In 2013, I posed some questions to readers about the meaning of life, and there were a lot of responses (373 of them!). To quote part of my post:
Here’s survey I’m taking to see whether a theory I have, which is mine, bears any resemblance to reality. Here are two questions I’d like readers to answer in the comments. Here we go:
If a friend asked you these questions, how would you answer them?
1.) What do you consider the purpose of your life?
2.) What do you see as the meaning of your life?
There was general agreement that the meaning and purpose of life is self-made: there was no intrinsic meaning or purpose. Only religious people think there’s a pre-made meaning and purpose, and it’s always to follow the dictates of one’s god or faith. And there aren’t too many believers around here.
Now the Guardian has an article posing the same question, but asking 15 different people, many of them notables. The answers vary, and I’ll give a few (click the screenshot below to see the article). As Reader Alan remarked after reading the Guardian piece and sending me the link, “No one mentions God and none seem to have a God shaped hole in their lives.”
So much for Ross Douthat and what I call “The New Believers” to go along with “The New Atheists.” The New Believers I see as smart people who have thrown in their lot with superstition and unevidenced faith; they include Doubthat, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Jordan Peterson, and, apparently, the staff of The Free Press.
Bailey’s intro:
Like any millennial, I turned to Google for the answers. I trawled through essays, newspaper articles, countless YouTube videos, various dictionary definitions and numerous references to the number 42, before I discovered an intriguing project carried out by the philosopher Will Durant during the 1930s. Durant had written to Ivy League presidents, Nobel prize winners, psychologists, novelists, professors, poets, scientists, artists and athletes to ask for their take on the meaning of life. His findings were collated in the book On the Meaning of Life, published in 1932.
I decided that I should recreate Durant’s experiment and seek my own answers. I scoured websites searching for contact details, and spent hours carefully writing the letters, neatly sealing them inside envelopes and licking the stamps. Then I dropped them all into the postbox and waited …
Days, and then weeks, passed with no responses. I began to worry that I’d blown what little money I had on stamps and stationery. Surely, at least one person would respond?
. . . . . What follows is a small selection of the responses, from philosophers to politicians, prisoners to playwrights. Some were handwritten, some typed, some emailed. Some were scrawled on scrap paper, some on parchment. Some are pithy one-liners, some are lengthy memoirs. I sincerely hope you can take something from these letters, just as I did.
And his question:
I am currently replicating Durant’s study, and I’d be most appreciative if you could tell me what you think the meaning of life is, and how you find meaning, purpose and fulfilment in your own life?
A selection of my favorites:
Hillary Mantel, author (I’m reading her Wolf Hall at the moment; it won the Booker Prize):
I’ve had your letter for a fortnight, but I had to think about it a bit. You use two terms interchangeably: “meaning” and “purpose”. I don’t think they’re the same. I’m not sure life has a meaning, in the abstract. But it can have a definite purpose if you decide so – and the carrying through, the effort to realise the purpose, makes the meaning for you.
It’s like alchemy. The alchemists were on a futile quest, we think. There wasn’t a philosopher’s stone, and they couldn’t make gold. But after many years of patience exercised, the alchemist saw he had developed tenacity, vision, patience, hope, precision – a range of subtle virtues. He had the spiritual gold, and he understood his life in the light of it. Meaning had emerged.
I’m not sure that many people decide to have a purpose, with the meaning emerging later, but some do. A doctor or nurse, for example, might see their purpose to save lives or help the ill. I suppose I could say my purpose was to “do science,” but that’s only because that’s what I enjoyed, and I didn’t see doing evolutionary genetics it as a “purpose.”
Kathryn Mannix, palliative care specialist. I always like to see what those who take care of the dying say about their patients, as I think I could learn about how to live from those at the end of their lives. Sadly, the lesson is always the same: “Live life to the fullest.” That is not so easy to do! Her words:
Every moment is precious – even the terrible moments. That’s what I’ve learned from spending 40 years caring for people with incurable illnesses, gleaning insights into what gives our lives meaning. Watching people living their dying has been an enormous privilege, especially as it’s shown me that it isn’t until we really grasp the truth of our own mortality that we awaken to the preciousness of being alive.
Every life is a journey from innocence to wisdom. Fairy stories and folk myths, philosophers and poets all tell us this. Our innocence is chipped away, often gently but sometimes brutally, by what happens to us. Gradually, innocence is transformed to experience, and we begin to understand who we are, how the world is, and what matters most to us.
The threat of having our very existence taken away by death brings a mighty focus to the idea of what matters most to us. I’ve seen it so many times, and even though it’s unique for everyone, there are some universal patterns. What matters most isn’t success, or wealth, or stuff. It’s connection and relationships and love. Reaching an understanding like this is the beginning of wisdom: a wisdom that recognises the pricelessness of this moment. Instead of yearning for the lost past, or leaning in to the unguaranteed future, we are most truly alive when we give our full attention to what is here, right now.
Whatever is happening, experiencing it fully means both being present and being aware of being present. The only moment in our lives that we can ever have any choice about is this one. Even then, we cannot choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond: we can rejoice in the good things, relax into the delightful, be intrigued by the unexpected, and we can inhabit our own emotions, from joy to fear to sorrow, as part of our experience of being fully alive.
I’ve observed that serenity is both precious and evanescent. It’s a state of flow that comes from relaxing into what is, without becoming distracted by what might follow. It’s a state of mind that rests in appreciation of what we have, rather than resisting it or disparaging it. The wisest people I have met have often been those who live the most simply, whose serenity radiates loving kindness to those around them, who have understood that all they have is this present moment.
That’s what I’ve learned so far, but it’s still a work in progress. Because it turns out that every moment of our lives is still a work in progress, right to our final breath.
This is more or less what Sam Harris has to say in many of his meditation “moments.” Sadly, living each day to the fullest is hard to do, at least for me.
Gretchen Rubin, author and happiness expert. She’s written and studied a lot about happiness, so she should know:
In my study of happiness and human nature, and in my own experiences, I have found that the meaning of life comes through love. In the end, it is love – all kinds of love – that makes meaning.
In my own life, I find meaning, purpose and fulfilment by connecting to other people – my family, my friends, my community, the world. In some cases, I make these connections face-to-face, and in others, I do it through reading. Reading is my cubicle and my treehouse; reading allows me better to understand both myself and other people.
I agree with her 100% on reading, and there are many times that I’d rather be curled up with a good book than socializing. However, we evolved in small groups of people and clearly are meant to be comfortable in these groups and bereft without them. Though we can overcome that, evolution tells us a bit about what kinds of things we should find fulfilling.
Matt Ridley, science writer.
There never has been and never will be a scientific discovery as surprising, unexpected and significant as that which happened on 28 February 1953 in Cambridge, when James Watson and Francis Crick found the double-helix structure of DNA and realised that the secret of life is actually a very simple thing: it’s infinite possibilities of information spelled out in a four-letter alphabet in a form that copies itself.
I think he fluffed the question, which is given above. He says nothing about how he finds meaning, fulfillment, and purpose in his own life. Nothing!
One more:
Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit:
What is the meaning of life? I can honestly say: I have no idea. But I write this in London, where I am visiting with my wife and two boys. And they are healthy and safe, and (mostly) happy, and there’s joy in watching their delights: a clothing stall with a jacket they’ve long wanted; the way the double-decker bus carries us above the fray; a monument to scientific discoveries beside a flower garden and goats.
I’m surrounded by evidence – of the blitz, D-day, colonies despoiled, JFK and MLK and 9/11 – that all could be otherwise. I hear about bombs falling on innocents, an uncertain election, a faltering climate, and many of us lacking the will (or charity) to change.
Yet still I marvel that we flew here in under 12 hours – while my ancestors required months and tragedies to transit in reverse – and that I will send this note simply by hitting a button, and we can love whomever we want, and see and speak to them at any hour, and a pandemic did not end my life, did not kill my children’s dreams, did not make society selfish and cruel.
And, for now, that’s enough. I do not need to know the meaning of life. I do not need to know the purpose of it all. Simply breathing while healthy and safe, and (mostly) happy is such a surprising, awe-inducing, humbling gift that I have no right to question it. I won’t tempt fate. I won’t look that gift horse in the mouth. I’ll simply hope my good fortune continues, work hard to share it with others, and pray I will remember this day, this moment, if my luck fades .
My life has no meaning except to do good for others. It is how I cope with my own life threatening chronic treatment resistant PTSD. From that flows into its purpose. My selected purpose in life is to help other Veterans in life by becoming a Humanist Chaplain based on humanist and rationalist principles, Guiding them through their moral injuries without recourse to belief in the supernatural and harmful beliefs in a god.
I learnt that from my Assistance Dog Inca who has magnificent superpowers at keeping me alive when my suicidal ideation takes hold. I am probably sure she has no concept of a meaning of life but she certainly knows when I need help
Grant – I wrote about PTSD a few times in my column for it is an area of psychology I’m interested in. This regarding psychedelics and PTSD:
https://democracychronicles.org/psychedelics-research-center/
and
https://democracychronicles.org/psychedelic-therapy/
(My column is syndicated and I used to write quite a bit about this topic for psychedelics have assisted greatly in my 55 year life).
HAHA! And I’ll CERTAINLY give your doggies idea a cheer – My own puppers gives me so much happiness. He’s here, forever inscribed at WEIT – https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2020/06/10/photos-of-readers-93/
To sorta quote Led Zeppelin: My dog “…makes me happy every single day.”
Every. Single. Day.
best regards Grant,
D.A.
NYC
👍
When it comes to the meaning and purpose of life, two fundamental divides are apparent. On one side stands the deontological tradition—rooted in duty, moral absolutes, and often faith-based systems. Think of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, steeped in Catholic theology, where virtue exists for its own sake and moral law transcends circumstance.
On the other side lies a consequentialist, pragmatist, and Nietzschean worldview—one that embraces context, outcomes, and the will to power. Frank Herbert’s Dune exemplifies this approach: morality becomes a tool, shaped by necessity, strategy, and survival, rather than by immutable principles.
Between these poles lies a persistent tension: whether to follow eternal truths and immutable principles, or to forge meaning through action, consequence, and will.
Interestingly, those who navigate the middle ground—moral centrists, so to speak—seem to be cast by our Ceiling Cat host as accommodationists. Straddling both worlds, they blend deference to moral absolutes with a pragmatism that bends to circumstance (e.g. Jordan B. Peterson and Ayaan Hirsi Ali). Are they wise or merely conflicted?
To dissect this further: atheism is often cast in the pragmatist or consequentialist camp—concerned with evidence, outcomes, and the here and now. Yet, at its core, atheism rests on a deontological foundation: an unwavering principle that rejects any ascription to the supernatural. In this sense, many atheists are profoundly deontological, adhering to a fundamental rule that shapes their moral reasoning and worldview, even when cloaked in the language of pragmatism.
It’s a curious paradox: those who champion reason and empirical evidence are, in practice, standing on principle. Yet most deontologists might find that principle wanting—lacking the metaphysical weight or moral transcendence they believe true principles require. And so, in an unexpected twist, atheists become moral centrists of a kind—occupying the uneasy, mistakenly benighted middle ground of deontological pragmatism.
There was an eXtwitter thread comparing Dune and LotR I saw recently… It made some similar points … at least it had more substance than the Marvel movies.
Yes, I saw it in the wee-morning hours, Bryan, and it did influence me. Here is the thread: https://x.com/Culture_Crit/status/1903140180023783923.
There are no moral absolutes, in my view. There are PREFERENCES for ways to behavior and, in the end, cannot be justified by any absolute truth.
As for people like Hirsi Ali and Peterson, they are not wise, nor are they conflicted; they are delusional. The delusions may make them better, as Hirsi Ali has said (Christianity cured their depression), but I doubt that anybody can demonstrate the empirical truth of much of the stuff that “middle-ground” religionists believe. Do you think that believing in the Resurrection is “wise”?
Ceiling Cat, I think you are asking me, or I’d refrain until we got a critical set of comments from others, since I don’t want to flood the space.
While I didn’t virtue-signal against them, my comments aren’t apologetics for JBP or Hirsi Ali, either. I’m an atheist. I think Hirsi Ali and JBP are wrong.
You may not have seen my follow-up comment under my original, which finished the thought. It relates to your statement that “there are no moral absolutes.”
Is atheism a moral absolute?
I didn’t argue it was. I argued it rests on a deontological principle that rejects the supernatural. Thus, atheism isn’t devoid of the appeals to meaning that many find in deontology. However, as I said, atheism doesn’t rely on moral transcendence, which is maybe why it is rejected by folks like JBP and Hirsi Ali.
Indeed. For people like Ayan HA or J.B. Peterson, they have their own ways to fill the void. Some go for more chemical stuff: Alcoholics like booze, religious people like their parchment storytimes.
I like psychedelics but they’re more like recreation than meaning to me.
For.. and arrogant as I am ….I like to think all the above are somehow lesser drugs. You may agree that learning, loving and connections with animals and people provides more than enough “meaning”.
cheers,
D.A.
NYC
My answer to this/these question(s), for quite a long time now, has been this, my all-time favorite quote, from Arthur C. Clarke (in his book Rama II):
In my life I have found two things of priceless worth—learning and loving. Nothing else—not fame, not power, not achievement for its own sake—can possibly have the same lasting value. For when your life is over, if you can say “I have learned” and “I have loved,” you will also be able to say “I have been happy.”
(Aside to Prof. Ceiling Cat): I, too, am currently reading Wolf Hall!
That’s beautiful.
I have chosen to live very simply; it makes everything else look astonishing.
I think meaning is found in making mental connections — between people, ideas, history, virtues, and values. It all fits together. Patterns are easier for me to see if I organize myself around doing nothing in particular. It opens up to everything, everywhere, all at once — but gently or I’m overwhelmed.
It’s astonishing to me that I made and raised two good human beings who wouldn’t have existed had I not decided to do this. Circle of life.
I’m reminded of Thoreau. “Simplify!” To the effect that one’s accounts (situations and matters with which one must deal in life?) should be as the number of one’s fingers, or at most including the toes. “One is rich in proportion to the number of things one can afford to leave alone.”
“I made and raised two good human beings who wouldn’t have existed had I not decided to do this.”
Me too. That’s been my purpose.
If meaning or purpose suggests a predetermined path that you seek, there is none.
Purpose is a forward looking plan to accomplish a goal, while meaning is
a retrospective emotional memory of past events. I don’t think things have meaning until you have an experience to evaluate.
My purpose is to live until I die. I try to maximize that ability to continue living. So I purposely do things to that end.
Like another reader, I find meaning in interpersonal relationships, both human and non-human. Love is a good word to describe the nature of those relationships.
In grad school, I studied a concept called “Task Intrinsic Motivation”. This refers to the idea of wanting to engage in the specific activity you do, as opposed to any external reward, including things like pleasure or satisfaction.
For example, many artists put great effort into their creations. They may indeed seek monetary, personal, or social rewards from their efforts, but they continue with the activity even in the absence of such rewards. Many artists never even try to publicize or monetize their creations. Scientists are also often intrinsically motivated, hoping for recognition, but continuing their research without it.
This kind of task Intrinsic motivation offers the best version of both purpose and meaning. This is where both ideas merge into a path to happiness.
Re intrinsic motivation, I found encouragement for that in Alfie Kohn’s Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise, and other bribes.
The title of that book was sufficient to intrinsically motivate me to buy it.
Barbara,
The key to the concept is the Task part. In reference to education, it would mean finding activities that students enjoy doing just for the sake of it. Even things like a “feeling of accomplishment” are extrinsic to the actual activity. Maybe there’s a way to teach important ideas by having students scroll on their devices and comment on each concept. 😄
Hi Mark. It is uncontested universal experience that any school subject can be make painfully dull. I expect that most can be made generally interesting, IF enough skill and care and time are applied to teaching it. But that ain’t gonna happen.
Re feelings of accomplishment, yes they can be extrinsically tied to gold stars etc. But IMO the feelings of personal engagement with an appropriate task, win or lose, are intrinsic and intense. Of course the weasel word there is “appropriate”.
Great question to periodically review – indeed, I remember that post and concluded the purpose of Homo sapiens is reproduction, because I thought that’s what all the material evidence shows, and that’s how the genes drive the survival machines (obv. Dawkins here).
So with that settled, quo vadis?
The only new thoughts are :
• it’s not our role to judge
• nobody has all information so this is futile (this is a pointer to David Deutsch)
• how do we know
Answers to those seem to change, as we change, and things change, according to a formula with at best incomplete information and nobody can control yet we need to make decisions sometime today OH NOOO THIS IS GOING WILD I’M DONE!
First of all, what I’m about to write is not written cynically (though cynicism can be a legitimate philosophical viewpoint, and every generation of Homo sapiens needs its Diogenes). So: my life has meaning largely because I did my Darwinian duty by contributing to the making of a new generation of humans. In the main, my son and daughter agree that that was a meaningful action.
As for happiness, which I understand is on the decline in the U.S.A., perhaps the secret is. . . lower your expectations.
Even better, have NO expectations and take each moment as it comes.
I remember years ago in my local newspaper a “Berry’s World” cartoon of Diogenes with a lamp joyfully encountering in the dark congressman/FBI sting bribe-resister Larry Pressler. As a youngster I did not know about the sting at the time, but the impact of the cartoon on me so great I cut it out and have it in a manila folder in a cardboard file.
It is subjective in my view, and perhaps even a delusion. A delusion that we must believe in order to continue going. So I agree partially with the “self-made” argument that the meaning or purpose we have to our lives is what we make of it…but I disagree with that there is not an ‘intrinsic’ purpose to life. The intrinsic purpose of human life, as it is with all life on Earth, is to serve as temporary vesicles to pass on genes. Ever since Darwin, asking the fundamental question about the meaning of life must apply and extend to all life forms on Earth… Homo Sapiens included. As far as I can tell, the only purpose and ‘meaning’ of the myriad lifeforms that we observe on Earth is to serve as momentary vesicles to pass on genes. However, strange and complex these vesicles become…that principle remains the same. I am sure most of the readers are aware of this fact…but it is the ultimate conclusion that I have come to when pondering the nature of existence. The utter meaninglessness probably also extends to the universe as a whole as well. Deriving from the late, great Steven Weinberg “The more the universe seems comprehensible…the more it also seems pointless”. Science has revealed to us a wondrous reality, full of amazing phenomena and beauty…but a beauty utterly silent to the existentially anxious questions that humans have evolved to yearn for. The universe looks to be lacking in a ‘why’ in my view. Alas, to construct a subjective delusion for oneself, seems to be the best we can hope for; A delusion that what we do matters, or has a ‘purpose’.
It’s tempting to divide peoples’ personalities into ‘types’ – and there are no end of categories, methods, and ‘supporting evidence’. Whatever the truth of these divisions I would expect that people in each category (or scatter diagram etc.) might have different ideas about meaning and purpose.
So, for instance, you could adopt the Fisher Temperament Inventory which categorises people into four main temperaments:
Curious/Energetic – associated neurochemicals – dopamine, norepinephrine
Cautious/Social Norm Compliant — serotonin
Analytical/Tough-minded — testosterone
Prosocial/Empathic — estrogen, oxytocin
This is, of course, built on a naturalistic view of the world.
But if you prefer a more mystical interpretation you could use the ‘Tarot Element’ of Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. Or maybe the Hippocrates qualities based on the four humours.
On the other hand, since we clearly have many different ways of describing temperaments, personalities and ’causes’ for them, perhaps there can be no all encompassing answer to questions about meaning and purpose?
AC my favorite is the chemical explanation – put best by neurotransmitters – which is part of the “we’re biological beings in pursuit of survival and pleasure” story.
One in a chain of many, of life. (Even if people like Coyne, Pinker and myself are evolutionary “dead enders”. I’m happy with that!).
best A.C.,
D.A.
NYC
Re associated neurotransmitters and hormones, I tend towards considering how very very little we currently understand about the overall workings of the brain, and consider such explanations as “neurobabble”. YMMV
No meaning, no purpose here. I love reading my pile of books and educating myself about the world and about myself.
I just take in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. And, put one foot in front of the other. Not many more years to carry this mission out.
The answer, IMHO, is that the question is best ignored entirely.
For many people, whose basic needs are met, the supposed ‘requirement’ to have meaning and purpose is just something else to get depressed about. It’s a bit like religion for believers – all you’re really doing is comparing yourself against someone more devout or certain or devoted, etc. (The British TV series ‘Everybody Else Burns’ is a hilarious take on that.)
It seems a very senseless first-world question. For many, all across the globe, the answer might be something like: ‘to try and find enough food to keep me and my children alive for another day’.
I’d answer anyone asking about another’s meaning or purpose by saying that perhaps they might like to stop wasting time and and energy, and instead help some of the many millions whose only ‘purpose’ is to try and stay alive until tomorrow.
Yours is the only comment I can really relate to. I’m glad you wrote it because all I was doing before reading it (without being aware of it) was, as you said, “comparing [myself]…”
Thanks Debi. I realised many years ago that it was something I used to do as well, and it never led to anything useful. It really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of my car or clothes, or the wine I choose, or what ‘purpose’ I have (or not have) when I’m lucky enough to have a car, a wardrobe full of clothes, ability to afford wine, and the luxury to dwell on abstract concepts like ‘meaning’ and ‘purpose’, etc.
Great comment.
Thanks Lou 🙂
I search neither for meaning nor purpose. I’m just living my life, enjoying my routines, enjoying breaking from my routines once in a while. Ignoring all those self-help books and articles encouraging you to grow and improve as a person, I never took any of that seriously. I never felt the need to grow or to become better. Selfish? Maybe. But, for the most part, I have simply lived the life I’ve wanted.
As a young person, there were things I “had” to do, like to go to the Dean’s faculty parties or say Yes to some volunteer position when I really wanted to say No. No more! No is probably the most important two-letter word in the English language. I use it joyfully.
My (lovely) wife calls me Dr. No.
Hear, hear! One of the greatest benefits of being retired is that I can say “no” without any need for explanation or justification.
That’s hilarious! I have a similar nickname, “the queen of no”.
Sounds like Ridley fluffed the answer too. Albrecht determined the ACGTU content of nucleic acids back in 1881, and the triplet code (first suggested by Gamow in 1955) took the work of many others to elucidate in the 1960s, for which multiple Nobels were awarded.
Quite on topic for my day today and.. coincidence would have it… I attended a funeral for a dear friend of 30 years a few hours ago.
He was 91 and the funeral and the zoom were filled – sure many relatives but so many friends attended. Made me think he had a very full life.
D.A.
NYC
I agree with you, I don’t think my life has a meaning or purpose, but I do (try to) enjoy it, I love learning about our universe (which only makes me realize more I do not have a meaning or purpose). I know I am privileged to spend some time on our pale blue dot, to have even be born, esp in at this time, which is but a speck….I am fortunate to have had such wonderful parents and others who love me. Sometimes I am depressed about the whole thing though, the suffering of others, and my fellow creatures. And at other times I am amazed at homo sapiens and how far we’ve come. So I don’t really know. I guess it’s been an interesting trip? I think we are fortunate to have been living in this time period (as depressing as it can be), but maybe this is as good as it gets?
Entropy is the nature of the universe (Carlo Rovelli, The Order of Time). The meaning and purpose of life is to continue defying entropy, reproducing, creating new life, turning our short life into a meaningful defiance of entropy. The physicist Carlo Rovelli uses the metaphor of rocks tumbling down a mountain for entropy. Albert Camus anticipated this metaphor by describing life as the struggle with pushing those rocks back up the mountain in his book, The Myth of Sisyphus. Rovelli’s conclusions about the nature of our universe is a perfect confirmation of Camus’ treatise about reality.
To paraphrase Douglas Menuez: “[If there is] a plan for you, and it might turn out to be nasty and brief. Best to savor the tequila slowly with your compadre and continue the conversation.”
I have faith in consequentialism 🙂. In my experience “absolute” moralities are mainly cudgels used to keep others (and oneself) in line.
But I do find value in general “principles” that appear to have pragmatic value. E.g.
• If you don’t stand for something then you’ll fall for anything.
• Continuous improvement. Good enough is, well, good enough, but take advantage of opportunities to improve something.
• The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas; balanced by the ninety-nine times out of 100 that the conclusion is false (and see Sturgeon’s Law).
• Try looking at the current difficulty in a different way, there may be an opportunity hiding somewhere.
• Never attribute to malice, insanity, or feeble-mindedness that which can be adequately explained by strongly-held priors.
• ad inf.
Principles are the refuge of the lazy.
I don’t deny avoiding unproductive effort. And what’s your alternative? Random insults?
Surprised not to have seen the famous Kafka response. The meaning of life is that it stops.
for me, there is no purpose but the meaning in my life is live, love and work… and have fun
At this point in my life, I am focusing on my relationship with the universe. To borrow an idea from Buddhism, the purpose of being part of the universe is to experience it, not to give it meaning, other than to participate in it without judgement.
Here’s a haiku I wrote called “A Haiku On Death”
Metamorphosis
Particles change into waves
And, so, life goes on
Nice.
There is no external purpose to life outside of an instinct to survive. Even that instinct can be overcome. I never came to a sudden understanding that I no longer believed in god. I just slowly came to a realization that the god I was taught made no more sense than any other god and I did not think any of the variations existed. If there is a god, whatever that may be, it is not involved in individual human lives. Meaning arises out of living. It is what we bring to our own lives. Purpose is what we choose to focus on, what we care about, because that is where we put our actions and attention.
It feels like an instinct to me that everything that is alive- as well as the inanimate parts of nature- have value. The way I choose to live my life, and what I hope for, is that people create more love and kindness and less pain around us during our lives. I was raised protestant Christian, and I assume that part of my ideas about purpose and meaning are rooted there in spite of my rational rejection of religious doctrine.
This sort of thing is up to the individual to decide – or not. Many people don’t think about such matters much, if at all. But for those of us that do, it is up to us to define life’s purpose and meaning. For me, it is trying to understand and comprehend the universe and to appreciate the beauty of nature that gives my life purpose and meaning.
I do not believe life has any intrinsic meaning. The sense of purpose is, I think, personal and variable, changing over time. When I was young, I felt it my purpose (though that might be putting too much weight on the idea) to experience my one life as fully as possible, while doing as little harm as possible. During my impending and present codgerhood, I have come to feel that such purpose as I have is tread as lightly as possible upon the planet and its creatures, while still very much enjoying the enduring pleasures of reading, music, baseball, and friendships.
I am blessed/cursed to seek an answer to the meaning of life as broadly as possible and not limit it to my life or to humans only. I look around me – geographically, historically, even astronomically – and see Life in all its forms and this dogged determined constant movement, this unending hunger being played out as some sort of Cosmic Drama and I look for but cannot find the Director of it all and this frustrates me to no end.
All of this eating reproducing evolving simply must reflect Somebody’s idea of Something! But who? And, more importantly, why? Why, when existence is such an eternal struggle, does anything bother to exist? I’ve yet to hear or read a satisfactory explanation.
Meaning and purpose IS life, intrinsic to it, divide if a single cell, sexually procreate if a mammal. Maintenance and continuity of this system is it’s own purpose. Christ is not king, biology IS, and maybe Elvis to some.
Individual position within a cultural system likewise, status, sanity… reading, hobbies, music, health, all those things that make up the illusion of self IS the meaning and purpose. We have no choices other than it appears that we do. So in my life meaning and purpose is where I am now.
We all know, homo sapiens have the ability to shape, weed out and hopefully progress the first point for as long as the planet is stable. Which allows the second point to continue and like the planet, only if our brains, cognitive health, is stable… no life, no purpose, just the old cold universe.