Nobody has ever given me an answer to this question that I'm satisfied with. Here's a short list:

"To procreate" / "To bring forth the next generation" / "To teach" - The general idea that we live for the next generation. But what's *their* meaning? This just delays the meaning so that 'we don't have to worry about it anymore'.

"Happiness" / "Pleasure" - But happiness doesn't *mean* anything. It is perfectly possible to lie down, decide to be happy, and start laughing... but so what?

"To serve God" - Yeah, yeah, he really makes his purposes well known, doesn't he? This, like any questions answered with a 'God' in them, doesn't actually explain anything.

"To find out the meaning of life" - Ummm... do you know the meaning of the word 'recursive'?

"To live" - Circular and meaningless.

"To experience" - Life is pretty much experience, so this is a lot like the last one.

"To learn" - But to what purpose? You end up dead anyway, smart or not.

"To grow spiritually" - Again, to what purpose? Spiritual growth definately makes your life better, but it doesn't give life meaning.

"To do good" - To what end? To get into heaven? Or just for its own sake? Hmmm... probably the most convincing argument, the only problem being that I don't believe in good and evil.

"To get into heaven" - Right. Well, heaven is great pleasure, right? So then you're just saying that pleasure is the meaning of life. See above.

And so I assume there is no meaning. "But", you might say, "that leaves one directionless in the vast sea of possibilities that is one's life..." to which I reply:

Do as you are compelled

It's not an answer to the question, but it's what gets me up in the mornings.

What is the meaning of life?

Meaning is not an inherent property of the universe. Meaning is a construct on the part of some conscious mind (see themusic's writup on meaning--"Meaning doesn't mean anything; only people mean"). Specifically, the meaning of some thing (idea/person/place/whatever) to a given conscious mind is an isomorphism (association, if you like) between it and (some portion of) the mind's representation of reality.

There is a human tendency to deny this idea that meaning is not inherent--i.e., to project the meaning we hold internally as an inherent property of its object.
Why do we do this? Well, here's my best guess: Humans are naturally insecure of their own mortality and thus (usually) very protective of their lives. The idea that meaning is just as mortal as we are makes us insecure of and so weakens our internal model for the world. Thus, to understand the world in practice, we believe (or pretend to believe, though there isn't much difference) in our meanings as persisting throughout the world they describe rather than only in our heads. However, in theory, it is possible to understand that meaning is indeed not inherent. That is, we may "believe" that meaning is not inherent and at the same time "believe" in our meanings.

So, what's the meaning of life then? The meaning of (my) life, (my) existence, is my life, my existence. That sounds like the typical kind of "deep thoughts" copout that can be produced almost mechanically, but it isn't: the meaning of any thing is the isomorphism between it and one's internal representation of reality. The isomorphism between my existence/life/universe and my representation of it must be (I claim) the identity mapping. Thus, my answer above seems meaningless (heh, heh) because that's as much meaning as you can get out of that question.

To me, the question is simply the wrong one. To ask for an inherent meaning in life is to give up its inherent freedom. I ask instead, "What should I do with my life/today/right now?" and "What part do I play in what goes on around me (especially society)?", among others.

When I have less time, though, I still answer "42". To me, Adams captured the essence with that answer, i.e., Mu - unask the question, it's the wrong one.

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Afterthought: In some sense, society has a mind of its own, and each individual in it is conscious of it to some degree. This provides some insight into how we perceive meaning as something objective, as we see that other people tend to agree with our meanings--see collective subjectivism.

What is the meaning of ice cream? ... of a beautiful sunrise, a beautiful smile, a long rest after working to exhaustion, or a deep, steaming cup of coffee after a long rest? ... of pleasure, pain, joy, sadness, money? ... of God?

All of these things, even the most concrete, are abstractions of Man. What's the richest fudge, the clearest diamond, without anyone to observe, to enjoy it? Without mankind, without YOU and ME, these objects are meaningless clumps of matter drifting through an unfelt Time. Even more so with abstractions like love, worth, time, life. These are all sets of phenomena and feelings experienced by humans and interpreted by the human mind as greater ideas. The only meaning ANYTHING has is that which YOU place in it.

Life does not have meaning.

Life is opportunity.

Opportunity to do what? Whatever you want. Whatever you care about.

Our inate cares are hardwired in us: love, joy, family, social status, food, friends, self expression, sharing, altruism, competition, discovery, children.

We have an emotional response to things we care about. Through self-observation and experimentation we discover and learn what we care about.

Self-learning can be confounded or inhibited by culture, family, abuse, neglect, religion, brainwashing, school, or anyone seeking to define what we care about.

If you are unhappy, if you seek meaning in your life, if you feel something is wrong but you can't put your finger on it... understand this: you are the sole authority on what you care about. Listen to and respect your feelings. Your emotions will tell you what you care about. If you cannot hear your emotions, psychotherapy may help you reconnect with yourself.

You also need new experiences to stimulate yourself. The path to discovering if you like pineapple is to eat pineapple.

Which brings us to where we started: life is the opportunity to discover yourself.