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What is the Meaning of life?
What is life? Of course we all know what is meant by the word "life", Life:
Even the biologists have a tough time describing what life is! But after many years of studying living things, from the mold on your old tuna sandwich to monkeys in the rainforest, biologists have determined that all living things do share some things in common:
Therefore,
in order for something to be considered to "have life" as
we know it, Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes (i.e., living organisms) from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate. Biology is the science concerned with the study of life. Living organisms undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations. More complex living organisms can communicate through various means. A diverse array of living organisms (life forms) can be found in the biosphere on Earth, and the properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria—are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information.
But how would you define life?
It's not very easy to describe what "life" is. It's almost as hard as describing where life came from. The meaning of life - its significance, origin, purpose, and ultimate fate - is a central concept and question in philosophy and religion. Both philosophy and religion have offered interpretations as to how life relates to existence and consciousness, and on related issues such as life stance, purpose, conception of a god or gods, a soul or an afterlife. Different cultures throughout history have had widely varying approaches to these issues. What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Is there a God or isn't there? Of all the world's religions, which one is the most correct? Is there an afterlife? Are we primarily physical beings or spiritual beings? People have struggled for millennia to tackle these questions. Wars have been fought over them. The meaning of life, where 'meaning' may be thought of as 'purpose', is really a philosophical question that involves the purpose of our very existence here on this planet and perhaps our existence within the entire space-time continuum and beyond. This question touches on cultural, religious and spiritual influences, universal truths and cosmic relationships as well as states of consciousness and transcendence of all of this.
Many major
historical figures in philosophy have provided an answer to the
question of what, if anything, makes life meaningful, although they
typically have not put it in these terms. Consider, for instance, Aristotle
on the human function, Aquinas
on the beatific vision, and Kant
on the highest good. While these concepts
have some bearing on happiness and morality, they are
straightforwardly construed as accounts of which final ends a person
ought to realize in order to have a significant existence.
Ethics as a
subject begins with the works of Aristotle.
In its original form, this subject is concerned with the question of
virtue (Greek arete) of character (ethos), or in other words having
excellent and well-chosen habits. The acquisition of an excellent
character is in turn aimed at living well and eudaimonia, a Greek
word often translated as well-being or happiness. In other words,
ethics is a systematic study of how individuals should best live.
This study was originally coupled with the closely related study of
politics, including law-making. Politics has an effect on how people
are brought up, which therefore addresses the same question of how
people should live, from the standpoint of the community. The
original Aristotelian and Socratic answer to the question of how best
to live was to live the life of philosophy and contemplation. Beatific Vision The beatific vision (Latin: visio beatifica) - in Christian theology is the ultimate direct self communication of God to the individual person, when she or he reaches, as a member of redeemed humanity in the communion of saints, perfect salvation in its entirety, i.e. heaven. The notion of vision stresses the intellectual component of salvation, though it encompasses the whole of human experience of joy, happiness coming from seeing God finally face to face and not imperfectly through faith (1 Cor 13:11-12).
It is
related to the Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox belief in theosis, and is
seen in most - if not all - church denominations as the reward for Christians
in the afterlife. Summum Bonum Summum bonum is an expression used in philosophy, particularly in medieval philosophy and in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, to describe the ultimate importance, the singular and most ultimate end which human beings ought to pursue. The summum bonum is generally thought of as being an end in itself, and at the same time containing all other goods. In Christian philosophy, the highest good is usually defined as the life of the righteous, the life led in Communion with God and according to god's precepts. The concept, as well as the philosophical and theological consequences drawn from the purported existence of a more or less clearly defined summum bonum, could be traced back to the earliest forms of monotheism: for instance, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. In the Western world, the concept was introduced by the neoplatonic philosophers, and described as a feature of the Christian god by Saint Augustine in De natura boni (On the Nature of Good, written circa 399). Augustine denies the positive existence of absolute evil, describing a world with God as the supreme good at the center, and defining different grades of evil as different stages of remoteness from that center. Experience soon teaches that all desires cannot be satisfied, that they are conflicting, and that some goods must be foregone in order to secure others. Hence the necessity of weighing the relative value of goods, of classifying them, and of ascertaining which of them must be procured at the loss of others. The result is the division of goods into two great classes, the physical and the moral, happiness and virtue. Within either class it is comparatively easy to determine the relation of particular good things to one another, but it has proved far more difficult to fix the relative excellence of the two classes of virtue and happiness. The meaning of life . . .
So many of us spend each day of our life searching for, or seeking the simple life answers to this question.' What is the meaning of life? What's it all about? Who are we? Why are we here? What are we here for? What is the origin of life? What is the nature of life? What is the nature of reality? What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of one's life? What is the significance of life? What is meaningful and valuable in life? What is the value of life? What is the reason to live? What are we living for?
These questions have resulted in a wide range of competing answers and arguments, from scientific theories, to philosophical, theological, and spiritual explanations. It's a wonderful life! For all its ups and downs and good and bad, life truly is a wonderful journey, if you understand it is more about the trip than where it inevitably takes you. Along the way however there are "direction aids" that make the meaning of life a far more beneficial, spectacular, creative and pleasant journey. Don't spend half a life learning what the phrase ' What is the Meaning of life?' really means. Bring life and its meaning into your heart, mind and soul. The mistake most people make about finding the meaning of life is searching for the answer instead of just living it. The meaning of life is whatever we choose, decide, it to be. The choice, the decision, is ours and yet we are free to seek guidance in making this choice.
This page was created 01/01/2012
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