Philosophers have been searching for the meaning of life since before civilization began. Their answers often end up cloaked in enough cryptic double-meanings that serve only to prove that in the end they had no clear answer at all. Apparently millenia of purely philosophical attempts have been fruitless and religious methods haven't been much better. A given religion may say that someone created the universe and how to be good, but it still doesn't give an answer as to why this was done. All this effort and still nothing
Okay, so you've inferred by the title of this page that I have an answer, but then what is it that I may have done differently that all these other people missed? Just applied a litle simple logic.
First let me say that the answer I've come up with does not in any way conflict with any religious or philosophical beliefs that I am aware of, and in fact meshes rather nicely with them. That said, let's move on.
The first step is to put yourself in the position of the Creator. For whatever god, deity, creative force, or great maker that you may follow, the logic is the same. You are said Creator at a point in time before Creation has actually begun. You are the uncountable expances of Infinity, the lone inhabitant because you are everything. There is nothing else, be it person or small lump of dirt, because it hasn't been made yet. You are all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-alone. Picture this sort of existence, yourself in an unending void for unmeasureabvle time, and tell me what else you are.
Give this some thought for a bit, I'll wait...
Okay, ready? Then here's the answer. What is it that this infinitly-potent being is at this point?
Infinitly Bored.
Bored, lonely, nothing around but yourself. Solution? Make somehting. In fact, make a whole series of universes full of stuff. Populate them with people, planets, and just stuff. Since you are everything then you'll be creating this stuff from parts of yourself, actually from your mind. Assuming that such a being is all force (mental, energy, etc.), then it's very thoughts manifest as reality; lines of force that are it's thoughts collide to form particles and matter and evolve into what is desired. So by the mere act of thinking you (the being) are creating from an actual part of yourself (kind of gives a the whole created-in-god's-image thing a new slant, but that's another story). Once created, the creation goes on about it's own existence to make and experience new things, but since it is still a part of yourself then you experience everything as it does.
So, by creating a whole universe, seperate yet still connected with yourself, you experience everything that every aspect of that creation experiences, a multitude of experiences to releave your boredom. Life now goes on about it's own free-willed actions, the stars play and dance in the skies, and you live every bit of this. every experience is thus important to you, from the smallest flutter of a bird's wing to the most all-encompassing space-battles. Everything is important in your eyes because everything goes towards your experience. You care for everything in your creation because they are litterally part of yourself so how can you do any less?
This leads to two conclusions. One, that Everything is important, no matter how big or how small. Two, that the purpose of Life is to just live it and enjoy it in whichever way best suites you as long as you do not infringe upon the enjoyment or experiences of others (see my previous definitions of Right vs Wrong). For the cryptic-minded among you, there is a nice sshort simple statement that can sum this all up, a concise mission-statement for the purpose and meaning of Life...
Life Is It's Own Purpose.