What is the purpose of life?

Question

By that question I mean how do you know what your puropse is and how do you decide what your going to do for the rest of your life where you are going to live for the rest of your life where do these answers come form?

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

You don't. The thing is, you never know what will happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, a year from now, or throughout your whole life. Life is meant to be taken for granted since you only have one to live with. You kind of make your own purpose for living. You live for the people you love, the person you are, the people you want to help, the people you meet, and anything that is important to you. To be honest, not everyone is 100% sure what they want to do their whole life. You've got time to plan it and it's best to have space for yourself sometimes. Not everyone has the right answers. That's why you have to find them yourself. Eventually, you'll start figuring out what suits you best and what you prefer in life. Just a single person can make a difference in life. Believe it or not! =) Everything happens for a reason.

Answer 3

I don't know the answer to everything. Howevcer I do believe in trying make this world a better place, without just talking about it. if it is helping your neighbour repair a fence or helping someone look for a lost dog, to being a sympathetic ear for someone. Just trying to help out in whatever way you can without being a sap or insincere. As to where my life will go, it is hard to tell. However I believe there is a bit of a karmic thing going on as I am setting up a successful business, I own my own house, I 3 beautiful kids and a partner I adore. I could go on, but it isn't really the point. I guess it is really to find that inner happiness, so that you can sllep at night with a truly clear conscience!

Answer 4

The most basic purpose of life is to survive and to create a (positive) effect.

The more areas of life that you affect, the more powerful a being you are. For example, you could affect just yourself, your family, groups around you (work or social groups), mankind, the plants/animals, and/or the universe.

Many people get great satisfaction by helping others. You could do this in many ways, for example, teaching, consulting, volunteering, etc. ("Helping" doesn't necessarily mean working for free).

You'll probably have different purposes in each area of your life (yourself, family, groups, mankind, plants/animals, the universe) and your purposes will change over time.

So, what effect do YOU want to have on this world?

Answer 5

Well to me a person's purpose in life can be many things or a few things. It all depends on the gifts, talents,and personality God gave you and what drive you have to get to certain point in your life. For example Peyton Mannings, Lebron James purpose in life right now is to be the best at playing football and basketball, and entertaining and helping other people with the gifts God gave them. Of course they can do more than just sports,but for know their athletes. When someone watches them play it could change their lives and inspire them to do great things as well. I guess what I'm trying to say is that whatever makes you happy,do it( as long as it's not bad),and use that talent to propel yourself to another level,and inspire other people. As long as you have a positive attitude, treat people with respect, you will go far. As far as where your going to live,that depends on who you meet in the future,or who your with,and where you are financially.

Answer 6

you and only you can decide that..if you let some body else do it for you...then its not your life...it has to come from the heart and gut feelings..all the money and education dont mean a thing..you can not buy a life...you must live it...dreaming helps quite a lot...it keeps your mind focust on what you can become or do...wishing will not get you anyplace..doing will...every body has a purpose in life...we have the knowlege to do what we want with that purpose...we can throw it away with crime or drugs..or we can just take life as it comes and deal with it...i just wish we could take some of our knowledge and imbed it into the one who have no idea what knowledge is...so they can have a life also...hell..we only use a part of our brain any ways...

Answer 7

To earn enough money to live just comfortably, working on just enough hours so I can enjoy life is my personal aim for when I eventually join the real world [currently a student]. To make at least one person smile, or help out just one person every day is to know that my life has a purpose.

Answer 8

Our purpose is determined by how we envision our life will be and how nature expects us to live.The answers however will come from you. Society may give you the setting and the scenario but it can never dictate your life. You have a choice my friend... Begin by discovering your potentials and by identifying the people and the things that matters to you... Find true happiness and you will find your purpose.

Answer 9

To discover the meaning of life

Answer 10

To wonder...........No one has the answer to all things, like wheres the end of the universe or if there's and end and when did time begin, is there a god, devil or not. This is what has kept mankind moving forward, the constant yearning for knowledge
we all want to learn.

Answer 11

The purpose of our lives is to experience love unconditionally. This will be the decisive factor in what will follow in your life.