What is the Purpose of Life?

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
There have been complaints lately about the lack of "quality" discussions. Well, here's a biggie.

Does life in fact have a purpose? Is there any meaning to it? Are we just like animals who are here by chance for just a short time, do our "thing" and then pass off into everlasting nothingness? Or is there some deeper meaning?

What do you think?
 

Soybomb

Diamond Member
Jun 30, 2000
9,506
2
81
My purpose in life is to be happy. If I make a difference in doing so, cool, if not.....ahhh well.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com
NovoN. Little known fact about making links - when you make the link, count the number of your post you are referring to - twenty-eighth in the thread - and add #28 at the end of your link (not in italics). You will be taken right to the post in question instead of needing to search a long thread.

Anyway, I meant - what is the purpose of life NOW? What are we doing that we can change? It seems reincarnation puts off so much until the "next life" - it seems a lazy way out (unless we are really spiritual).

And especially what do atheists think? Is there any purpose?
 

novon

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,711
0
0
"The point and purpose of your life is to decide and to be Who You Really Are. You're doing that every day. With every action, with every thought, with every word. That's what you are doing. We are evolving souls, we are becoming, this is eternal, and there is a lot of joy in the process, which we may be sometimes blind to from our prespective."

I'll just move what I wrote in the other thread here:

"Yes, I do. After you die, you KNOW all and you are in the oneness, your every thought becomes your reality, and you figure out how much creative potential you can have as a soul/thought/energy experiencing the human condition (a mind&body enclosed in a limitless soul (your true self)), and how limitless, free, and unconditional your soul is, but knowing is one thing, and re-remember you true self (God), you can choose to reincarnate back to Earth, or forget everything, so that you may EXPERIENCE BECOMING your true self (love/god), and therefor understand yourself better. This cycle repeats (re-incarnation) for however long it takes you to re-remember your true self (god) then, you are back to your original form (as the all-knowing god), and once you reach this (nirvana etc.), you will realize that you want to restart the whole process, and re-experience yourself by erasing all memory of who you are and remembering yourself through the process of physical experience. You can however, choose to start over as a soul far along to path to nirvana, or even from the very begining, as a simple animal. But it's all for you to re-remember who you really are (God) and know yourself better. There is no judgment/punishment/opinion/right/wrong/devil, etc. Just unconditional love. We also have free-will, total free will, and total creative potential (we are creators IE made in the image of God) and that's a gift we often don't use in this society. There is not "time" as we understand it, it is all in the eternal moment of now, it was created like this. Everything that is going to happen, has ever happened, is happening now. It's more like a vertical string and our prespective on this is time, but we really move up and down instead of past to future. But there is only the now, and God is more eternal that we can understand fully. God is all that is, good and bad, and you have to have the bad to know what good is, and this is how god chooses to experience himself as us, but in the end, s/he is just knowing and love.

Anyways, There is no need for religion (made up by us) and contstraints, the soul/love is without contraints and limits. We are all one. Simply know that we are all one, and act consitantly like we are all one, and you will speed up the process of reaching one-ness. Everyone is on this path, it takes some souls longer than others. Just enjoy the ride."
 

Isla

Elite member
Sep 12, 2000
7,749
2
0
The only purpose I have found any real meaning in is:

To Love and Be Loved
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
73,909
6,567
126


<< There have been complaints lately about the lack of &quot;quality&quot; discussions. Well, here's a biggie. >>

Would that the quality of the question bore a relationship to the quality of the thread. We are due for a bunch of 42s, I think. :D

The best answer I've seen to this question was given by J Krishnamurti: 'The purpose of live is to live.' I would suspect, naturally, that he had in mind something otherwise than is normally understood by 'live'.

Soybomb, Was it Socrates that pointed out that happiness is the satesfaction of desire and that thus a dog scratching a perpetual itch experiences the ultimate in happiness? I lean more to Isla's opinion that Love, but would add that the purpose of life is to 'discover how' to love and be loved. For this some sort of spiritual education, I think, is rather important. I believe that it is ignorance of our true nature that makes our love in both directions difficult. Since the truth is, in one sense, us, the spiritual path we take, within reason, may not be as important as the degree to which our intention, our seriousness, allows us to penetrate. Since finding truth is as much a matter of loosing false assumptions about reality as adding correct ones, I think a modern scientific psychological investigation of self (therapy, if you wish), can be or can ade a spiritual (religious) path. Just my two Polynesian money stones. :D
 

NakaNaka

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2000
6,304
1
0
My Bar Mitzvah speech was on this, how everyone has a &quot;secret mission&quot; in life, no matter how big or how small everyone has some purpose ... It was a great speech.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
34,890
1
0
alienbabeltech.com


<< what's the purpose of space? what's the purpose of the stars? >>



To make us happy (and so we can ask these questions). :)

Unlike the (rest of the) animals, we can contemplate our &quot;purpose&quot;. Unlike the stars, evidently we are conscious. Do we fit in with the universe as part of a grand &quot;design&quot; or are we just a cosmic accident.

If we are an &quot;accident&quot;, 'to be happy' is as good a reason as any. However, happiness is transient and elusive. If we are part of a &quot;design&quot; then there appears to be some responsibility on our part to learn about it.

My farthings' worth. (I'd hate to carry some of those Polynesian money stones around as chump change.)
 

GreenBeret

Golden Member
May 16, 2000
1,796
0
0
The purpose of life is to make it better for what comes after you. In other words, we are losing our game of life.
 

IronMike

Senior member
Jun 24, 2000
356
0
0
At the risk of the &quot;religious zealot&quot; brand, would like to add some GOD and religion stuff here.
All you Anandtech heathen ba$tards are not allowed to read any further.

Assuming emphasis on the spiritual, how about &quot;to be one with the creator&quot;?
Or as it is reported that Jesus put it in prayer &quot;that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one&quot;.
 

UG

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,370
0
0
Life's purpose is to give the chemical elements the experience of sex; either that or the experience of being moderators. :)