As EvilSteve pointed out (in his excellent post), a question like "What is the meaning of life?" isn't really a valid question. There's no absolute answer to it. It's like asking "How much should you enjoy playing sports?"

Life is what you make of it.

I mostly try to hang on to decent spelling and grammar.

The trouble with all these replies is that it implies that if there was a drug that existed that made you feel good just lying on your couch all day and you could take it with no deleterious physical effects, you should.

I am not saying that you shouldn't take that drug. My problem is that many of those who replied to you would say you shouldn't even those their stance is contradictory.

I'll be the first to day I would definitely take that drug.

Blue pill, please. Living in reality is overrated.

The problem is people shy away from what they don't know.
And to fill the void of not knowing they try to fill it with do what makes you feel good at the time. Only there is a nagging knowing that something is not quite right.

red pill here

I think that life becomes more meaningful when you are in danger of losing it. If things start to seem meaningless, it's probably because you haven't been too occupied with trying to survive. I think one's purpose, as an individual, is to reproduce. Take a very objective look at yourself. All living things try to keep themselves alive long enough to reproduce. After this is accomplished, they either repeat this process, or care for their offspring, or both.

Now, if you want to pull back the camera and look at a broader view of life in general, you would ask, what's the point of any of that? The answer to this is, we are far too ignorant and not evolved enough to really "know" the answer to that. All we know is, we didn't come up with the idea. Something else caused us to be here, and to make us want to do the things we want to do. Until they speak up, we won't know who they are, or why they did what they did.

IG

So a guy who had 10 kids did a better job of living life than DaVinci?

Yeah, the much better comic, imo, is the one buried in that atheist image thread, i dont feel like lookin for it, but it goes

guy sittin there, chilling, thinking "what is the meaning of existence, why am i here?"

chick walks in "hey! im a bad ass girl! i got me a push up bra!"

guy thinking "ahhh, thats right, i remember now"

girl turns around, struts, "check it out, NEW PANTS!!!!"

O HAI THERE WEED

will you regret the lazing later? you need to do what you have to to preserve your quality of life, sure laze some. but if you sit around all day for like 6mnths straight you're probably gonna feel worse at the end than at the beginning (this is a human truth no matter how disconnected you are), obviously had you been diligently working out and studying those 6mnths you'd be in a better position

i find that not viewing 'doing things' as "hard" is a good way to get myself moving, you can use the nihilistic mindset to say "whats the difference", and choose to do something instead of nothing. if you need to do some chore, just concentrate on doing it well. when you're focussed on something you don't care that you're doing it (so key), don't think about the disadvantages or what you COULD be doing, just try to focus on the present moment. applying yourself to tasks has a dual advantage, it builds mental stamina so when you really want to do something you'll be able to go through with it and obviously a stimulated mind is going to be easier to use and more efficient than a lazy one

a key thing is out of sight out of mind, the brain is rearranging itself constantly to adapt to the environment, you get better at the things you do, and worse at the things you don't. if you contemplate the meaningless of life often, you'll believe it more and more because your brain will be more adept at navigating that subject. neural networks operate on a use it or lose it policy, so don't think negative thoughts and they will come less frequently. and if you force yourself to do things more often, your brain will adapt to the mindset of wanting to do tasks that appear. also, exercise stimulates the production of neuronal stem cells, ie: new brain cells which can assist these plastic changes

if you're the nihilistic type then viewing your brain as a 'machine' is one viewpoint that can work. we can still experience positive/negative emotions so viewing the brain as like a pleasure factory is a viewpoint that works for me, i just try to steer my mindset in the direction of things that will engage me. if nothing matters then what's the diff between lying on the couch and actually doing things really? at the very least keeping active is a safe way of staying versatile and retaining the ability to do what you set your mind to if you change your mind and decide lazing on the couch isn't something you want to spend your life doing (which i think almost everyone would eventually)

awesome post mcbeef. good arm. repost it in psychology forum and I'm pretty sure they will make you a mod.

The OP is not depressed but listening and more important believing this will make him so. This, as it good as it sounds is an example of the contradictory messages going around.
Buy this
Busy yourself with this
Go out and have fun
Buy Buy Buy occuppy yourself and and stop asking yourself whats wrong.

Basically the point out there in the world is to distract yourself from your feeling that something is wrong.

The point is to find a new perspective before reaching a conclusion on an issue like this. The sense of purpose in life is closely tied to life experiences themselves, and rumination on the subject just tends to build ruts.

It's not exactly compelling to say "the meaning of life is love" or "the meaning of life is friendship" or "the meaning of life is helping others." Those are cliches at best. The only way to gain a recognition of such things is to get out there and love people, make friends, help others.

Given those experiences, the question resolves itself pretty cleanly. Sitting around thinking about it, without those experiences to reflect on, doesn't do ****.

When you get to the point when you begin to doubt, then you have experience to draw on.
Message is this-feeling is this=something is wrong.
What do I call this wrong? Depression? Lack of something? A need to find the answer
to what's wrong. And on it goes.

I would go as far as to say the belief in this or that is the cause to alot of suffering.
What is real depends on what we precieve to be real because of what we have been told.
Yet our feelings our real. But who wants to listen to feelings?

Why are you injecting you feelings into others. What if I feel nothing is wrong with this life that we don't create ourselves. Am I just messed up or blind for not feeling emptiness?

Very good question. I think there is no meaning and it bothers me. Sometimes I just sit there and laugh at this strange world. I don't care about anything because nothing matters anyway.
But then sometimes I'm depressed because of the fact that we're just products of a huge coincidence. We're dust, we don't matter. There is not even something called 'we' or 'us'. You're actually pretty much alone with your life. Only you know yourself from the inside. And you can only see others from the outside. Your life is soooo different from how others see it. Even if you think you know them or they think they know you. Completely different. You think you know your parents? Lol not even close. They lived like 90% of their lives in different worlds. I think everyone lives in a different world. Because you are it, you are the world, there is no world without you.
Anyway I'm kinda getting ot, so here's a cool link to a vid by Nielsio. I thought it was cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eihaYc5TjeI&fmt=18

QFMFT

If that's what you feel then that's what you feel. Your not blind or messed up by feeling emptiness unless your blind or messed up or both.

The answer to your first question is simply I wish to contribute.

Read Notes from Underground Part I to understand the meaning of life, read the rest of it to understand how not to cope with it.