Asklemmy

Lots of interesting answers here. I figured I'll pitch in too.

IMHO there is no one true, universal meaning of life - just as there is no one meaning of any piece of art. I think the idea that everything around you must have a single meaning is a relatively modern one, which came from the requirements of efficient communication (which should indeed be precise and not open to interpretation).

As it stands, it is up to you to interpret the world around you and find different meanings for yourself, just as you should do with art. If you are struggling to start, consider those questions: What do you enjoy? What makes you happy? What do you think is "good", even if it makes you sad or uncomfortable? All those things are your personal interpretations of meaning of life. Or go ahead and make up something else, I'm not your dad.

I was pondering why people fight so hard to beat diseases and live a few more years. What are they planning to do? Why exert effort just to be here longer when you don’t have a reason?

As for this, I think when people realize the proximity of death and temporal nature of their life, they are much better at coming up with meanings. Maybe it is to see your partner or your children for a couple more years. Maybe it's another couple of gaming sessions with your pals. Whatever it is, when you realize you don't have much of it left, the importance of it typically rises dramatically from your perspective. If you're struggling to visualize something so dramatic, imagine that your favourite food will be completely banned and criminalized in your country in couple weeks. Wouldn't you want to enjoy it more before that happens?

Life has no meaning, no purpose. Luckily enough we are social animals, which creates a (genetic) framework in which we feel good. Enjoy yourself, when it’s over it’s over 👍🏽😊 I also believe humanity will go through a population collapse in the next 50-200 years… we may actually go extinct. But this beautiful planet with all kinds of beautiful creatures will survive 🎉😍

Yes! Do what you enjoy as long as it’s not harming others. Whatever that is

It's whatever you decide it to be. You are right - nothing matters in reality, but you can assign importance to things yourselves and as you said "amuse yourself to death".

There is no objective meaning to life. Any meaning imposed by yourself or others is arbitrary and completely subjective.

As a human you are trapped on earth and nothing you do will affect the Universe in any way. Nothing the entire human race has done or will do will affect the Universe in any way. .... Ever

live a few more years

And see more of your children, maybe even your grand-children. Sounds like a fair deal to me.

To me, the point of life is to give and receive love. There are many types of love and many ways to show it, and through working towards/with that, it gives my life meaning.

You wont last forever but your actions will

I think the meaning of life is experience. I have a personal belief that is hard to explain because it's obviously going to sound a little wacko but I think since all matter is energy and it seems like there's really only energy I'm convinced everything and everyone is the same thing and I think that thing, lets call it the universe, is just also trying to understand what's going on just like us. So everything from the sun to butterflies to black holes are either some kind of organ or vessel or after effect of the universe trying to understand itself/what is going on but not in a conscious way exactly.

I think we share a universal consciousness and being alive is just peering through a very limited perspective.

But also we're chemically designed to try and not die. Rage against the dying of the light and all.

Purpose? Point? You make it sound like it's something inherently positive. Can you give me an example where it could be inherently positive? Because the purposes I can think of are all negative to me since I have goals of my own and any purpose in life would stand in the way of that. I don't want to be like a spoon (so humans can eat more easily) or a cat (To be human pets), so I'm really glad to have no point or purpose in life, as that means I am the master of my own destiny.

I have goals in life I want to achieve. That's why I want to live longer. And if people can help me achieve my goals, that's all the better.

If you want to find purpose in life, then I'm sure you can find another person in life that can give you one.

My view is that there is no point, so you make your own point or purpose. I don't believe there's an inherent purpose. I think we're all just here, and that's it.

I work to make things less shitty for the people I care about and keep myself alive and comfortable. That's about it. I'm not interested in having children because I have no confidence that the world will improve for the next generations.

We are many, but we are one life. We are part of an organism that started with one cell. There is no need for meaning until we treat the world accordingly.

“Ambition is overrated. Whether a janitor or surgeon, being virtuous is what matters [1]. Avoid contempt and envy because we each have our part to play [2], powerless to choose our upbringing. Often there's more than meets the eye so hold off on passing judgement. Everything is borrowed [3], so avoid craving credit too. The meaning of life is sharing (and) laughter [4], helping each other through peaks and throughs. Bref, GLHF.

1. Dr. Michael Sugrue: Marcus Aurelius' Meditations: The Stoic Ideal.
2. Nicky Case: Fireflies.
3. The Streets: Everything Is Borrowed.
4. YouTube: The Meaning of Life.”

[Quoting my own website arscyni.cc because POSSE: "Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere."]

The fear of death is something engrained in life. For some, the fear of death is higher than the fear of suffering in life.

I'm not spiritual, but I believe the universe as we know it was created by higher beings on a dimensional plane we can't comprehend. They created us as a resource. Perhaps for simulations, or science, or entertainment. I believe we are the worker ants for these beings and our collective meaning is to produce intelligence. Maybe we are an AI hive mind? Or fuck it maybe were just here to watch ufc and drink beer.

To explore this existence.

you are the worst splinter cell agent i have ever seen OP

There is no point, no purpose, self replicating cells appeared and evolution led to where we are now.

Maybe the point is to find your own meaning of life.
Like my reason to continue may be different than yours (once found)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo

Lots of good answers here. You might want to read up on Existentialism, a line of philosophy grappling with exactly this problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism

I'm partial to the idea that we're part of a larger organism. So essentially similar to cell parts but on a different scale. There's something above that, but we are as likely to figure it out as cells are able to figure us out.

What to do with that? I have no idea. In lieu of objective facts, I guess it's useful to pick the good instructions from religions -- usually the ones that they all share are the ones that are worth adhering to. Do to others etc etc.

There's no meaning to life, because that implies intent for it existing. It just does. However, I think it does give us an imperative to try to do good with the life we have. We're one of the few things in the universe that can experience pain and joy, and we should be trying to minimize the former and maximize the latter for the other beings capable of them.

Nothing happens if you do or don't, but it does make everything better for everyone if you do, which includes yourself for the purely self motivated out there. Life isn't a zero-sum game, so we should try to make it as nice as possible.

I don't believe life has a meaning. I don't believe that anybody has a reason to be here, in any kind of grand scheme of things.

However, if somebody finds something that they enjoy, they might find they want more of that feeling, and choose to stick around to get it.

Most living things want to continue living. Whether that's because death is scary and potentially unpleasant in a few different ways, or because they've become attached to something in the world.

That's why I think some people fight diseases to live a few more years. They might not be planning on anything specific, other than just not dying.

You are the best suited vessel for transferring your DNA to the next generation. That is the meaning of life in the most specific sense. More generally, humans have evolved to help others achieve this goal, in the form of generosity and autism. At the purest biological level, the meaning of life is to have children and to help others of your species survive to have children.

This does not prohibit you from finding your own personal meaning of course, and I wish you the best of luck in doing so.

Unironically this

Edit: the idea of this came to me because I was pondering why people fight so hard to beat diseases and live a few more years. What are they planning to do? Why exert effort just to be here longer when you don't have a reason?

Sometimes one just wanna go out on their own terms, and finish all their goals, and disease is just something that's in the way.

A few more years is precious to those, I suppose.

Find a priest and do what they say lol. 99% of the time they also coincide with what your king wants from you.

Or make your own.