Whats the meaning of life?

Question

juz curious...lol

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

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

Life is such a broad word.
It could allude to a breakfast cereal, a board game, and that thing your weird cousin tells you you need to get.
Oh yeah, it's a very broad word,
Some people find themselves getting lost in it, while others decide it's better to rid themselves of it altogether, because they believe 'it' is a mean bully. Some love it, some miss it, and some wonder needlessly and annoyingly whether or not it truly has a meaning. What do I think?
Well,
The needle on a compass always points north.

Answer 4

The meaning of life my friend is that your a living thing and as long as your living your in life and as long as your living your surrounded by living things. But, you only get "one life to live" so, live it good. Oh sorry you said whats the meaning, well it could mean that God and Jenus just wanted life to look more interesting by creating a bunch of little people, like us.

Answer 5

If you really found out what the meaning of life was, then life would have no meaning. Live it the best you can. And, if you knew what the meaning of life was, you would cease to exist

Answer 6

This is my favorite question. Since the beginning of time we as human beings have looked for an answer to your question. IN reality when a person asks this question they aren't actually concerned with a general answer having to do with the human race as a whole. Instead we tend to wonder what the meaning of life is for us individually. Well if you look at it from an individual stand point then it would make sense to say that the meaning of life for an individual is to live life without regrets, to be as happy as possible. Pretty much that is all there is to it. But when we minimize this question to fit us as individuals we run into other issues such as "I don't know what makes me happy" for example. So instead what i have done is focused on the greater scale of things. As a people our goal in life is to leave an enlightened legacy behind. We must ensure that we assist future generations evolve into a species which will enhance our universe not hinder it. So with that in mind we can take this Macro cosmic example and flip to a more Microscopic explanation. If you believe in Einstein's theory of relativity then we can safely say that to a Macrocosm is the Microcosmic twin. And example can be seen of this in our own Universe when compared to the inside of our bodies. The universe has many bodies of life residing within as do our own bodies which harbor and support many other microorganisms. So in retrospect if our meaning in life as a species it to enlighten and reserve a protective seat in the grander scheme of things for future generations then on a smaller scale we must do the same for ourselves. If you don't know what makes you happy then make an effort of a goal to find something that does. Be kind to yourself by giving yourself options to choose from. You will never know what is out there waiting for you until you get out there and try something new. Someone once posed the question "What is the meaning of life?". And i responded "To Love". Love yourself....first and foremost you need to understand that life is worth living and you are a beautiful person who has ALOT of love to give. Our universe works in a way that returns the love you emit a thousand fold. Don't give up on love....and hey. Everything is gonna be alright.

Answer 7

PHILOSOPHICALLY:
To enjoy it while it lasts and explore the richness of life in every corner. To learn every bit of information there is in the world during your life. To love others and experience what makes us human, both the good and the bad. And to make an impact in history in a small way or in a legendary way. To feel the philosophy or religion of the great surround us and either accept it or just grasp the knowledge. Or like you, to sate your curiosity of the everyday mysteries of life that lurk everywhere. And in fact life does not even have to relate to god (whether you believe or not, it's fine).

SCIENTIFICALLY:
The big bang and from the first organisms. So saying overall that there really is no meaning.

COMICALLY:
The answer 42 from the book "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy", which the mouse or rats conceived of. And other random crap like that.

PERSONALLY:
It depends on each and every one of us. Based on what we like, want, need, have, and believe.

Answer 8

Life is God's basic training ground you have been put in to face many challenges--some custom designed by Him--to see how you do before facing Judgement Day.

God, besides being the Creator of everything, is probably the wisest sociologist ever.

What happens should you "pass" life's basic training course? Now THAT is a good coffee table discussion.

Answer 9

To learn what you are supposed to accomplish in your current life, and if you need inspiration from a past life than that helps a lot.

And in the case of reincarnation, it's a practically never-ending cycle until you learn all your lessons and reach your highest point.

Answer 10

To be at peace and content in the moment, no matter whether that moment is spent in the throes of passion, winning an Academy Award, or just cleaning the oven (which you really, really, REALLY hate).

When you can find peace and contentment in the midst of cleaning the oven, you will know the meaning of life.

Appreciate the joy of living, and relish in it. No matter how mundane.

Answer 11

There is no inherent meaning to life. Everyone defines his or her own meaning of life by the actions he or she takes.