Life And Death: Definitions And Meanings

Life and Death Name Institution Life and Death There have been different definitions of life over the years and researchers have also developed theories about life. Looking at dictionaries one gets a simple yet somehow confusing definition. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, life is defined as "the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional being from a dead body." Another definition from the same dictionary is that life is "the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual." These definitions seek to tie life to something but some people believe that life should not have any definition. These people seem to believe that life should be just as it is. It should have no form or anything that would make it quantifiable or attributable. However, people seem free and willing to discuss issues to do with life and its form without feeling any pressure. Death, on the other hand, has elicited controversial discussions and till today, there are still those who believe that talking about death is a taboo. Peacock (2014) casually notes that death is “hardly the go-to topic of conversation with your partner after a hard day at the office.” Well, she is right and this is simply because of the simply fact that every society in the world seems to have concocted taboos and theories concerning death. Where I come from, for example, people do not talk about death and seem to believe that life after death is guaranteed but highly dependent on what one does with their time on earth. The topic of death elicits different emotions and feelings especially to those who have lost their loved ones or those who have had near-death experiences. While there are those who enjoy talking about death and even coming up with stories and theories about it, others simply avoid it including crowds that seem to want to dwell on the topic. Superstitious beliefs about death have also made it difficult for people to speak about death and to seek to understand more about. This article will simply seek to go deeper and seek to understand more about life and death while unearthing any mysteries about life and death. Meaning of Life People often try to understand and have even conducted studies which try to discuss and offer an answer to the question: what is the meaning of life? However, what many fail to understand is that there can never be one meaning of life and the idea of trying to find the meaning of life gifts a person's life meaning. People talk about the meaning of life but apparently, there has never been one answer which has been deemed sufficient to explain or adequately cover what the meaning of life is. Over the years, people have tried to find an answer but nothing seems to make sense. As people dig deeper, it seems to get more confusing. Questions that often seem to coincide with the meaning of life include: why are we here? Are we living our lives right? Should we be living for a greater purpose than the satisfaction we often get from what we do every day? Philosophers, young and old, past and present, have tried but nothing seems to fully cover what life really is or what it entails in its entirety. For most of us, we gain meaning or seem to find meaning in things like wealth acquisition...