What is the purpose of life?

Question

Why do we, mere humans, have a consiciousness? Why was life created in the first place? What is the meaning of life? Do each of us have a goal, a purpose, in life that we're each supposed to achieve? What goal, then, is humanity supposed to achieve as a whole? Or, are we just ignorant little humans who look for a higher meaning when there is none? What do you think about this?

Answer 1

the purpose of life is to learn. we come, we see, and we conquer. Each of us does have a goal, and whether we know what it is or not, how big or how small, we are to achieve that goal if it means our lives, instinctivly. you may live your whole life not knowing what you are here for, and could have possibly already done it. at times, i believe we do look for a higher meaning, when we should just "let it be let it be let it be." seriously, there will be an answer- let it be. :) but its our great craving for knowledge that puts us at a very akward spot. we want to know, and when we find the answer, there will always be opposotion. always. no, there is no darwin theory, no God created us all, no we are made from evolution, no no no! Can we ever just come to an agreement? never. facts? there is always one person who will say- heck no thats not a fact, its a strongly proven opinion. but i can prove it otherwise. and they spend their life trying to do so. when really, gravity is gravity, and that is the way it is. humanity is not supposed to achieve anything as a whole, because no matter what, we will never be able to cooperate. Just because of one person. (keep in mind, this one person, who is starting to get annoying, there are millions of them, and the reason they wish to go against the facts could possibly be that this is their "destiny", why they are here.) i think that sometimes people should just not worry their little heads about some things, and other times we should discover, becasue the feeling of learning something new is brilliant. happy days :)

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

I agree...rather depressing isn't it. Edit: Just try to be happy you're alive. Each and every one of us are extremely lucky to be alive. The chances of you being alive are incredibly slim. It means, if your parents hadn't happened to meet, you wouldn't be here. The same goes for your grandparents, your great grandparents.... Keep going down the line and it'd uncover trillions upon trillions of circumstances that were a threat to us not being here. But all of these circumstances took place from the time we were mere fish swimming in the ocean. This is probably the only life we'll get. Other people don't have it as good as us. Each and every one of us should soak up all the happiness life has to bring and treat each other peacefully, with love and respect because we're all on the same boat and life is emotional.

Answer 4

The purpose.....of life? Just do what you're able, have fun in the process, enjoy the view,ever seen a snow covered mountain in 80 degree weather? smell the flowers, walk instead of drive, help someone, there is so much beauty on our earth, even in pain humans can do many beautiful things, Life is the journey, not the destination. We all want to know that when we die we are not gone, but what if you are that, just gone, would you live different?

Answer 5

To realize-We are not this material body, IE; Race, color, nationality, Religion, mind, intellect, senses, job, etc. We are all eternal spirit souls, part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, also known as Krishna, Allah, Jehovah, Vishnu, etc. We never die, only this mortal body dies. This material world is not our real home, it is called Maya (illusion) and is temporary and full of misery, only one fourth of the souls come here, and the rest are enjoying blissful eternal loving relationships with our Maker named above. We fell here due to envying Gods position. He made the material world for those who want to try to live separately from Him (Which is impossible because He is actually everywhere). After many lifetimes of trying to be happy in this temporary world one becomes frustrated and board and begins to question their existence. We then seek out real happiness, and when one becomes sincere God reveals how to come back Home. Those who are intelligent, take up the process of self realization (Bhakti Yoga) which begins with the chanting of the Maha Mantra (the great mantra for deliverance from all suffering and illusion), which gives one real peace, happiness and reality. Then at the end of life they can give up all material attachments and fully surrender to God and return to the eternal Kingdom, where there is no more birth, death, old age, or disease and be eternally happy. I am so glad I know now. For info go to harekrishnatemple.com Read The Science of Self Realizaiton by Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada

Answer 6

...You're expecting quite a lot from Y! Answers, huh?

I really think the purpose of life is for each person to try to make things as bearable as possible for everyone else as they can. Sadly, most people haven't figured this out yet. Just think, if everyone looked out for everyone else, what a better world it would be. It seems to me that all those people determined to hurt, kill, exploit & use others haven't quite evolved far enough yet.

Answer 7

The purpose of life is an endless road, as we work to make things better for the future at all times. In turn, the future then works to make a better future, and so on.

Answer 8

pls realize that when we came to earth, we didnot bring anything and when we die, all we need is 4 people to carry us and that can be achieved by the good things we do when we are alive. First try to be financially,emotionally idependant, then try to improve the quality of life of your relatives and friends and then think abt the society. Try to educate people on tolerance at all levels. then your purpose of life is achieved.

Answer 9

The purpose of life is to love. Love every single person on this planet as if they were your family.

The only problem is that not everyone subscribes to that philosophy, so the nice guys often finish last.

Answer 10

There's a thousand 5" thick philosophy books on such matters, and half contradict the other. Kinda deep question for this old goof to try and tackle.