[bricklayer]

Lets hear it.

[Homini Lupus]

To die. And make a masterpiece of what's there between birth and death.

[Brutananadilewski]

Whatever you decide for yourself.

[Dreamer]

The purpose of all life is to serve as dish for the next one up the food chain(or down, let's not forget those poor micro-organisms).

[SirJac]

To better humanity.

[bricklayer]

Without a defined purpose can happiness exist?

[SirJac]

Happiness is a chemical high, meaningless. Sure it's enjoyable, but it can still be induced through artifical means and isn't much difference from a drug high.

[cal]

	Originally Posted by bricklayer To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Lets hear it.

Creating beautiful myths for future generations to admire and enjoy is one thought.

	Originally Posted by bricklayer To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Without a defined purpose can happiness exist?

Sure. Why not.

[Monte314]

Attempting to derive your own purpose from within yourself is just like trying to suspend a chain from itself.

Purpose must derive from something outside yourself. This external source can't just be other equally purposeless people, either, since we all know that 6 billion times zero is zero.

Unless you can ground your "purpose" in something absolute outside yourself, you have no purpose; you are a temporary blip in a meanilingness, self-generated universe, starting from nothing, ending in nothing, and existing for nothing.

[Sara27]

There is no purpose, so enjoy what you have.

I love to learn, so learning is my life's goal.

[bricklayer]

	Originally Posted by SirJac To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Happiness is a chemical high, meaningless. Sure it's enjoyable, but it can still be induced through artifical means and isn't much difference from a drug high.

I have never seen a larger group of downers. ..... Only joking.

I tend to have a totally different outlook on this, as only something immortal and eternal matters to me. To only create and pass on to another generation seem meaningless if their purpose is to only repeat the cycle until the end of the earth.

[Motor Jax]

to watch this dying existence on a dying planet

or rather, just the fall of humanity



ha ha...


anyways, maybe the purpose of life is just to find your own purpose

[muguly]

1)To leave the world better than it was when you arrived.
2)No:even if it's not fully actualized, most people still strive for a goal of some sorts that equates to a life purpose. The journey towards that goal brings the purpose. The attainment of that goal brings happiness.

[Moriarty]

	Originally Posted by Monte314 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Unless you can ground your "purpose" in something absolute outside yourself, you have no purpose; you are a temporary blip in a meanilingness, self-generated universe, starting from nothing, ending in nothing, and existing for nothing.

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

Have you found an "absolute" to which you've grounded yourself? You seem to have ruled out most tangibles already.

Or are you grounded to something absolutely intangible?

[jadefalcon]

Gah, you had to ask the big question!

This is a tough one. I will get to the point- I don't know. I have heard:

+ to be happy and to live life to the fullest
+ to do God's will
+ to make my life what I want it
+ to help others

I have searched for the answer to this question and I don't think there is any one purpose as to why we are here, why we are able to think for ourselves, and why things are the way they are. Sure I am here to be used by God in some way (Christian here), and I definitely want to be happy, and make the life the way I want it to be.

Why does everything exist, and why do I have a conscience? the latter can probably be explained, but I can't explain the first one- no one can. What was before the universe? If matter can't be created or destroyed, then something always had to exist, yes? If not, then our laws of physics may be wrong.

I would ask the big man on that one, maybe the real purpose to life is too complex for me to understand. Black holes are enough for me
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
.

Ultimatly, YOU will decide that purpose. Act on it and make it real, for yourself and maybe others.

[azelismia]

I don't think there is one.

[Terian]

	Originally Posted by SirJac To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	To better humanity.

[dnr]

There is no purpose. We are the product of an evolutionary accident that produced self-awareness. We will have a very short evolutionary span because we are also self destructive. 100,000 or so years from now the universe will never know that we even existed.

So it really doesn't matter what you do in this life, however evolution has done to us what we can't do for ourselves, i.e., caused us to do reasonable things to be happy and survive. So even we know that there is no long-term difference between the worst tyrant and the best "saint," we all work to make the world and our families happy, all the while knowing it doesn't mean anything. (And as they said to me 25 years ago in an old EST session "Nothing means anything and it doesn't mean anything that it doesn't mean anything.)

[bricklayer]

Originally Posted by dnr To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

There is no purpose. We are the product of an evolutionary accident that produced self-awareness. We will have a very short evolutionary span because we are also self destructive. 100,000 or so years from now the universe will never know that we even existed. So it really doesn't matter what you do in this life, however evolution has done to us what we can't do for ourselves, i.e., caused us to do reasonable things to be happy and survive. So even we know that there is no long-term difference between the worst tyrant and the best "saint," we all work to make the world and our families happy, all the while knowing it doesn't mean anything. (And as they said to me 25 years ago in an old EST session "Nothing means anything and it doesn't mean anything that it doesn't mean anything.)

With a belief like that do you believe in right and wrong?

[Lagawrd]

Purpose of life? All I have heard here are wrong, none of these are puposes. Bettering humanity is not a purpose, it is something we need to do to be live better now and later. To die? if that was the purpose, then why live in the first place? If you believe in evolution, then there was no purpose was there?

For an objective purpose to exist, there must be something that created life with a purpose. Otherwise you can say anything is a purpose, from typing on this forum and enlightening others to fulfilling a certain dream or just fulfilling duties.

[Brutananadilewski]

Originally Posted by jadefalcon To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Gah, you had to ask the big question! This is a tough one. I will get to the point- I don't know. I have heard: + to be happy and to live life to the fullest + to do God's will + to make my life what I want it + to help others I have searched for the answer to this question and I don't think there is any one purpose as to why we are here, why we are able to think for ourselves, and why things are the way they are. Sure I am here to be used by God in some way (Christian here), and I definitely want to be happy, and make the life the way I want it to be. Why does everything exist, and why do I have a conscience? the latter can probably be explained, but I can't explain the first one- no one can. What was before the universe? If matter can't be created or destroyed, then something always had to exist, yes? If not, then our laws of physics may be wrong. I would ask the big man on that one, maybe the real purpose to life is too complex for me to understand. Black holes are enough for me To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. . Ultimatly, YOU will decide that purpose. Act on it and make it real, for yourself and maybe others.

The question of why does everything exist is flawed. When asking "why" for the existence of "everything," you're looking for an outside reason. The problem with looking for an outside reason is that there is none, since our original question concerns the explanation of "everything." By its very definition, "everything" means that there is nothing else. Thus, there can be no outside reason for the existence of "everything," since the word itself precludes anything exterior, and includes every conceivable instance. Therefore, there can be no "why" for the existence of "everything," and since there is no "why," it all exists for no reason.





Brutananadilewski added to this post, 3 minutes and 25 seconds later...

Originally Posted by Lagawrd To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Purpose of life? All I have heard here are wrong, none of these are puposes. Bettering humanity is not a purpose, it is something we need to do to be live better now and later. To die? if that was the purpose, then why live in the first place? If you believe in evolution, then there was no purpose was there? For an objective purpose to exist, there must be something that created life with a purpose. Otherwise you can say anything is a purpose, from typing on this forum and enlightening others to fulfilling a certain dream or fulfilling duties.

What's wrong with a pupose unique to an individual?

A subjective purpose in life is a still a purpose, and every bit as meaningful to a person as an "objective" purpose could be.

There doesn't need to be an objective purpose to any of this.





Brutananadilewski added to this post, 13 minutes and 25 seconds later...

	Originally Posted by bricklayer To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	With a belief like that do you believe in right and wrong?

I'm not trying to speak for dnr, but I do share his views, and for me, right and wrong are arbitrary constructions. Nothing is truly right or truly wrong, everythign just is. Things only become right or wrong because we attach meaning to things, but who's to say that meaning is warranted, justified, or accurate? We value social stability (ie we attach meanign to forming groups) and acts that violate this stability are considered to be wrong, because they contradict our values. But just because we consider them to be wrong for the purposes of maintaining a harmonious society doesn't mean that they actually are wrong.

You can only have a right or wrong if there's a specific context involving meaning, but without the attachment of meaning to things, right and wrong no longer exist. They're merely our constructions.

[Lagawrd]

	Originally Posted by Brutananadilewski To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	What's wrong with a pupose unique to an individual? A subjective purpose in life is a still a purpose, and every bit as meaningful to a person as an "objective" purpose could be. There doesn't need to be an objective purpose to any of this.

Nothing wrong with individual purposes, I have many purposes for my own. But could I call them the purpose of life? It is a purpose of my life, but is it of why life came to be? For there to be a main purpose for us to agree on, there has to be an objective purpose, not a subjective one. Everyone here can name what they think their purposes are, that is pretty easy. But the reason why people find it hard to answer that question is because it is not subjective. Like you and Monte314 said, a purpose has to come from something outside of you. Wethere you believe there is something outside of you or not, that is where the answer lies.

[emanon]

My take on the purpose of life - and here's where all the atheists running 'round these parts get to jump on me - is that we are here to learn how to love our Creator through our interactions with the rest of creation.

[Beery Swine]

Bah! There is no purpose other than what we say. For there to be a purpose there must be an outside entity to give an object purpose, to say "I intend this to do that." There must be an intent and an overall goal before there can be purpose.

My purpose is to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum.





Beery Swine added to this post, 2 minutes and 41 seconds later...

Originally Posted by Monte314 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Attempting to derive your own purpose from within yourself is just like trying to suspend a chain from itself. Purpose must derive from something outside yourself. This external source can't just be other equally purposeless people, either, since we all know that 6 billion times zero is zero. Unless you can ground your "purpose" in something absolute outside yourself, you have no purpose; you are a temporary blip in a meanilingness, self-generated universe, starting from nothing, ending in nothing, and existing for nothing.

Whew, except for that last paragraph that was pure non-sequitur, I think.

[Brutananadilewski]

	Originally Posted by Lagawrd To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	But could I call them the purpose of life? It is a purpose of my life, but is it of why life came to be?

A purpose for life itself? I still fail to see why there needs to be one.