What is the purpose of life?

Answer

The purpose of life is three-fold:

1) To gain a body and experience a fullness of joy as our eternal spirit takes on a physical form. Will we develop self-mastery over the flesh or let it take control? A successful life is one of self-mastery.

2) To learn to live by faith. In this mortal world we must live by faith constantly. We exercise faith to plant seeds in the ground, nourish them, and trust that they will grow. We work trusting our employer will pay us. Faith is continually required - even by those who do not believe in a Higher Power. A successful life is one that develops enough faith to trust God. The people who do their best and rely on God to make up the rest are those who have found the secret to a joyful life.

3) To prove yourself. What will you do with what you've been given? Jesus illustrated this with the parable of the talents. The two servants who had 2 and 5 talents doubled theirs and were considered good stewards. The one who had 1 talent, buried it in fear, and did not improve lost his talent and was banished. What have you done with the light, knowledge and gifts you've been given? For those who have been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, have they been valiant in their testimony of Jesus? Those who have never heard of Him or never had a chance to be taught of Him will be measured by what they have done with the light and truth they have been given. Jesus taught, "where much is given, much is required." He who sins against the greater light receives the greater condemnation. What have you done with what you have been given? Have you sought to obtain more or in fear hidden your talent in the earth?

Another opinion...

"We Decided One"- This means that every 'player' (Person, animal, plant, material, matter, energy) makes decisions (Some form of action, no action is an action too) which collide with each other and truth to form what we call experience.

"The purpose of life is to aspire to intimately and completely understand each 'player' in life so that you can make decisions that improve everything to the greatest possible point for any given time period."

That includes yourself. Unfortunately this aspiration is currently impossible, might change in the future. There are two factors that limit this goal.

• Each life form has to live and define themselves in time
  
• Each life form has a limited time of life
  

This does not mean that we should not aspire to understand because with every inch that we progress we improve ourselves and everything else that much more.

To achieve the purpose of life, all you have to do is

• Listen (As much as possible)
• Think (Ask questions, derive answers, look at different perspectives by yourself)
• Act (Only after you have significantly listened and thought)
  

Another opinion...

The purpose of life, b/c Jesus died on the cross for us, is to take his gift of eternal life and ask Jesus to come into your heart and forgive you of all your sin. Trust in Him forever, b/c he is God. Spread the word about this amazing thing He did for us so that others can come to Heaven too, b/c Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Then we must stay strong in our relationship with Him by reading our Bible and Parying daily. We must live our life to the fullest for Him, b/c God gave His son Jesus for us and The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. But Jesus came to the Earth for one purpose and one purpose only, and it was to die and rise again from the grave for us, b/c He loved us enough to give His life for us, even though we are so sinful.

Purpose of Life

Many biologists will say that the purpose or goal of all life is to ensure the survival of its genes. As FAQ Contributor Joepoidog put it, "the most fundamental purpose of life is to survive long enough to procreate so as to ensure the survival of the species."

Philosophically speaking, this question cannot be answered definitively. For many people, the answer is either very personal, or religious, or they feel that life has no purpose.

Here is more from WikiAnswers contributors:

• Everything!

• The purpose of life is to live with a purpose.

• The question "What is the purpose of life?" needs interpretation.

This question could be a cry of desperation from an individual who feels insignificant. Quite the contrary, it could also be a genuine plea to "meet your maker" and figure out the "big picture" in life. This question could also be intended to find an answer as to the significance of living things, such as plants, animals or any living organism in the universe. For instance, the purpose of a tree may simply be to produce oxygen, therefore we in turn can breathe a balanced and life sustaining supply. However, there's more to it than that with an evident depth of purpose in anything. When this question is dissected in this manner one can find purpose in life very quickly, yet the purpose of life remains a mystery.

It would be simple deductive reasoning to display this question broadly as

"What is the purpose of mankind living here on earth?"

No one can prove with 100% certainty if there is any kind of life out there, whether physical or spiritual. Consequently, it could be an acceptable objective to find the purpose of the existence of the ever-growing intelligent human race. This question has the underlying tone of, "What is the meaning of life?" If other intelligent life exists, then the purpose of life takes on an entirely different definition. To quickly understand and acknowledge "the purpose of life" one could simply answer:

"The purpose of life is to seek knowledge of the unknown while finding the meaning and value in everything known, along with identifying the purpose in relationships between entities."

Nevertheless, this approach limits the intensity of purpose in mankind. Purpose is even evident in the menial tasks of ants fulfilling their individual, instinctive roles within a colony. Our collective and distinctive abilities are wielded to understand meaning and purpose in the values set before us. This includes the complexities of life, thought, action, language, emotion, relationships, culture, or free will. Identifying these functions and their paradoxical unified but separate roles will pave the way to a more stable answer. A good example statement is that the purpose for a man could be equal and opposite to that of a woman. For instance, in physical roles a man has the purpose to "plant seed" while the woman has the purpose to "nurture." This is not enough to conclude that procreation is our purpose.

In ancient times, a man's purpose may have been to honor and serve his king, expand the kingdom, and improve living conditions with new developments. Here we are today because of that kind of culture-driven purpose and industriousness. If our purpose is to expand and procreate and build an efficient "colony" of humans, we may possibly overpopulate the surface we occupy on this planet and so annihilate ourselves by consuming the balance of resources. The impact of culture in global communications and our association with other people reflect purpose in unifying the human race. In the end, we know that our small planet will fade away like dust, and all our endeavors will be a thing of the universe's past.

Morals play a large role in our purpose. Purpose may not seem very clear for us in this vast world of chaos. Certainly a hopeless generation would proclaim that purpose is based on individual opinions or whatever religious beliefs or ideas we all hold about life; no two beliefs are alike. At last, we would all-together remain separate. In conclusion, unity that promotes peace is our ultimate objective, yet our collective purpose is to establish a world that embraces uprightness in character, integrity, honor, and strength that we pass on to our children and our children's children. Perhaps the future of this world's purpose isn't so chaotic after all.

• The purpose of life differs from person to person; the purpose of my life is to do what I love to do and have fun with it. To laugh, and to love. Laughing is my favorite part about life (No matter how many times I snort in doing so) Your purpose of life should be whatever you love to do. Too many people do things that they don't want to do. Their lives get stressful, and they take that out on their loved ones. Do what you want to do; be what you want to be. And most importantly, have fun with it! :) TreeFire

First answer by Joncey. Last edit by Sol88. Contributor trust: 0 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 20 [recommend question]