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)
2007-11-09 19:21:19
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answer #1
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answered by Jayaraman 7
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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.....
2007-11-10 20:59:10
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answer #2
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answered by Its not me Its u 7
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I think, personally, that the meaning if life is to make a difference in someone else's life. Life is all about making the most of it, living to the full extent, and doing something worth while. Now, I don't mean something for which everyone is going to praise you, nor do I mean something that will make you famous. It could be as easy as asking someone who's sitting alone to sit with you, or carrying an old lady's bags for her. I think that life is all about living .
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
- Mother Teresa
2007-11-09 22:37:50
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answer #3
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answered by Katrina 2
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in my opinion there is no meaning. existence in the sense of living things is a mistake. scientist believe the first pieces of life where made in a lightning storm. if are existence is a mistake then we would have no meaning. in a million years when the sun blows up and consumes this planet we will all die. there will be nothing else in existence to remember what we were and what we did. and even if there is something that will remember us, in a billion years when this universe falls back into the single point we can from, all will be destroyed anyway and nothing else will be left to remember.
so my answer is, there cant be meaning if all will end.
2007-11-09 23:31:31
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answer #4
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answered by Mr. Midget 3
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Life is fragile.
We need each other.
The purpose of each is to support the other.
We are creative beings speaking many half truths.
The fulfillment of humanity is to discover the complete truth.
Then we can achieve our purpose.
The next generation may live without fear or want.
2007-11-09 22:59:22
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answer #5
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answered by Wayne P 4
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A spiritual journey of sorrow,love.happiness.
pain anger hate emotions to feel . decisions to make
a quest to become the best soul you can be so
you can be in a better place in the afterlife.
2007-11-09 23:54:53
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answer #6
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answered by crystal c 2
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Oh, good, another one.
The answer is: Whatever you want to make of it, given the amount of freedom you have, of course.
Have a nice day.
2007-11-09 23:00:08
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answer #7
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answered by Freddon 3
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Life has no inherent meaning.
Your dad sexed up your mom, you were born, and that's it.
There's no "purpose" or "reason" for your being here other than biological function at work, so live this life carefully, because when you die, THAT'S IT.
No Heaven, no Hell, no "God", no "Devil", no NOTHING.
Enjoy.
2007-11-09 22:28:26
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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Life is to realise that one day, we'll die.
2007-11-10 13:21:04
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answer #9
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answered by Anonymous
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Whatever you decide to make it.
2007-11-09 22:26:20
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answer #10
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answered by Kevin W 1
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