The Meaning of Life: Exploring the Human Quest for Purpose and Fulfillment

[Gamish]

What is the purpose of life? If we are just matter and energy, then are we really countous? If I kill someone, what do they care. See, the point I am trying to get to is this. We value life because there is something higher.

 

[dekoi]

The purpose of life is to follow human nature.

I could expand, but i am not sure whether many understand what human nature really is.

 

[juju]

Hi,

Life is the womb wherein your true self comes to consciousness and awareness of its own truth and its true nature and will. It is the beginning of a path that may never end.

juju

 

[Zeteg]

There's no really much meaning to it, really. For all we know, we could just be an instant, and never actually lived the memories that we have.

 

[Kerrie]

life is whatever meaning you give to it

 

[Gamish]

well, we can say things like "the purpose of like is to follow human nature", but still, why do we have the WIll to live? As some argue, we are not contius beings, we are indeed not awar of our own existence, so then, when is the purpose in morality? Will I tell 2 robots to get along? No, they are not contius. What if I programed the robots to have feelings, to cry, would they be life? no. Then what do we matter? I think I have an awser.

There is indeed a higher being that us, who has lived forever, and will wive forever. this being was able to create the universe, create life (Contius beings), all by the words of his mouth. I have though things like "Surely this god cannot achieve this". Then, when I look at the things he as already done, I say yea he can. For instance, can God create something infiite? For instance, can god create a stair case that streches for infinity, whithout looping back on itself? Can he create an infinite amount of prome colours? I think he can, after all, he has lived forever. There is one paradox tho, at what point in time did god create the universe? My anwer, there is no time.

 

[selfAdjoint]

well, we can say things like "the purpose of like is to follow human nature", but still, why do we have the WIll to live? As some argue, we are not contius beings, we are indeed not awar of our own existence, so then, when is the purpose in morality? Will I tell 2 robots to get along? No, they are not contius.

We are descended from a long line of beings who, by definition, survived long enough to have offspring. The ones who were prone to suicide died preferentially without issue. So we have inherited our ancestor's propensity to go on living. Intelligence is just a complication of this. Intelligent beings in some fragile moment of their lives may decide to commit suicide and do it, but the overwhelming majority continue the inherited propensity, no matter how miserable their lives may be.

 

[Nereid]

Can we have a civil discussion here please?

Gamish -> the fact and theory of evolution have been discussed at some length, in many threads, in the Biology section of PF - please post there if you would like to continue any of those discussions.

IMHO, selfAdjoint summarised it well ... and much the same applies to all living things, whether bacteria, trees, ants, fish, or humans. Further, a great deal can be understood about the behaviour of living things by looking at the details of how genes perpetuate themselves (not that genes have a conscious purpose of course, that's just a somewhat misleading shorthand), for example altruism - from the genes' POV, the purpose of life is to ensure that the 'body' in which they reside reproduces them (the genes) successfully.

 

[Kerrie]

Let's keep the topic free of insults and philosophical please.

 

[Gamish]

Evolution

We are descended from a long line of beings who, by definition, survived long enough to have offspring. The ones who were prone to suicide died preferentially without issue. So we have inherited our ancestor's propensity to go on living. Intelligence is just a complication of this. Intelligent beings in some fragile moment of their lives may decide to commit suicide and do it, but the overwhelming majority continue the inherited propensity, no matter how miserable their lives may be.

Don't tell me you believe in Evolution?

 

[Nereid]

Don't tell me you believe in Evolution?

Gamish, as I said earlier, we have had several good discussions on both the fact and theory of evolution ... please visit the Biology section of PF to join in these discussions.

selfAdjoint's post was quite clear I believe; do you have a comment or question on the content? You may assume that selfAdjoint starts from the facts and theories of evolution, so please frame any comments or questions you may have within that context.

 

[Dayle Record]

We live and in many instances, simply to promote the chemical reaction that occurs in human flesh. Our flesh having a neural sense of both pain and pleasure seeks pleasure and avoids pain. Our survival is ensured by listening to and dealing with, hunger and thirst. Our future is ensured by sexual coupling and nurturance. The rest, and I mean all the rest, is a result of the extra time this lush environment afforded us, to evaluate more stable survival means. Humans stressed out of their previously comfortable environments, by climatic change, beyond their normal migrational range, had to be inventive or perish. Our fragile young require much care and feeding, and to remain inquisitive and inventive require a healthy genetic inheritance, and a healthy investment in terms of education. We are such social animals that we populate our inner states with characters to cathect or loathe, with dreams when we sleep. Scientists recently tested young people in love, the most extreme of pleasant emotional states, and found that "in love" operates out of the planning and execution parts of the brain; that "real love" (whatever that is) happens much later. Scientists have recently hooked up Tibetan Monks to monitors to discover that long time meditations actually alter the structure of the brain. There is a method to our madness, always. I think that life is much more an open situation, than a purposeful situation. Human males would like to understand everything, typically to be able to control their environment, and their comfort. They seem more comfortable with the idea of a purpose to life, and a bigger male identity that they can appease, and flatter, for personal gains and comfort. Human females typically nurture the species, and try to get everyone by, and keep it civilized to protect the lives of those they are bonded to. They have to put up with spiritual control concepts, because it keeps the men in line, somewhat. I view it as something they have to endure, and if they could; it would be gone in a heartbeat, and we would all just live, and nurture and go on. Their is no purpose to life, there is the process of life, and purpose puts an end on the sentence, that has no end. I do believe in a larger field of energies that we use, or that use us to interface between the physical and energetic parts of the universe. It is plain that it is all the same stuff, and life, or the quickened state, seems to be the energies that keep our big chemical reaction online. Some time ago, we developed our own, internal fire, when we became mammalian. I have always wondered about the Prometheus myth, was the sin then, when we became detached from the immediate warmth of the sun, for our survival, rather than needing an external fire to survive, we developed the internal fire we now carry? I am convinced that myth is ancient history, and some of it is scientific. Had we remained cold blooded, then maybe we would have better matched the needs of this planet's web of life. Now we run everything for our convenience, rather than relying on the hospitality of our sun, we have made idols, camp fires, furnaces, streetlights, and so forth...Perhaps the worship of the sun, was a remainder of our more reptilian past, and the worship of man, and his imaginings, more a mamalian self determination, brought on by our perceived independence.

 

[kishore]

' The purpose of Life ' :
The concept of ' Purpose ' won't arise if 'I' consciouness does not exist.And this question might have aroused out of depression or out of curiosity. If it is the former , then there is a cure. For the latter, better live with it . It is heality as long as it won't become an obsession !.
And , if at all there exists any purpose , even though we cannot find it with our limited imagination at present , it must be in accordance to our human nature. Otherwise,we can again question that too?.
So ,Taking it as an axiom, Assigning it any value,one can then deduce from it differnt philosophical consequences.

 

[juju]

I was born
I became
I am
Let's went

juju

 

[jammieg]

On a cosmic scale life probably has no purpose, or to quote a great vulcan philosopher from Star Trek "...infinite matter in infinite combination" seems about all the universe feels obligated to do...On a biological scale the purpose is more simply to stay alive and procreate but on a human scale I often ask this question when I don't know what I'm doing which is often and in my experience if I'm doing what I love to do I seldom go wrong or feel in the dark.

 

[FZ+]

We value life because there is something higher.

And hence war disproves God?

Oh puh-leez.

 

[rv]

it such a strange question; has been asked by almost every intelligent human at some point or the other in his/her life. its difficult to imagine but perhaps at some point even adolf hitler must have asked himself this. all i know is that when we are born we are surrounded by a sphere consisting of people +events, we have to live in that the best way we can. do our best. some of us can modify their spheres enlarge them-infact we all can- but only a few actually do. there are no losers here,only ones who did not try and also what ever we do-how we speak, how we act, our greeds, desires, ambitions ,will bound to effect that sphere, actions are what we are-that is the purpose of life-to keep living and doing what ever one is supposed to do!
(i hope i am making sense here )

 

[rv]

i do hope you people get what i mean,another thing which i wanted to say is that no one tells you what to do, i mean there may be god higher being ofcourse but he will only give answers through yourself. and you are the person who decides all the time god or devil will never come to hold your hand you yourself have to act.

 

[CronoSpark]

My purpose is to live.