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)
2007-12-16 23:29:04
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answer #1
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answered by Jayaraman 7
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Try reading "Climb the Highest Mountain," Mark Prophet, "Men in White Apparel," Ann Ree Colton, "The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free, and "Expecting Adam," Martha Beck, for some clear and profound insights.
"Love God completely, love colleague as Self, love as Christ Jesus, Truth, loves, ascend in the Light of God as have Enoch, Elijah, Jesus, and many saints, and learn to earn," is a good summary phrase.
2007-12-17 04:32:04
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answer #2
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answered by j153e 7
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God is neither good nor evil, but the sum total of everything. All existance is an illusion. Matter, space, energy, and time are not real. We know a world of physical constraints. These are not real. We are not real. Instead, we are all part of one eternal consiousness subjectively experiencing itself. It's deeply nested cascading cosmos of figments of imagination residing in the mind's eye of another imaginary figure. Ultimately, though, we are one very extremely schizophrenic being with an infinitely vast mind which has no constraints except the ones it imposes on itself.
Appreciate the great Creator and all of creation just because you can. Your thoughts are God's thoughts and you deserve to give yourself a pat on the back.
2007-12-16 19:15:43
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answer #3
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answered by Crystal. 6
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Life is movement towards perfection.
We were born in this world to be ready ourselves to go to another (permanent) world.
It’s like journey from womb to this world which we must possess & get body, leg, hand, ear, eye, brain, …to become complete to be born in this world. If our body is imperfect, we won’t be able to do many things in this world. It’s identically for another world. We should be possess necessary qualities to perfect our spirit for the other world. It’s important our spirit in another world not our body.We must get these features in life. So we must know what to do in this way.
2007-12-17 08:03:51
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answer #4
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answered by Faranak 1
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Maybe there isnt a meaning to life.Maybe its the meaning you give to your own life!
2007-12-16 19:14:04
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answer #5
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answered by Angie 2
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Hedonism---to pursue all forms of pleasure, and only pleasure, with no regards to consequences, or morally.
Disclaimer:
This is a joke, it is only a joke, thus, I'm not responsible if you take this advice literally.
2007-12-16 19:07:26
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answer #6
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answered by Big-shot CEO 4
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only you can answer your question. life is a quest.
2007-12-16 20:11:36
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answer #7
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answered by hacker 2
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32.
2007-12-16 19:04:20
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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blue
2007-12-16 19:04:11
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answer #9
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answered by j-blue 2
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To love and be loved.
2007-12-16 18:59:11
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answer #10
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answered by Issa 3
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if only i knew
2007-12-16 19:05:26
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answer #11
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answered by Anonymous
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