Bible, Life

What is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?

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The other day, I was talking with one of my friends when his Mom called him. But before he left me to my mental solitude, he asked me a deep question which I wasn’t really prepared to answer: “What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.” I was like, “Whoa…” (but I didn’t tell him that, lol).

In this post I will touch on the history of this question, offer my opinions on it, and leave you to decide your answer.

Before you continue, please take a brief moment to reflect and consider what you currently believe to be the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything.

So from where did this deep question originate?

Douglas Noel Adams wrote the science fiction novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and published it on October 12, 1979. It was very popular and sold 250, 000 copies in the first three months.1 It was in the book that the famous question was introduced. Here is how Wikipedia says that the question is introduced:

“In…the first novel, a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings demand to learn the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything from the supercomputer Deep Thought, specially built for this purpose. It takes Deep Thought ​7 1⁄2 million years to compute and check the answer, which turns out to be 42. Deep Thought points out that the answer seems meaningless because the beings who instructed it never knew what the question was.”

Here is what the book adds to the question:

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory mentioned, which states that this has already happened.”

Thus, the question and the answer may never be known together. You may have the answer, or you may have the question. If you discover them both, then the universe disappears.

Here is something crazy to consider: If people find the answer, then all that is involved and contained in the question (life, the universe, and everything) disappears. This would indicate that the answer to the question might, in fact, be the question itself. 🤨

I find this interesting because it makes no sense. 42 makes no sense and there is a reason it makes no sense. People have tried to theorize on why the number 42 was chosen…and theorize they have! People have come up with the craziest of explanations. Here is one of them:

“…When using base 13; 613 × 913 is actually 4213 (as (4 × 13) + 2 = 54, i.e. 54 in decimal is equal to 42 expressed in base-13).”2

This “answer” is almost as shocking as the unexpected question! Just for the record, the author admits to having randomly picked the number. It holds no significance.

To get really picky, “everything” includes life and the universe. Thus, the question is rather redundant and could instead be phrased, “What is the answer to everything” which just intensifies the ridiculousness of the question.

Finally, the so called “question” makes no sense because the “question” is not even technically a question! It is like saying, “What is the answer to your bed?” and then expecting people to be able to find an answer to a question that doesn’t exist.

So what is the answer to the “Ultimate question of life, the Universe, and Everything?” You could argue that the answer is 42, the question itself, or even nothing. But what if one was to slightly rephrase the question so that it said, “What is the purpose of life, the universe and everything?” Now you open a whole new kettle of fish.

My friend said that the answer to this question was choice. What choice? He didn’t mention. But to each of us the answer to this question will differ.

In the New England Primer, there are catechism questions; one of which is, “What is the chief end of man?” I memorized this question and its answer in my early childhood. The answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” To me, this is the purpose of life, the universe, and everything.

Sources:

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

52 thoughts on “What is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?”

  1. Before you ask that question, first you need to know whether a universe exists or not. Then, you need to ask the question, can you trust your own senses to sense the “universe” around you?

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    1. I would argue that you first have to define what a “universe” is; that definition is not necessarily the dictionary definition, right?
      And on that second point, I would agree with you in that generally, we puny little human minds have no real ability to determine what the universe is or the purpose of it.
      But I have an advantage in that I deduced my answer from my current knowledge of scripture. Would you say that my answer is wrong? What is your opinion?

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  5. Choice is the answer to this question.
    When I say choice, I mean the ultimate choice between life and death, the same one clearly stated in Joshua 24:15 ‘And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ I agree with you’re answer as an end goal, that we will glorify and enjoy Him forever in eternity, but to get there you must first make the ultimate choice between life and death, and that SonofYHWH is my answer to life, the universe, and everything.

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    1. Yes, I see what you are saying. But the answer cannot (in my opinion) necessarily be the choice because that means that either option of the choice can be the answer to life, the universe, and everything. In other words, if the answer to the choice between life and death, God and sin, good and evil, was the answer to everything, then that would mean that death, sin, and evil could be the answer to everything – which of course they are not.
      We were created with a purpose, but we were given choice. We chose to turn our backs on what we were created to do. Glorifying is/was our purpose in Eden, today, and it will be in eternity. The choice between life and death is whether we will change our ways and live, or remain in our sinful state and die. Either way, God is glorified, right?

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      1. Our choice is what dictates our actions, like you said in the garden of Eden there was the choice of life and death, and death was the choice made. God gave us free will so that we could choose to glorify Him or scorn Him as stated before to glorify Him in eternity is our end goal not that we should not glorify Him anyway can in this life. As to your last question God’s Will is done in the end but that does not mean that the deaths of those who hate Him glorify Him, at least not that I can see.

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      4. Yes, but is that the answer to the question “What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything” or is it the answer to “What is the purpose of our Lives?”
        As I said in my post, I don’t think that the question is technically a question, so are you answer my version of the question or the original “question?”

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      1. Jesus is the answer to every question. Period. If you have faith in Him, which is not intellect or sight, you understand this, but if you try to find the answer in your mind, you can’t. Romans 11:36 basically proves Jesus is the reason things exist and the answer to every problem, but you can also prove this by looking around.

        And what makes a question valid is whether or not it is a question. “The question of life, the universe, and everything” is not a question because a question was never asked about life, the universe, and everything.

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      2. Well, saying that Jesus is the answer to every question isn’t really logical, at least, not with the evidence you have provided so far.
        With all due respect, Jesus can’t be the answer to a question that doesn’t exist. Nothing can be an answer to a question that doesn’t exist.
        You said that you can’t find the answer in your mind. I would say that, if God wants us to find the answer, we will find it mentally. Faith is mental; but only partially. If you say you say you believe it won’t rain and then bring with you an umbrella, you don’t truly believe it. Faith dictates our actions. So if you believe something, you can find it mentally.
        Romans 11:36 states the following:
        “Because of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all, to whom be esteem forever. Amen.”
        It is because of Him that we exist. But he isn’t necessarily the answer to the question, and certainly not every question. 2+2=4, not Jesus. We float in water because of buoyancy, not Jesus. But the questions would not exist without Jesus. So Jesus is greater than the answer. Jesus is the question, the answer and all that it is and isn’t because without Him none of it would be. But the answer to the question is not Jesus, in the same way that 2+2=/=Jesus.
        Right?

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