Why am I here?

I don’t need to know why. The journey is its own reward.

Where else would you be?

I’m here because my mummy & daddy had humpy time.

I think about this everyday, and I still have NO idea whatsoever. Sometimes I feel useless, really. And that gets me thinking, is everyone on Earth actually of use? Or do some people have no reason to live? I know that sounds quite vicious really, but I’m being honest.

Right now I’m in a we-all-die-in-the-end state. I’m trying to convert to a make-use-of-life state.

Do we get reincarnated? Do we return to the state of oblivion we once were in prior to birth? And does this mean that everything we once were, everything we ever held dear, is merely lost in time? Is it a recurring cycle of decaying matter, or is there something more?

Do we, perhaps, complete a greater unknown system of life? Are we made for a specific reason, or is it all just a game? Are we part of a bigger plan?

To me, it all comes down to ‘we’re just chess-pieces in a game’. At least for now.

But sometimes I think, there’s a difference between us, creations with a ‘soul’, who/that (animals) can breathe and act on free will, and inanimate objects, and I believe that has to mean something; our souls have to count for something. Because otherwise, we would have had the power to make things come live. You can’t create a soul; a living creation. Maybe that’s a small part of the answer. And it’s great, when you give it deep thought.

Because Brahma is awake right now, and wants to play.

I’ve just come to the conclusion that we’ll never know and we are meaningless. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just how it is.

I never ask, “Why am I here?” I don’t believe that life has a purpose. It just is. We exist because of a combination of random happenstance and sheer determination and will. This makes every moment more precious, because our presence here is precarious; human life on Earth could be extinguished at any time.

To make the world a better place and enjoy the ride while doing it.

To share the understandings and knowledge I’ve gained with the people I meet. And, it is to be hoped, to love and be loved.

What’s the point of asking? You’re here. And you have to eat and sleep and bathe if you plan to make it to tomorrow.

If you believe that you’re a free agent, then you choose your own path regardless of what brought you to this point.

if you believe that your’e controlled by god or some other being, then why wake up in the morning? Your path is preordained/ There is nothing to decide.

The question “Why am I here”, is more or less the same as “What is the meaning of life” except perhaps on a more personal level, as in “What is the meaning of MY life”.

The question presumes something that is not provable and until or unless it is proven it should be regarding as an invalid presumption.

The presumption is that something is out there that dispenses the value meaning as an antecedent and prerequesite to the phenomenon called life.

But meaning does not happen until after a living thing appears, that living thing having a reasoning consciousness to the extent that it can even ask why, and a conceptual consciousness to the extent that it can observe certain facts in reality and assign the concept meaning…i.e. a human being.

So the question is not really valid.

The real question would sound more like “What do you do to give meaning to your life as a human being” or “ What should I do to make life meaningful to me, or others whose opinion of me I value”.

Because my parents succumbed to the biological imperative to reproduce.

This cannot be answered. It’s the same as asking, “why is our universe here?”

to acknowledge the gift of life, enjoy it and pass it on by loving others

Why are you here? Fate. It was Fate that brought you to this community and all the benefits it confers on you. You were lucky. It could have been much worse.
Why am I here. Same reason pretty much.

If there is an answer to this question, it arrives not in the form of an overarching mandate, but as moment-by-moment callings. These callings don’t emanate from some central authority, nor from my own philosophy, but from the urgings of circumstances. I’m here to do what needs doing now, in these circumstances.

The less I cloud my perception with some personal agenda, or with ideas of how I personally want things to work out, the better I’ll be able to respond. In practice, that means that whatever purpose I have is best realized when I get myself out of the way. Without so much “me” gumming up the works, compassion takes over and finds the way.

Because fuck you, that’s why.
I am here to shake the dust.

@AshLeigh Love it!

I think to love others and accept love. Sounds corny. But some people go through life not able to do those two things. Not talking sexual love. But all love. So relationships, with our family and friends. And how love can change things on earth. And lack of love too

I don’t exist, my experiences don’t exist, it’s just nothingness pretending to be something it’s not.

I’ve never dwelled much on questions like this. I have always found philosophies and religions, the obsession of whether or not there is a god, or our purpose/reason for being here, the meaning of life, etc., etc., a bit of a boring waste of time and totally unnecessary to my happiness, or really, anybody else’s. I just never got the importance of the whole thing. I guess I’m just not a very deep thinker. I’ve always seen myself as a kind of unselfish voluptuary. Really not seriously concerned with this stuff. Each to his own, huh?

However, if pressed, I go with the biological imperative. We’re here to procreate and do the things one does to promote the survival of their species. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. But if you think about it, ti can become quite complicated. For example, I learned a long time ago that it is much better for myself and everybody else if I treat people kindly, help when I can, leave each place a little nicer than when I came, etc., etc.. So, love plays a big part of it. The species is much better off if we raise our progeny with love and care as this will best guarantee a loving and caring progeny, and thus, a better world for our progeny’s progeny. Behaving ourselves, setting an example for that progeny, will help as well, along with all the other benefits of just not being a prick. You will probably live longer as well,because there is lways a bigger, meaner prick. So, procreation and the survival of the species is, once protracted, pretty much about being a good human being, a generous lover, a good friend, a contributor to your community’s needs, etc., etc.

There are no solid answers. My thoughts are that we are either an expression of one collective consciousness, whatever that may be, or, more likely, just another life form that has evolved over the millenia just like Sea Turtles and Redwood trees. I see myself as just an organism working as do all organisms towards it’s survival, I also think that when one has had a diverse set of life experiences and has outlived their reproductive shelf life by several decades, it is time to go.
I love life, simple pleasures, but, even though I am only 53.5 I am ready to make the return journey whenever my spin on this rock is up. haha

I do believe in moments of unexplainable synchronicity but I would not necessarily attribute these moments to some mystical god. I am comfortable living with and accepting the fact that nobody really knows much of anything.
Carpe Diem, be in the moment, don’t worry be happy. :-)
I have no idea what my future holds but, today I am planting flower seeds and going to see my new goosie friends at the park.

She who brings Romaine and cracked corn to other delightful organisms doing their thing in this great cosmic soup pot of life forms.
Good enough for me. :-)

To love and be loved. To live.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m here for the pancakes.

To keep us entertained on Fluther.

Still trying to work that one out and cursing existence generally.

When I was little, it never occurred to me to ask that question, even though I did ask about everything around me. When I got older and read the answers other people asked, it sounded like a lot of unproven supposition. My answer is who cares?

“Why” never gave me answers. I was a big “why” person. Eventually life sped up I had other concerns and my best friend hated the why questions. E made me realize there was how, what now and not to face the past so much.

I am much more content now. By focusing on the past unknowables I was living my completely, not guiding it, and ignoring hiccups and road blocks along the way.

The purpose of life is surely to make money.

Don’t you remember??? It was all settled recently in one succinct sentence on another fluther question, we are here to reproduce! Makes life damned easy, don’t you think!

Most are answering this like he meant, “why am I on Fluther?” but I thought he meant “why am I on this planet?”

Some are here on this planet, to learn others to teach.
Life is a long journey of both.
And if on the way you can help another to find his/her way then you’ve done a good thing, if nothing at all?

@ETpro, this is the very question on every God’s mind.

You’re late ! (early?) August is existential angst month !

Argh, so many answers, so little time. I will get to each of your wonderful responses tomorrrow, later today. It’s 2:20 AM.

At 2:20am the question is “Why am I up?” :-)

I, like most people feel that the universe rotates around me. Given that the universe depends on my existence, the reason for your existence is to keep me amused. You’re doing a great job at that and I expect you to do your job an keep writing though provoking questions and answers. I also expect you to do that for a very long time.

anticipating the next surprise

Coloma sits in her funky PJ’s with wet hair @ 7:18 p.m. fresh outta the shower after a busy day,contemplating the heat of summer which is just around the corner.
She has decided that she would like to live somewhere where the maximum temp. never rises above 82. lol

I see my purpose in life to be the best person I can be and to help others to find ways to express their special gifts so that they experience the joy of making better the lives of others. We all have the potential to make live better for our fellow humans and to set examples of how to live responsibly so we leave the environment we share better than we found it.

@marinelife That’s a distilled version of what Dr. Kaku had to say.

@zenvelo Do I have options?

@ucme If that’s all there is to it, then having humpy time is the sole meaning of existence. Much as I love humpy time, that’s just not enough.

@Luiveton Thanks for an honest and soul-searching answer. I say that using soul-searching as a metaphor, because I wonder whether there is any such thing as a soul. If there is, perhaps it’s made of the elusive dark energy and dark matter that seems to make up all but about 1% of the mass/energy of the universe but that has eluded detection even by our most sensitive instruments to date.

You seem to be locked in the wait for what Dr. Kaku in the video calls “the answer to come down from on high.” As he states, we’ve waited several million years for that email and it hasn’t come yet. Listen to the video and see if you agree it’s a question you must answer from within.

@bookish1 Damn. And here all this time I’ve been sucking up to Odin.

@Blackberry It may seem so, but there is a problem with that. We are what gives meaning to “meaning” however much that may seem to be a tautology. But it isn’t. When you think about the different meanings of “meaning in that sentence, I believe you will see it is true.

There actually is something about us that can make the waveform of an quantum particle collapse just by observing it. And the advanced double-slit experiment proves that it is not the interaction of the measuring device and the quantum particle that collapses its waveform. It is the fact the event was recorded and we can or do know the actual condition of the particle that causes the collapse. If we are meaningless, why are we in control of quantum mechanics?

@glacial Perhaps, but I would be most willing to bet intelligence exists here and there throughout the Universe. If a rouge black hole swallows the Earth tomorrow, I think the quintessential question of “Why am I here?” will go right on being asked.

@LuckyGuy That right there is my answer as well.

@janbb Dr. Kaku’s personal answer is “To work and to love.” You’re pretty much saying the same, and I agree.

@elbanditoroso Why ask. Because I can’t really tell whether I have free will or am God’s little wind-up doll. If I am just executing a program in the Matrix, and that program has a free-will subroutine that causes me to think each program step was my own idea, how would I know that? Maybe by doing the forbidden, starting to think about it.

@josie Well said. That’s pretty much what the video you didn’t watch says. :-)

@syz You and @ucme But that’s why your body is here, not your purpose for existing.

@Aster It would seem to me that’s not entirely accurate. I have little to do with shaping why the Universe is here but lots to do with how I choose to live my life based on my perception of why I am here.

@nebule Simple but excellent answer. Thanks.

@Sunny2 I was looking at here in a much broader scope, but I love your answer anyway. Thanks.

@thorninmud Excellent answer. Thank you for sharing that.

@AshLeigh Off to a good start, you are… But buck up, kid. I got a lot of dust for you to shake if that’s your chosen method of stirring it up.

@LornaLove An aptly chosen screen name, then. And loving spurs doing. So that answer comes back to the idea, “To work and to love.”

@fremen_warrior I can’t prove that’s false for you. I can’t even prove it is false for me. But I can observe that it is not a profitable belief system to honestly hold.

@Espiritus_Corvus Excellent answer, and one very close to my heart. Thanks.

@Coloma Excellent answer. I hope you enjoyed your visit to the park—and that the geese did as well.

@augustlan Noble goals indeed.

@AstroChuck Ha. Purpose enough.

”@”:Inspired_2write That’s got to be at least a part of it for me. :-)

@ZEPHYRA Best of success in the quest. Don’t try to swim up Niagara Falls.

@YARNLADY My answer is if you don’t care, I don’t care that you don’t care.

@rosehips I am so sorry. I had no intention of asking a question that would give you hiccups. :-)

@flutherother The US Mint must be on happy institution, then.

@rooeytoo I was still stuck on the page where we were here to figure out what a frizzer is.

@Aster Yes, that’s what the question details aim at. Thanks for noticing. Not just why am I on this planet, but why am I in this Universe, and why is it here for me to be in?

@Inspired_2write It’s pretty hard to teach if you never learn. It’s hard to learn when there is nobody who will teach.

@ninjacolin If there is a creator, then I am sure you must be right. That deity must be shaking her head and asking, “Why, oh why did I go and do that?”.

@dabbler I don’t know the difference between late and early. Damned calendar keeps resetting. And all my equations work perfectly in reverse. But every year my beard gets a little bit whiter.

And speaking of late, it’s now 2:18 AM. If today continues long enough, after some much needed sleeo I’ll respond to the unanswered replies. And thanks to all.

I’d like to add one more thing: Because of our intelligence and awareness levels, survival, or love and care for our species, extends to love and care for our environment. Indigenous peoples worldwide instinctively knew this and many deified the Earth which, among other things, effectively sanctified its care. An insult to the environment was a serious offense, a sacrilege that endangered all and punishment was considered inevitable, collective, and carried out by a vengeful higher being that was deaf to appeals for the most part. Through science, we now know the danger of ignoring the effects of breaking the chain through rampant overuse of resources and destructive waste buildup.

I often wonder if we need to deify the Earth, promote the idea that the Earth is the physical manifestation of god in this realm, in order to become collectively cooperative in its care – the kind of care one finds for idols and images housed in temples and churches worldwide. It wouldn’t be necessary for many of us who already are sensitized to the problem without the element of mysticism, but I believe we are a minority among the 6 or 7 billion people living here, and seeing the affinity humans have for religions, it may be the only way to get the world together on this.

@ETpro But that’s why your body is here, not your purpose for existing.

There is no purpose to existing, except “winning” the race to keep my genes in existence by reproducing (which I have failed at).

Some existential “meaning to life” is merely something that I artificially create and that matters only to me (if I happen to subscribe to that belief).

I suppose, if pressed, I would say that the meaning of my life is to end it feeling that I was a good person who had some wonderful experiences.

Clearly, I was not exactly drawn to philosophical studies while in college.

“It’s a game. You play, you win. You play you lose. You play.” -Shane Koyczan.

“The one who dies with the most toys wins.”

@dabbler Now that is a great question. And looking at some of what I wrote at that hour, I am not certain that I was truly awake.

@Ron_C I’m often annoyed when others tell me what they expect of me, but those are things in which I’d very much like to meet and exceed your expectations.

@Coloma Well, there’s always Global Warming.

@Dr_Lawrence That must feel good. Thanks.

@Espiritus_Corvus It’s probably too late now to deify the Earth. Those set on destroying it for massive profit, certain that Gawd will provide, wouldn’t buy any changes in the faith that makes it OK for them to be rapacious idiots. But too bad no holy-man pretender thought of that back when it had a chance of working. Sadly, they all thought only of profit just as their current apostles do.

@syz Several points.

1—You wrote: “There is no purpose to existing, except “winning” the race to keep my genes in existence by reproducing (which I have failed at).” If you really believed that, you would no longer be here.

2—There is nothing wrong with creating your own meaning. If you watch the video linked in the OP, that’s what Dr. Kaku concludes we do, what we are actually driven to do.

3—Regarding your statement, “I suppose, if pressed, I would say that the meaning of my life is to end it feeling that I was a good person who had some wonderful experiences.” I didn’t press anyone to answer. You choose to answer this question among the many that are posted here each day. But that answer seems perfectly tenable to me. No need to be pressed to state it. You clearly have some reason to go on living, otherwise, you wouldn’t bother. It’s quite a hassle, as I am sure you have noticed. :-)

@syz wrote, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” See point one above.

@AshLeigh I cannot disagree with that. Thanks.