I would like to take you all on a slightly confusing, cryptic and meaningful journey. A somewhat morbid quest to unravel one of the most asked questions in history;

What is the meaning of life?

The meaning of life is a philosophical question that has been asked since well before we were born, before the ancient Greeks and I'm sure even since human kind have been able to ask questions. And the answer changes due to a person's context and the angle which they view it from, weather deep, cryptic and meaningful or strictly scientific, and that being said, would your own personal answer to the meaning of life change as you do?

The meaning of life could be looking at the purpose of biological life in general, or to why you actually get up every morning, and no I'm NOT saying school is the meaning of life. I would much rather get up every afternoon. But some say the meaning of life is knowing that your life has made an impact and knowing all the rules behind your choices and where these 'rules' come from.

Some people such as William Shakespeare, Joseph Conrad, numerous scientist and philosophers and every day people are under the impression that life is like a dream, which we never wake up from, that our life is limited by our ideas and feelings. In a way, asking what the meaning of life is, is also asking where our reality comes from. Is the meaning of life created by man itself? So what is important to you, as a person?

Is it important because of either what everyone else thinks or what you have been told to believe by your family or by the media? A scientist, H. Von Foerster said "There is not, external to us, hot or cold, but only different velocities of molecules; there aren't sounds, callings, harmonies, but just variations in the pressure of the air; there aren't colours, or light, just electro-magnetic waves" this scientific theory removes what we think music, and sound in general is, physical feelings and colours, pictures and sights are.

So can life just be a dream? That we have no reality, and if it is, because no one truly knows, then what is reality, and what is a dream? So it brings up the question again, what is life?

Another answer to the meaning of life is to find inner peace, true happiness and serenity; it is believed that it gives meaning to our existence. Love, friendship, faith and righteousness are said to bring this 'inner peace' and happiness, but then what is pain, betrayal, evil and hate? Because to have love you need to have hate, otherwise we can't define love, or hate. So if true happiness is the meaning of life our ultimate purpose, then why can people be sad, or suffer from depression, grieve when someone dies?

Then there are also the philosophies that are very similar, but are more materialistic, things that will help you find ultimate happiness like fame, money and the avoidance of physical pain. Or that knowledge will fulfil your life, but if you are knowledgeable, where does that go when you die? If you have a fortune, what happens to that? If you avoid physical pain all your life, what about when you die? Will that hurt? And even then sometimes mental or emotional pain can be worse.

The scientific views behind the meaning of life can centre on such a broad variety of topics, as Richard Dawkins states, that all living beings are just "survival machines, blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes" Saying that the meaning of life is to stay alive, purely survival.

But with human nature we want more than survival, look at our society for proof. A husky curls up in the snow and relies on its coat for warmth. We build houses. Tigers will only eat as much as they need but we keep freezers full of meat, well actually we keep paddocks full of meat waiting to be butchered for us to freeze! So humans are not interested purely in survival. We are selfish, but not all of us want to survive either, we have that choice, but why?

Alternately, the meaning of life could be based around time and space figuring out why we are here at this very small insignificant moment. Pascal says: "When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity that lies before and after it, when I consider the little space I fill and I see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I rest frightened, and astonished, for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time has been ascribed to me?"

But even with this theory, we are going around in a circle again. We will never find an equation for our placement in time, and we humans will never truly grasp the concept of 'eternity' and this theory is another that can never be proven because no one will live forever, no one can go back in time, adding to this is that we will never know what time is, as hours and minuets were created by man, and days, months and years all go in a never-ending circle, with no beginning and no end.

There are biologists such as George C. Williams & David Haig who try to find a 'primary function of life' by studding evolution, DNA and genetics. But regardless of years of intensive study by numerous scientists, the meaning of life still does not have a definite answer, and I have noticed that the answers are often made up of questions anyway.

Another question then that arises from the answers is how was the universe created? How was the world, life and space created; and for what reason? Was god bored, or was there a coincidental upset in whatever came before the creation of our universe that ended in the subsequent creation of our universe, and was it coincidental? But ultimately, mankind is doomed. No matter how life was created it amounts to nothing as human kind can not survive forever, eventually biological life will become unsustainable, and the only way to survive indefinitely would be to alter the fate of the universe. So if we are all going to die anyway, and everything we have ever done is going to amount to nothing, why are we here?

Now in my opinion the most logical statement in relation to this is that by asking what the meaning of life is you are implying life actually has a meaning, and this is my belief. I highly doubt that it will stay the same for the rest of my life, but at the moment with my experiences, knowledge and context in general I see life as a circle, no beginning and no end because we can never find a beginning and will never find the end, and like a circle, life has no point.

So ending on that note, we should live our lives following the wise and meaningful words of great reggae master bobby McFerrin and just 'Don't worry, Be happy'