For discussion's sake, ignore your spiritual/religious beliefs, or lack thereof, and assume there is a purpose for existence. What is the purpose for life to exist, whether or not it's conscious of its own existence? You might say to further its own existence - but why? In order to experience what the universe has to offer? To get to a point where you ARE what the universe is offering? Another option I considered was maybe to just get to a point where we can live without having to work to withdraw our sustenance (air, water, minerals, etc.) from our environment, and just receive it freely. I like this idea because it would free us from distractions from pursuing us from what we want - no hunger, no thirst (maybe no sleep, although I'm not sure I'd include that in the list)? No wanting caffeine, no smoking cigarettes, no weed, no alcohol, no food, no drinks, no receiving occurring but knowledge. What could we produce?! This is very exciting to me!! A 3rd idea I pondered was getting to a point where we don't receive anything from the universe - in short, death. But to exist only to work towards death seems morbid to me, unless there's a bigger reason for it... But there are too many options there for me to expand upon here, or even consider right now So far, I've only considered one aspect of existence - life. But existence also contains nonliving objects. Do they play into the equation? Are they only there to guide us? Is there a difference between the purpose of nonliving objects created by nature and those created by man (which are still created by nature, if indirectly)? Or are they not even considered, since they don't further their own growth on their own? Could the purpose be a collaboration between life and the nonliving? Do corpses affect anything differently? I know this was really long, and mostly just a bunch of questions than the presentation of new ideas.. but it's all speculative, and each question (at least for me) leads to new questions. It seems reminiscent of the why paradox - you can always ask why lol. But any ideas you guys may have would be greatly appreciated, my thoughts have been plagued by this for the last week. I needed somewhere to unleash it all.. I tried on a friend, but he got bored quickly A short disclaimer: I don't necessarily believe any of this. I don't know what I believe, and rationality has never failed me before, so this is the path I'm pursuing. Thanks for leaving the hate behind
The purpose of life is to achieve...What? Well, I'll leave that to you. Life is a very specific thing as it pertains to an individual more than it pertains to a number of individuals, however that is not always how it goes as religion, ethics, and family weigh a hefty burden on what a lot of people choose to do. We can't all very well be astronauts, but that doesn't mean we all can't learn as much as possible about the solar system, right? You can use anythin' for that, really, I just used astronauts probably because somewhere in my subconscious I wish to take flight one day. Unfortunately as a population the world has not made such great strides in insuring that people don't need food, water, or air...And unfortunately as it may be, I do believe those things will always be required. We can take knowledge from anything though, tragedy to the miraculous, we do not always take knowledge from these things though, which is why we are where we are today and not where we should be as a civilization. Plenty of people believe we only live to die, hell, I once believed we only lived to die...But that thought process doesn't accomplish much, now does it? How can I very well manage to achieve anything if I think it is all for not in the first place? Borderline nihilism and heavy cynicism I suppose you would be comfortable with such thoughts, I was there, once. There are very few nonliving objects that would play much of a role in our existence, take for instance the ancient civilization's, most of what we have today (If not all) did not exist in those times...Because of this the life expectancy was very short (Today I believe it is close to 80 for an average in the U.S., in the 1100's it was just 35). We have made leaps and bounds in medical science and yet still, people die left and right from diseases that we have known about for decades, millenniums even. I do not consider this progress, but I'm funny I suppose. Personally, like I mentioned at the top of this...I believe our existence is to achieve whatever we wish, want, or will ourselves to achieve. Life should not be solely about the person in question either, no, we should also take into account other people. We live in a very diverse world and without that diversity we would live in a very plain, and boring world...Because of this we should also make sure our brother's and sister's are doin' alright as well as ourselves, but not before ourselves, because if we are not on track we can't very well guide someone else to the same track. Interesting thread, CKTony...I'm goin' to subscribe and see where it goes.
Existence is just existence to me. What exists, exists. I believe the thing we're trying to achieve here is perfection. To grow and learn until we no longer need these "problems" to help us grow into the perfect society. To weed out and weed out until there's nothing but the good stuff. And it'll all come naturally and in due time.
I think it's a large cycle of knowledge. We couldn't have computers today if electricity was never discovered, we couldn't have had electricity if laws of science were not discovered, etc. It is why history is so important. Right now we are all building something for the next generation, and that will continue until the earth ceases to exist. That is enough reason for me.
I think the entire universe just makes up one cell/atom of the universe which makes up one cell/atom of that universe. Like looking into two mirrors paralell to each other. It just keeps going, repeating itself. I am no astronomist, but I think us biology are just what makes up a biological cell in the next universe.
We will always need food to survive. Those nutrients build our body and without them we would die. This is true of all animals and humans are animals.
The sole purpose of biological existence is to perpetuate biological existence. Its like a circular argument, really. Whatever purpose you assign yourself after that is of your OWN choosing, but always keep in mind, its an illusion only. You don't want to get too upset over some artificial purpose, anyways. P.S. you can always change it for a new one too.
[quote name='"sisterstorm"']This is no purpose of existence. It's a happy accident. Enjoy it.[/quote] This.
You may think that now, but there's a purpose to existence, and it will become clear to you at some point. It is not a 'one size fits all' purpose, so it's up to you to discover and define it. But once you do, and you may change your mind as you go, there will be no doubt about what it is. Then all you do is carry on seeing it like that, and everything else falls into place.
See, now we are getting somewhere. I like how the previous poster called it a "happy accident," but is it really? Each INDIVIDUAL'S purpose is different from the next, but the purpose for all of mankind may be simultaneous and the exact same thing. Depends how you perceive life, whether in a shell or with a global consciousness.
I like to think the purpose of our life is to learn as many lessons as we can from the people and circumstances around us - which are the Truth - and also to teach and guide and influence as many other people as we can through our actions. We should strive in every situation to find it within ourselves to love everyone and everything, no matter how difficult it may be, and forgive our enemies. I believe this because I believe we are all many manifestations of one consciousness that learns and evolves as it experiences and develops itself through person-person interactions. Only love dispels hate.. learn to put love into the world and it gives it back to you tenfold. Peace
This is true of course in many ways - we are all part of a collective whole, so even though our journeys will seem different, and what we each feel our life is for will have different meaning, the goal is the same in the end, as there is nothing else ultimately. It isn't necessary to define what that goal is, as that isn't important at this stage, and until that is seen by someone, there might as well not be one, as that is how it will appear anyway. Many people are not looking for such things, nor are they close to realising them, so for me to make statements like this serves no purpose other than to provoke discussion.