what is the meaning of life?

Answer 1

Go to work and spend all your money. That's about it.

Answer 2

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 3

That question drove me crazy five years ago trying to figure out what to do with my life and what to major in the university.

I ended up majoring in Philosophy. Now that questions doesn't bother me at all anymore. Not sure if it was because I was too over depressed through my college years or was it because I realized there are so much uncertainty over what I can really know...or maybe because I've arrived to some answer.

It seems to me nothing in this world really quite matters anymore (at least that's how it feels like) since there're so much unknowns. But one thing is quite directly important -- the feeling of content instead of emptiness (which leads to pain).

This emptiness, I came to equalize with boredom or some thinks it's loneliness. What about a "heart/mind that is lack of occupance"? Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer'd say intellectual happiness is best way to fight the pain from boredom (http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/s... ) while writer like Dale Carnegie, author of "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living", acknowledge the pain from borement, but suggest more general solution of finding something you like doing or making boring duties fun. Some Christian'd say God has made a hole in your heart in which nothing can fill it except your belief in God and have Him close to your heart. Others might say the purpose of life is love. You need to find your soul mate. Some might add to it that evolution give us the purpose of nothing but reproduction and survival anyway.

I think which ever path or paths you takes, the remedy behind is to have something that fills and attract your mind into. Intellectual pursuit, lover, hobbies, God. When you have something to go after (and also something that is fruitful, something that won't lead you to terrible consequences and something you truely bring you content consistently, continuously and sustainably). The question as to whether there is a purpose of life doesn't matters anymore... maybe because you've found it. (Have I been going in a big circle?)

Answer 4

Man you gotta wonder how many times this question has been posted.

I have pondered this question, and came to conclusions, shared them with others and been told i am wrong, so i pondered more.

I have come to one idea.

The meaning of life shall be different for us all, as the many answers here will also dictate.

To some love, peace, war, rage, happiness etc, so many labels can be thrown at it.

The meaning of life is within us all, it i within our per-verbal hearts, it is individual it is collective, it is us.

Answer 5

Go to www.howtobehappy.org and check out Michael Anthony's book "How to Be Happy and Have Fun Changing the World". You'll find all the answers you need.

Answer 6

42

Answer 7

The meaning of life is to be a sentient being and continue to live.

"...To strive; to seek; to find and not to yield."

Answer 8

Those who understand life truly, do not dwell upon the .subject of life,

Answer 9

Life is about fulfilling out God's plan for you

Answer 10

As an eloquent rapper once said, "life ain't nothin' but bit**es and money."