What's the meaning of life in your personal opinion?

There is no “meaning”. Life is random. I do the best I can to make myself happy and share that with others. That’s about it.

Self-preservation. A pastor once said “to live is to suffer”, so I have come to a realization that life can also means suffering as well since we’ll keep on suffering from time to time due to living our life.

Everything that is left after it ends.

42, of course.

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Live your life the way you want, do what makes you happy and try not to hurt anyone.

Self gratification.

Kindness to others.

The meaning of life is to give it meaning.

Survival and propagation.

There is no meaning to life. You exist, then you die. End of story.

We create our own meaning. There is no ultimate meaning other than to survive and propagate as @Pachy says. We could all, have just as easily manifested as a Banana tree or a Bullfrog, but, luck of the evolutionary DNA draw set us up to be human organisms. Humans are the only species that contemplates this question. Animals are content to just rest in their being-ness, your cat doesn’t wake up every day and ask itself what the meaning of its life is.

It just eats its breakfast and goes outside to watch the birdies in the trees. Something we should all do too. haha

There is none, except that which we assign to it and damn it! I’m typing this and reading @Coloma answer at the same time so, what she said.

Think of it this way, what is the meaning of life for your dog? Or for all the fecking possums that wind up in my house? What is the meaning of life for an earthworm? And damn it! @Coloma kinda said that too!

Believe me you DON’T want my miserable opinion!

Boats n hoes

@kritiper, I have no need nor wish to debate you since the question calls for “personal opinion”, and of course one’s answer can only be an opinion (possibly the most personal of any) based on the sum of one’s religious and philosophical beliefs, and one’s life experience to date.

I’ll say this and then move on. My opinion on this has evolved over many years, and at this time of my life, I’m quite content with my answer, cynical as it may sound to some.

What did @kritiper do?

Decide what your gaols and aspirations are for life and seek out to achieve them. That is your meaning of life. You don’t need to be deeply philosophical about it.

@Dutchess_III, how weird, I responded to a comment from @kritiper—at least I thought that’s who it was—that appears to have been replaced by one that essentially agrees with mine. Am I going craaaazzzzzzy???!!

“Going?...” ~

I got nothin’ to add…

To be food for the angels.

^^^Ew! “How would you like your human?”

@Dutchess_III Spirited.

Ha ha ha ha!! Nice one @RedDeerGuy1!

@Dutchess_III : )

Life has no meaning, it just is. Life will be what you make of it.

Okay, I lied. The meaning of many cats lives is their nightly can of Fancy Feast. haha

I’m kind of starting to believe in reincarnation. So far human consciousness is the only kind of consciousness that we know of, and that makes human life incredibly precious. But for a lot of history, we’ve thrown away countless human lives like they were nothing.

I think the “point” of us being here is to continually learn and evolve so we collectively send humanity in a better direction. If life in the past was “nasty, brutish, and short,” then we are generally making gains toward a more humane way of life. Humanity’s collective quality of life seems to be trending slowly upward, and our body of knowledge keeps growing as people build on the discoveries of past generations.

So then what? Hopefully we’ll learn how to have a civilization that doesn’t harm earth’s biosphere, and coexists peacefully with it instead. And/or we become a spacefaring civilization.

Another big problem to solve is how to give everyone humane living conditions (and the allocation of resources). A huge portion of humanity is lacking basic human rights and necessities like enough food, water, and shelter. If we can get all humans the bottom parts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we will probably have a huge renaissance of scientific discovery and creativity. A lot of people who are probably geniuses have no access to basic resources and education today. The cure for cancer could be locked inside the head of a kid who never learned to read.

So my best-case scenario is that we basically become Star Trek. The reason for that is to make a stand against entropy and darkness. If we’re the only conscious beings in the universe, then it’s incredibly important that we use our consciousness to its full potential. That means safeguarding the earth, exploring the universe, treating each other with kindness, and giving everyone the chance to develop their talents to the fullest.

And then I guess at some point the universe itself will go pop, but at least we’ll have done our best?

I developed my own religion in college. It included reincarnation. What a splendid concept!

I have not yet read the other answers, will do so after posting.

I do not believe that there is any meaning to life. We can give meaning to our lives (or not) but I don’t think we are here for any other reason than a series of random things that happened, a huge chain reaction that lead up to today.

I am not religious, so not having a meaning, in no way diminishes my life. I believe I am here in this world, so I kind of have to act as though that is so, but it does not mean that there is a creator or a higher purpose or anything like that. It does mean that I still have to fit into the particular society in which I exist (or think I exist) or else suffer the consequences.

For whatever reason, I choose to be a good person, by the definition of good person that makes sense to me. The alternative seems to be bad for everyone.

P.S. I just read some of the other answers who are saying that propagation is one of the reasons for our existence. I couldn’t agree with that any less. I have never, ever, ever, had the desire to have children. Not because of any bad things that have happened to me, I just don’t have that innate desire. I know most people do, but not all people. My best friend and her boyfriend, and several of my other friends have never wanted children either. No one was abused amongst this group. I also don’t like baseball, most people do. The desire to propagate has no more to do with the meaning of life than the desire for baseball. The desire for sex is there, but not the desire for creating children. They’re related, but not the same thing. And they’re both about desire, not about meaning.

The meaning of life to each person is subjective.
The real question is ..is my life meaningful, am I living a purposeful life?
Am I doing what I really want to do in this life?
Why some die young, or pain in their lives while others live long lives?
Because there life lesson in this time was completed this round and they move onto another lesson in a different lifetime.
Meaning of life? Means to live and experience all that one can and to do the best possible to live a healthy , ethical life honestly and in spite of pain and suffering knowing that you will learn lessons of humility, hunger,pain,etc to make you a better person that is compassionate,and understanding.

To have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ; simple as that.

For me, the meaning and purpose of life is love. Love is caring about the quality of the lives of others and the environment that sustains life. The higher power that I identify with is a force of creation that from the beginning of time is evolving the universe. I call this force spirit and imagine it to be like a flowing field encompassing an expanding universe.

Sentient beings have the potential to shift their purpose from serving their wants, taking from flow as their animal instincts direct, to giving to the flow by recognizing and responding to needs outside of self. However, it is difficult to overcome one’s biological and psychological imperatives from which the desire to acquire and control resources arise with limited concern as to the results of their effort beyond achieving transitory satisfaction.

Pain and suffering are a natural part of life, the consequences of disease, the struggle for survival and the inevitable death to which age leads. The psychological aspect of humans, however, adds an additional dimension to pain and suffering. The mind creates an ego that also seeks to survive that extends the natural inclination to group with kind and regard different kinds with suspicion to philosophical, racial and political distinctions. Exploitation and war are rationalized as acceptable.

Sages through history have identified the need to recognize the illusion of self as separate from the rest of creation. Sadly, this higher consciousness has had little success in transforming humanity for all but a few. Perhaps, if we do not destroy our specie and the planet first, we will evolve spiritually. Until then, it remains an individual effort to recognize ways that one may mitigate the suffering of others.

Life is all about realizing
and experiencing the Truth within ourselves.
Once that awareness has been revealed
within us, then to embrace that truth
and to create the best life we can.

^^^^ That’s getting annoying! Do you say anything else?

To be a stepping stone for the next generation.