What is the true purpose of our life here on Earth?

[JerryB]

I'm a bit of a late comer to this thread but it's interesting

because that was a question I asked myself when I was

12 years old and then I revisited the question periodically

throughout my life to see if I still believed the same thing

and I always did and I still do which may mean that I

haven't got much smarter than I was when I was 12.

Anyway my answer is/was:

 

the purpose of life is to have a good time.

 

Which is pretty much what Tarak wrote. And by the

way, it's not as easy as it sounds. You have to really

work at it.

[rahuldandekar]

I'm a late-comer too, and I haven't read the posts in the previous pages.

 

What I belive, is that our our purpose in life is not predetermined. We are born without our permission. But now that we are born in a cociety, and we cannot live without other members of the society. Our purpose is to help human society advance.

 

Yes, we must have fun, but not at other's expense. We cannot live happily if we mistreat others. We must have fun and help others have fun too.

[bartock]

lol......

[Queso]

what's funny, bartock? you have an opinion? what is it? when you're through sharing your beloved opionion, let's all laugh at it shall we?

[bartock]

;)

I beleive the true meaning of our lives would be to live them out however you see fit. Being born into existence, we can but naturally continue to "live" and go on, making purposes for ourselves, the most basic of them being to jus have fun and/or "live out you life" as was intended.

a serial murderer or rapist thinks it fit to live his life killing or raping.what do we do with him? lock him up in an institution, away from us where we will be safe from his way of living.

[bartock]

...And it seems as though most of you believe what I do: Choose how you live for yourself and make the decisions you feel will suit you best along the way.

 

what would u say to a killer or a rapist or a molester or a corrupt person or an oppressor

[bartock]

I think that would be a religious debate...

well religion tells us of the purpose of life without any confusion. so it is ok to include religion in this topic of 'what is the purpose of life' ;)

[bartock]

The idea of purpose in itsef requires that the object or individual with a purpose, was given that purpose by a higher authority. If you create your own purpose it is merely a personal desire which cannot be imposed on anyone else, except by force; thus nulifying that individual's personal desire.

 

Without a higher authority, there can be no true purpose beyond personal desire.

u r right

[infamous]

This question has as many answers as there are people to answer it. The answer lies within each of us a different answer. My purpose may not be and, more than likely is not your purpose, we are after all, individuals different in so many ways and alike in so few.

[Boerseun]

We are the agents of the Second Law of thermodynamics.

 

Wherever there's a concentration of energy, it needs to be spread to satisfy the 2nd Law. And any means available to distribute the concentrated energy, will be beneficial. Hence Life.

And using (distributing) energy extrasomatically is even more efficient at that, hence Intelligent Life.

We are not here to satisfy any deity.

We are not here to satisfy or please anybody, not even ourselves.

Having minds and intelligence, is just a lucky offshoot in quickening the pace of the 2nd Law - it made it possible for us to keep on distributing concentrated energy faster and more efficiently, but by accident also gave us consciousness.

A human is a collection of atoms, molecules etc. that came to enquire about its own existence quite by accident.

There's nothing special about us, or life, for that matter.

[rahuldandekar]

Exactly. I agree with you completely.

[Dark Mind]

...And it seems as though most of you believe what I do: Choose how you live for yourself and make the decisions you feel will suit you best along the way.

 

what would u say to a killer or a rapist or a molester or a corrupt person or an oppressor

I would have to say (with the chance of offending somebody) that if a serial killer/rapist/molester thought that their true purpose in life was to kill, rape, or molest then they should try to fulfill it as best as they can, but they should also be aware that there are people who believe it is a very worthy cause in life to stop serial killers/rapists/molesters. With this in mind I think we should realize that everyone has their own view of what "purpose" is in life, and that others may not agree with what you think of as being a "good" purpose. The only way I can picture killing people as a good thing (I'm just trying to get both perspectives here, I'm not advocating or suggesting killing people is a good thing!!) is if you're thinking that there are too many people on Earth, over-population is draining the Earth of it's precious natural resources, or that if there were less people on Earth that the information we could learn by harboring only the brightest and most intelligent people by killing off the less... intelligent people, would eventually lead to a day and age where people had the information, technology, and intelligence to keep thge environment from quickly deteriorating away so it could support the excessive number of people on Earth now.

 

For molesting and raping, there is no "good" reason I can think of for a person to hold these as ideals for a purpose in life. Molesting and raping should be saved for the molesters and rapers as a form of punishment falling under the "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." principle.

 

If the person is killing, raping, or molesting just because it is "fun" in some sick way to him/her, then they are doing nothing more than impeding or preventing others from fulfilling their purpose in life and these people should be stopped.

 

All this from the mind of a sixteen-year old ;). It surprises me that I'm one of the only teenagers in my general location that is capable of thinking or talking about such things, amongst others, while at least letting it show I'm somewhat intelligent. I know I have some smart friends, but they never like to let it show, or even act like it. I'm more likely to hold a meaningful conversation about entropy with a doorknob than any of my friends ;).

 

( ;) )

[bartock]

... by accident also gave us consciousness.

A human is a collection of atoms, molecules etc. that came to enquire about its own existence quite by accident.

There's nothing special about us, or life, for that matter.

;) OH MY GOD!!! i am a freek axcident of what ever and i am wondering in this place that other freek axcidents call earth(which was another freek axcident)where most things look similar but i(human) sticks out like a sour thumb. ;) u maby right we r not special because we are the one who walk up right or can hold things properly(if i am not mistaken the opposite thumb), and not to forget we can thing like no other in this uni.

[bartock]

This question has as many answers as there are people to answer it. The answer lies within each of us a different answer. My purpose may not be and, more than likely is not your purpose, we are after all, individuals different in so many ways and alike in so few.

well we have different ways of expressing the same truth. what is the truth? truth=perpouse of life.THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!!!! ;)

[TINNY]

This question has as many answers as there are people to answer it. The answer lies within each of us a different answer. My purpose may not be and, more than likely is not your purpose, we are after all, individuals different in so many ways and alike in so few.

There might be many answers. But, a truly logical answer should only be one. I haven't seen any answers based on logic yet. A truly scientific answer, devoid of a philosophy, might not be achievable for it only answers the question of 'HOW' and not 'WHY', though it can provide a solid support..

 

Logically, if we were to know the purpose of existence now, it might help to know the history of the universe and extrapolate from there.

 

A materialist might think of an infinitely ongoing mechanical model of the universe where existence has no purpose. They'd view life as just a mere extraordinary coincidence of sub-atomic particle collisions and that physical laws take care of everything.

 

Others, especially dualists, might think the physical existence as being temporary and relative. They'd think that there is also an absolute existence outside the realm of space, time and matter. Eastern philosophies would say that, then, the purpose of life is to transcend the material universe into an absolute realm of perfectedness. This is based on the increasingly complex arrangement of matter from the big bang till now, where human beings, especially our most complex organ - the brain -, are teh most developed of all organized matter. At such a high level of complexity, it might be possible that we have consciousness and free-will. At the human's stage, (assuming that free-will and consciousness exists) we have to choose for ourselves on where we want to go from now, whether to continue the path of progression, or cease to shoulder the responsibility and cause the total destruction of existence.

 

This might sound like sci-fi, but it is the best answer I could give in this short period of time.( I don't have much opportunities to access the internet nowadays.)

[Boerseun]

OH MY GOD!!! i am a freek axcident of what ever and i am wondering in this place that other freek axcidents call earth(which was another freek axcident)where most things look similar but i(human) sticks out like a sour thumb. :cup: u maby right we r not special because we are the one who walk up right or can hold things properly(if i am not mistaken the opposite thumb), and not to forget we can thing like no other in this uni.

...you're getting the gist of it, yes. You may not like it, but, hey, the Universe don't actually give a rip if you do or don't.

[ldsoftwaresteve]

Jeez, doesn't anyone read MY answer?

 

We exist to simply be ourselves. If there is a 'greater' purpose in life, then by living we fulfill it. And by living and doing that which sustains our life, we are successful.

 

We do not have to second guess anything. Just live. And if there is a judgement upon us at the end it should only consist of, "Did you live your passion?".

 

:cup: