I started a similar thread, a while ago, on this subject:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=154879
You may find some of the discussion interesting.
Forgot to say: please don’t bump that thread, as the mods don’t particularly like old thread being brought back from the dead!
There is no meaning and we should all stop trying to make one up.
Meaning is an advanced form of cause and effect, a property of nature we can experience because of our large cortex. The same way higher intelligence has transformed procreation, survival, care for the young, etc. into love; the need to eat into a culinary art, and the evolutionary requirement of good health to “The President’s Health Club”
leechow09 there is a meaning. It is called “Being Alive.”
Sorry, I was probably a little brash in denying all purpose to life. I just deeply wanted to thumb my nose at the idealists that are eternally trying to fit some proper purpose to it.
Fancying myself a liberal person, I believe life is free and I believe that you can’t intentionalize what is free.
There’s obviously going to be ways to better your own life, and the lives of others around you, but as for a collective purpose, whether for the entire of humanity or for individuals, I would have to say there is no purpose.
And I agree with leech. While there may be a purpose to certain things we do in our life, there is not actual purpose to our being alive. There is no point in us being here. Of course, I’m an existentialist atheist. Someone of a religious nature would completely disagree…
My WAG is finding & living in accordance with the meaning of life is a desire built into our brains as a consequence of being social. When you think about it, finding ‘the meaning of life’ is just a pretty way of finding out who/whats in charge and obeying it (living in accordance with it). Its the human equivalent of ants asking ‘who is the queen’.
I think that life has no meaning. Life doesn’t exist for any special reason I believe. It was just an accident a couple of billion years ago when the first DNA was created (that whole lightening causing the first DNA-similar molecule by chance theory). And since then life has evolved as the best way to pass on genes.
However there is a purpose to life and that is to have children and pass on these genes.
Trigonal Planar
I think it’s safe to say that Nomadic_One, and indeed most people who have asked the question, mean it as, “What is the meaning of my life?” I don’t think he meant, “What are some of the properties of biological life?”. I believe that my life has meaning as a moral journey. I travel through time amongst the atoms, using them to evaluate and express my morality. I worship a God Who values goodness above any other aesthetic. Love is the means by which He facilitates His goodness. Indeed, He is Love, the Facilitator of Goodness.
Your mileage may vary.
From City Slickers:
Curly: You know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean shit.
Mitch: That’s great, but what’s the one thing?
Curly: That’s what you’ve got to figure out.