what is the meaning of life?

Question

You are always told different things and its hard to tell if you are doing things right and everyone seems to have their own opinion

Answer 1

80% of humanity, the religious folks, don't need to ask the meaning of life, the church tells them....the supernatural explanation. But the rest of us can't swallow religious dogma, because there's no evidence. Nobody can prove that there life after death, that people are tortured or rewarded after life or that there's invisible spirits running around.

I've come to two conclusions recently:

1. Life has no meaning
2. Life has a million meanings.

First, there's a certainty that death and annihilation awaits not only you, but the Earth in general. It's an astonomical certainty that our sun will supernova and leave the earth a burnt crisp, not to mention all the other extinction level events around the corner.

Second, the million things that give us meaning are the pleasurable experiences we can conjure up during the short period we are here on the earth, in the form of the relationships we have with our kids and other people, and the 'housekeeping' types of purposes. What i mean by that are the curing disease, ending hunger, improving literacy, reducing crime, preventing war, helping other kinds of things.

So the bottom line is, we only have a temporary meaning to life, to reduce pain and increase pleasure, other than that everything is lost to oblivion.


To be or not to be? "To be" is temporary and "not to be" is inevitable.....

Answer 2

Meaning means different things to different people, but is generally defined as the human purpose for existing. Scott Adams describes Meaning as "serving a purpose larger than yourself."

To discuss the meaning of life, it helps to know what we are talking about. What do we mean by the phrase, "the meaning of life"?

Here are some possibilities:

1. Something to do with personal fulfilment, of having a feeling of value or self-worth.
2. The literal meaning of the word "life".
3. The Ultimate Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

3. Ultimate Answer

42.

Of course, reaching the Ultimate Answer will have no impact on the meaning of your life unless you have discovered the Ultimate Question. Maybe you should start on that first.

Possible Questions can be found here. The most common Question is "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"

Answer 3

The "meaning" of life is not really a valid question. That life should have some kind of purpose is just a construct that humans have overlaid on the universe to try to make sense of it. Asking the meaning of life is kind of like asking the meaning of a rock or a mushroom: they have no "reason" for being there, but are simply a manifestation of the natural world. The only difference with humans is that we have evolved the capability of self-awareness and self-reflection (more specifically we are capable of metacognition or thinking about our own thoughts). It becomes quite apparent to most people that our universe has causes and effects, so it is quite natural for people to question where we came from; what "caused" humans? It is quite difficult for most people to accept the notion that there was no causal agent, but that we are simply the inevitable products of the universe.

Still, with our nice big human brains, the thought that we are going to die and that bad things can happen and nobody is up there watching us to prevent those bad things can be terrifying, so we clutch the idea of deities like an old teddy bear or favorite blanket. We invent gods to make us feel important and loved and not alone. It takes a strong mind and a lot of guts to drop that old worn-out idea and accept life for what it is: a beautiful and exciting reality that we only get to do once through. If we're just suffering through this life, looking forward to some imaginary afterlife, we are guaranteed misery. I guess what I'm trying to say is, there may not be any "meaning" out there that is imposed on us by someone or something else, but if we sculpt our lives into something wonderful, what could be more meaningful? What could be more beautiful than a well-lived life? Give as much love as you can and accept as much as you can carry. Smile. Be generous. Remember birthdays and give encouragement to those around you. If you're not happy with life, do something different. Don't spend one minute in misery more than you have to. Your job here is to make yourself and those around you happy.

Answer 4

The "meaning of life" is different for each person who lives, because as much as people share the same traits, sensibilities, ideas and ideals, we are all individuals with our own unique abilities and reasoning capabilities.

I've always thought that it's our responsibility to live our lives as best we know how and to use what talents we have to the best of our abilities. But, that's just *my* opinion.

Answer 5

Everyone finds their own meaning of life. Some people don't believe there is one. Just remember that hindsight is great. And you're right, everyone does have their own opinion.

Or it could be 42.
(Good answer there, Kyle B.)

Answer 6

The meaning of life is to meet as many different people as you can and to learn from them. It is the only way that there will be peace on earth - if we understand people from different places, cultures and religions. We need to embrace people instead of standing still in our own little worlds! The meaning of life is exploration of places, people and things - and to embrace and ACCEPT our differences.

Answer 7

Doing things right? let's ask "what is right?". I do not think the meaning of life can be measured by 'doing things right.' What is right for your life, the whole of it, is probably not what is right for others. It is a personal thing. If it is the avoidance of death, or a cathartic journey, depends on the life, the person, the thing.

Answer 8

Llife is unique to each one. So one has to discover what is the meaning of his life first, and then go looking for the meaning of life as such. Indeed, there are Philosophical reflections on life, which are rather universal, and you find them more in the Indian Philosophical systems.

Answer 9

How many times people attempts to describe or define the word life…. It’s such a hunger that we may not be able to give exact meanings to it... even efforts may be endless… but what we forget is on what we feel deeply inside… may be then we will know… or better yet may feel what LIFE really is…

Answer 10

That which exhibits the properties of life. Respiration and circulation in human and animals, growth in plant materials.
The absence of these = death the opposite of life.
You see.
As for me, I like the night life, I like to boogie, under the disco light, Yeahhhhhhhhhh!