What is the Meaning of Life?

Why are we here?

What is life all about?

What is the purpose of existence?

This is a universal question, and there have been a large number of proposed answers from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds.

Why do I ask?

Because the value of the question may coincide with the meaning of ultimate reality.

Lets present the view of religion, philosophy, and science:

Sikhism: Promote a life of peace and equality but also of positive action.  God is the Universe itself. Life is an opportunity to understand this God as well as to discover the divinity which lies in each individual.

Zoroastrianism: Zoroastrians believe in a universe created by a transcendental God, to whom all worship is ultimately directed. God created truth and order, and it is in conflict with its antithesis, falsehood, and disorder. Since humanity possesses free will, people must be responsible for their moral choices. (FYI Zoroastrianism is the origin of Judaism, hence it is the origin of Christianity and Islam).

Platonism:  Life means attaining the highest form of knowledge, which is the Idea of the Good, from which all good and just things derive utility and value.

Aristotelianism: Life is about achieving happiness. The ultimate good.

Cynicism: the purpose of life is living a life of Virtue that agrees with Nature. Reject conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, by being free of the possessions.

Epicureanism: Freedom from pain and freedom from fear are happiness in its highest form, achieved via knowledge, friendship, and virtuous, temperate living.

Stoicism:  Living in harmony with the universe’s divine order, caused by recognizing the universal designs. The meaning of life is “freedom from suffering” through being objective and having “clear judgement”, not indifference.

Utilitarianism: Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters; pain and pleasure. The meaning of life is the “greatest happiness principle”.

Pragmatism: The meaning of life is discoverable only via experience. The practical, useful understanding of life is more important than searching for an impractical abstract truth about life.

Existentialism: Each man and each woman create the meaning of his and her life; life is not determined by a supernatural god or an earthly authority, one is free. As such, one’s ethical prime directives are action, freedom, and decision. Existence precedes essence; the (essence) of one’s life arises only after one comes to existence.

Secular humanism: Human knowledge comes from human observation, experimentation, and rational analysis (the scientific method), and not from supernatural sources; the nature of the universe is what people observe it to be.

Mohism: The purpose of life is universal, impartial love. Impartial caring – a person should care equally for all other individuals, regardless of their actual relationship to him or her.

Confucianism: Recognize human nature in accordance with the need for discipline and education. Because mankind is driven by both positive and negative influences, the goal is achieving virtue through strong relationships and reasoning as well as minimizing pain and the negative.

Legalism: Finding the purpose of life is a meaningless effort. Only practical knowledge is valuable, especially as it related to the function and performance of the state.

Theism: God created the universe, and that God had a purpose in doing so. Humans find their meaning and purpose for life in God’s purpose in creating.

Christianity: Life’s purpose in Christianity is to seek divine salvation through the grace of God and intercession of Christ. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Mormons: The purpose of life on Earth is to gain knowledge and experience. God the Father first created humans as spirits, each with the potential to progress toward perfection. Earth life is considered a crucial stage in this development — wherein a physical body, coupled with the freedom to choose, makes for an ideal environment to learn and grow.

Catholicism: The human person is created to praise, reverence, and serve God Our Lord, and by doing so, to save his or her soul. All other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created.

Islam: Man’s ultimate life objective is to worship the creator (God) by abiding by the Divine guidelines revealed in the Qur’an and the Tradition of the Prophet. Life is not important, and not worth living, as earthly life is merely a test, determining one’s afterlife, either in Paradise or in Hell.

Sufis: the universe exists only for God’s pleasure; Creation is a grand game, wherein God is the greatest prize.

Baha’i Faith: The purpose of life is focused on spiritual growth and service to humanity.

Judaism: To elevate the physical world and prepare it for the world to come, the messianic era.

Hinduism: The goal is to realize the fundamental truth about oneself. Spiritual development occurs across many lifetimes, and goals should match the state of development of the individual. There are four possible aims to human life: Kāma (wish, desire, love and sensual pleasure), Artha (wealth, prosperity, glory), Dharma (righteousness, duty, morality, virtue, ethics), and Moksha (liberation from the cycle of reincarnation).

Jainism: Jainism divides the universe into living and non-living beings. Only when the living become attached to the non-living does suffering result. Therefore, happiness is the result of self-conquest and freedom from external objects. The meaning of life may then be said to be to use the physical body to achieve self-realization and bliss.

Buddhism: To achieve freedom from suffering and unhappiness.

Taoism: Life is about opposites, and one’s role is to realize the temporal nature of existence. Only introspection can then help us find our innermost reasons for living, and the simple answer is here within ourselves.

Shinto: The universe is the divine spirit. This foundation of free will, choosing one’s way, means that life is a creative process.

Science: All matter is made of energy, including consciousness, therefore, reality is nothing but energy and electromagnetic forces acting on one another, and the spirit within us is simply a function of biology and randomness, governed by “The Quantum Field Model”.