What is the meaning of life?

Question

Answer pleez!

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

'Meaning' is something humans worry about because we have complex language, and the ability to think about the future. We're good at putting meaning into everything, and we're constantly checking to see what the future might hold for us.

If we pluck a flower and wear it, it ceases to be just a flower, but becomes an ornament and a message to others. When we cook food or wear clothes, or decorate our homes, or teach our children, or have fun with our friends we are also making messages.

So it's natural to ask "what is the message I am making from my whole life", and "what messages is the world sending me about the future?" Both of those questions are hidden in your question "what is the meaning of life?"

But the two questions have two different answers. My answer to the first question is: You can make whatever message you want out of your whole life. Indeed, you can make more than one message. It's your life. Make it say what you want to.

My answer to the second question is: It's a big world, and lots of people live in it. We are all reading the world for messages about the future - and we are also writing messages into the world as we live in it. As well, the world itself is doing what it does anyway - and we can sometimes work out where it's going, though we can't always work out why.

It's valuable to keep track of where things are going, but it's important to realise that the only say we have is in the messages we write. So write the messages you would like other people to read. :D

Good luck!

Answer 3

Well, being the expert that I have become over many years, I can say without a doubt the purpose of living varies depending on my mood!
The meaning of life is most often, to me, to contribute to making the world a more decent place for us all to live, and that includes all species, not just humans. It requires a degree of creativity beyond just getting by and being a consumer.
Years ago, I would have said it would be important to reproduce, but having done that, lol, I am not sure that is really the meaning of life. while parenting can offer some satisfaction and plenty of frustration, it doesn't really hit the core answer of why am I living. Unless I am here to tend to the immature young adults in my house...
okay, what is the real meaning??? I want to know!!!

Answer 4

Wow. That's a rather large question, even for a community as large as this. I would say we are born and we exist to make a positive impact on this earth. Life is here for us to take in. We are to put others above ourselves and take memories with us from every experience we have. If you can make one person remember you forever for how you helped them, or listened, or enlightened, you've found it. I also think we're connected to the earth in a way the meaning of life has something to do with remembering all the natural beauty around us and being grateful to be alive.

Answer 5

42

Answer 6

Good question!I don't have room for such a question BUT I wrote an essay and that was the title, if care to read a long dissertation go to this link (my web page) and click "Other Essays and click "The Meaning of Life."

http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~ljb79/

Summery: To die before you die; to awaken from the dream, and become conscious.

Answer 7

Life itself

Answer 8

Just enjoy the journey and follow the Golden Rule. And eat plenty of fiber to keep yourself regular.

Answer 9

life is so you can totally totally enjoy each and every experience to the fullest enjoyment you can possibly imaging. we just get in the way of the experience. its our job to let it happen without thinking of anything else. its so hard you have to pretend its all right and strangly enough once you pretend something magic happens.... it starts to happen . try it.

Answer 10

Catholics believe the meaning of human life is to know and love God.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/prologue.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 11

hmmm the meaning of life..thats deep. i think everyone has their own opinion as to what this means, but to me, the meaning of life to have fun, embrace mistakes, and live each day to the fullest. hope this helps! :)