THE QUESTION LIBRARY MEANING & LIFE
Philosophers offer three main families of answers and surveys show where people find meaning, but no lab can say which answer is right.
THE SHORT ANSWER
There is no single, proven answer, and science cannot settle it. Philosophers sort the answers into three families. Supernaturalists say meaning comes from God or a soul. Naturalists say a meaningful life is possible in the natural world, through what we care about or what is worth doing. Nihilists say life has no meaning. Who decides? Many believers say God does; many philosophers say we do, at least in part. In big surveys in the U.S. and other rich countries, people name family most often.
WHERE THE EVIDENCE STANDS
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW YET
Nobody knows whether the universe itself has a purpose that gives our lives meaning. Research can measure how meaningful people feel their lives are, but not which philosophical answer is right.
WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS ANSWER
New surveys, other countries or different wording could change the numbers on this page. The deeper answer would change only if someone found a fair way to test claims about cosmic purpose, and no such test exists.
There is no single, proven meaning of life, and science cannot settle the question. Thoughtful people still disagree. But that does not leave you empty-handed. Philosophers have mapped the main answers, and researchers have asked many thousands of people where they find meaning in their own lives.
People ask for different reasons. Some grew up with a clear answer, such as God’s plan, and are now rethinking it. Some hold that answer firmly and want to see how it compares with others. Some never had a religious answer and wonder if they need one. Some just lie awake under the stars and wonder what any of it is for.
Here is the map. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy sorts the answers into three families. Supernaturalists say meaning comes from God or a soul, for example by fulfilling a purpose God has given you. Naturalists say a meaningful life is possible in the natural world alone. Some of them say meaning depends on what you care about. Others say some things, like love, learning and making things, are worth doing in themselves, not only because someone cares about them. Nihilists say that no life has meaning at all.
Here is what people report. In a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, 69% of Americans brought up family when asked, in their own words, what makes their lives meaningful. About one in five brought up their faith. In 2021, family came first in 14 of the 17 wealthy societies Pew surveyed.
So who gets to decide? Many believers say God does. Many philosophers say each person does, at least in part. Others say some things matter no matter what anyone thinks. No survey or lab can choose between these views, so we label the question Beyond science. You are welcome here whatever you believe.
Philosophers draw a line between the meaning of life, meaning the point of humanity or the universe as a whole, and meaning in life, meaning what makes one person’s life matter. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on the topic, by the philosopher Thaddeus Metz, notes that most philosophers writing on it today work on the second question.
They also agree on a few basics. A meaningful life is not the same as a happy one or a morally correct one. Imagine a machine that feeds you nothing but pleasant experiences. Life in it might be happy, but very few philosophers would call it meaningful. What does seem to count is summed up by a classic phrase, “the good, the true, and the beautiful”: loving relationships, learning and discovery, and creating things, from art to gardening.
Supernaturalism. The oldest God-based answer in the Western tradition is that your life matters if you fulfill a purpose God has given you. A related answer says meaning comes from a soul that lives forever; an argument made famous by Leo Tolstoy says only a permanent difference, which needs an endless life, makes something worth doing. The strict version says that without God or a soul, no life has meaning. But today many supernaturalists take a moderate view: a life can have some meaning without God, while God would add a deeper, lasting kind.
Naturalism. Naturalists say a meaningful life is possible in a purely physical world. Subjectivists say meaning depends on the person. One influential version holds that life is meaningful to the extent that you care about or love something. Objectivists say some things are worth doing in themselves, such as being good to others, learning and creating, not just because someone wants them. The philosopher Susan Wolf joins the two in a well-known line: “Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness.”
Nihilism. Nihilists say no life can be meaningful. One route there is to believe that meaning needs God or a soul, and also that neither exists. The encyclopedia says this was Albert Camus’s position, and Tolstoy’s before he came to faith. It adds that this route has faded among philosophers, since few still think God is needed for any meaning at all. Another route takes the view of the whole universe: set against billions of years and billions of light-years, a life of 75 years or so on one planet does not seem to amount to much.
Surveys show where people say they find meaning. In September 2017, Pew Research Center asked 4,867 U.S. adults to describe, in their own words, what makes their lives meaningful. In its 2018 report, 69% mentioned family, one-third mentioned their career, nearly a quarter mentioned money, and one in five mentioned religious faith. In a second survey that December, asked for the single most meaningful thing, 40% named family and 20% named religion.
In 2021, Pew asked 18,850 adults in 17 advanced economies a similar question. Family came first in 14 of the 17. The U.S. stood out on faith: 15% mentioned religion or God, the fifth most common answer. In the other 16 places, religion was never in the top 10, and no more than 5% mentioned it. It also found that 23% of Americans said they did not understand the question, did not know how to answer it or did not want to.
How meaningful do people feel their lives are? After reviewing the research, the psychologists Samantha Heintzelman and Laura King titled their 2014 paper “Life is pretty meaningful.” Across many different groups, people rated their lives above the midpoint of the scales, though the paper drew several published replies. The widely used Meaning in Life Questionnaire, from the psychologist Michael Steger and colleagues, has 10 items. It measures two separate things: how much meaning you feel you have, and how much you are searching for it.
Using Gallup World Poll data from 132 countries, Shigehiro Oishi and Ed Diener found that people in wealthy countries were more satisfied with their lives, but people in poor countries reported more meaning. Part of the reason was that people in poorer countries were more religious.
A sense of purpose may also go with better health. A 2016 review of 10 long-term studies with 136,265 people found that a higher sense of purpose was linked to a lower risk of death from any cause during the studies, and a lower risk of heart and blood vessel problems. That is a link, not proof that purpose causes good health, and the authors call for more research on what connects the two.
If God decides, meaning is secure and the same for everyone. The strongest objection, going back to the philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Kurt Baier, is that being made for someone else’s purpose would make that meaning not our own, and might even lower our dignity. Other philosophers have written replies. Critics also point to lives such as Albert Einstein’s, Nelson Mandela’s and Pablo Picasso’s, which seem meaningful even if we suppose there is no God.
If each person decides, meaning fits the life being lived. The strongest objection is that some chosen goals seem empty however much a person cares. Philosophers’ examples include devoting your life to long-distance spitting or to collecting a big ball of string.
If some things matter regardless, the question becomes: who says which things, and where does that value come from? The encyclopedia calls “Where does objective value come from?” the real nub of the debate. God-based thinkers say such value depends on God; other philosophers offer a variety of accounts that do not.
If nothing matters, the objection is that the view from the whole universe may be the wrong yardstick for a human life. Some philosophers deny that cosmic significance is a real source of meaning at all.
Ricardo Maldonado, author of GOD PLAYS DICE, gives his own answer in Chapter 10 of the book, and it is his personal view, labeled Beyond science. “Science does not give you meaning,” he writes. In his view, the universe probably does not care about us “in the way we mean it,” but he adds: “Indifference does not erase beauty. It just makes beauty our job.” The book also presents his scientific proposal about the Big Bang, which this site labels an Author’s hypothesis. He writes that his view on meaning holds whether that idea wins or loses.
“Without God, life must be meaningless.” Some believers hold this strict view. But the encyclopedia reports that even religiously inclined philosophers have lately found it hard to deny that lives like Mandela’s had meaning apart from God. Many now argue instead that God would add a greater meaning.
“Science has shown that life has no meaning.” Science can measure how meaningful people feel their lives are, not whether life has a purpose. That is a question about value, and no experiment settles it either way.
“Meaning is the same as happiness.” Philosophers treat them as different, and the Gallup data show they can come apart: wealthy countries scored higher on satisfaction, poorer ones on meaning. Our story on what science says about happiness looks at the happiness side.
“There has to be one answer for everyone.” Many philosophers point to several sources of meaning, such as love, learning and creating, rather than a single one.
For more on whether morality needs religion, see our story Can You Be Good Without God?
The verdict stands: no one has shown a single meaning of life that science can prove. What we can know is where people find meaning, and what each side argues.
THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER
WORDS WORTH KNOWING
KEEP ASKING
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CONTINUE THE THREAD
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