uhoh, we’re gonna hafta think . . .
In one statement or sentence tell me the meaning of life.
Tough eh ? Try fighting ignorance for 27 years.
I can go first :
Truth is whatever you accept as being real.
Have fun.
Wolverine is the source of all inspiration and meaning to everyone.
or seriously
While there can be no objective meaning to life, meaning of one’s life becomes a personal responsibility to choose for oneself.
(Note: This does not exclude God because God could provide the most meaningful life for the individual.)
The answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything is, of course, 42.
Raise your hand if you didn’t expect that answer from someone. 
I’ve got one for you NM:
Life is.
That’s my answer anyway.
Six whole minutes before I got “42”.
WOW. You are very creative.
I love Douglas Adams too. You sir are no Douglas Adams.
Hey, c’mon, nobody can really give you the meaning of life in one sentence. Life has no inherent meaning. If you want purpose, find your own. Nobody can give it to you. “42” is as sensible an answer to the OP as any other.
I will, however, in the spirit of the OP give you the wisest statement I’ve heard. A friend once told me, “If all you have to eat in the world is a dead rat on a stick, make sure it’s a clean stick.”
Besides, from your condescending tone, you’re lucky you got a polite answer.
Life has no inherent meaning.
Sorry, goboy.
Just…sorry.
“all the questions in the universe can be boiled down to the one - why is there anything?”
Why is there anything rather than nothing?
Excellent question. Thought I don’t know who you are quoting, many philosophers have tackled this question. I’m currently in a philosophy class “Theories of Reality,” but is really “What is the Meaning of Life.”
There are three possible answers.
-
The universe or existence is a brute fact. It just is.
-
God created everything and God’s nature explains his existence. (A necessary and sufficient being)
-
There is an infinite regress with both God and science explanations so we just don’t know.
And there is no spoon.
I thought about making this an entirely flippant answer…but someone beat me to “42.” So I’ll answer honestly.
Look, there is no boiled down meaning to life. If there was a simple answer, then life itself would be simple. It’s not so there isn’t. Despite what Billy Crystal says, there isn’t just “one thing,” that you have to find for yourself. There are many things and many of them take decades to discover…if you even figure it out at all.
On the deathbed, so many people confess to what a mistake they’ve made, chasing after money and ignoring their family. But the money supported their family in the first place. At what point is it acceptable to stop working knowing that your family is well cared for? How can you be so sure? And what about charities? Surely those less well off could use a little help from you now and then. Where’s your time for that? Life is finite so you have to pick and choose.
Or perhaps the meaning to life is to become educated to those around you. So you bury your nose in a book and look up twenty years later to realize that life passed you by. You can travel around the world, exploring other lands, learning of other’s cultures. To what end? Your knowledge, your experiences, will die with you. So what if you teach? What if everyone teaches? Then who has time to learn?
Then there’s religion. They say that life here is a prelude to eternity. Heaven, Hell, purgatory, reincarnation? Something will happen after you die. So maybe the meaning to life is to get in God’s good graces and score a ringside seat for the afterlife. Sometimes what’s right, isn’t what’s fun. What if I want to eat cow? What if I want sex before marriage? What if I want to drive a car on Saturday?
For me, then, God’s Will is making me suffer. The meaning of life then, becomes having me suffer. If that’s truly the meaning of life, why would I want to live? If pleasing God is truly the meaning to life, then it’s all just a sick joke. God created us to serve him? We’re slaves then, trapped in a life where an omnipotent being dangles a carrot in front of us so we’ll be good.
Or you can accept God. Love God. Love life. What if God doesn’t even want to have you praying? Does going to religious services get you any closer to understanding? What if life is truly about living and you’re wasting your time inside reading from a book written thousands of years ago?
Some people believe that the meaning to life is to propogate the world with your offspring. Does that make the Chinese, with their one child per family rule, less alive than an American? Does that make those that refuse to breed, or are unable to breed, less alive? Or at the very least less able to fullfil the purpose of life?
There are some who believe that it was all random. There is no meaning to life. Those that search for it are deluding themselves. What’s their reason for living? “Because I want to.” Ah, then there is a meaning. It didn’t come from God, it came from you.
And there it is. Maybe the meaning to life is whatever you choose the meaning of life to be. Maybe it can be condensed down to one sentence, or one number, or maybe it takes 3 books to spell it all out for you. So while you can ask others their opinions, that’s all it would be, their opinion. It’s not the Truth. To them it is. To you, it can’t be. It’s their Truth for their life. Steal the answer from them and all you’re doing is cheating yourself.
But you asked and I’ll answer. If I did have to condense the meaning of life down to one sentence, I’m rather fond of this one:
“Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself…the rest is commentary, go and learn.”
"If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us choose ourselves a worthy goal".
-
- Carl Sagan