What is the meaning of life?

Question

What do you think is the meaning of life? Why do you think this, what is your evidence?

Thank-you for looking and (hopefully) answering!!

Jayaraman · Accepted Answer

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)

tmschiff747 · Answer

I just arrived back from a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a great weekend and I made a lot of friends and had a ton of fun along the way. I truly recommend you check it out. While I was there, I went to a random apartment party with a bunch of Danish people. I was the only American is the room and met this really impressive Dane. I can't recall his name, I drank a little, and his name was quite Danish, aka, hard to remember.

He was quite the guy. He sat me down and told me what the meaning of life is, and you know what, I think I agree. Quite simply, he said the meaning of life is "authenticity." He further described it as, "A gay way of saying, keeping it real." I really agree with his sentiments.

To this, I asked him, "How do you make your life authentic?" He said, "that's up to you." He said whether your a president or a shop owner, its just finding authenticity.

Keep it real homie.

Anonymous · Answer

in my opinion the meaning of life is to find true happiness. not for long but for that breif momment. one of my favourite songs 'the tide- The Spill Canvas' helped me discover this. the chorus bit goes ' heavens not a place that you go when you die, its that moment in time when you accually feel alive, so live for the moment'. In that i come to realize that the meaning of life is finding that moment, that moment when nothing else matters, no thoughts no worries just that momenet when you are 100% happy and you feel and know that this is what you have lived for.

anna · Answer

to serve God. life is just a pretest. its preparing you for the real test you will have before heaven or hell.everything you do is a test to God. He's testing you to see how you do things and how you work. Your purpose in life is to worship God and find out what His purose if for you. To find out more about your purpose in life, read the book, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. hope this helps.

Clara, the Clairvoyant · Answer

Life is like a coin. Spend it any way you want to, but you can spend it only once. You have never lived the seven days in front of you, and you will never live them again. So better spend your life wisely...

YO!!!!!!!!!! · Answer

Well my religious friend says to praise god, but i think to live life to its fullest and not skimp on anything. God knows why we are alive, But there definantly is more to life than religion. No offense to anyone

Neil M · Answer

Everyone has their own idea of life, mine is very simple, others more complicated. Your own interpretation is paramount to your own importance

BORED d(-_-)b · Answer

life is sadly a countdown to death sad i know but its the truest thing i ever did make up lol:)

Anonymous · Answer

to have a good time

Anonymous · Answer

health and happiness!

well, health is obvious, without it you die, and happiness is obvious, because without it you WANT to die! =D

What is the meaning of life?

13 Answers