If we have no mind, and no soul, and there is no afterlife and no higher power - what is the purpose of this life?

Why must there be a purpose?

Okay, now that we’ve kicked it off with a rhetorical question – let’s think; why must there be a purpose? Why anything, indeed? Philosophically speaking, cogito ergo sum. Why question existence? Why indeed?

Try answering it yourself first; do you feel you need a purpose, or do you not? Are you happy just existing? Do you agree or disagree with what I’ve written?

Give it a shot. One liners are easy – I do it all the time. Conversation – intellectual if not intelligent – is harder. You can do it – or I would’ve just ignored your remark.

:-)

Many times, one liners are all that’s needed.

Now I give up.

I also believe that there is not a purpose. But since we are here, or at least we think we are here, it would suck for us to just lay here and wait to die. Better to do something enjoyable, to feel physically and mentally good/well, however you want to put it and try to help other people and other beings to feel the best they can too, while all at the same time, trying not to do things that actively cause conflict. If you do the opposite of that, you will feel a lot of pain, and because we can feel pain, or at least we think we can, most of us, hopefully, would like to avoid causing un-necessary pain to others. Only because pain sucks and when you cause pain to others, they are likely to try to cause you pain and then the awfulness just escalates. If it escalated to a certain point that seemed unbearable, then laying down and waiting to die would be the best alternative. But none of this is based on there being a purpose. We just try to do the best we can, so that life doesn’t suck all the time, even though we know that we can’t make it not suck all the time. So we just do the best we can, or we lay down and wait to die. It’s pretty simple.

I admire those who look for a purpose over those who sit around and pick their nose.

Lol. Just for you: No, I don’t think there is a purpose. And I’m really ok with that. I think it’s easier to believe in a deity than to believe that this is all there is, and that life is largely random (or at least, that there’s nothing you can do to control it). But just because something is easier doesn’t make it right, or real, or true. I think life is what you make it, and you can give yourself a purpose, but that’s different than a cosmic, destined purpose.

Just because something is “harder” doesn’t make it right, either.

Not all people that do good or great deeds, do so because they are looking for a purpose, or even believe that there is a purpose, they mostly do it, because it beats the alternative.

No, but easier is generally more alluring and more popular than harder, so it’s something we encounter more often.

My favorite theory is that each individual is set out as a sensor in some overriding experiment. We’re each here to gather experiences and add to the overall view of how people deal with the things that come into their lives. Someone is studying and we’re all collecting data. I don’t necessarily subscribe to it, but it is tidy.

I feel my personal purpose is to make whatever small advances I can in the areas I care about. Essentially to leave things a little closer to my ideal than I found them. I hope I’m accomplishing that.

Love.

Also, sex, food and alcohol.

I think people who think about it can find a purpose to live. It certainly isn’t the same for everybody. I decided at 14 that my purpose was to make the people who came into my life feel a little better about the life they are going through. Haven’t always succeeded, but I try.

I don’t think there is any a priori purpose. I think our individual lives have the purposes we give them or find in them.

Likewise, I don’t think life has any a priori meaning. It just is. What is the meaning of a flower? of a flea? of an asteroid? The idea of meaning has no meaning in that regard. Our lives are the same: they just are.

This is not to say that an individual life necessarily has no meaning. It has the meaning to us that we give it or find in it. It has the meaning to others that they give it or find in it.

Meaning and purpose are human constructions and are not inherent in or necessary to any life. Instead, in the scheme of things we function to transform one kind of energy into another kind of energy, just as a tree or a cow or a scarab beetle does.

I would see this differently if I believed in God; but since I do not posit a great divine mind behind my existence, there is noplace else for a priori purpose and meaning to reside.

Life is like a comedy. Just laugh and have some fun. :)

Once again, @Jeruba said exactly what I mean, but she said it so that it makes sense and is not so long winded as what I said.

I disagree.

A flower, a flea have meaning as they are part of nature. They are also vegetation, and like animals, may have some form of intelligence – but they do not ask why – nor what is their purpose.

I ask.

I think, therefore I am.

I ask what is my purpose in life; that gives me purpose.

There is no purpose so you can make your own purpose as pointless as it may be. I have several and none.

I can’t believe it is all random, but I have trouble believing in some guy who sits around on clouds jerking us around like puppets according to his whims.

I once knew a pastoral counselor who spoke of “the god within” meaning we are our own god. We have the imperative to live our life to the best of our ability, to do no harm to others and to do good when we can. So I try to live that way and I feel I have been reasonably successful.

As for afterlife, I prefer to believe in reincarnation. I did good this time around so next time I will be even better. (I know it’s hard to believe that I could get even better than I already am, heheheh!)

@MyNewtBoobs I’m still back on the ”...I think it’s easier to believe in a deity than to believe that this is all there is…” Huh? How is it easier? How is the not believing there’s a purpose harder, for that matter? Why is there even a metaphorical Mohs Scale for such things?

@zen – that’s it: meaning is ultimately derived from being a part of a wider system.

Nature doesn’t exist; we apply our categories to what is around us because we are a part of that system. This explains why we search for purpose – we are bound by the categories we apply.

What is this for?

I know that was in English…

It wasn’t particularly coherent though – it was written in a hurry after several beers. :)

Wait – let me catch up and read it again.

To answer, the concept of purpose must be clearly understood. A quick gander at the definition and etymology, one confirms that purpose is the reason for the physical manifestation of any particular planned outcome. The purpose of building a hospital, and the hospital, is to provide medical care for the sick. Saying that doesn’t make it true. We can only assume, unless we have access to the mission statement which started the project. The only way to confirm the purpose of a hospital, or even the event which delivered bricks to the construction site, is to refer to the original mission statement.

Mission statements are a codified representation of the thoughtful desires of their author.

When we look at life, that’s analogous looking at the aforementioned hospital. We see a physical structure and ask “Why”? Finding the original plans to the hospital will not tell us the mission statement. Finding the original plans to a living organism (dna) will not tell us the mission statement either. With the plans, we discover how. But we need the mission statement to discover why.

Imagine a hospital being constructed, and after it’s finished a solar wave wipes out all computers and human memory for the past year. We find ourselves standing in front of a structure without any memory or access to the mission statement. We are lost as to what the purpose of that structure is. Someone says, “Hey! Let’s use it for a shopping mall.” In this case, the structure is re-purposed, with the suggestion as the new mission statement to confirm it.

Likewise, with living humans, having no access to the original mission statement which initiated our existence, we are left with re-purposing the reason for our lives. We have that ability to author a new mission statement, multiple mission statements. This week I want to become a rock star. That’s the purpose. Now to make it happen, I must now author an instruction manual. Next week I’ll pursue a pilots license. That’s the mission statement. Saying it doesn’t make it happen. It just expresses the desire, the purpose. A plan must follow.

In this manner, we give purpose. We make purpose rather than look for it. Those who are looking for it have made looking for it a purpose. Funny how sometimes what we look for is often right under our noses.

zen, that is a great question that philosophers have been asking for thousands of years. I wish I had the answer. I do like the “we are a human experiment” hypothesis.

Eat, fuck and die, I guess. Everyone and everything has a purpose, at least, as decreed by the logic that we humans hold. Those purposes serve to make the cogs turn in whatever big picture we’re in, whether that’s spun by some god, or machinated by some natural force that I can’t understand. Really, I have no idea. It’s easy to find purposes, and even make them real, but as far as knowing what the entire truth of the matter is, don’t look at me. I’m just a little pawn!

Eat, fuck and die is an okay philosophy – just make sure you do them in the correct order.

If zombies existed the order wouldn’t matter anymore…XD