The Meaning of Life

Even since I graduated, I have been becoming increasing troubled by a question. I've become consumed to finding the answer to it. I think about it every time and I find it very difficult to be happy knowing that I do not have the answer to the question. The question is: "What is the meaning of life?"

It's a classic question asked by everyone. At first, this seem unanswerable. Then, as you think about it, answers start to appear. At first I was happy. I had an answer. But over time, more and more answers appeared. The more answers I have, the further I am from answering the question. Each subsequent answer seems as good as any of the previous answers. And thus I am becoming more and more confused and I start realizing how difficult - and simple - this question truly is.

The first answer to this question, and the one that is most supported by science - is based on evolution. I am not saying that this is the right answer. In fact, I think this is the worst answer. It is an answer that makes us lose hope and makes life a meaningless exercise of desperation that is the result of chance and the whims of the universe. But it is the most logical answer. Logic and science - being the only organized system in which correct predictions of the future can be made consistently - cannot be discounted. Because of its predictive behaviour, this is the only system we can currently rely on to give us answers to questions.

The simple answer based on science and evolution is: "To reproduce." "To reproduce" is really an oversimplification of the answer. If you follow the line of logic back even more, the answer becomes "The meaning of life is to be," or "The meaning of life is meaningless," or "There is no meaning to life." But of course, this is an answer that deserves an explanation since it can be interpreted in many different ways. Here is a summary of that explanation:

The meaning of life is to reproduce, since if we did not do so, there would be no life. We have the ability to reproduce because of evolution. But it is because we can reproduce that there is evolution. The combination of the two is due to the rules of this universe that allows for certain chemicals to combine, and certain molecules to act together to create a system that is able to reproduce and carry out evolution. Life developed over billions of years due to a coincidence in the rules of this universe. If we are the product of chance which has produced organisms that are intent on reproducing, then there really is no point to reproducing because everything is just a coincidence anyway. We only have the desire to reproduce and for the human race, and life in general, to continue because of a series of coincidences and the process of evolution - survival of the systems that can self-propagate the best. If this is the case, there is no meaning of life, and what we might attribute to be the meaning of life is actually meaningless, since it is only due to a series of coincidences that resulted in us thinking that the meaning of life is meaningful. So depending on how you see the situation, the meaning of life can be "meaningless" - since life is a product of coincidence anyway, "to be" - since that is the way the universe intends it to be, or "to reproduce" - since without reproduction, there would be no life.

Well, I'm sure that by now you either think that I make no sense at all, that I'm crazy, or some combination of the two. But think about it. It took me a while to understand this answer even a little bit. I'll probably elaborate on specific parts of this answer in more detail in the future, and of course, we'll move to some more up-beat answers to the question of what the meaning of life is!