal beings. Being a educated man in the year 2005 I don't see any way that I could beleive in this. I can see why that people agree with these answers though. It provides an absolution. It is comforting thinking there is a reason to getting up every day and commuting to your 9-5 job besides providing for yourself and family.

I think that the only difference between us and ant is we can ask these kinds of questions. But just the same as a ant the meaning of life is a struggle for survival and I think ultimatlely every action we do as individuals and as a whole are for our survival.

Answer 3

Some funny joke would say that the meaning of life is to end. The scientific principle is that the meaning of life is to create another one in order to last for ever. The sane human mind makes a new purpose of life which sometimes is put in a higher priority than the basic scientific purpose of life. The human purpose of life is to live better.

Answer 4

This is one question which will remained un answered till the death comes.

Life is nothing but surviving is the most hardest part of life.
Life is to face the challenges, is to understand grieves, love the love, laugh,take challenges, have an aim, pray as there is an end to every life, believe in the day of judgment, I mean life could be described in many words. I mean The meaning of Life could be molded into several terms or statements or idioms but we can never get the exact meaning of Life~!


L..Love
I...Infinite challenges
F..Forgiveness
E..Enemies to face the grieves.

Answer 5

Regardless of belief the meaning of life is the same, simply: to exist. The universe does not require people, or, to believers, God (and/or the gods, depending upon your belief) does not need humans. We are here simply by the universe (or because of the will of god).

The meaning of life as it applies to society can be a bit different though. From the perspective the meaning of life is for the individual to contribute as much as that individual can to his/her society, and be the best person that he/she can be.

Answer 6

Only you know the meaning of your own life!

Answer 7

To spend my time on Yahoo Answers writing trite responses to the question: "What is the meaning of life?"

Answer 8

So many people ask this question, I've come to think that many aren't serious. Perhaps others feel the same.

If you want serious answers, put more detail into your question. Why are you asking this? What are some of your conclusions.

Answerers will give more thoughtful answers if you give a more thoughtful question.

Answer 9

The answer is 42!

Answer 10

Revelation 4:11 KJV - We were created for God's pleasure. Read the verse in the Bible.

Answer 11

what is up with BAnne? she (or he, i don't even know) says that she/he is an "educated MAN in the year 2005"??!!??! um ok, your avatar is a woman, and your name is anne, and yet, YOU CALL YOURSELF A MAN???!? was that a typo or are you like a transvestyte? weird, man--or woman, i might say. and it ain't 2005! its 2007! wtheck?? that is very confusing. and weirddd!