Purpose of Life

ID:108201
 
Feb 4 2011, 8:00 pm
"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of,
every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
Thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines,
every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every hero and coward,
every creator and destroyer of civilization,
every saint and sinner in the history of our species,
think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that,
in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe,
are challenged by this point of pale light,
and underscores our responsibility and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot."
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994


Think about that exert and think about everything you have, know and are. As much as it may depress you to believe - you are a tiny fraction of a speck of dust on the universe. Everything you have done or will do will leave hardly any mark on the history of the universe. People have religions and beliefs to comfort them and help provide a sense of meaning. I don't mean to speak religiously; I'm a Christian(granted I have my own interpretations of the religion..)

What I made this blog post for was to try and see what other people think the purpose to life is.
Many people will live their life to be respectable and upstanding individuals. Most hoping that their "good" behavior will be rewarded after death. However, what exactly is triggered in our minds to separate good from wrong? Simply how we as man developed?

Anyway, I know I jumped around topics a bit, but I hope you followed along. Either way, feel free to leave a comment, thought or even your own beliefs.
This was not intended to spark any conflicts or arguments. Your comment will be immediately removed and you will be slapped with a month ban from this blog. A persons' beliefs and views can be a very touchy subject, so please bare with me and respect others.

Thank you,
-Kumorii
Feb 4 2011, 8:08 pm
From my perspective, there is no purpose.
Feb 4 2011, 8:12 pm
After reading this, I kinda have to smirk. :p Heya, Kumo.

As far as ones 'Purpose of Life', my actual opinion on it is that life is what it is--The purpose belonging to the very person living it. For instance. My purpose in life, which is by right my own opinion, and not one upheld by religion (I am not atheistic, but do not 'Officially' practice any currently given religions), is that I'm meant to help others in any way I can--I enjoy what I do.

Purposes can vary from being the next guy or gal to invent 'That Thing', being the local superhero as an officer or even fireman, to just selling ice cream down the block.

While it may seem insignificant, each person has been granted a life to live in one way or another, and respectively, can be happy or unhappy with it.

At this point I don't know what is or isn't true, but I'll observe it from where I am, smile, and trudge on. After all, I'll find out one day--Even if I am being bitch-slapped for it. xD;

With Smirks,
-Sin
Feb 4 2011, 8:27 pm
See, I'm one of those short people with an amazingly HUGE ego :P, In my eyes I'm not a speck, more like the one thing the creator (If there is one but Ima just guess there is) wish he could have made earlier.
Feb 4 2011, 8:48 pm
Necessity and instinct dictates some cultural morals while others are arbitrary. As for morals defined by religion, those are typically arbitrary and easily ignored or changed over time because they are so (e.g. "The Seven Deadly Sins" in Christianity). If you ever take an ethics class you'll probably hear this: "Is something right because God declares it to be so, or does God will it because it is right?"

In the first case, where God declares something to be right, everything is arbitrary and has no real meaning. God could declare lying to be moral and that's what you would do.

The second case represents that God is not omnipotent. This is because God wills it because it is inherently right or wrong, not because he declared it to be so. In this case God has no control over the rightness or wrongness of actions, he is simply a messenger of what is right or wrong.

This is why you should never, ever use religion as an argument in an ethics paper.
Feb 4 2011, 8:50 pm
Our purpose is to simply live. We live long with those we love and hate, as we overcome whatever obstacles that are thrown at us. The Earth may or may not last until the Sun becomes a red giant, we may wipe ourselves out long before then. If we truly believe in justice, then we truly believe in a Heaven and a Hell. Every action has an echo, affecting something in one way or another. Life is a complex thing so many people take for granted. Live my friends, live long and fulfill your destinies.
Feb 5 2011, 12:42 am
The purpose of life is to find the purpose of life.
Feb 5 2011, 2:18 am
I think as humans, we automatically seek to fulfill our personal, selfish desires. We're born into this world ignorant and full of folly. That is why we need parents and rules. We don't know what is right and wrong or what is good for us and what isn't. If we don't have any direction, we'll make one mistake after another.

With that said, I think that the best way to determine what is right and wrong is to take a look at what undisciplined teenagers do. They kill, steal, lie, use drugs, get drunk, fornicate, etc. They do all this because it feels good to do wrong by nature as I said. It feels a lot better to go out and smoke weed and bang a sexy girl rather than to stay home doing the dishes and finishing up some homework.

But look at the consequences. You can get caught with weed and get put in jail. Getting put in jail several times doesn't look good to employers which hinders your chances of getting a job. Having sex with a girl can spread infections and can also cause her to get pregnant.

This is how you know something is wrong. There will always be consequences, but doing it will always feel better than doing what is right especially if you can get away with it.

And coincidentally, all these things I listed are also listed in the bible as "sins".
Feb 5 2011, 4:43 am
It's whatever you want it to be. To be anything else would seem to imply a greater universal plan, or grand designer. As the universe is objectively speaking pointless (it serves no objective purpose [after all, who decided that purpose, the universe itself, a god?], it simply exists), it makes no demands on you or imposes purpose on you, as it doesn't have a goal to fulfill.

If our actions are on no consequence to the universe, then whatever I do is universally okay (not good, or bad). I could in fact end the universe by some means, and the only consequence is the universe is no longer there. No objective goal or rule was broken by that action, so I did not violate some constant, objective purpose.

There are two interesting personal and subjective consequences of this: Either anything you do is pointless, so why do anything? Or anything you do is pointless, so you're free to do whatever you want!

As we can personally subject ourselves to rules (and it seems we need to often to rationalise things), pick one of those outcomes that works for you, or maybe even make your own. The fact this question gathers "opinions" and not "facts" shows it doesn't matter who is correct, it just matters if you are happy with your answer.
Feb 5 2011, 4:46 am
Meaningless existence
Feb 5 2011, 4:48 am
Stephon Wrote>

There are two interesting personal and subjective consequences of this: Either anything you do is pointless, so why do anything? Or anything you do is pointless, so you're free to do whatever you want!

I didnt know you nubs knew this stuff, you like barely scratched the surface. Nubs
Feb 5 2011, 5:19 am
There are no black philosophers.









Except Hulio-G.
Feb 5 2011, 5:50 am
The purpose of life is whatever purpose you decide for yourself.

Ethics is the set of behaviours that best allow society and individuals in society to function. The practice of ethics by humans is a result of evolution.

Sagan's point isn't just about the smallness of it all - it's also about the bigness. The world is so much huger than we notice, and there's always something to see.

And as Stephen has noticed, the absence of real consequences on a geological scale for our individual actions can be freeing. No matter how badly I fuck up, in a million years, nobody will know.
Feb 5 2011, 8:37 am
Toadfish's comment deleted: Irrelevant and mildly offensive.
Feb 5 2011, 8:46 am
You.. Touched.. My heart..

It's all true though. Who knows, we're all here and let's make the best of it.

-Visser
Feb 7 2011, 12:22 pm
I a person who has wanted to change the world with my music or art skills and who has a sister who has a group of people trying to help darfur,who may also go to a 3rd world country too one day (my sister not I); I freely know that everyone here is just a dot. Even if how I see things we are just slowly killing the things on earth (or even things past the earth), just for greed and for whatever the hell we want. We even kill other humans, feelings and body.
I also being Christian (roman catholic) I do believe there is a God.
Now I think the purpose of life is that it is very unknowen and that anyone could be right. I believing in god think that in the afterlife I will go to heaven or hell. HOWEVER it's hard to know what you should do if you want to be "reward". I have seen people only do good because they say "God will reward me". As much as I do believe in god I always find that reason to be bullshit and think if you want to do good then do it not because you will be "reward" but because you want to do it. After all how do we know if a gate will be waiting for us if we did die.
But also in todays world more people have been moving away from god and saying he is fake. So not everyone will like what I said about the afterlife. Now there just might be more then one purpose. That everything we do is a chain (no shit). That we are all linked, if you have noticed humans are made of greed. If you see what the greed is doing to the world it is killing it. But sadly humans are just made of sin. The point is that every human, everything in the world, in the universe is linked. A death, or even a step can do anything. I do think we should make the best of life but we also should take care of it too.
I'm always thinking that if the Rev didn't die would I still have the goal of a drummer? (would the goal be as big as it is today or would it be small?) If I didn't brake up with someone or if they didn't brake up with me, would it be the same?
Life is deep and the meaning can be anything.
To make what I just said short i'm up for any meaning out there, any purpose really. Things change meaning the purpose could have changed too or there could be more then one purpose.
~The Skeleton