What Is The Meaning of Life?

I suppose you were all expecting me to open with a massive essay-written introduction but you were wrong. My answer to this age old question is a simple one - achievement/success.

Well now for the slightly elaborated version for those of you who actually read what I have to say :D. The way I came to this conclusion was to look at what makes people happy in life... So what makes most humans happy is achievement: when they have had good results; when they have a child; get married; get a new job, etc. And I suppose the same would go fro animals: killing prey for food; raising cubs; winning fights, etc.

I suppose you could also say the meaning of life is joy and perhaps anomalies/miracles or one-offs. But my view is that most things in life are about some form of achievement.

What do you all think on this topic?

http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/32085-42.jpg
This answer just has to be said when this question is asked. :pirate: I apologize for the inconvenience.


For a serious answer, I think that life has no meaning or purpose. I don't mean that life is useless, or a waste of space and time. What I mean is that there is no single answer that covers "what is the meaning of life?" Everyone has their own individual purposes, goals, etc. Things that are important to one person and gives their life meaning, are completely reviled and avoided by another person. There is no answer to the purpose of life that applies to "all life" in the universe. Everyone has to find their own answer to the question.

As a side note, if we do try to answer the meaning of life, then does that answer apply to ALL life? What about non-sentient life, like plants and bacteria?

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Originally Posted by Rota

http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/32085-42.jpg
This answer just has to be said when this question is asked. :pirate: I apologize for the inconvenience.


For a serious answer, I think that life has no meaning or purpose. I don't mean that life is useless, or a waste of space and time. What I mean is that there is no single answer that covers "what is the meaning of life?" Everyone has their own individual purposes, goals, etc. Things that are important to one person and gives their life meaning, are completely reviled and avoided by another person. There is no answer to the purpose of life that applies to "all life" in the universe. Everyone has to find their own answer to the question.

As a side note, if we do try to answer the meaning of life, then does that answer apply to ALL life? What about non-sentient life, like plants and bacteria?

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lol @ the first part from hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

As for the second paragraph I suppose you could look at it in a rather cynical and bleak way like that...

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Originally Posted by Professor X

lol @ the first part from hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.

As for the second paragraph I suppose you could look at it in a rather cynical and bleak way like that...

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how is it cynical to say that the "meaning of life" has no single answer? It is different and individualized for every person. I didn't say there was no answer at all. I'm just saying that your purpose is not someone else's purpose, and vice versa.

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Originally Posted by Rota

how is it cynical to say that the "meaning of life" has no single answer? It is different and individualized for every person. I didn't say there was no answer at all. I'm just saying that your purpose is not someone else's purpose, and vice versa.

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I thought you were implying that life was for individual benefit. But okay.

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Originally Posted by Professor X

I thought you were implying that life was for individual benefit. But okay.

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I would guess most people's answer to their "purpose" is selfish for their own benefit. But, that does not preclude the occasional magnanimous person, whose personal "meaning of life" is more benevolent. People like Ghandi, and Martin Luther King Jr. definitely found a purpose in life that was more about uplifting entire nations of peoples.

I believe the meaning of life is something different for each individual. I think it's fair to say that the true meaning of life is someone living a happy life. The change is in what makes individuals truly happy. For me i find most meaning being with people who i love and care about, and who love and care about me. To live my life surrounded by such people to me is living the most successful and meaningful that i can. I believe the rest (career, good results etc) fall into place when you have achieve that.

The meaning of life is to be in the now to live En-Joyment. If you ever found a dollar on the ground you were shocked and happy and in-joy, to bad you ruined that moment of absolute bliss by looking for another dollar... So the meaning could be readily said that you must learn to develop the will to experience all possible events while being aware of them to the fullest extent with a blissful awareness or possibly the answer might be 42. As for me the meaning of life is simple, to pay bills and have fun. That might be the goal while trying to balance being a kid and an adult the meaning is whats in between those 2...hmm theres that 2 again idk im having doubts i think Rota might be right... So ok forget everything i said the answer is 42.

We've had this question before so i'll simply copy what I wrote in the "Life's Purpose" thread:

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Life has no pre-determined purpose, it's simply what you make of it. I think us humans try to attach too much significance to ourselves, but we must accept that we're just another animal despite having a superior intellect to any other.

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It's just like the whole concept of morals. Murder, rape and genocide are considered "evil", but that's because of the overall human consensus regarding things as serious as that, in that it's immoral and evil. If you look at it from a completely indifferent (and suffice to say, correct) perspective you realise that they're not evil at all and it's just what us as humans think it is. That's not to say i'm a Nihilist since I do confine with the standards of society, it's just when you consider the way things actually are then you realise that a lot of things aren't as set in stone as you think they are.

I like to work with my hands and for me the joy in life or true bliss is in the act of creation. It is inclusive of all of the parts, from the original idea or visualisation, through the process of creation and in the finished product. I believe it is what seperates us from the animals, the creative drive. I also believe that it is in all humans to a greater or lesser extent. It is why we are driven to make art or music or plant a garden or build anything substantial and lasting.

I don't think there is any greater sense of acomplishment than looking upon something that you have made, or even been a part of making, and knowing it is as well made as it could possibly be and you were part of it's creation and have put something of yourself into it.

As for making money or being succesful in a career, I doubt if there has ever been one person who, as their life was coming to an end, looked back and thought "I wish I had spent more time at work."

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Originally Posted by Professor X

I suppose you were all expecting me to open with a massive essay-written introduction but you were wrong. My answer to this age old question is a simple one - achievement/success.

Well now for the slightly elaborated version for those of you who actually read what I have to say :D. The way I came to this conclusion was to look at what makes people happy in life... So what makes most humans happy is achievement: when they have had good results; when they have a child; get married; get a new job, etc. And I suppose the same would go fro animals: killing prey for food; raising cubs; winning fights, etc.

I suppose you could also say the meaning of life is joy and perhaps anomalies/miracles or one-offs. But my view is that most things in life are about some form of achievement.

What do you all think on this topic?

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For each person success means something different. Some people want to be rich and famous, some people just want a job and to settle down, someone might just want to wander their whole life. We feel great about achievement because it gives us a sense of purpose most of the time.

I would disagree about this view on the purpose of life. I truly believe the purpose of life is to learn. There is a reason our brains can soak up so much knowledge and apply it in so many different ways. Even someone with a retardation or handicap and extremely low IQ learns. I have always felt that life is just part of a journey, this part of the journey is all about learning. Learning about yourself, others, the world, the universe from the perspective of life. If during your life you have success or achieve what you wanted to, that's great, but you still learn and it stops only when you live no more.

As for Rota asking about bacteria and other life forms, they could be learning something we have no clue about.

The meaning of life is to live your life.

At least, that's according to Garrison Keillor.

Why do you believe life has to have a meaning?

Good question. But I think it is human nature to try to find reasons and meanings of things. From a very early age, even before school starts to program our mind, we ask questions and look for meaning, reasons and answers. It's why small children ask "why?" so many times. Why is the sky blue? Why is the dog licking it's groin? Why did my fish die? Where did it go after it died? Who is that? What's this? Etc...
So we are just geared to ask questions and want to know who, what, when, why, where and how.

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Originally Posted by Wildor

Why do you believe life has to have a meaning?

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I didn't realise that you are a nihilist Wildor.

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Originally Posted by japanpimp

Good question. But I think it is human nature to try to find reasons and meanings of things. From a very early age, even before school starts to program our mind, we ask questions and look for meaning, reasons and answers. It's why small children ask "why?" so many times. Why is the sky blue? Why is the dog licking it's groin? Why did my fish die? Where did it go after it died? Who is that? What's this? Etc...
So we are just geared to ask questions and want to know who, what, when, why, where and how.

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Things like what you mentioned have a clear scientific explanation for them however. This supposed meaning of life though, is just like religion, mere human interpretation without solid evidence to support it. Therefore there is no "meaning of life".

i will grant you that life has no more meaning then we give to it. but we are driven to give it meaning, even your protestation that it has no meaning is a definition of life and definition is synonymous with meaning. you have therefor giving your life meaning by saying that it has no meaning. but i tangent from what i wanted to say.
life has no more or less meaning then we individually give to it. what is meaningful to one is not necessarily meaningful to another. which leads to meaningful debates on what is and is not meaningful, something i love.
someone said (and now i cant find the quote, i hate reading when i'm 1/2 a sleep because if i cant find the post the next day i'm afraid i dreamed the whole thing but then 1/3 the posts i read i know i've read before and it just confuses me further) that the meaning of life was to achieve something, that people were most happy when they reached an achievement point in their lives. i would disagree with that only so far as to say that its not reaching the achievement so much as it is the reaching for it. its not the arriving so much as the getting there. one must take small steps on the path to enlightenment or one will never reach the end.
what i'm getting at here is that once we achieve something we look around for something else to achieve. why else would people hate "dead end jobs" there is nothing left to achieve there, they can stagnate or move on to something else, but moving on to something else would be throwing away all that hard work (not really but i can see how it would look that way) and staying put goes against the nature of someone who had the drive to get there.
an object in motion wants to stay in motion
life is a journey
weather your waking aimlessly (for those whose lives meaning is that there is no meaning) or toward a specific goal, every step is a chance to learn and grow. every moment is an opportunity to do something with your life. i chose to use this moment of my life to share my thoughts with you.

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Originally Posted by Ikeni

Things like what you mentioned have a clear scientific explanation for them however. This supposed meaning of life though, is just like religion, mere human interpretation without solid evidence to support it. Therefore there is no "meaning of life".

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Yeah, it is a really abstract question. The answer invloves expressing ones feelings. So that makes the question and answer unique to each person.

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Originally Posted by japanpimp

Yeah, it is a really abstract question. The answer invloves expressing ones feelings. So that makes the question and answer unique to each person.

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Well I wish you had made that clearer before, I mean a thread title like "What is The Meaning of Life" implies you're asking for a meaning that applies for every single human rather than each one's individual beliefs regarding the topic, of which I believe that although there is no predetermined meaning, you simply have to make the most of what you have.

Mh.

I think you're starting with the wrong question. Always dangerous.

Some troublemaker (like me) might come along and respond, "No; why is the meaning of life."

In my opinion, life is too short to have a meaning. The average human life, is 60-70 years. This, compared to how old Earth is, and what it's guesstimated to be when it finally "ends", is like a grain of salt, compared to the Empire State Building. Unless you personally make a difference big enough to change the course of the future, then you basically life then die.

A lot of people worry about being successful in life, becoming wealthy, in one manner or another. For the people that make $$$'s of dollars, what use is it? Can you use it when you're dead? No. Unless your using it to make the place around you better, then the $$$ you made, is useless. Sure, it might make you happy, but does it isn't going to make you live forever.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I live my life to the edge, because, I know one day I'm going to die, no matter what I do. Unless I come back as something else, or never die, then there is no true use in really doing anything at all, for one day, it's all going to end for me anyways. I'm not saying that one shouldn't try and do their best in life. If it makes you happy, then so be it. But, personally, I'm not going to work to get to the top, just so, years later, I die.