what is the meaning of life?

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

If you're asking such a question to people you don't even know on a forum on the web, then how can you validate any answer? I'm having trouble imagining you reading an answer and then saying "that sounds so true" i will live my life from now on according to that principle". I think what you are looking for is an assurance to something you already believe. I personally don't even think there is a definite pragmatic definition to the purpose of life. All i can say is that if you follow your life in accordance to something you just read or something that was taught to you, then it might be a good idea to revalue what you define as purpose.

Answer 3

What is the meaning of a rock? Is a rock meaningless or meaningful? Is a rock useless or useful? Is a rock a source of pleasure or pain? It depends on the rock, I suppose, just as the question you ask depends on the life. Some people live meaningless lives, while others lead meaningful lives. Some people are viewed as useless, while others are viewed as useful. Perhaps your question could be rephrased as "Is life meaningful or is life meaningless?" Of course, one would first have to define "life". What is life? All living things? If this is the definition, and the conclusion is that all life is meaningless, does this imply that all non-life is meaningful? Or would non-life be included in a comprehensive conclusion that "Everything is meaningless"? Well, that would be the conclusion of the Nihilist...

Answer 4

This is one of those pretentions cliche questions amateur philosophers love to ask. Life doesn't need a purpose -- it exists without giving us a reason. People (and only people -- other creatures don't worry about this stuff) need to have a "purpose" in order to feel more important. Some people fine "purpose" in bearing children, others in spreading one or another of the religions, others in conquering territory militarily. None of it is the "purpose" of life. We just are.

Answer 5

Well I have these classes called the gnosis. Please don't think I worship the devil or I am on druges lots of people tell me this when I explain what I do. I am 15 and I am a gnostic. I belive in jesus and god. This teaching tells us that we are here for a purpose and that purpose is too correct the things we do in our past lives. The gnosis tells us that our purpose is too wake up conscience. [Conscince is our spirtual side]
We only have 3% of that awake and the other of it is 97% Inconsceince. This means that we are more aware whats in this world then whats inside of us. I have experienced lots of things meditating and doing a lot of sort of things. So why are people born with money and other people are born poor and have defects in there bodys? The gnosis explains that too. If god was fair why would he do this? Why could this world just be perfect? The awnser is that we have more lives that we think we have and our past lives that we do affects the ones that we have in the future. For example if I talk bad about people in my last life I would be a mute in my next life, If I changed the DNA of a plant or the color of a plant that god made himself I would be deformed in my next life, If I took bad care of my childern in my past life the punishment will be that I would not have any childern in this life. So you see? Same thing goes for the good if you do good things in this life you get good things in your next life. I went to churches and I asked these questions and I had never had a proper awnser and this is the only awnser that make sence. Thats why I belive in the Gnosis. I have done things that people not have belive I did Jesus said with one bit of faith we can move mountains with our minds. Think about it. We are not alone in this universe. Just email me if you want to talk deeply in this convesation [e-mail]

Answer 6

Why should it have a meaning? We all were born of our parents, or for some, whoever, and none of us played a role in it. Life is what each individual makes of it. It's as simple as that. Life can mean happiness for some and misery for others. No need to psychoanalyze it any more than that.

Answer 7

Everything you do counts. Every word you speak has its affect. Every thought that enters your mind is eternal.

So be careful how you nurture your soul. Practice love. Seek truth. And relish beauty everywhere it can be found,.

That is all you need to know in life. That is all there is to know in life.

Answer 8

The meaning of life is whatever it means to you personally. It is an indiviual question that varies from person to person answer wise.

Answer 9

Staying ahead of death long enough to reproduce. What gives life meaning?

Answer 10

living

Answer 11

you can only find out via yourself. stop asking this question, stop posting "42" as an answer. live life & figure things out on your own way down this path we all walk.