If life is meaningless, then why do we feel compelled to search for meaning?

Question

if life is just an exercise in reproduction and the passing on of genes, why do we feel? why do we love? why do we search so hard for meaning in life?

Answer 1

Because the idea of being here for the same reason that your dog is just is baffling to everyone.  To not be here for a special reason is hard to grasp for most people

Answer 2

According to the bible, people were never meant to die.

Answer 3

We evolve. Our brains get bigger and we lean how to manipulate our surroundings better. Love stems from an instinct for familiarity, and as depressing as it may sound, the creatures that evolve from what us human beings are now may not have the concept of love, or hate. The mind boggles. What will we be like in a million years?

Answer 4

We need meaning.  I think it's when we search for meaning outside ourselves or when we try to find some higher justification for it is when we get confused.

I think in general people draw the most happiness from the relationships in their lives.  But this is not a very controllable thing.  Sometimes we're born into families with sick parents who cause us much pain.  People can reject us or die.  So we can reject this meaning and search for something more predictable, something better than people.  We search for it in money or in God or in status or in our careers or some kind of payoff in an afterlife.  But I'm not sure if anything can satisfy like a good relationship with a fellow human being can.  So we can end up feeling empty chasing down these substitutes.

I think it's just the way we're put together as humans.  We need meaning, kind of like we need food and water.  And I think we must search out things in the real world that have meaning to us. What makes ME happy?  What turns MY crank?  I think we can find enough meaning if we try.  It's not as predictable as we'd like to do it this way.  We'd like to have a formulaic approach to it all. I think this uncertainty and risk is a part of life, but one that we as humans are capable of handling, perhaps part of what makes life interesting and have more meaning.

Answer 5

Hypothetically, IF life is "just an exercise in reproduction and the passing on of genes" then everything else we do is in vain unless it propogates this purpose.

However, life is more than this.

Answer 6

I didn't know life was meaningless.  My philosiphy is that everything happens for a reason.  Even if you don't know what that purpose is now, it will come clear later.  Like, why did that cat have to get hurt on my property??? Answer:  So you would take care of it, love it, and make it happy.  And especially, because God knew you could handle it.

Answer 7

so we get tested. so we can experience, so we can question and explore, and actually have a reason to look forward to something in life. so we can experience hardship and praise. so we can differentiate from the good and the bad times. so we can laugh at the tears that we thought could never send smiles our way. because we are loved no matter what happens. because we make our father happy because we're alive and able to love.

Answer 8

Who is to say that life is just an exercise to reproduce and pass on genes? Maybe life is something much greater then that.

You may not always get direct/specific answers to all of lifes great questions, but the important thing is, is to never stop questioning.

There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers, by living productively.  -Erich Fromm

Answer 9

if you have a child you will understand it all i was the same way until my son was born and then it seemed to all piece together

Answer 10

Life can change its meaning at any moment that why it is so hard to find, yet we have urges that compele for reproduction and the knowledge that is passed on through genes can be sacret to others and used for the well being of the human race. feel of emotions makes us reproduce that of hate,love, joy , and sorrow complete these urges when we reproduce. love is the happiness that was and is the reason the human race drags on through everything, even in a crisis, love is sometimes the only thing you have. love offers a shield from the hate of the world.

Answer 11

we feel...

we love...

we search for meaning in life...

it's because we're created by God

our purpose is to reflect God's character

does God have no feeling?

does God don't love?

God wants us to feel that He loves us and He is always with us...

God wants us to love each other like He loves us...

God wants us to search for life meaning to enjoy life He have given to us...

that's all

life is meaningless unless you don't acknowledge God in your life...

Answer 12

because we have brains, without intelligence, life will be unexamined by the self.

Answer 13

To feel, love and search for meaning is making the meaningless life meaningful already! :)

Answer 14

It's mother-nature. We were created to find meaning in this world, but all we find is meaningless things.

Answer 15

People want meaning because they don't want to think that their lives are meaningless.  People want to believe in God because they want to feel comfort about what will happen when they die.  It's the unknown that is really scary to people.  I think of my life as an excercise in learning.  All we know for a fact is that we are here for a limited period of time.  If we didn't feel, if we didn't love, why would we be here?  To multiply?  The answer is that the whole reason we are here IS to feel and love.  From these emotions, we learn and evolve.  The process is called becoming enlightened.  If you think of the physical world as a playground & a school, you are finally getting it.

How wonderful is loving someone, riding a rollercoaster, hitting a home run, helping a friend?  Where else could you do all of these things?  In the "spirit world"?  Life is a gift, if you didn't have the lows, you couldn't know how to appreciate the highs.

Answer 16

Is life meaningless to you?  I don't think so--you seem to be searching for meaning.  Have you tried God?

Answer 17

Humans are to patterns as cats are to mice.

Answer 18

Who said it was meaningless? And if it is just an exercise in reproduction, that is meaningful. So really your question makes no sense.

Answer 19

the search for meaning is life's purpose.  Know thyself.

Answer 20

Perhaps it is a reaction to our emotions.

Answer 21

We are compelled to search for meaning because deep inside we know that life is not meaningless and that there is a purpose for it.  

Look at a child's beautiful face, the wind in the trees, the perfection of a lily.  It is not just an accident that they are so perfect and exact. They are part of God's creations.  He has a purpose for all of his creations, and we as human beings created in his image have the greatest of all purposes.  

It is up to us to find out what those purposes are, and then to live up to them.

Answer 22

Perhaps its just in our nature, and some may argue that its not for "meaning" but its more like searching for a purpose...

Meaning just sounds like you are living to find emotions.

Answer 23

Because life is not meaningless. If it is, then we might as well not get out of bed in the morning or put any effort into trying to make the world a better place or make ourselves better people. For it is all for nought! That is, if life has no meaning.

Answer 24

well me as a christian .....we were made for one purpose and that is to praise God when im praising God all my troubles goes away and i feel peace and complete and i just want to stay praising God and beein under his presence.....as u see on tv  many people killed themselfs and they have money but they dont have Christ in their hearts...

Answer 25

Look at it this way.

You are familiar with a typical  school/college examination  question paper. There are  20 questions . Suppose you donot know the answer for question 1 , do you simply give up and walk out of the hall? No. You try  the second. The third   .And so on.... Life is also  not a simple question.  It has many. You try to find answers for  some if not for all. That is the name of the game.

How do you come to the conclusion? You look around you. You see the tree. Why should it give fruits that is useful to us but , at the same time , its seeds are  being dispersed?  Why should , both , animate and inanimate objexts seem  to have meanings for their own existence? By inference  you, too, conclude that , besides reproduction and eating , there should  be meaning to life. Once you are convinced there is  you start looking for answers.

Answer 26

value and meaning in life are completely arbitrary. if you believe life is meaningless, then it is. the only meaning in life is that which is created by an individual and an individual alone.  often, one bases meaning in life on gods teachings and believe they must follow these teachings unconditionally, but it was a conscious choice of that individual to accept and believe in that god. so by choosing a god to believe in, they are really choosing their own meaning in life. ultimately no one can judge or value the meaning of another's life, only their own.

in terns of reproduction and sensory experiences, an individual decides how much meaning they are given in life. if one believed that these imply meaning in life because they reaffirm our existance, and that is meaningful in itself, then that knowledge would make life meaninful.  if one believed that we are automatons who's purpose in life is simply to reproduce and feel, and that seems meaningless, it would make life meaningless. as i said before, life's meaning is completely arbitrary.

the quest for meaning in life most likely comes from our knowledge of the inevitability of our demise. just about everyone wants to know that their life was meaningful before they die.

Answer 27

Life is not meaningless.  GOD gave us life in order to glorify HIM.  Reach out to GOD, accept His gift of salvation and you will be blessed.  Soon you will find out that life is soooo wonderful.

Answer 28

who says life is meaningless? the ones who say that just havent searched hard enough for the meaning

Answer 29

Life is what you make it. When you are born you are given a blank canvas to work with. As life goes on some of it gets filled in for you by others but it is up to you to complete the whole picture. Once the canvas is full then it is time to move on.

Answer 30

We feel compelled to search for meaning because of our self-awareness/consciousness.

Life never had to happen, so it is meaningless. When the first living organisms came about by chance, there was nothing to try to give it any meaning. Evolution took its course, and after a very long time, life evolved into an organism whose neurological electrical signals allowed it to be conscious of itself. That is the human being. Our unique ability to think in this way has led us try to explain the chaos in the world.