I will search for an answer to this question when I stop worrying about the basics of life. There are more important things to focus on for now.
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dont you ask of yourself where do i stand in this world ? what should i do rather than living ? dont you want more its a question for some not for all
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There is no definite purpose.
We are all born in this "prison" with a decaying & withering body, which is too imperfect and "must" live the life while worrying about the basic survival and die like an insect.
Like a good controlling environment, there are few winners, of a varying capacity. But the majority of people will be the losers and will die loser.
There is only one certain thing in life: Death.
Everything else is random.
How do I look at the life? Well, I play games, watch movies-shows and interact with my family, while eating my favorite dishes.
So, If an advanced species comes knocking our door and offers space travel, I'll gladly join. Another scenario is, If I can find a road to the answer or the answer itself, then I'll walk there.
P.S: I think the universe is a sentinel being and we are the little cells, atoms or other particles inside it. I think each one of us has a universe inside and IDK how that works (magic?) but that's my hypothesis.
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well again ! maybe alot of people fool themselves with simple things in life or call in an envirement and think of us humans as insects !
i dont and there are many like me believe me you see i feel it with every bone in my body that is not it ! there is more but we cant find it many of us are happy with our lives the way we live and many are satisfied maybe thats why people dont look for answers or represent us as an animal whos destiny is nothing but to live and die if only there was someone who could say what happends after death but again no one ever came back from it so there are theories wich makes me consider two thing -> either there is an after life and our purpose here is to live and claim more and more for another world or we die like an animal and will be lost in abyss for ever
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Everybody has to find his own path, there is obviously no universal answer. Some people set themselves a goal and try to reach it all their life, some others don't care, and the best part is that they all are right :-)
For my part, I believe we are nothing but random conscious beings on a random ball of dust, lost in a universe so big we can barely have an idea of it. Seeing how mankind in general, and some people in particular, take themselves seriously is a big source of amusement in my existence.
For the horrors I've seen everyday in news or history books, since decades, I personally consider laughable the idea of the existence of some almighty benevolent god (no offense meant to believers, I sincerely respect your choice as long as you respect mine).
The purpose of life to me ? enjoy this short time as much as possible, without hurting others of course. See, taste, meet...Cherish the time I can spend with my beloved ones, because i don't expect any form of afterlife. Finally, I'd say living is a goal in itself. My 2 cents.
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So many materialistic answers...
I am not a frequent forumgoer, but I had to reply here, since OP is pretty much alone in defending his yearning.
Dostoyevsky called Godless life a "devil's vaudeville". And indeed, without existing purposes we are just cogs in a machine of neurons in our brains commanding our thoughts (no free will in materialism!), a machine of society functioning by laws of evolution and a machine of our own body marching towards death one day at a time, making all our projects fruitless, eventually.
The key's meaning is to open locks. The scissors' meaning is to cut things. All objects' meanings lie outside of the objects themselves.
Human life only has a purpose outside of it, i.e. in an afterlife. Projects for the sake of other humans do not count, for the humanity will not last forever, whether through eventual devastating war, Earth colliding with the Sun, or Universe coming to an end. None of the grand ideas will be worth then!
So if there is no afterlife, there is no meaning of life, and if there is none, we might as well just end this ridiculous charade by killing ourselves, for we are sure to suffer more and more in the durations of our meaningless lives (such are the views of antinatalists, for example, only they put it in a slightly more "comforting" way of "let's not bring more children to this world").
The science worshippers will be sure to exclaim, "But it's not proven that there is an afterlife!". The critical epistemology says that you straight up unable to prove whether it exists or not, so is it worth to discard it simply like that? Also, refer to Pascal's wager, he was a great scientist and puts the problem of afterlife much neater than I do.
The problem is: what are we to do with our current life in the context of afterlife? To me, the answer is clearly religion, but I can't quite make the logical leap from one to another, so forgive me, O critical viewer, and accept this thought "as is" for now.
In a religious world, a higher Being or Beings wish something from us humans (Sceptics, note again how there is no society on Earth that is atheistic. Coincidence, for sure!). How are we to determine Their will?
The comparison between different pagan and non-pagan religions would be quite exhausting for a forum comment and far above my head, but do consider Divine Revelation, that conveniently solves for us the problem.
Indeed, a benevolent Being would probably reveal to us, what exactly is needed from us in this life.
Are there such revelations? Yes! The Hebrew Bible is filled with God speaking His Will to his servants humans, and Gospels describe Jesus Christ telling us how to live and what awaits us beyond, with his Divinity backed by miracles (Quran, too, but it directly contradicts the Bible at some points, so...).
"Well, perhaps it is all made up by humans?" Did you guys read them? It is full of ideas that could not have come from human mind, such as suffering is good or that it is good to not eat sometimes and all the other stuff I cannot remember. It is one thing to consider the Old Testament made up, as it is pretty much parablemade, but the Gospels in New Testament are four near-biographical tales of one Person's life. They couldn't have been conspired, because they contradict each other in some small details (being written years after Jesus died), but are the same in the essence.
To me, Christianity is the only possible purpose in life. I am not well-versed in the manners of religion, but I am sure that even a rain-worshipping pagan has a more meaningful life than those who once in a while think, "Yeah, I just gotta be happy or whatever, man. Not gonna die soon, anyway!".
Those who will try to counter this comment on the grounds of materialism will first have to prove that they aren't philosophical zombies resembling humans in every way but lacking any concept of consciousness. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
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i believe what he says is right because yep if we have no purpose in our lives then yes we`re just walking zombies who fists on foods instead of other humans :D and again yes if there is no purpose we should kill ourselves as soon as possible what he says i what i believe
i do too use god and after life as an purpose of this world but in the other hand logic is not what you believe but what you can prove and that is ! problem ! here we just dont know untill we die and when the time arrives its to late we may be wasted in our purpose (afterlife) or be wasted in nothing (only death) what should we do now !!!! when we dont know what to do and how to prepare ourselves
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I'm glad that my reply echoed for you. I mostly wrote it to assure that you are not alone.
Like I said earlier, I am not well-versed in religion (and just half a year ago I'd consider myself an agnostic at best, and would have agreed with the majority of the comments here). I encourage you to seek theology literature on your own, for my materials are scarce.
I often fall back to analogy of a video game and its developer, though it most likely doesn't resemble real world: if a video game character doesn't have ways to solve a problem, it will never ever solve it by its own no-matter-how-advanced AI, unless you open a console and change the way the game/character is built.
The logic is a human concept, and it tells us the relations in real world, but it will not tell us anything about afterlife, no matter how hard we try.
For death, do read on the Pascal's wager. Simply put, if there is no afterlife, and we live according to (wrongful) religious dogmas, then oh well. But if there is, and we choose not to work towards it, we are royally screwed for eternity. A perfectly logical answer that I certainly cannot contradict (and likewise it doesn't tell us anything about the afterlife itself).
So, if we can't arrive to answer by logic, we have only our faith to support us. Christianity: "Blessed are those who haven't seen Me but believe." Likewise, there is a dogma of God's Grace that helps us above our human capacity, in our faith among other things. There are probably answers in other religions, but like I said, I am no deacon and you should search for yourself more.
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For death, do read on the Pascal's wager. Simply put, if there is no afterlife, and we live according to (wrongful) religious dogmas, then oh well. But if there is, and we choose not to work towards it, we are royally screwed for eternity. A perfectly logical answer that I certainly cannot contradict (and likewise it doesn't tell us anything about the afterlife itself).
But Pascal's wager is generally known as very questionable reasoning. There are so many things wrong with it. First, it doesn't say anything about the probability of the existence of god or an afterlife, as you said.
Then it just says that it's better to worship god than not to, but it simply doesn't solve the issue, which god to worship. There are many different religions, all with their own set of rules, all with different conditions how not to end up in hell. Some of them contradict each other. The wager cannot tell you which one to follow. Therefore, even if you agree with the general premise of the wager, it's never really a safe bet, since you might end up following the wrong religion.
Another problem is that if you follow this premise, you are merely pretending to worship god in order not to go to hell. You do not worship him, because you believe in him and love him, but merely because you think it's possible that worshipping him saves you from a potential hell. There are two problems here. Will god even accept you if you basically just pretend, out of fear? Can you even fullfil the requirements by following the wager? And the other thing is, if god actually does accept this behavior, what does that say about him? If he prefers a person who worships purely out of fear and of acknowledging the possibility of god being real (no matter how probable) to a person who isn't convinced of god, but honest about it, doesn't that mean it's the kind of jealous god that is not worth worshipping in the first place?
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Thank you for your answer.
That particular section of my comment was aimed at OP's concern about if there is indeed nothing after death. I have emphasized that Pascal's wager does not tell us anything about what awaits us in afterlife or how to prepare for it. So once we accept the wager and that it kind of seems like we can't waive away afterlife, we thank Pascal and step away from his wager. I have attempted to discuss the other aspects in my original comment.
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Reminds me of Kohlberg’s stages of morality - most people need to be told what’s right and wrong, and can’t (consistently) figure it out for themselves most people are stuck
In stages 2-4, very few make it to stage 5, and Kohlberg himself wondered I’d stage 6 was even attainable
Hence the need for a guidebook, or Bible
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I never understood this question, even as a kid. Why should it have a purpose in the first place?
We are meant to die like animals because WE ARE animals.
And no, I don't believe in anything that is not considered objectively real.
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sorry to say it but your even denying your will and humanity .. we`re not animals they dont have will or capability of thinking like us
if you cant accept that we should not continue this conversation for that you deny the basic thing of humanity
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We're more advanced and more complex as much as being the dominant species of our planet.
But we're still animals, the most advanced ones around sure, but still animals.
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I don't know man, do an autopsy of a monkey, or a pig and then of a human. Compare what's inside and tell me what the difference is.
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If you don’t think animals have will or capability to think, you’re not paying attention.
Animals are certainly capable of thinking and having a will of their own.
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nope ..how do you describe will !! thats not what will means or what you see its just what they call aha Instinct
will means the capability to do what you want but animals dont do that because they dont have capable mind even if they had will still its not possible
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please be more precise with what you mean. Because so far you're not saying something animals can't do.
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okay let me show you a example
animals like tigers for instanse -> they do some things like when theire hungry they look for food okay ? when they find a deer they will follow it and they may or may not get it they use one strategy for killing but if they had a absolute will they shouldve chose a 5 or 6 strategy and chose between them for the best one you dont call that will you call it instincts wich were in them in theire creation they dont have the mind nor will to act more than those thing wich they have to this is not the meaning of will so yep they dont have will they only do it by theire nature nothing more and it called instincts ...
theire intellignce is not good enough too to act in situions and chose a strategy between the variaty of choices they dont do much ...
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To have a purpose for life means there has to be a purpose giver who transcends what we experience as life.
If the universe is self-causal (Big Bang happened on its own), then the material universe (space, time, matter) is all there is.
But how can something made of space, time, and matter cause space, time, and matter to exist before they exist? Or in other words, how can the universe create the universe before the universe exists?
Science can never find an answer to that question because science can only study the material universe.
It’s up to you to examine the evidence and see if something beyond space, time, and matter exists. If so, that could be your purpose-giver.
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To discover and learn. There's no greater purpose.
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that could be the answer because its so important for me atlest
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Hi r3zaj4br, I believe in God who has revealed himself to the world through Jesus Christ and the written word of God. More importantly God knows you, loves you, and does have purpose for you beyond what you've described!
The purpose of life is to glorify God, and to enjoy being in relationship with God forever. Jesus has changed my life and made it so much sweeter than anything else in the world. Here is what God's own words say about pursuing him in contrast with pursuing the other things, apart from him:
"Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." (Romans 8:5-6)
There's only one way to have eternal life and peace, and that is by understanding that we have no goodness in and of ourselves, that we are in opposition to God; and to stop running away from God and instead turn towards him. God has provided a way for you to have a restored relationship with him and it is through trusting Jesus:
"God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us." (Romans 4:24-5:1)
If you sincerely ask God to come into your life and change it, He will! May God bless you with the peace and joy of knowing him.
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well thanks mate i do believe in god already but i want to know more touch some .. see it for my self i`m not satisfied with only knowing and accepting that does not mean i dont believe in him i know the religious and its rules and writes but i want to see it my self its important more than my life !!!
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Hi friend, I want you to see that difference in your life as well! I will ask you a question a friend once asked me: "Do you love Jesus more and more every day?" I answered "no", but I could see that the answer was "yes" for my friend. I wanted to know why her life was so fulfilled and I wanted that for myself. Over the years I've asked Jesus for that same fulfilment, passion, and love for him and he has give it to me.
"Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8).
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The purpose of life is to resist death, so there can be creation. Even those that hope for an afterlife are hoping to resist death in some form. The struggle to live and the willingness to survive is the whole meaning of the existence, because as long there's life something is always happening and with death nothing happens forever.
Creation only happens as long as there is something active or alive. Only life can create happiness or sorrow, hope or dispair. triumph or failure...
As long as you live you're creating memories, things, feelings, waste, other beings, fantasies, systems, societies... So time goes on, and as long there's time there's no death.
So, we live to create, creation means time and as there's time the nothingness of death would not happen.
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these are some excuses to trick the death mate ... these are the way you live and want to believe it thats what people giving you back when they have no answer for death and after that it dont change the fact ... there is life and then death you cant fake it and i`m talking about after that i dont believe in these things as a purpose to push death aside
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Look at nature, what you see is live in harmony with others, and leave offspring in the times before you die. In the end that's all we can do and interestingly humans bend all that rules. We cannot prevent the destruction of the Earth, apparently we cannot escape either. So, live in harmony with nature as you can and have fun living.
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thats pretty much what i do wish there was more to do
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To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!
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jesus christ some of you had something in there for a long time lol ... dont know your joking or not
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i just consulted with god.
he told me the meaning of our existence. in the end it all comes down to this...
our existence was a joke.
he told me of the 8th day.
he was drinking and doing whippets when he thought it would be funny to give a monkey sentience and watch them kill each other over greed, women, and religion.
that was also the day he made the platypus.
now you know... and knowledge is power.
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thanks for sharing your opinion to make people laugh atleast
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no. i really am good friends with god. me and him go way back to that time we took turns plowing this chick named mary while she was sleeping.
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meh, its not really a talent. christians pretty much make fun of them selves, and what type of shitty person would i be if i didnt take every opportunity to make fun of the racist, sexist, bigots.
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so your saying is christians are racist sexist and bigots right ?
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now a days they like to act like history never happened but it did and was recorded.
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https://godhatesfags.com/
https://sundaymorningcontemplation.blogspot.com/2012/03/god-hates-black-peopleproof-in-photo.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church
hitler was a christian.
if i cared to add more im sure it wouldnt be hard to find. all three of those links were found via typing god's hates ____ into duck duck go.
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oh shit i cant believe i almost forgot to post this one
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1865393697
im done now
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wellcome to this topic guys there are some questions wich makes us to think atleast some of us ask this question over and over from ourselves
what is the purpose of life ? shouldnt we ask ourselves ? does it worth the thinking ? (are you satisfied with what youve found in your life rather than only living having a job getting married grow old and die ) should we consider after that ? do we have souls ? whats the point of living if we`re going to die just like animals !! can you even imagine to be dead for ever i cant describe nor find a right answer for it
now i think humans have soul and there is an after life im not satisfied by this living and dying without a purpose i mean there should be a big one otherwise whats the diffrent between us and animals dont forget that we have the capability to think and our will is absoulute wich no other species have i believe in god and somehow i do want to believe there is an afterlife cause i dont find a point in it if there is non ! these are questions i`ve asked like thousands times in years after some incidents wich made my mind clear that i was looking for a wrong purpose
how many people believe in god ? how many of you looks for an answer do you even care ??
sorry for poor english
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