I scanned the PhD section for this question but didn't see it fielded anywhere. Since most philosophers are concerned about our place in the universe, Greek ancients included, I thought I'd pose it here.

Do you think life is a random occurrence, we came to the top of the food chain by some fluke accident and there is no such thing as a purpose?

Do you think we are two-legged lab rats and there's something out there that's observing how we play it out?

Do you think because of our intellectual limitations, we are incapable of knowing our purpose in life?

I know its hard not to drag in beliefs in a question like this (which shows how little things have changed since Descartes days) but do try and be as belief-neutral and logical as you can. Looking forward to your views.

we are the all singin all dancing crap of the world

You mean personal belief?

I ask this question because I don't want this thread to end up like the Creationist thread.

Yes, we are made to just suffer and work until we are old. Everyday get screwed by boss, etc etc...

Earn the salary to pay govern, pay bank etc..

Never ending until die...

does life need to have a default purpose from everyone, or does life owe us a purpose?

human exist in this world is with its meaning, without purpose, man are living with meanningless..

Not sure how to answer that coz all beliefs are personal, methinks.

Rather than be judgemental and defend a position emotionally, let's give people a chance to do it rationally. It would be tragic if we cannot break past that barrier wouldn't it.

---

Added on May 31, 2010, 5:10 pmHmm did u get that from South Park's Mr Hankey?


This post has been edited by Beastboy: May 31 2010, 05:10 PM

life does have purpose

to submit to God and do whatever He told us

depends, do you want it to have a purpose or not?

That's the BIGGEST question isn't it? What I see as a deadlock to this question is usually is that whenever people are struggling to ask this question, they always ended STOPPING, and went on with their lives, AS IF that was actually the purpose of their lives. Now I know there are variety of answers to this question, but if I were to summarize into one sentence of what the purpose of life is, it's this:

The purpose of life:

TO MAXIMIZE THE ABILITIES OF THE FIRST-PERSON (The grammatical category of forms that designate a speaker or writer referring to himself or herself) EXPERIENCE.

I view this question with one thing in mind,
"why think so much trying to answer the question? Just LIVE LIFE"

I was wondering when this you're-thinking-too-much answer will pop up & I guess I didn't have to wait too long. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just throw out our brains and live life like bacteria?

we have the same purpose as a tree.

Too bad we're not the tree to understand it.

no,i got it from the movie Fight Club,what a good movie

haha. wut do u think the purpose of trees are?

I'm not saying you're thinking too much...

I was once thinking what life I wanna live.. Think that I don't wanna live normal life like everyone(study, work, married, old, die)..
Then I realize the most important thing is I'm satisfied with my life, doing things I enjoy doing, learning new things on the way.. rather than setting a purpose and chasing something too hard to achieve...

provide oxygen for the rest of the earth.

thats one good point. any other? anything...one or two more reasons...and u'll get the picture.

then why bother with looking for enlightenment?

provide shelter for animals.

provide food for some organisms.

i still don't get the picture.

We live to work for others and die again.

Well, if you're gonna ask like that, that's like asking a tree what the purpose of human being is.

This is because we concluded we knew the purpose of the tree only because we're experiencing through the 3rd-person point of view, through observation.

Imagine both of us trees, not knowing what is our purpose in life, and then ended up asking what is the purpose of a homosapien.

can u answer my riddle?

---

Added on May 31, 2010, 6:39 pmread below:
Yup thats right. purpose in life is always given by the existence of another. everything on earth serve a purpose other than itself. in other words...we are all part of a large scheme. an ecosystem on a grand scale if u like. And we all live to serve the ecosystem in our own little ways. The problem with humans however, is we have an ego. Ego is the barrier to many of life's simplest understanding. With ego we start to think we are special. We're not.

So no, we do not have a purpose in life other than to be a contributing part of the system. To live in harmony within the system. To be part of the system.




This post has been edited by teongpeng: May 31 2010, 06:39 PM

If that's the case, why should humans even have EGO in the first place?

i dont know. were we given an ego?

i've a feeling u are slooooWWWwwly drifting out of topic there...

I don't get what he means either

very simple actually......
the purpose of life is to find purpose in life........that can be anything depending on the individual.........no need for 1 ultimate purpose which is default for everyone.........

how about chicken or cow. are they got life purpose?

who had a first purpose? chicken or egg??

dont God have a purpose for all life form?

purpose of a tree is to act as a raw material for humans to produce papers in our daily life usage..haha~~

Life is just a phase you're going through...you'll get over it

Your above statement, per se, is therefore the description of the purpose of your life and the goal you are chasing: to live a life that you are satisfied with.

Note the difficulty in setting such goals as to do things that you enjoy doing. If the world are filled with no more than 100 person, then it is an easier goal. However, in reality, your way of life would in one way or another affects others' desire to pursue their way of life, and vice versa.

More often than none, you might be faced with the decision to temporary forgo your goals (doing what you enjoy doing, for etc) for whatever exogenous reasons there may be.

There is nothing wrong investing some time to ponder the meaning of life.
After all, you only get to think while you are alive.

On the other side of the coin:

There is also nothing wrong avoiding what we dislike and indulge in what we prefer.
After all, ignorance is bliss.


For me, it is simply that we should not do any single purpose indefinitely.

This post has been edited by Vagrant: May 31 2010, 10:29 PM

yea eventually the pain, suffering and atrocities will end in a perpetual sleep ----- the end of one's life

Does universe has a purpose? Does Sun has a purpose, will things that doesn't serve any purpose exists?

We are like an ant in an ant colony, non of us carry a conception of the grand design of the colonial home, but with the division of labour and collective responsibility, a highly organized social structure emerged. In isolated view, an ant with only limited intelligent and ability, but in a holistic view, the colony as a whole display a level of purpose and sophisticated link society.

Asking the purpose of life in isolated view is less meaningful as just like asking what is the purpose of a "single" shoe? It needs to be a pair in order to serve a purpose.

We exhale CO2 which is needed be the tree, we inhale O2 which is produced by the tree as a result of photosynthesis using Sun energy. If Sun one day says that its life is purposeless, do you agree with this?

Oneness is truth, and truth is oneness. Everything comes forth from oneness ---- Zen

does the universe need a purpose to exist.

you mean the sun have an mind of its own to ponder the meaning of life?

So far from everyone's responses, the purpose of life can be summarized as these:

- Meaningless
- To be a slave
- To explore/maximize one's ability
- No purpose
- To serve others

Personally I think all are right because the goals we set will be driven by the different priorities we have in life. We have a strong need for purpose. That's why some of us can walk out of a high paying job and say, "Its not the money." We like to assign meaning to things that don't necessarily have meaning like lucky numbers. Some of us don't want to set a goal. Nothing wrong with that too. The only time that's wrong is when we subscribe to some dogmatic idea about what existence is supposed to be, usually something we're told by some authority rather than something we experienced for ourselves.

On our own I think most of us look for patterns and try to fit unconnected events into those patterns. I hesitate to say that the purpose our existence is random (= no purpose) because I don't know enough to go either way but I do believe how we came to be is random. We rose out of the interplay of a billion prehistoric unrelated events, from raw chemicals to electricity to climate shifts to the meteor that supposedly wiped out the dinos who, if not for that, will probably still be at the top of the food chain.

I think the purpose of life is what we set it to be. If we decide got purpose, got lah. if no, no lah.



This post has been edited by Beastboy: Jun 1 2010, 10:26 AM

Actually, everything we do was on purpose.
Example, (I know many complain about this) You are a slave to your boss now, it's what you choose to become, as there's a purpose to do so.

It's almost the same as (cause) and (effect) you mentioned in the "Karma" thread.

The goal is to save humanity. The destiny await you....

Why not. There is one branch of philosophy stating that if we could understand the origin of the universe one day, the purpose would be able to be explained then. Origin <----- Purpose

It was a metaphor. If Sun has a mind, it may asks the purpose of continuous explosion of helium and hydrogen. But when we look at the holistic view, it has it's purpose to the universe.

how do you can you be sure the purpose is the origin?

i am not sure that universe have a purpose, here is an interesting discussion between several scientist and philosopher on the question.


http://www.templeton.org/purpose/pdfs/bq_universe.pdf

This post has been edited by robertngo: Jun 1 2010, 09:46 PM

Beastboy,

It is VERY SIMPLE.

The PURPOSE of LIFE is in LIVING and EXPERIENCING IT. Nothing more and nothing less....

This applies to human being, rats, ants and whatever.....

The JOURNEY is the REWARD....

Dreamer

Just stay away from the sun, universe stuffs.

The question refer to "LIFE"
Does the Sun considered as a lifeforms in the first place?

I like this, very straight forward.

Agree with dreamer with my foots up too

your purpose is whatever it is you want it to be.

I thought your purpose was for Nerzhul.

I never thought life had a purpose. If there is I would have pursue that purpose above my "own set" purpose.

yea this matter is pretty subjective
if you want it to have purpose , go for it
if you don't think it has purpose , so be it

Humanity doesn't want to be saved.

the purpose of a life is to die

People do know that, just can't accept the facts because human is one of a kind with intelligence beyond animals. So it is hard to swallow, usually people who have no achievement would ask themselves this question and people who are too old to do anything else would say you either enjoy your life or you don't.

The purpose is in your hands, you make the purpose, so it is do something or nothing and there is no right or wrong because we did not choose to be born, bearing a name not by choice but once an adult with independent mind, every decision make us a different person. What do you want to leave behind when you die should be the question and that cause for a purpose.

this is the answer. im dead serious

all of us will die. here in this world what are doing determine our position in afterlife

doesnt mean that if you are happy here so that means you will be happy later

afterlife is another big question and issue. really2 big.....

This post has been edited by azerroes: Jun 3 2010, 04:00 AM

3dassets,

<<People do know that>>

People KNOW but they CANNOT DO. And, that is WHOLE PREMISES for Zen.

Whether a person is YOUNG or OLD, this MOMENT is all that you have. Past is gone. Future is yet to come. You either MAKE THE BEST of YOU HAVE aka THIS MOMENT or you don't. And, your life will be defined by YOUR DECISION of those millions of MOMENT.

azerroes,

<<afterlife is another big question and issue. really2 big..... >>

IMHO, it is IRRELEVANT. If in this LIFE, with however limited control that a person has versus NONE in AFTERLIFE, a person DID NOTHING. Then, why should AFTERLIFE matters??

I live in this world. I WILL DO what I can to hopefully leave it better when I am gone. As for afterlife, who knows and who cares??? I had done ALL I CAN and I have NO REGRET.

Dean: You know the Greeks didn't write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: Did he have passion?.
Serendipity 2001

Dreamer

P.S.: I do not like the fact that people use too many plastic forks at work. So, I bought 36 stainless steel forks and give away at work. Will it make ANY DIFFERENCE?? I do not know. But, I had done my part.

why dont u go die now and fulfill your purpose? idiot...

life has no purpose. it's only reason of existance is to make everyone suffer until the day they die......

couldn't agree more...hahaha

no eat suffer....no drink suffer....not enough nutrition suffer.....not enough money suffer.......work hard suffer....no air suffer.....not enuf sleep suffer......then when you have kids suffer...(extra money + extra problem + extra worry + above = suffer)

reply:
Since we can debate about the purpose of life and many has diff answers
I bet there is no specific purpose of this life we talking about

life is unfair. some are born ridiculously rich and some is born ridiculously poor. what kind of purpose is this?

nwk,

No, it is FAIR.

Whether a person is HAPPY or NOT has VERY LITTLE to do with whether they are RICH or POOR. As long as a person is NOT starving to death, their ATTITUDE to life determines whether they are HAPPY. It is THEIR CHOICE.

Path to happiness is CONTENTMENT.

I have cousins from very rich uncle and cousins from poor starving uncles. I see NO DIFFERENCE as to whether they are happy or not from their family background. In fact, those from poor background are MORE LIKELY to be happy and content as long as they are NOT STARVING.

Dreamer

happiness was not even part of the equation. he's asking about fairness and wealth

We cannot said life as unfair, there must be fews categories of people in society. Rich - Poor - Slaves. / Goverment - Citizens/ Oldman - Young man./ Humans - Animals - We should be satisfied as we are in the category which still has chance to write our opinion in forum. But not those Africans who are some eating trees' skin.

We are deemed to be "unfair" too from the perspective of the Africans.

This post has been edited by dhui: Jun 3 2010, 12:51 PM

And now Greece is almost bankrupt. Not that I'm trying to imply anything though.

the existence of humans or any living things serves no purpose.
until now i dun see any advantage of having us( humans) ard as we are destroying earth.
perhaps we are created just by accident.
no purpose.

The only purpose for us to be alive is to realise our respective dreams.
Dream to be:
1 rich
2 intelligent
3 respected
4 u name it

Unless he means the purpose of life is to be happy.

lin00b,

What is FAIRNESS in term of LIFE???

IMHO, it is FAIR that WE ALL have to struggle for HAPPINESS regardless of whether we are born in the RICH or POOR family. Furthermore, it is HARDER to be content when you are bornt into RICH FAMILY. It is HARD to appreciate stuff that are given to YOU instead of you EARN it.

When you gain something (aka born into RICH FAMILY), you lose something (harder to be content).

Path to HAPPINESS is CONTENTMENT.

If a person is NOT HAPPY, all the material wealth in the world is worth NOTHING to the person.

I have a cousin with RICH UNCLE. He NEVER have to work a single day f his life. He party all day and night. His wife and children left him. He died of liver failure because of over drinking. He was not happy...

Dreamer

purpose of life is to eat sleep and reproduce and die.

is that the function of life or the purpose?

With respect to all seriousness and zen-talk here, allow me to interject with a narrow minded, simplistic, human-based "scientific take" on the meaning of our (human) existence:

The majority of us enjoy doing one thing: enjoying ourselves while we're still alive. If we look at how humans enjoy, there are basically 2 ultimate effects:
1. Our quantity increases exponentially via procreation (breeding)
2. We destroy our host (Earth)
3. And soon enough, we'll be exploring new planets - new hosts. Oops, that's the 3rd effect.

We're "given" the ability to multiply exponentially (monogamy-many children, polygamy-even more children, one night stand-whoa...) and we're "given" the ability to think (harvest for oil, nuclear bombs, making our own palm tree-shaped island). So you may see my "theory" already - we look kind of similar to the virus attacking ourselves (our cells), don't we?

Ok, that's my silly idea on our existence, not really on the purpose of our life. Please continue with the debate, it's interesting and I like it

i agree on the reproduction part , but sleep is more like a need than a purpose

To me, life basic purpose is to experience, to understand and to appreciate.

To some others, on a different level of purpose, there are specific purpose, to give, to enligthen, to fight, to help and cure, to invent and to change.

And to many others, life is just clueless and will just live life because they are still living.

Why you have so many accounts? All same pic of same girl, but all are selling same stuff.



Is this a dupe?!

Some people just like multiple identity. The just post to advertise, I guess. At least she has a purpose in life - to post all over lyn.

This post has been edited by faceless: Jun 10 2010, 08:33 PM

suffering from dissociative disorder i guess

This post has been edited by ComposMentis: Jun 11 2010, 12:42 AM

When talk about purpose, so few comments. Does it means life don't need a purpose and asking a question knowing there won't be a convincing answer is not worthy? But want to talk about scientist's stuffs and this ain't phd enough? Or is it smart people don't ask stupid questions?

We don't need a purpose and will continue to populate, just like animals, so who says we are nothing like animals, even with intelligence, you don't give yourself a purpose, then what is getting a phd for? Trophy to signify smart people like a supreme human but have no interest in purpose.

http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/en-US/Home/home.htm

religious propaganda ?

BIBLE = Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth

Life does NOT have a purpose. We made it up so we can have a purpose to live on.

if u dont have a purpose to live, better u think twice about it....
there must be some reason behind smthings happen to u....

This post has been edited by kokakopi: Jun 15 2010, 09:59 AM

agreed , so that we have something to fall back on and motivate us to move forward

move forward where?

each of us was born with a mission, be it living a rich or poor life, it is our destiny!

never heard of this book by Rick Warren??

" The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder -- waif, a nothing, a no man". --Carlyle, Thomas
--excerpt from "Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren"

create your life purpose instead of pondering whether if there is a life purpose; and that's what i tell myself.....especially during tough times....

Human is a parasite.

We CONSUME all resources
We MULTIPLY to become more
We LEAVE to another host when resources finish

repeat from step 1

life is a game.

the immortal gods are so boring, hence they created the human, login and play 1. the rule of the game is they must finish the game, without any cheat.

many of the people around you are mimic, created artificially to spice up your game.

you don't believe? its true, that's why there's no other alien we can found. the space are universe is just a camouflage

My younger brother's life purpose is to eat, play and sleeps. Other stuffs, he couldn't be bothered

The purpose in life is what u make of it or want it to be

----

This post has been edited by marsalee: Nov 8 2010, 10:51 AM

Yes, the purpose of your being and intelligently questioning your existence is bcoz god is within you.

All our souls are sparks from the origin of life...your creator.

The more you question your existence and its purpose...the more you soul evolves itself to realize the truth..

Thus a human being can consider themselves ultimately evolve once they make their life's goal to seek their origin..which is to seek your Creator.

I am almost there..and Im chiseled btw

A purpose eh? Yes for me. But its belief orientated. I don't see any reason to create purposes when there is already one i choose to believe in.

we do. our purpose is to harvest more resources, ultimately kill this earth and ourselves too!

i never ask myself the purpose of living when i m happy, but when problems come..i asked myself why are we created...why all these sufferings=.=(we r humans!)...jus b a clown n live through everyday...though i dunno wat is the purpose of my existence...the only things i know is to do n focus whatever at hand...sometimes it sounds so sad

Humans are such creatures that something must have a beginning. Something that exist out of nowhere simply doesn't fit into our logic plane. The world is what you make it to be, though most philosophers can come to a consensus. Prepare for an entire life of unhappiness if you're planning to be a philosopher, or at least try to discard your human heart before it's too late...

it doesnt make sense if we don't have a purpose of life.it doesnt make sense at all.

very true.



has anyone ask why are they happy when they are?
most probably no.

has anyone questioning they existence when they are down, hurt or lonely?
most probably yes.

so i have narrow down 2 choices for u,
1. be happy and forget about the purpose of life, or
2. think of the misery life when u are sad.

and there are always the 3rd choices, whether u realise it or not.

This post has been edited by onijoseph: Jul 30 2010, 12:01 PM

In the past, I do wish to live with no reasons.. purpose.. alike

What I notice from the beginning of my life is; I'm being shown those good people, transgressors, being awarded for their deeds. It appears from the TV screen, medias, nearest yard and finally the the message is coming to my own soul.

------

It is getting clear to me that, life is like game.. manually surviving with skills in automated system.

The human realization depends on ones tendency to follow the true and only walk through written by Creator of the world.