John asked:

What is the meaning of life? (seriously)

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I believe this is a question that can be answered, without dodging or making excuses. The first step is
to define meaning. I define meaning as precisely "the interpretation of something by an intelligence."
Thus, the meaning of my life is precisely what I think it is plus what everyone I've met thinks it is. By
understanding something, we give it meaning.

Unfortunately, this question is often usually asked with the intention of asking "what is the purpose of
life?" This question does not have the same simple response.

So, you need to ask yourself the following things :

1) Do you believe in God? If so, everything changes. The meaning of your life continues to be how
other people understand it, but there's the additional meaning given to your life by God.

2) Do you really mean what is the purpose of life? If so, you must look at other areas. Many people
have proposed 'purposes'. Again, the religious crowd have a host of options to choose from here —
everything from an explicit list of the things you should do in life through to just accepting life's
inscrutable nature and accepting its rightness on faith.

3) Do you really mean what is the impact of my life? Again, this is a different question. Does Hitler's
life have more meaning that your own? How about Einstein? How about Pope John Paul? Well, you
could argue that in some respects Hitler's life does have more meaning — Hitler is understood at
some level by many more people. Sure, it's a meaning pregnant with cruelty, unhappiness and
psychological damage — but nonetheless many people have given significant thought to the matter.

Anyway, I hope these short comments help.

Tennessee Leeuwenburg

Your question is a very simple one, and a very common one — especially to those new to the subject
of philosophy. In fact, in my own very limited experience, it is the question that most frequently starts
an individual on the road to a deeper investigation into the various subjects of philosophy.

On further investigation, one will usually find that this very simple question is also a very complex
one. In fact, one will quickly discover that one has to be more specific about just what one means by
"meaning", "life", and "meaning of life". It turns out there are a number of ways to interpret this
seemingly very simple question.

Here is a small sampling of the ways that I have found this question actually intended. By "What is the
meaning of life?" do you mean:

i. What is "life"? In the sense of how or why is "life" different from "non-life"?

ii. What is the purpose (or function or intent) of life? In the sense of "why does life exist at all?

iii. What is the significance of life (to the Earth or to the Universe)? In the sense of does it matter to
the rest of the Earth or the Universe whether there is life or not?

iv. What is the purpose (or function or intent) of the human species?

v. What is the significance of the existence of the human species (to the Earth or to the Universe)?

vi. What is the purpose (or function or intent) of my life? A much more specifically intended question
usually posed by someone struggling to find some anchor to their daily struggles.

vii. What is the significance of my life (to the Earth or to the Universe)? Also a very specifically
intended question posed by someone feeling overwhelmed by the apparently insignificant role allotted
to the individual by "Science" (We each are one of six billion humans living on a tiny speck of dirt
circling a run of the mill star at the outer edge of a run of the mill galaxy that is one of trillions in the
Universe — how insignificant can you get?)

I am going to try to provide a brief answer to your question from the point of view of (vi) above. And
along the way hopefully approach a response to some of the other possible interpretations of your
question.

First, an important disclaimer. I am a realist/ materialist. I am not an idealist or a dualist. So my
answer to your question will exclude any reference to religious or spiritual concepts. For answers
from those perspectives, you will have to seek guidance from your friendly priest, minister, or spiritual
advisor.

The first step in answering your question, is to acknowledge that you are a member of the species
Homo sapiens. As such, you are a primate, a mammal, an animal, and a living organism with a 3 to 4
billion year evolutionary history behind you.

The second step is to acknowledge that the "thing" that has been evolving over the myriad of
generations that have lived since the dawn of life on Earth, is the genetic code and not the individual.
You, yourself, are but a bio-chemical machine. You were constructed by the fertilised cell that was the
result of the union of your mother's ovum and your father's sperm. And you were constructed in
accordance with the recipe encoded in your genes. You are a survival machine for the genes in your
DNA. (I refer you to the works of Richard Dawkins for further argument on this point.)

That then, is your answer. The meaning of your life, your function, your purpose, the reason you exist,
is to ensure that your genes get transmitted to the next generation.

This is a general principle of all life. So the general answer to the question "What is the meaning of
life?" is quite simply — for each individual organism to ensure that the genes that are encapsulated in
each organism get transmitted to the next generation. Or, in a more general wording — the meaning
of life is to ensure that life continues.

Many people will object to this answer, including many professional philosophers. But any alternative
they offer to my answer will come either from their religious or spiritual premises (which I have
specifically disavowed), or from out of thin air. As humans we are gifted with the ability to choose
alternative goals in life. And you are free to pursue whatever ends tickle your fancy.

However, regardless of what other goals may be offered instead, if you are not successful at fulfilling
this evolutionary meaning of your life, then your genetic codes (and their 3 to 4 billion years of
ancestry) will vanish from the future. The future will be populated by individuals whose ancestors
were successful at this evolutionary purpose.

Stuart Burns