The Purpose Of Life

colson

colson

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Sometimes when I'm really bored or tired I just sit around and think. Usually about stupid irrelevant things. I've often pondered my purpose and the purpose of existance on this Earth and I can never reach a decent conclusion. I was just wondering what your takes are of purpose of existance. After all if I'm going to be alive for around another 70 years or something like that I would hope it would be for some kind of justifiable reason.
 
The purpose of life is to spread your seed and die. Humans aren't any different from any other species.
 
smwScott said:
The purpose of life is to spread your seed and die. Humans aren't any different from any other species.
Click to expand...

Dude that's pretty grim but none the less a decent conclusion that I have often thought about myself. I wish we had some kind of significance though.
 
We are seeking for happiness, do you agree? All the actions we have taken are just for making ourselves happier and more comfortable.
 
The purpose of life is simple...


....To live. What you do beyond that is up to you.
 
Don't try and search for meaning. You'll only find meaninglessness and indifference.
 
There is no purpose. Life is esentially meaningless.

Our purpose is simply to live.

I take the anthropic principle into account when thinking this:
We are here asking the meaning of life, and that is the meaning of life. If we weren't here we wouldn't be asking the question, but we are, so we are....

er...I guess that made more sense to me in my head :cheese:
 
Tr0n said:
And your mom. Nude.
Click to expand...

You will find NO SUCH THING. NOT MY MOTHER SIR. NO SIR.

I like to think of it as we're allowed to ask the question "what is the meaning of life," but we aren't allowed to answer it because that's when you stop talking about philosophy and such, but enter religion.

I probably stole that from a heinlein book, but it works.
 
smwScott said:
The purpose of life is to spread your seed and die. Humans aren't any different from any other species.
Click to expand...

quagmire.jpg


---


Yea, but seriously, I think the point of life is to have fun. Enjoy life! To me that's the point of life. I mean, you can't have much fun when you're dead, so might as well have it when you're alive!

-DaMaN
 
The purpose of life is either 4 or the color yellow, IIRC. :cheers:
 
If you're looking for general ideas about the meaning of life, take a philosophy class. Some very good thinkers have put a lot of time into just this question and, while they don't necessarily agree, you'll get a good picture of the 'spectrum'. Here's some advice: if someone has to 'market' their philosophy to you, something's wrong.
 
I usually ask these kinds of things to myself as well. My conclusion varies from, "We are a more evolved species than any other in this planet but ultimately we are just as good as animals" to "We are higher forms of animals and nothing in this world really matters but what we are inside and what we do for the good of others". But then it just comes down to religion like Deus said.
 
It's essentially meaningless, as depressing as that sounds its more then likely true. But, you should find your own meaning, weather it be fun, happiness, religion etc etc, this is ur time, make the best of it.
 
my goal in life is the pursuit of immortality...and yes i'm serious im just not sure how
 
My purpose in life is to get stuck in a go nowhere job until I die. Some other things happen along the way too, but unfortunately that's the meaning of life.
 
There isn't a point to life, just to live it and enjoy it.
 
DaMaN said:
Yea, but seriously, I think the point of life is to have fun. Enjoy life! To me that's the point of life. I mean, you can't have much fun when you're dead, so might as well have it when you're alive!

-DaMaN
Click to expand...
Isn't that what Gary Heidnik said?
 
Such pessimism.

The purpose of life is to improve. Life not spent improving is wasted.
 
There is no purpose to life but what we impose upon it. Individual humans exist to ensure the continual existence of Mankind. They do this by breeding, expanding, and eliminating perceived threats.
 
no but i dont want to die, im thinking stem cells will work i'll just keep cloning myself and taking the stem cells to regenerate my cells or some type of nanomachine that does the same thing and if that fails i'll be cryogenically frozen
 
Raeven0 said:
Such pessimism.

The purpose of life is to improve. Life not spent improving is wasted.
Click to expand...

Improving upon things that don't ultimately effect your genetics is pointless.
 
humans are like building blocks of knowledge and achievement reaching towards the infinite distance of the secrets of the universe and everything in it


and the purpose of life is to be the best damn building block you can be
 
tehsolace said:
and the purpose of life is to be the best damn building block you can be
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Some people aspire to be those little translucent, different colored plastic bits that only take up one peg on legos. They look pretty and all, but unless they're put in a completely out of the way place, they hinder the entire structure.
 
your purpose is to tith 50% of what you make to me and to spend the rest of your life worshipping me
 
There is no purpose of life. Like someone said the only thing close enough to a purpose might be to just live long enough to breed to ensure the survival of the human species. If you start to ask these kind of questions then you've got to ask yourself what's the point to continually learn and try to improve yourself if eventually you'll just die. Nobody asked me if I wanted to be exist or not, probably because the answer would be a big fat no, so I don't give a shit, I just go with the flow.
 
Raziaar said:
Improving upon things that don't ultimately effect your genetics is pointless.
Click to expand...
There's more to my life than biology, but you can so restrict yourself if you like.

Most people do like, I find.
 
On earth humans are unique ... so far as we do tend to ask ourselves these questions. It also depends if you take a selfish view or a holistic view ... i.e. the meaning of an individual life, or the meaning of the life of a species. The meaning of humanity or the meaning of a human.

I kinda like to think human life is about asking questions, searching for answers, and passing on knowlwdge, perhaps also the discovery of a utopian set of memes, altruism in general?
 
It can't be answered. There is no "truth" to it. Because when we find a solution, there is always something else. It can't be solved, unless religion is true, which personally, I think is right. OR we just become ghosts.
 
Ahh nihilism
Frankl seems to have nailed this on the head
go study some existentialism

please read this book
Man's Search for Meaning. An Introduction to Logotherapy, Boston: Beacon, ISBN 0-8070-1426-5; and Random House / Rider, London 2004, ISBN 1-8441-3239-0; also: Washington Square Press; ISBN 0-67102-3373 (Softcover, December 1997)

and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_search_for_meaning

some love "
T]he meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: "Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?" There simply is no such thing as the best or even a good move apart from a particular situation in a game and the particular personality of one's opponent. The same holds for human existence. One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone's task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.


When we are no longer able to change a situation - just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer - we are challenged to change ourselves.
"
 
Fair dues to the guy for surviving the death camps, but his understanding of the meaning of life is not inherently any better than anyone else's. Although I did like this quote of a quote:
"Nietzsche's words, 'He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.'"
The reverse is also true.

Personally I waver between either believing that there is no purpose whatsoever, or believing that we give life purpose and meaning through the arbitrary intangible values we think up. Such as Honour, Loyalty, Friendship, Love - these concepts have no separate existence of their own, yet by our constant collective reiterations of thought and emotion we give these ideas a substance they would not otherwise have, and we give ourselves something to aspire to which makes us greater than human. Maybe these concepts could even be made to outlast us somehow.

But no, most days I tend towards believing the former.
 
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