h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

42 has been given as an answer to this thread sooooo many times now!

And I don't think theres anyone on dis site who ain't read hhgttg!

Continuation is the meaning of life. Ideas of life and meaning require continuation. The urge for survival and procreation (yep, that really where that urge comes from) is about continuation.

Does that sound reasonable (maybe I should go back to Spook's Nonsense thread.

posably everyone has a diferent meaning in their life.

The question is meaningless.

"Life" is just stuff: everything that lives.
As such it has as much meaning as a chair.

If the question masks the following thought:
'What is the purpose of all human life?',

then you must assume that everyone has the same purpose in their life, or ought to have anyway. Big assumption.

If the question masks the following thought:
'Why should I get out of bed in the morning?'

then I can't really answer it for you....
...though I would suggest:

a) To see all the beauty in the world
b) To enjoy it while it lasts.
c) To have breakfast.

breakfast seems an achievable aim for many of us... but unfortunately not all

To muck things up a bit: there are two kinds of life.
1. The abstract version. This is the life all around us. Things moving about, going 'moo' from time to time, or 'chirp' or whatever. Everything growing around us, and ourselves as well...
2. The more personal version. This is a bit like 'alive'.
2 comes from 1. If there is an abstract verion of life, the individual beings must be alive. The second really isn't that interesting. The abstract version is, in my opinion.
Why is there a whole eco-system around us? Just to make us drive around, eat drink, and generally have a good time? Don't think so. That would mean the Creation in Genesis would be true. This is clearly not the case. I think that we evolved, because there was a niche to be filled. We are part of a greater thing.
There are people who call this greater thing a manifestation of God, or even God itself. Druids believe in the Mother and the Fater, nature and culture, as far as my knowledge goes.
Other people believe in this old man with robes, a beard, sitting on a throne and stuff. Interesting, but this is not the point.
The point is, people believe in something. They do things in honor of their faith, or get inspired by their faith. This faith may even be a sort of non-faith, in the sense that it is not a religion, but has the same impact as one. Take Communism. That concept evolved in some places in the world to religious proportions. Or science. The need for prove is in a way a faith all on its own.

The meaning behind living is to do things to improve ourselves. This has not always been the case, but I think it is now. It is the goal we set ourselves at a certain point in time, both as an individual and as a species (for lack of a better word).

Rant over, tell me what you think

I agree with most of it esp. "The meaning behind living is to do things to improve ourselves". Sometimes I think people get a twisted idea of what "improvement" means and thing can get worse (not always certainly) when they try to foist their ideas for "improvements" onto others.

I agree with most of it esp. "The meaning behind living is to do things to improve ourselves". Sometimes I think people get a twisted idea of what "improvement" means and thing can get worse (not always certainly) when they try to foist their ideas for "improvements" onto others.

just live and DONT PANIC

an occasional mini-PANIC can be invigorating

It means you have something to do.

How right you are !!!

[bye for now]

When I say, the meaning of living is to improve ourselves, I mean that in the here and now. In other places, or other moments in history, this has been not so much the case. If we take for instance the late medieval times, the meaning of live was to live according the things the curch taught us. Religion was a great factor in the lives of individual people, and therefore of the society.
I think a good way to combine points of view over a longer timespan could be to view the meaning of living as contributing to the common good. Or common view on things.

This is in fact a nice way to look at things, for a simple reason: If you want to know how well you are spending your time here, just look at the way you are contributing to that common good, and how you feel about that. If it makes you wonder what the point of everything is, you must be doing something wrong. Depending on your set of beliefs of course. In societies where selfishness is a way to improve yourself, being a pig must be a good way to lead your life

Your view of life would certainly upset the set of beliefs held by a pig.

Who was it who said: "Cats look down on you, dogs look up at you but pigs look you straight in the eye"?

Don't know but I would like to know what he thought was the meaning of life.

What makes everyone here assume life has a meaning? I suspect its meaningless.

Without life how could a skeptic suspect that life is meaningless.

Huh?