What is the Purpose of life? (1 Viewer)

[shuttle_bus5]

Most likely though if you don’t believe you have a purpose, then you probably won’t believe what about to say anyway,

It is a paradox of our modern age that, although we have more knowledge and material possessions than at any other time in history, we sense a lack of purpose in life. A gnawing hunger for the meaning of life pervades our world.

Because we are so dissatisfied with our life, our life is so empty, so tawdry, so monotonous, doing the same thing over and over again, we want something more, something beyond that which we are doing. Since our everyday life is so empty, so dull, so meaningless, so boring, so intolerably stupid, we say life must have a fuller meaning and that is why you ask this question. Surely a man who is living richly, a man who sees things as they are and is content with what he has, is not confused; he is clear, therefore he does not ask what is the purpose of life. For him the very living is the beginning and the end. Our difficulty is that, since our life is empty, we want to find a purpose to life and strive for it.

Such a purpose of life can only be mere intellection, without any reality; when the purpose of life is pursued by a stupid, dull mind, by an empty heart, that purpose will also be empty. Therefore our purpose is how to make our life rich, not with money and all the rest of it but inwardly rich-which is not something cryptic.

An insightful post.
I think your definition of our lives as empty and tawdry and a search for fuller meaning is ultimately an outcome of society. The idea of material possessions (as you mentioned) and a hedonistic society, i think plays a big role in most people feeling empty and searching for more. We see someone with a new car, so we also want a new car. It is part of the human condition that we desire what we don't have.
This ultimate search for something bigger is often fulfilled by religion. In my opinion, Religion is a false reality for the victims of our hedonistic society. It offers shallows answers to lifes questions and the promise of an afterlife and most people are more then happy to accept a shallow way of fulfilling their emptiness.
I am not searching for a meaning/purpose therefore I do not need religion in my life.

I see no purpose to my life because i am content with what i have. I do not desire wealth or fortune because i am simply happy with my minimalist life style. I am content with my everyday activities.
Perhaps desire is our purpose?

 

[Phoenix Fury]

If we absolutely must have a purpose, I think it is just the common sense fairly stereotypical stuff like:

Live life to fullest
Dont be a fucken cunt
Treat people with respect
and other related stuff.

EDIT: And no afterlife shit, when you are dead, you are dead.

 

[pman]

the answer to to universe ^^

actually, 42 is neither the answer to the universe or the meaning of life, its the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything (which is either 6 times 7 or 6 times 9 in base 13, depends who you ask)

 

[shady145]

actually, 42 is neither the answer to the universe or the meaning of life, its the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything (which is either 6 times 7 or 6 times 9 in base 13, depends who you ask)

lol ok, i only saw that movie once

 

[trickx]

"what is the colour of sound?"

It's a perfectly grammatically correct question, but is still a dumb question. So stfu and stop asking stupid questions.

 

[lolokay]

What is the purpose of life?

what kind of answer is this question meant to have anyway?

What function does life serve to the planet?
What function does a particular lifeform serve in an ecosystem?
What function does a particular person serve in their society?
etc.etc.?

(The OP opens with descriptions of this kind of purpose, but then seems to change the connotation of the word)

or is it meant to be a more abstract and psychological thing? i.e. How should we view ourselves/act/whatever so that we don't feel "empty" (like's being discussed in here)? The question is then not necessarily about function, but a part of how to achieve happiness, I suppose.

 

[Wingstroke]

Because we are so dissatisfied with our life, our life is so empty, so tawdry, so monotonous, doing the same thing over and over again,

Speak for yourself, life today is far superior to that of our ancestors.
Back in the Stone-age, humans lived a short, brutal and impoverished existence, most women died during child birth, and their entire life revolved around scavaging bits of soiled carcasses.
People in third world countries still face this barbaric form of survival, and here you are, likely sitting in some big air-condition house, on your expenisve computer, whinging about the 'monotony' of life.

You can, whenever you want, go and see a fantasitic concert/movie, devour whatever food you desire, listen to great music, read any of the fantastic books produced over the last two centuries, anything.

So give it a break because we all have it very, very good.

 

[shuttle_bus5]

Speak for yourself, life today is far superior to that of our ancestors.
Back in the Stone-age, humans lived a short, brutal and impoverished existence, most women died during child birth, and their entire life revolved around scavaging bits of soiled carcasses.
People in third world countries still face this barbaric form of survival, and here you are, likely sitting in some big air-condition house, on your expenisve computer, whinging about the 'monotony' of life.

You can, whenever you want, go and see a fantasitic concert/movie, devour whatever food you desire, listen to great music, read any of the fantastic books produced over the last two centuries, anything.

So give it a break because we all have it very, very good.

Your forgetting its all relative.
People in the stone age had no knowledge of anything else. They didn't know what a movie was etc etc.
I guarantee future civilisations will look back in 2000 years time and think to themselves, gosh those guys had it hard.

You can't miss what you don't have.

 

[Wingstroke]

Your forgetting its all relative.

What an idiot you are, relativity was my entire point.

 

[Phoenix Fury]

OI! settle down

 

[shuttle_bus5]

What an idiot you are, relativity was my entire point.

Did you even read my post?

 

[Cinnamonster]

lol ok, i only saw that movie once

You should read the book. It's approximately 38294862927.96832 times better than the movie.

On topic.
Who cares what the purpose of life is? Just be thankful that you have a life.

 

[DefinitelyHope]

An insightful post.
I think your definition of our lives as empty and tawdry and a search for fuller meaning is ultimately an outcome of society. The idea of material possessions (as you mentioned) and a hedonistic society, i think plays a big role in most people feeling empty and searching for more. We see someone with a new car, so we also want a new car. It is part of the human condition that we desire what we don't have.
This ultimate search for something bigger is often fulfilled by religion. In my opinion, Religion is a false reality for the victims of our hedonistic society. It offers shallows answers to lifes questions and the promise of an afterlife and most people are more then happy to accept a shallow way of fulfilling their emptiness.
I am not searching for a meaning/purpose therefore I do not need religion in my life.

I see no purpose to my life because i am content with what i have. I do not desire wealth or fortune because i am simply happy with my minimalist life style. I am content with my everyday activities.
Perhaps desire is our purpose?

Fair enough, i take it you are an atheist?
I agree that in some cases, desire does become ones purpose, but that does not mean everyone is driven by desire, there are plenty of other factors, religion like you pointed out is one of them.

I can see where your coming from though, you believe that religion is manmade to give the religious people some sort of hope.

My belief is that, one cannot make assumptions until he/she has searched for god. For example, you are looking for someone, you see that their car parked outside, their umbrella leaning against the wall, but they are not home. So how can you even prove that they exist? that the belongings are actually theirs? You would have to search the whole house, look in every room, you would have to look for concrete evidence that would link these objects to these man, if you cannot find none, whatsoever, then yes, you have the right to declare that there was no man to begin with.

If say you do find evidence, then you would come to the conclusion that their is a man, and these objects do belong to him, but his absence does not make him non-existent.

I guess in the end it all comes down to what you believe. Do you believe there is a god? A higher entity?

 

[DefinitelyHope]

Speak for yourself, life today is far superior to that of our ancestors.
Back in the Stone-age, humans lived a short, brutal and impoverished existence, most women died during child birth, and their entire life revolved around scavaging bits of soiled carcasses.
People in third world countries still face this barbaric form of survival, and here you are, likely sitting in some big air-condition house, on your expenisve computer, whinging about the 'monotony' of life.

You can, whenever you want, go and see a fantasitic concert/movie, devour whatever food you desire, listen to great music, read any of the fantastic books produced over the last two centuries, anything.

So give it a break because we all have it very, very good.

I think you did not understand what i was trying to say.

Yes, one can go to see a movie, go to a concert they can read a book, but that is your individualistic believe of self-fulfillment, this will not apply to everyone, because not everyone in this world is chasing materialistic desires, that is where your theory is flawed.

 

[ilikebeeef]

My belief is that, one cannot make assumptions until he/she has searched for god.

How can you "search" for something that is merely a constructed idea? Ideas are moldable - you either accept it, reject it, or change it for yourself.

For example, you are looking for someone, you see that their car parked outside, their umbrella leaning against the wall, but they are not home. So how can you even prove that they exist? that the belongings are actually theirs? You would have to search the whole house, look in every room, you would have to look for concrete evidence that would link these objects to these man, if you cannot find none, whatsoever, then yes, you have the right to declare that there was no man to begin with.

If say you do find evidence, then you would come to the conclusion that their is a man, and these objects do belong to him, but his absence does not make him non-existent.

Then where did the man go? You can't search every corner of the universe for him. Is there even a way to search for him? We don't even know what he looks like. What if the owner of the items is a woman? Or an alien? What if no one owns the items? lol

EDIT: Or maybe it's a communist society so everyone owns everything.

I guess in the end it all comes down to what you believe. Do you believe there is a god? A higher entity?

I believe that we'll never know.

 

[DefinitelyHope]

How can you "search" for something that is merely a constructed idea? Ideas are moldable - you either accept it, reject it, or change it for yourself.

You see, that's where your ignorance comes in. You cannot make a sweeping statement like that unless you know 100% that is was a constructed idea, what proof do you have that it was an idea?

Then where did the man go? You can't search every corner of the universe for him. Is there even a way to search for him? We don't even know what he looks like. What if the owner of the items is a woman? Or an alien? What if no one owns the items? lol
EDIT: Or maybe it's a communist society so everyone owns everything.

It is an example. If say you did search the whole world and didn't find him, only then you could say that he doesn't exist.

I believe that we'll never know.

If your willing to find the answer for something, you will.

 

[Lailaa]

If we absolutely must have a purpose, I think it is just the common sense fairly stereotypical stuff like:

Live life to fullest
Dont be a fucken cunt
Treat people with respect
and other related stuff.

EDIT: And no afterlife shit, when you are dead, you are dead.

Why would Allah (God in arabc) place us on Earth without a logical purpose?

There must be a truth out there, we just have to search for it.

In regards to afterlife, Allah is the Most Just. If God was not Just, then you would be correct and there would be no need for the after life. As was said in my initial post, it is fair if a criminal and a poor, hardworking person end up in the same place?

This is the concept of retribution, that even little kids understand. Take a simple example: If a toddler hits their head on a table, it begin crying and will not stop until what? Until their mother hits the table and says "bad table" the kid will stop crying. Simple logic.

 

[Phoenix Fury]

Why would Allah (God in arabc) place us on Earth without a logical purpose?

There must be a truth out there, we just have to search for it.

In regards to afterlife, Allah is the Most Just. If God was not Just, then you would be correct and there would be no need for the after life. As was said in my initial post, it is fair if a criminal and a poor, hardworking person end up in the same place?

This is the concept of retribution, that even little kids understand. Take a simple example: If a toddler hits their head on a table, it begin crying and will not stop until what? Until their mother hits the table and says "bad table" the kid will stop crying. Simple logic.

brb, launching projectile vomit

 

[lolokay]

Why would Allah (God in arabc) place us on Earth without a logical purpose?

There must be a truth out there, we just have to search for it.

why does the purpose have to lie in an afterlife in heaven? I don't need anyone to tell me the purpose of happiness on earth to know that it's good

In regards to afterlife, Allah is the Most Just. If God was not Just, then you would be correct and there would be no need for the after life. As was said in my initial post, it is fair if a criminal and a poor, hardworking person end up in the same place?

it would be fair if God put both people into heaven. anything else (eg. sending the criminal to hell) is just based on an irrational, selfish desire for revenge (imho)

This is the concept of retribution, that even little kids understand. Take a simple example: If a toddler hits their head on a table, it begin crying and will not stop until what? Until their mother hits the table and says "bad table" the kid will stop crying. Simple logic.

this would otherwise have looked like a good satire of the concept of retribution, if not for your literal belief in it :S

 

[ilikebeeef]

You see, that's where your ignorance comes in. You cannot make a sweeping statement like that unless you know 100% that is was a constructed idea, what proof do you have that it was an idea?

Because these ideas are spread by word of mouth.

It is an example. If say you did search the whole world and didn't find him, only then you could say that he doesn't exist.

What if he went to another dimension? Or if he shrunk to the size of a quark or even smaller? As I said, we can't search every corner of the universe for something which is not even certainly physical. It is just like finding "souls". What is a "soul"? Is it tangible? No.

Btw I am not atheist, I am agnostic. I don't say for sure that he doesn't exist. Nor do I believe he exists. I just believe that we will never know for sure.

If your willing to find the answer for something, you will.

I don't believe there's an answer to every single thing. Or if there is, it is very subjective and depends on the person's values, background and culture. As Chris92 said, I'm a nihilistic mofo.