Not only do people have many different view points on what the meaning of life is, they also tend to have different view points on what the question “what is the meaning of life” mean. For how can you answer a question that you do not know the meaning of? You cannot and trying so is like trying to tell a rock you are hungry in hopes of it giving you some food. Any people have tried to understand the meaning of the question of the meaning on life and three major points have arisen.
First, you have the two branches of the question: “We long to know the secrets of the universe and what it means, in itself, apart from human interests.” (Singer 58) This is the overarching question of what the universe mean does, why we here, and what are the point of our existence. Then you have the more personal branch of the question; “We seek a meaningful way to live our lives, whether or not we can find a separate meaning in the cosmos.” (Singer 58) This is asking how we can make our own lives more meaningful. The third opinion that sprung up over time is the idea that the question itself does not have any meaning and people should not even attempt to answer it.

The first overarching question about the meaning of the universe and everything is usually translated into a simple “Big Picture” question, which is: What is the big picture of life? This question asks us what the big picture is that our lives play a part in. Individually our lives seem very meaningless alone, but when part of a big picture they become meaningful. An example of how a single thing can be given meaning by a big picture is sports; “Were you to observe a player on a team, let us say the shortstop on a baseball team, if you did not know baseball you would probably this actions were totally screwy and meaningless. He runs this way and that, tries to catch the ball and sometimes does not, runs to the base and takes a throw from another player . . . all perfectly unintelligible, unless you know what you are watching is a baseball game.” (Ellin 77) Life is just like that according to the big picture question. Each of our lives do not make sense, but when put into the framework of a big picture, our lives have meaning. Therefore, what the big picture is is what this for of the question of the meaning of life is asking.

The sort of answer that is needed must follow a certain criteria: It must explain the purpose of our lives, enable us to explain the major events in our lives, justify suffering, and explain the purpose of life in a very positive way, as to make people happy. The big picture question is one of the major questions that are thought to be the meaning of the question of the meaning of life, because it is able to provide framework for everyone’s lives. The main example that we see everyday for how people answer the question like this is religion, which is the perfect framework for an answer to the big picture meaning of life question. Let’s look at Christianity: Does it explain the purpose of our lives? Yes to get to heaven. Does it explain the major events in our lives? Yes, it explains our birth, our marriage, our death and it even provides framework for how these things should happen and what we do in between. Does it justify suffering? Yes, for example Jesus, he suffered and died and Christianity justifies it as an act of bravery to help us atone for our sins. Finally, does it explain this all in a positive way? Of course, who does not want to go to a place of eternal bliss? This is one prime example of the idea of a big picture meaning of life. Christianity is not the only answer that the big picture question generates, which is why this form of the question is so appealing, because it can provide a multitude of frameworks that someone can live their life by.

Now that overarching version of the question has been covered, we move onto the more personal rephrasing of the question of the meaning of life: How can we make our own lives meaningful? This question is broken up into a multitude of questions that help us “answer questions about the nature of a meaningful life. Is it something we find or something we create? How is it dependent on purposes, values, ideals? How is it related to happiness, and does it give us assurance that men and woman can face up their predicament as finite creatures.” (Singer 58) These questions are all about the personal branch of the meaning of life question, where you have to find meaning in your own life. This question is controversial because it deals morality. If someone finds their life meaningful by slaughtering millions of people at a time, does that mean they lived a meaningful life? Or does this question have to be answered within society’s moral bounds? These are questions that a person has to answer by themselves to find out how they can make their own lives meaningful, for there isn’t an overarching idea that makes someone’s life meaningful but it must be determined by the person whose life it is. They have to decide whether a meaningful has to be within society’s moral standards.

Now that we’ve seen the two major questions that make up the question of the meaning of life we now look at the third major opinion, that the question itself is meaningless. People argue that every word has a meaning, for example the word book has a meaning because if you say book you are talking about a physical book, same thing with other words like house or car, when you say them you can point to a car/house, they have a physical meaning. “But if that is the explanation of meaning, it is perfectly clear that it makes little sense to attribute meaning to life, for life is not connected with some other thing in such a way that, when you think of life, you are thereby led to think of this other thing that is its meaning.” (Ellin 99) Because the word life doesn’t connect with anything when said or thought over, its is clear that it becomes meaningless to ask what the meaning is, therefore, the question itself is meaningless. While with book it connects directly to the thing that is a book, where with life it has nothing to connect to, you cannot point at life, and therefore, it is meaning to ask the question about the meaning of life.

When you look at these three major opinions about the questions of the meaning of life you are forced to wonder if this is all there really is in the question. You cover the big picture of everything and you cover the small things about how to make your own life meaningful. But while these two questions that come out of the question of the meaning of life it also makes you wonder if these two questions serve any meaning anyway. Is it necessary to know how to make your own life meaningful, or is your life meaning just because you are enjoying it? Is it necessary to have a big picture or can our lives still be meaningful without serving part in some bigger framework? All these questions must be answered before the true question of the meaning of life can be answered, or even attempted to be answered, which may in fact be impossible if the question doesn’t have any meaning at all.