after death ...what? what the meaning of life then?

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

Well I am going to go over my theory. This will take some time. I actually find this quite scary.

There are two different, main theorys of what happens after death. Resurrection (coming back to life as another person) and just absolutely nothing...BLANK. There are also other ones like living in heaven etc etc.

So you die. Now if you come back resurrected as another person, not remembering anything from your last life, you will keep dying and then coming back, then dying...and so on. Will this just go forever and ever...WHO WANTS TO KEEP LIVING...I know you'll say "well you won't remember everything". I know that...but all you are doing is living living and living...BORING. I know that sounds funny but it's true.

Now, if you die and THAT'S IT...that means there is NOTHING for ever and ever...YOU'RE LIFE IS OVER....and there is nothing to do, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

If there is life in heaven, then that will suck because you're gonna be there for the ever and ever and ever and ever...until WHAT?! What will there be to do, for ever and ever and ever.

The meaning of life is the biggest question in the world...No one knows, and no one will EVER know.

Remember, no one wants to be alive for ever. And no one wants to be dead for ever...But those are the only two things in the universe - LIFE AND DEATH.

Hope this helps mate.
I am going to write a book on this by the way. :)

P.S. I am not even religious.

:]

Answer 3

After death..nothing. Life is meaningless.

Answer 4

Why must life have a meaning? I see no reason for it to have one. After death, I'm dead, there's room for someone else to live in my house.

Answer 5

First of all, you can't ask this question rationally in a Darwinian context, as the universe, and everything in it, is an accident, the product of matter+time+chance. There can be no objective, universal meaning to anything in that worldview, as meaning presupposes purpose, which you cannot have without someone to provide that purpose (i.e. God). The best you can do in that frame of reference is to decide what you want your life to mean and then go chase after it. And after you're gone, what your life "meant" will depend upon what others thought of you, and what they remember. If no one remembers you, then it will be as if you had never existed at all.

In a Christian worldview, however, such a question can be definitively answered. You can have an objective meaning to life in that frame of reference because the Christian God created the universe and everything in it for a specific purpose.

As a Christian, I believe that the Bible teaches that God created us for fellowship with him, but things went awry when the first humans rebelled against Him. From there, the story of man and God became the story of God working to reconcile us to Himself, ultimately through the death of His son, Jesus. And when we depart this life, we go to one of two destinations: eternal life or eternal damnation, depending upon what we choose to do with Jesus Christ.

Answer 6

I don't think it likely that there is any cosmic defined meaning. I do believe in the power of our self defined meaning that we give ourselves. If you spent your life here helping people, treating the sick, raising a happy child was any of that meaningless. Think of the ramifications of that that ripple onward past your life. A person who might have died goes on to change the world in some way or to raise a child themselve they might not have otherwise. Your child goes on to impact the world after you in ways that were shaped by your influence on them. The art an artist created touches the lives of people who live after them. Was Shakespeare's life meaningless if he doesn't live on forever in heaven? How about Ghandi? Or Martin Luther King to the people who now enjoy some level of greater equality because of his important impact? Or how about just my mom? Her life impacted my own so profoundly? That sure is not meaningless to me even if her life is finite.

Answer 7

Life is what you make of it, as cliche as that sounds. There is nothing after death.

Answer 8

After death?

Decomposition.

Meaning?

None. Why impose human standards on the universe?

The best we can do is just be decent to one another, fulfill our social obligations (love our mate, be good to kids, loyal to friends, punch out a racist whenever you get the chance) and hope we are remembered kindly when we're dead.

Answer 9

after death.. nothing..
the meaning of life is to live (not die)

Answer 10

after death nothing.
meaning enjoy your life now
don't waste it believing in nonsense
and starting wars.

Answer 11

what makes you think your life has to have a "meaning" in any universal sense? isn't that the height of arrogance - to believe a dog's life has no meaning, but that yours must?

the only meaning your life will have is what you ascribe to it.