Life's Purpose

[Dissonance]

Life has no purpose.

Sure some people here are like "we'll influence the world in a tiny way!" but really you're delusionally grasping at straws.  In a couple of trillion years when every single thing in the universe has died and disappeared to heat death nothing will matter.

With this thinking, what's the point in living?  We should just all kill ourselves now, completely ignoring the hopeful fact that we'll be able to find and get to another habitable planet before our current planet is destroyed.  And how do you know the universe will die?  We don't know anything about the universe's creation (although we have a few ideas), so I hate it when people try to say shit like this.

This is a common and extremely flawed argument.  Where is the logical link between "life has no meaning" and "I should kill myself"?  I am correct in saying that life has no meaning.  I happen to be alive by random chance.  I'm indifferent concerning living or dying - saying that I don't care if I die (and I don't) is wildly different from being suicidal.  It's simply not giving a shit vs actively wanting to die.

Life has no meaning, and there is no reason to be alive.  But I AM alive, so why not get what I can out of this situation while I'm in it?  Life, while meaningless in the end, has a lot of fun and pleasurable qualities about it - why not take advantage of the situation and enjoy myself while I'm here?

Saying "since you don't believe life has a meaning so kill yourself" is like saying "I don't particularly care if my floor gets dirty or remains clean so let's POUR TONS OF MUD ON IT".  Indifference is simply indifference - not caring about the floor getting dirty does NOT give you free reign to cover my floor in mud, but if I happen to track in a bit accidentally I won't shit myself over it.

If you haven't noticed, I'm highly against this type of thinking.  It's extremely depressing.  I'd much rather believe something that keeps me happy.  And that's not disregarding the facts, because we don't have any.  You can believe it if you want, though.  I, personally, could never live believing that we have no purpose, but that's just me.

It's only depressing because you've been raised to believe in a lot of things - primairly that your life actually has any meaning.  It's highly unlikely that you'll influence the world at large and even if you do there will come a time when our solar system is destroyed by an inflamed sun and all human civilization will simply evaporate into nothingness, so it won't even matter.

Nothing's eternal - and if nothing's eternal then what's the point?

 

[Stardust]

Life has no purpose.

Sure some people here are like "we'll influence the world in a tiny way!" but really you're delusionally grasping at straws.  In a couple of trillion years when every single thing in the universe has died and disappeared to heat death nothing will matter.

With this thinking, what's the point in living?  We should just all kill ourselves now, completely ignoring the hopeful fact that we'll be able to find and get to another habitable planet before our current planet is destroyed.  And how do you know the universe will die?  We don't know anything about the universe's creation (although we have a few ideas), so I hate it when people try to say shit like this.

This is a common and extremely flawed argument.  Where is the logical link between "life has no meaning" and "I should kill myself"?  I am correct in saying that life has no meaning.  I happen to be alive by random chance.  I'm indifferent concerning living or dying - saying that I don't care if I die (and I don't) is wildly different from being suicidal.  It's simply not giving a shit vs actively wanting to die.

Life has no meaning, and there is no reason to be alive.  But I AM alive, so why not get what I can out of this situation while I'm in it?  Life, while meaningless in the end, has a lot of fun and pleasurable qualities about it - why not take advantage of the situation and enjoy myself while I'm here?

Saying "since you don't believe life has a meaning so kill yourself" is like saying "I don't particularly care if my floor gets dirty or remains clean so let's POUR TONS OF MUD ON IT".  Indifference is simply indifference - not caring about the floor getting dirty does NOT give you free reign to cover my floor in mud, but if I happen to track in a bit accidentally I won't shit myself over it.

If you're living just for the sake of living, then you're not going to enjoy yourself.  If you're indifferent about living, that means that you don't care whether you live or die.  It seems like dangerous thinking to me.  If you're angry or depressed, what's going to comfort you?  That you're entire existence is pointless?

And saying that you're here to enjoy yourself is contradicting your statement.  For you, you're here to have fun.  That's a purpose, although it may not seem like it at first.

If you haven't noticed, I'm highly against this type of thinking.  It's extremely depressing.  I'd much rather believe something that keeps me happy.  And that's not disregarding the facts, because we don't have any.  You can believe it if you want, though.  I, personally, could never live believing that we have no purpose, but that's just me.

It's only depressing because you've been raised to believe in a lot of things - primairly that your life actually has any meaning.  It's highly unlikely that you'll influence the world at large and even if you do there will come a time when our solar system is destroyed by an inflamed sun and all human civilization will simply evaporate into nothingness, so it won't even matter.

Nothing's eternal - and if nothing's eternal then what's the point?

Again, there aren't any facts to support your statements.  For starters, the sun won't obliterate us for billions of years.  If you take a look at how fast we're progressing, it becomes incredibly clear that we'll be able to inhabit another planet long before that event.  And it's stupid to say that nothing's eternal when we've only been living for a few thousand years.  How do you know that the universe is finite when we don't even know if it had a beginning?

 

[Zekallinos]

and enjoy myself while I'm here?

You think that isn't your purpose? Everyone has different individual purposes. Your the kind of people who just want to live in the society, keep every day's routine (I guess), other would want to make great achievements (novel or invention for example), others would want to be famous. There's nothing wrong with any of these goals.

Then that goal could become your purpose. Which is to work as a carpenter and build houses, or provide entretainement to the public as an artist (or whatever job you have, it's irrevelant, you help the society run either way).

 

[skirtboy]

Why do you live to enjoy death? Why not live to enjoy life?

That depends on what you mean. The majority of people who believe (not who say they believe -there's a difference. You can believe and say you don't, yo can not believe and say you do, you can believe and believe you don't.) in the principles of one of the Judaic religions at least attempt to follow most of the Ten Commandments, but only a small group attempt to deny many forms of entertainment to themselves.

 

[Dissonance]

If you're living just for the sake of living, then you're not going to enjoy yourself.  If you're indifferent about living, that means that you don't care whether you live or die.  It seems like dangerous thinking to me.  If you're angry or depressed, what's going to comfort you?  That you're entire existence is pointless?

Angry and depressed are mental states, like happiness is.  What will comfort me is the next external trigger that comes along that reacts with me to produce a 'happiness' state rather than an 'anger' or a 'depressed' state.

And saying that you're here to enjoy yourself is contradicting your statement.  For you, you're here to have fun.  That's a purpose, although it may not seem like it at first.

It's less of a purpose and more of a "well i've got nothin else to do so..."

Again, there aren't any facts to support your statements.  For starters, the sun won't obliterate us for billions of years.  If you take a look at how fast we're progressing, it becomes incredibly clear that we'll be able to inhabit another planet long before that event.  And it's stupid to say that nothing's eternal when we've only been living for a few thousand years.  How do you know that the universe is finite when we don't even know if it had a beginning?

We won't be inhabiting any planets anytime soon - we'll most likely killing eachother off due to war or global warming bullshit, and even if we do manage to get off this rock there's always a bigger fish out there.

It's more than a little delusional to think that the human race is exempt from worldwide technological and societal crash at best and near-extinction at worst, especially in a world where we're teetering on the brink of both of 'em.

You think that isn't your purpose? Everyone has different individual purposes. Your the kind of people who just want to live in the society, keep every day's routine (I guess), other would want to make great achievements (novel or invention for example), others would want to be famous. There's nothing wrong with any of these goals.

Fame and great achievements will always fade over time.

And my ultimate goal - being completely serious here - is to become the empress of the world with the entire human population sucking on my huge proverbial cock.

But I'll probably never get that done so.

 

[___]

If you're living just for the sake of living, then you're not going to enjoy yourself.  If you're indifferent about living, that means that you don't care whether you live or die.  It seems like dangerous thinking to me.  If you're angry or depressed, what's going to comfort you?  That you're entire existence is pointless?

I argue that religion and superstitious thinking is a false comfort that substitutes real solutions to your problems for vague promises that need not be delivered. It's like a drug, maybe making you feel happy for a while but rarely correcting the source of your dissatisfaction. I know a lot of people who insist that they've found Jesus and are now happy, but behave just as angry, confused and depressed as before. The people I know who are religious and outwardly have a sense of peace, contentment and a place in the world are the sorts who are doing things they love, using their religion as an outlet or medium for those activities - pastors who enjoy leading people and offering advice, mediating, etc., con men who enjoy manipulating people's minds for fun and profit, social climbers who need an institutional structure to ascend, perpetual followers who feel good as long as they think they're a part of that elusive "something bigger". Most people don't fall strictly into those categories though, and religion only seems to offer them further guilt, confusion, and frustration in life. For those that do, any one religion, or the institution of religion itself, is not necessarily the sole or most productive environment.

 

[p-hop]

The "purpose" of life is to survive and create offspring. That's what every living thing does (if it didn't, it would have ceased to exist a while ago, no?).

Bringing consciousness and spirituality into the game adds another layer. The need to stay happy becomes much greater. "Living" is no longer the only thing one can do. If you can live after death (be it in the religious sense or through records of your achievements), your goals will change. The question is no longer "what is my purpose?" but rather "what will I do with the life I have been given?" Your purpose is what you make it, because you are a conscious being (I'd hope).