Life is what we experience from the moment we're born to the moment we die !
Why do we exist is probably a more apt question. Why do some people just cruise through life whilst far too many just have a miserable existence ?
Why are humans cursed with unlimited procreation ? But the most burning question for me is why are so many humans so stupid ?

To ... Well everyone,

A lot of responses and thoughts since I posted this question. Thank You all for that. For those of you who have shared a piece of your lives in answering the question, thank you. On that note thank you, Chris Lewis, Runner, Hasbeen, Foxy, and O Sung Wu. It's always a pleasure to read about other people's lives and what they've been through, learned from, or been blessed with. All of it sounds like a life worth living.

To Ttbn,

you're right. Everyone seems like this question is close to their hearts and has been questioned in their lives. Especially when things are rough. However, I don't know that there is no answer to it though.

To Hasbeen,

you said, "I don't believe there is any meaning to life, other than what you give it." You've given a lot to your life. Well done.

To O Sung Wu.

It sounds like you've done a lot in life as well. Just doing one of those would be more then enough in my opinion. (Much more then I expect to accomplish in my life).

To Foxy.

I like your answers. Both of them to describe the scientific criteria defining life,mass well as the idea of life makes life worth living. Reminds me of Hasbeen's comment that you get what you put into it.

To Yuyutsu.

I think you and I agree. The search for God gives life meaning.

To Individual.

Good point about living through what others have put you through. Life is not just our own choices to make it. The lower on the economic totem pole, the more this seems evident. Aa for your question, why do we exist. I don't know. I look forward to the promised time when the world will be made right and there won't be any more misery or suffering. It's one of my big hopes for the world. As many Christians hope this day will happen soon, that is my hope too. But even if it isn't in our lifetime, my hope is still in that future time. As for now, why do we exist, my best estimate is that our life is an example so that the rest of the universe and the rest of history knows what it's like to leave God and reject Him. That's just my best guess though. The truth is I don't know why we exist though. Or why some people live with plenty, and others can only scrape by.

To Runner and Josephus.

You've both brought your faith into your answer, and thank you both for that. Runner, I agree it's you that if we don't inherit eternal life, the rest of it no matter how good is still rubbish. Still it sounds like you've been blessed, so I'm happy for you there. As for your family, keep them in your prayers. I've heard it said that God's not done with us yet, so there's hope. Josephus, I agree with most of your answer before you wrote it. I still haven't given my answer but a few verses you've given already covered it, and then you continued and covered more. Awesome and thank you.

Chris Lewis,

You said, "I often wake up and remind myself you can lose your desire to live if you don't have a purpose." And "So life to me is about keeping busy with whatever legitimate purposes that turn you on, and trying to make a positive contribution to those you seek to interact with."

But what you've written reminds me of Foxy's assessment of life makes life worth living. Both the people and relationships in it, as well as the experiences and the things studied and learned. Living for your daughter I think is a great purpose to be a main focus. Reminds me of a verse that God blesses people it's their children, as well as many other people I've encountered that make it known how important and how loved their children are in their lives. If you want more though (not that children aren't enough, but it sounds like you've found it important to find a purpose to strive for, perhaps many purposes so you keep on going) then I have one more for you if you can accept it. Live for God. What I mean is a bit of circular logic that feeds itself. Loving God is a great thing in a person's life to discover, but God also pointed to others and said if you've done this to the least of them, you've done it for me, as well as saying that if we love god then obey His commands. Most of those have to do with loving your neighbor, upholding justice, and turning from our own wrongs and sins. Yet these things feed each other. I've found that by loving God and focusing on Him, the rest seems easier. Easier to be patient and kind, while also easier to resist the common temptations I deal with. Hope that helps, if you're ever worried about losing your purposes.

To Canum Malum.

You've put a lot of thought into the idea for purpose of life, and while I thank you for that, I guess I was asking for a more practical answer. Some people have stated a purpose or even a need for a purpose, and that's a fine answer for what makes life worth living. However I want to ask you for your thoughts on what makes life worth living. Is it family, and relationships? Is it satisfaction of living a full life and doing a job well done. Is it a purpose, any purpose, so that we don't drop into nihilistic downers and question our place in the world? Or do you think of a certain purpose, such as seeking God and finding Him. You've put a lot of thought into it, and I thank you for that interesting read. So I just want your answer in case that helps anyone else reading it, what helps you keep going and make it worth while to live on.

As for what is life. Another way to put it is what is alive, as opposed to what isn't alive. I've a bit more of a spiritual view then the views you've shared, so for me the question of things unseen also being alive and aware has entered into my thoughts. Angels and unseen forces, but also a quote that In Ephesians saying that people aren't the enemy, (flesh and blood aren't the enemy), but that we fight against spiritual forces. Give me the wondering thought of how alive is culture, or differing ways of thinking acting like opposing creatures, one against the other, or also how some philosophies work well side by side and are not tossing for dominance over the other. Just a strange idea that the ideas we hold as a group are bigger then the individuals who hold those ideas. (Consider the wars fought just between systems of communism or Democracy as an example of wearing ideas acting like a creature itself fighting another philosophical creature. Does that count as alive?)

To Opinion.

You've posed your thought and thankfully taken the riddle out of the phrasing by explaining what you meant. But since you've asked for a scientific view to be compared to a religious view, I would offer one distinction away from your description.

Water is indeed where most life has part of it, or is still in it, but you can live for a few days without both food, and without water. Wouldn't it be both a scientific as well as a religous description to say that life is in the breath. You can't live without done kind of respiration. For us on land we have lungs or something similar to breath and exchange oxygen for the metabolic respiration that most cells need, or underwater fish have gills to have the same ability to breath and get oxygen. This is the scientific answer, but it also fits within Christianity where God gives the breath of life when he made Adam and Eve. Life is in the breath. Lose that and you don't have much time left to live.

Religiously speaking though there is more then one focus in life and living. There is the physical life, counted as everything between being born and dying. But also being alive in the spirit. That's about having God in us with the Holy Spirit, as well as the hope we Christians hold of living eternally after this life passes. So there you go. On top of both Runner's and Josephus's answers for a religious description of life, there is mine as well. Life is in the breath. More specifically, it is in the breath of God, who gives us all life.