Does life have a purpose?

Hmm... well, I believe the purpose of life is whatever you so desire it to be... life seems to be an interpretation made by people. Interpret, interpret, interpret...

I believe you get to chose your own purpose. My purpose is to become an animated film director and wreck Disney

NO!
What is the point in being born to suffer the physical and mental pains of growing, whatever other hardships, insecurities, false hopes, unfulfilled dreams, health issues, heart aches, sadness, love whatever that is and then to suffer the same physical and mental pains for a 2nd time then die. If you are born then a the point of death your life becomes pointless and irrelevant. Surely better not to have been born in the first place then absolute avoidance of the above and having to face ones own pointless mortality!

Life only has a real purpose or any point to it if that same life doesnt then die!!!!!

Immortality is the only pursposeful existence thus mortal life has no purpose. Its all bo..ocks, face it just like the dead before you. Try tell them there is a purpose!

^ Was that a reply to my previous comment?

Here's to our lives being meaningless, and how beautiful it is because freedom doesn't have a purpose.

-Johnny Hobo And The Freight Trains

If you believe in an afterlife, you purpose is to correctly(depending on belief) prepare for that time.
If you believe in just a life on this plain, make forth to do the best possible in fairness in your life and others.
The truth of life is to
A) prepare you for the afterlife; to be an ascending soul
B) prepare you for older age, to be a better person

From the Op post:

If you believe you are alive to kill others, than this is your purpose.

How is killing others on purpose? That's a quite pathetic action. Is it not?
Self defense is one thing...,but the act of killing for pleasure is inexcusable.

To the OP: You first ask if life has a purpose. Life includes more than human beings, and as all life is not mentally capable of grasping or contemplating purpose, your answer does not satisfy the question. Your answer (to your own question) doesn't even provide an explanation for your question. So before you post threads claiming to know something, try thinking it all the way through first.

Secondly, let's assume you meant "Does each individual human have a purpose?" Your answer, which I will repeat via paraphrasing (and correct me if I have mis-paraphrased it), is essentially, "Yes. Their purpose is whatever they say it is." If this were true, if I never said that I had a purpose, then I would have no purpose. But if I have no purpose, then your objective claim - yes, you made an objective claim about the purpose of life that applies to all people - uses circular logic.

Now that I have helped clear up your misconceptions, I can safely say that you are wrong, because no statement using circular logic can be taken seriously, as they are fallacious.

PS I mean no offense to you, I'm only showing gaping holes in your statement because you stated it as if you knew, and I reciprocated by clearly showing that you have no idea what the answer to your own question actually is.

reply to post by Alexander_Supertramp


By all means...I am sure he meant life as existence not only what we call living entity but every thing which include reality and non.

reply to post by kacou


Which is why I included the first part of my post. If that is what the OP meant, then he contradicts himself.

I will try to explain better. His claim is this:

The purpose of life is whatever purpose you give it. (Call this statement P1)

Now, replace the underlined claim with X. You now have:

The purpose of life is X.

I've thought this question over a lot and I think you've left out a mandatory factor when coming up with some of your answers; the god(s) factor. Some of your answers read as-if you've left out god(s) and those answers should be dismissed, because purpose requires god(s).

I started a sort of Q&A formatted list for deep thought questions for myself, about 10-years ago. Funny that your post seems to be in Q&A form also.
Anyways, here's what I came up with for the purpose of life:


What is the purpose of our existence?
To believe in a purpose one must believe in god(s).
With that said, I think if there is purpose for our existence it is for one or more of the following reasons:
[in order of most likely to least likely]

*entertainment for god(s)
*companionship for god(s)
*accident of god(s)
*requirement to sustain god(s) existence
*so god(s) could be acknowledged [by creating us, god(s) can live on - be remembered - be known]
*a gift to one god from another
*contest between gods to come up with the best "something"
*official order from another god

reply to post by Bleeeeep


I deliberately left out the God Factor because it's invariably more complicated than assuming there is no God. By bringing God into the picture, you then have to claim:

1) I have a purpose

and

2) My purpose is dependent upon God.

If I challenge you on premise 2, you are then responsible for explaining the existence of God, how God chooses to ascribe purpose to either one individual over another or one species over another, and how God chooses anything in the first place when choice occurs in a moment of time and God is supposedly outside time.

If you take the other approach, though, and claim that you have a purpose whether God exists or not, then you have the burden of explaining what the hell the word 'purpose' even means in an objective sense. Personally, I find that much more likely to be solved than all of the things that come with claiming that there is a God.

Originally posted by Alexander_Supertramp
reply to post by Bleeeeep

 

I deliberately left out the God Factor because it's invariably more complicated than assuming there is no God.

I'm sorry if it complicates the question of purpose for you but without god(s) there cannot be a purpose. If there are no god(s) then there is no purpose.

reply to post by LifeIsEnergy


I know it was a rhetorical question but this pretty much sums it up for me. It always has. This and children running, laughing and playing outdoors or on a beach. Whenever I see that I have to say...oh yeah, that is what this life is all about. I don't know if I would call it "reproduction" (?) somehow that just doesn't say it all.

It's true the purpose to life is whatever we make of it.

The purpose of life is to discover your true self.

And you will never find it in what is ephemeral.

I just think we should quit overcomplicating it and live life happily

I have a huge problem with this, we have evolved so much that we know every child we have will most likely suffer a horrible death, cancer, motor neurone disease etc.

If giving life for it to end up in nothingness why do we do it?

I know the absolute truth.

I know the ultimate truth.

I know the absolute destination.

I know the ultimate destination.

I know the absolute purpose.

I know the ultimate purpose.

Whatever you think you're purpose is is irrelevant. You are likely serving a purpose that you are unconscious of. You think your purpose is what you think your purpose is, but what you think your purpose is may not be the ultimate and absolute purpose of which I have revealed. Don't be dissmissive. I know that I know.

I know you better than you know yourself unless you know what I know.

Knowledge is finite. Therefore, everything can be known, and as far as what I'm claiming, this is what I know.

reply to post by dizzylizzy


Because, this life I and many others experience: it's pretty damn FUN!

What is the meaning of knowing the meaning of life?

I agree with the OP there is no meaning of life. It just is. If there was a purpose, you would be limited in freedom and our true Self is unlimited.

Originally posted by label
What is the meaning of knowing the meaning of life?

I agree with the OP there is no meaning of life. It just is. If there was a purpose, you would be limited in freedom and our true Self is unlimited.

What is the OP? Other Person?

And can someone tell me how to add an avatar picture please?