Why are we here?... Well... Uhh...

[elifeihate]

Why do we exist?

 

Scientific-to reproduce

Religious-to get to a better place(heaven, enlightenment, and 8 virgins for ex.)

 

So why do we live? What is our purpose?

Our brain works in bizarre ways.

 

and thinking about this

our brains area almost programed since where born to ask why and to long to know the answer(religion)

 

When for this question, an answer does'nt exist.

[the_tiger_striped_cat]

Possible Responses:

 

1) There is an answer

2) There is no answer

3) The question is meaningless

4) Religion. (so many)

5) Our nature (Darwin?)

6) The future of humanity (Marx?)

7) You make your own meaning (see any Existentialist writer)

8) Search wikipedia for "meaning of life"

[ShySoul]

To create a more just and peaceful world.

To expand our horizons and achieve our full potential.

To gain a full understanding of who we are and all that we are capable of.

To explore the vastness of the universe, seeking out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no one has gone before.

To explore the inner workings of the human mind, heart, and soul.

To defend good in the neverending struggle against evil.

To drive each other crazy with questions about why we are here.

 

But perhaps most importantly:

To help others be the best they can be and loving others in the hope that others will follow and eventually we can reach a heaven/utopia right here on earth and throughout the universe.

[the_tiger_striped_cat]

To create a more just and peaceful world.

To expand our horizons and achieve our full potential.

To gain a full understanding of who we are and all that we are capable of.

To explore the vastness of the universe, seeking out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no one has gone before.

To explore the inner workings of the human mind, heart, and soul.

To defend good in the neverending struggle against evil.

To drive each other crazy with questions about why we are here.

 

But perhaps most importantly:

To help others be the best they can be and loving others in the hope that others will follow and eventually we can reach a heaven/utopia right here on earth and throughout the universe.

 

But the funny thing is, ask the the question "Why?" to any of the above and there's nothing much anyone can say except more unjustified assumptions. A depressing answer is that we are just a collection of chemicals that irrationally want to find meaning in a world that contains none. In the end we are only a collection of quarks, leptons, and messenger particles demanding meaning of a world which provides none. But I bet if answers do exist, they are still deeper that the platitudes listed above.

[Caldus]

I believe that we may know the answer to that question after we leave this planet.

[ShySoul]

When you were a kid did you ever play the game where you just kept asking why to every question because it was fun to annoy people until they gave up in frustration?

 

You can always ask why and perhaps thats another point to add to the list. Maybe one of the reasons we are here is to ask why in order to further understand ourselves and our place in the universe. The things I listed are broad topics to get people thinking further. But maybe the point isn't something deep and philosophical. Maybe the answer is right in front of our face but we lose sight because we expect it to be deeper. Maybe the answer is as simple as one broad and all encompassing word: love.

 

I'll never buy the idea that we are just particles in a random and pointless world. There is too much that can't be explained through science alone. There is the inner strength and will of people who overcome all obstacles to make something of their lives. There are those who survive medical conditions when all logic and science say they should have died.

 

And what if there is no grand design to the universe? Then we make the own meaning in our lives. If nothing that we do matters then all that matters is what we do. The smallest act that we do can have an impact on another person's live. Maybe it will encourage that person to do something for someone else. Just knowing that I have postivly affected the life of a single person makes me feel like I've done something valuable and meaningful in my life.

[Caldus]

I honestly used to try to answer this question every day. I really did. This is all I thought about last year while in college. But I think now's not the time to think about what the answer could possibly be. What you can think about is what you want to do in life. What do you believe in? Do you feel good about helping other people? Then join a volunteer organization. Do you have a passion for music? Become a rock star. You know the drill.

[the_tiger_striped_cat]

Don't rely on the unexplained, it's one of the worst ways you can justify anything.

 

Just knowing that I have postivly affected the life of a single person makes me feel like I've done something valuable and meaningful in my life.

 

As long as you understand that this has no baring on anyone else in the world but yourself-. But as long as you don't expect anyone to find this convincing then you're right.

[ShySoul]

Actually, I think what I said does have baring on other people in this world. When you do something nice for another person or help someone out, only the coldest of people doesn't feel a bit of warmth in their heart. I've talked to plenty of people while volunteering and they always say they feel like they are doing something meaningful and worthwhile. Maybe I find more value in it then others, but to some degree everyone feels good about there life, like they have done something worthwhile, when they help others.

[the_tiger_striped_cat]

You know I find the same thing when volunteering too. I've always figured that the world is a horrible place and if I can give anyone else some part of my luck, then I better do it. But do you really think that everyone should think that helping others is the meaning to life? It could be the case that we have just evolved to be altruistic beings, and our psychology, sociology, physiology, all tell us to help others. And even though you can find it personally fulfilling and a meaning to YOUR life, I don't see that it follows that this is somehow a meaning to EVERYONES life.

[HajiMaji]

I feel what the other people have touched on is basically it. Seriously, if you are wondering about this stuff read, "The Art of Loving" by erich fromm. To be honest for this specific question maybe some of his other books would be better but this book is my all time favorite book on life.

 

Basically the "reason" for being here doesnt matter. What matters is how we deal with being here, and it is my belief the only thing to make "here" worthwhile is to love.

 

I read the art of loving when thinking about the same sort of stuff you asked. Hearing such a different view then i could have eber imagined helped me grow enormously. That book changed my mentality in a day, and since ive grown stronger in that way of thinking. It my not do the same for you but i love it!

[dizzy_bruce]

we're here to 'seek the truth' and love one another.

 

yes, I'm a catholic

[ShySoul]

Your right, just because something gives meaning to my life, doesn't necessarily mean it gives meaning to everyones life. It depends on what I'm talking about. Some people could be passionate about different activites or different causes, say snowboarding or animal rights. That doesn't mean others get the same value or experience from it. But almost all will find value in helping others. If you don't believe me, just start asking your family and friends. I've yet to find someone who doesn't at least get some feeling of warmth and pride when they are giving back to the community. Look at A Christmas Carol, Scrouge was alone and miserable until he learned to help others and open his heart to love.

 

I believe in the strength of the human spirit and our souls. We help others because it is the right thing to do, not because we have programmed to do so. In the end, we make a conscious decision to do good with our lives. And I think that we all know deep within our hearts why we are here. It's just a matter of drowning out all the external and conflicting voices, and listening to what our heart is trying to tell us.

[the_tiger_striped_cat]

I've yet to find someone who doesn't at least get some feeling of warmth and pride when they are giving back to the community. Look at A Christmas Carol, Scrouge was alone and miserable until he learned to help others and open his heart to love.

 

But don't you see? Just because people like to help people it doesn't mean that this is some reason to live. And I bet I could find a few people who don't really enjoy or care to give back. And actually, probabaly the same number of people like to sleep, eat, have sex, enjoy pleasure, but I would never call those a meaning to live. I mean why not just make pleausure a meaning to live. Humans like to seek pleasure, it's pleasureable to you and others to help others. Mabye the meaning of life is just to seek pleasure?

[the_tiger_striped_cat]

I've yet to find someone who doesn't at least get some feeling of warmth and pride when they are giving back to the community. Look at A Christmas Carol, Scrouge was alone and miserable until he learned to help others and open his heart to love.

 

But don't you see? Just because people like to help people it doesn't mean that this is some reason to live. And I bet I could find a few people who don't really enjoy or care to give back. And actually, probabaly the same number of people like to sleep, eat, have sex, enjoy pleasure, but I would never call those a meaning to live. I mean why not just make pleausure a meaning to live. Humans like to seek pleasure, it's pleasureable to you and others to help others. Mabye the meaning of life is just to seek pleasure?

[ShySoul]

Yeah, you could find people who don't care to give back. And those people tend to be the ones that most people frown upon. I find that most people dislike, or are at least annoyed with, those who are in a position to help others but refuse to do so. I'm pretty sure that you could get a general consensus that those who can help other should. Some, including myself, would probably argue that it is a moral obligation to make an attempt to help others.

 

Sleeping, eating, and to an extent sex, are necessities in life. We have to eat and sleep if we want to stay healthy and remain alive. Sex is needed in order to keep the species populated. People may enjoy doing them but the enjoyment is a by product of a necessary act. These things can't be reasons to live, they are necessary parts to living and allowing us the opportunity to find the real reason to live.

 

But wait, people have sex for pleasure, not just as a necessity. Why can't seeking pleasure be a reason to live? True, but from what does the pleasure derive from? I think the real pleasure from sex comes not from a physical act but from an emotional and spiritual bonding of two people. Likewise, when we help others we form an emotional tie to them, knowing that we helped them out in some way. I think it comes down to intent and motivation. Sure, I get some pleasure from helping others. But that's not why I do it. I do it because it is the right thing to do. You could seek pleasure for yourself but what kind of a lasting impact will that have? Shouldn't the meaning of existence have some kind of lasting affect upon the world as a whole? Just seeking pleasure has only a temporary affect upon you. But if you help others, then you've impacted another life and there is no telling what kind of impact this can have in the future. It's also the idea of just knowing you mad a difference in someone's life. Like I said earlier, maybe the meaning of life is simply love, and what could be more lovng than helping others for no other reason than to help others.

[69_king]

Its illogical to say that we exist to help others or we exist to love or have pleasure or anyhting that simply impacts other humans.

 

Why does a car exist? To enjoy the feeling of its motor running? To love other cars? No, it exists to aid higher beings, humans.

 

If there is a reason for our existence then that means there is a reason for our creation. Why would someone or something create us simply to love each other? No, if there is a reason then it would be to serve a higher being.

 

Even if we were created simply to bring happiness to each other then that is still not the meaning of life. In that case the meaning of life is that we are simply a piece of artwork or the result of someone's hobby. That would be why we are here.

 

I think people confuse the "meaning of life" with "having meaning to their life"

 

"The Meaning of Life" means "why do we exist?"

 

Saying "I help people to bring meaning into my life" is a completely different issue.

 

 

Personally I don't believe there is any special meaning to our existence.

 

We are simply the result of Billions of years of chemical reactions.

 

I think the more important (and tougher to answer) question is "Why does the Universe exist?"

 

Anyway, read this:

 

link removed

 

and this:

 

link removed

[Scottrn]

This is a neat page about this very question. Check it out.

I don't agree with it all, but it will set you thinking differently, and isn't that enough?

 

[lostlove]

i don't think that anybody can really know the purpose of life. it's something that i've wondered about a lot before. people can say that it is some specific thing, like helping others or something, but that proposes another question; why? in my opinion, nobody really knows. a lot of people just decide to make the purpose of life, or human life at least, something specific on this earth, or just don't think about it at all to avoid confusion. it is confusing though. when i think about it, it completely blows my mind. what are we? where are we? why are we existant? the truth is, human beings are just about completely ignorant when it comes to things bigger than our galaxy, our physical being and habitat. what is reality but a word created to describe the world we live in? this is the only real truly known to human kind, and thereforeeee our existence is the only "real" there is. the world real has not been created to describe something other than life, and our life. it's hard to think about something that there aren't words for. it's even harder to put it down in words. so yeah, this is basically why i am athiest. because there's really no way of knowing what's out there. i suppose that someday we may find out, like if there's an afterlife, or something similar. hopefully there will be, and hopefully someday we shall find out the answers to all of our questions like such, and on the springing of this occasion(if there is so), more questions shall possibly arise. so in an answer to your question, we'll just have to wait and see.

[ShySoul]

69_king - First off, it's illogical to use cars or artwork as a counter when discussing the purpose of life. They are inanimate objects created by humans. We are talking about sentient life, which has a soul and those are much more complex.

 

Why wouldn't we be created to love each other? Part of loving each other is wanting each other to be the best we can be, to understand ourselves and achieve our ultimate potential. Without love people tend to give up in despair and end up doing horrible, tragic things. Nothing good can come of a situation if there is no love involved. So love should at least be part of why we are here.

 

What kind of happiness are you talking about? The happiness someone gets from artwork or a hobby is temporary and a diversion. But the happiness that comes from knowing someone else cares about you or from showing someone that you care about them is on a much deeper level. It's forming a connection with another sentient being. It's doing something to make the world a better place. And its possibly encouraging someone else to find meaning in there life.

 

When I say I help people to bring meaning to my life I am talking about being able to look back on my life and be able to say that I exisited for a reason, that my life wasn't for nothing. The reason I was alive won't be to make money, go to work, have a hobby, etc. I exisit to make this world a better place, bring it a step closer to the heaven I know it can be and help others become the truly good people I know they can be. The issues are the same, it just depends on how you define having meaning.

 

Why would the purpose be to serve a higher being? If this being is so powerful, why would it really need a bunch of inferior beings serving it? Couldn't it do whatever it wanted anyways? Couldn't it just make us serve it since we wouldn't be able to challenge it? What about our free will? It makes no since to say we have free will but we are suppose to give it up and serve this other being. It seems to be that if the reason we are alive is to serve someone else, thats a lousy reason to exisit and demeans our very exisitance.

[Caldus]

I love these kind of topics. I really do. It's nice to know other people out there think about these things as much as I do.

 

My mom always used to tell me that the purpose of life is that there is no purpose. Our lives here are what we make of them.

[ShySoul]

lostlove - There is a way to know, we just haven't reached the stage in our evolution yet. I think that the human heart, mind and spirit can achieve anything it wants. There are no limits to what we are capable of. But mysteries like these don't come over night. It's a long, gradual process that will take millennia to undercover. Our current knowledge of the universe may limit our understanding of things now, but new discoveries are being made all the time that bring us closer to the answers we seek. Once people were to busy trying to avoid diseases and dying to think about this stuff. Now with better medicine people are living longer and can focus more on expanding themselves. Once people on earth were separated into clusters. Now we are becoming a global community. Once space was considered unreachable. Now we are learning new things about space all the time. Who knows what kind of things will be discovered tomarrow, a year from now, 100 years, or even 5000 years?

 

And as I mentioned, maybe everyone is overthinking these questions. Maybe the answer is right in front of us and we just refuse to see it or acknowledge that it could be so simple. Maybe the meaning doesn't come from what is out there, but from what is inside each of us. Maybe the meaning isn't finding the answer, its in asking the questions. Maybe the meaning isn't what we accomplish, its that we do anything at all. If nothing that we do matters than all that matters is what we do.

[Scottrn]

Why would the purpose be to serve a higher being? If this being is so powerful, why would it really need a bunch of inferior beings serving it? Couldn't it do whatever it wanted anyways? Couldn't it just make us serve it since we wouldn't be able to challenge it? What about our free will? It makes no since to say we have free will but we are suppose to give it up and serve this other being. It seems to be that if the reason we are alive is to serve someone else, thats a lousy reason to exisit and demeans our very exisitance.

 

Free will is not given up to God. I exercise my free will to follow his teaching, which in a nutshell is to love everyone as yourself. Good advice, but we get so into ourselves and our concerns that often we are unable, due to our misconceptions of others. Don't judge, no-one knows where in their path someone else is. They may be the nicest person in the world but they crossed paths with you at a bad time, hard day, who knows? We are far from perfect.

I believe this life amounts to little in the big picture. It's like a school, we are learning things to make ourselves better, more complete. If we are spiritual beings without form in the after-this-life, how will you do there if you only rely on yourself? Won't it be difficult for someone without empathy or a sense of connection with others to go into this setting?

 

Caldus, I agree with you! I love these threads, reminds me theres more to life than right now, and getting others thoughts on it really does set a person thinking about bigger things, encouraging personal growth.

 

"the purpose of debate is not to win or lose, but to learn."

[69_king]

Shy-soul, those analogies about the cars and serving other beings and stuff were just hypothetical examples I was coming up with for how to describe what "a meaning of life" could be. I don't believe those examples are the way it is.

 

As for the higher beings, who says they have to be All-Powerful? A cat is a higher being than an ant but the cat isn't all powerful. I'm just saying they would be higher beings than us. And anyway, as I said above, I don't really believe this is the way it is.

 

Maybe our "function" is to love each other but a function is not a reason for existence.

 

We are all looking for the answer but do we really know what the question is?

 

I think we are all confused and in disagreement about the actual question we are asking and that is why we are disagreeing about the possible answer.

 

And if we are the creation of a supreme being or "God" then what is the reason for Gods existence??