The purpose of existence.

Stocking Drinks Whiskey

I thought this might make for an interesting topic, the commonly asked question, what is the purpose of existence?

My thoughts:
On the most basic level, you could say that the point of existence is simply to exist, you come into existence, you live and you eventually die, that is what life is at the most basic level, it exists merely because it does and is designed to ensure it's own existence.

Now, on a higher level, you have to ask what it is you want to do with your life, your existence, the benefit of sentience is that we can consider these things, think beyond the basics.
My personal take on this is that you should contribute to something greater than the self, I feel that you live on in your contributions to larger entities, things that are of greater importance than the self like your nation for example, nations are remembered, individuals are not.

Who remembers the lone Roman? Who knows of the Roman Empire?

That's my personal meaning of life, to contribute to or work towards something far greater than the self.

Cork boy 55

All life forms are machines designed to replicate the genes that make them up.

Repilication of genes is the purpose of existence.

MungBean

There is no importance if you give it no importance. The meaning of life is whatever meaning you personally want to give it. The reason you exist is because your parents reproduced.

We didnt evolve for a purpose, we evolved as a reaction to circumstance. Whether future humans remember you or your country or whatever you have contributed to is of as much significance as you looking at a grain of sand knowing it was once part of a rock. Its a thought in somebody elses mind that you will never experience.

All there is to tie you to this world is your awareness of yourself and how you relate to this world and once that is gone so too are you and your reason or purpose with you.

wylo

I think we've the same purpose of existence as a rock, a planet, the sun, a tree, or a mouse. Certain chemical reactions seemed to have caused life on Earth, the way the chemicals of life seem to behave is that they replicate and reproduce each other, humans are just the result of that.

We're no more important than a plant.
Anything more than that is just creating concepts.
I wouldnt even agree with Cork boy, because it would imply there is a reason why genes need to be replicated.

I think what happens with humans is no more purposeful than why gravity occurs, or why water boils at 100 degrees.

wylo

Stocking Drinks Whiskey wrote: »

My personal take on this is that you should contribute to something greater than the self, I feel that you live on in your contributions to larger entities, things that are of greater importance than the self like your nation for example, nations are remembered, individuals are not.

Who remembers the lone Roman? Who knows of the Roman Empire?

That's my personal meaning of life, to contribute to or work towards something far greater than the self.

A nation is just a concept though, we created the idea of a nation, it has no importance than one individual. I feel sorry for the japanese back in WW2 who treated their nation as if it was a singular person that they all needed to protect. Why should importance even come into it?

cosmicfart

People are not like machines, we are more like plants, byproducts/creations of the planet we live on. As humans there is this innate need and want to define who we are and what we perceive around us. I honestly feel we are in our extreme infancy and that conscious thought is still very primitive. Until and unless certain mammoth changes are delivered, like world peace and the ability for all to have a decent quality of life for all, I dont think that we will evolve into anything more than our current ant-like predictiment we are in now.

18AD

There is no point to existence. Existence is not the sort of thing that has or needs a point to exist. To say that existence is the point of existence is practically a tautology. The point of this rock is to be a rock. We attribute something human to what is not human.

As you said, people have purposes. As I see it, we don't need a purpose to live or exist as in the above statement. But we do have purpose in what we do. We do things for such-and-such or in-order-to.

I admire your view on contribution. But I think you're taking the self to be an isolated, detached entity. All individuals are immediately embedded in a society (unless they decide to leave or for any number of reasons). Most action has consequences for others and all your actions are influenced by the actions of others. The very basic constitution of your self is founded on others.

To reiterate the previous poster, we are not machines and I regret that this metaphor has caught on.

EDIT: A wonderful coicidence in this reasoning I think is apparent in the Biblical statement "God created man in his image". Man created machine in his image. First we liken ourselves to Gods and then we say we are man.

pragmatic1

To witness the universe.

Stocking Drinks Whiskey

wylo wrote: »

A nation is just a concept though, we created the idea of a nation, it has no importance than one individual. I feel sorry for the japanese back in WW2 who treated their nation as if it was a singular person that they all needed to protect. Why should importance even come into it?

If the concept of the nation was of no importance then they would not exist but they do.

There are many who regard the concept as an important one.

swordofislam

The Roman Empire was the most evil structure in history and it should be effaced from history.
We should all seek insofar as we can to be our best selves and to leave the world a better place than we found it.

MungBean

swordofislam wrote: »

The Roman Empire was the most evil structure in history and it should be effaced from history.
We should all seek insofar as we can to be our best selves and to leave the world a better place than we found it.

Makes sense if you have children dependant on the world being a better place but not if you dont.

If I dont have children to live after I'm gone what care I for the state of the world and who but myself determines who my best self is ?

Its this "best self" business that powered the Roman Empire with people born into elite families endeavouring to be their best selves at the expense of others by gathering wealth and influence.

Each person will have a different sense of self and a different perceptive on what makes a good self.

wylo

OP, could you clarify what your "best self" is and why.

Manach

Stocking Drinks Whiskey wrote: »

Who remembers the lone Roman? Who knows of the Roman Empire?

There are a few of us classicists still around you know.

wylo

Stocking Drinks Whiskey wrote: »

If the concept of the nation was of no importance then they would not exist but they do.

There are many who regard the concept as an important one.

Yes, that doesnt actually make it important.
The Third Reich was important to alot of Germans but would you consider working and expanding this a good purpose of existence?

canbai

Hello,I am from China.I know vagarious Lifechanyuan!

"Lifechanyuan tells us how the universe comes into beings, how lives started, and the beginning of human being. It tells us the meaning of time and space, and the meaning of life. It also tells us the purpose of life, the cause of human suffering, the future of the mankind, and so on."

I agree its opinion :the meaning of LIFE is to serve the Greatest Creator, and the meaning of the Greatest Creator is to serve all LIFE forms in the universe.

As far the latest yet most comprehensive exposition on LIFE,Please refer to : http://lifechanyuan.org/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1389

It expounds The origin of LIFE,The Features of LIFE,The Levels of LIFE,The Evolution of LIFE,The Law of Gravitation of LIFE,The Transmigration of LIFE,and so on.

At last,what I want to say ia that Lifechanyuan respect facts, science and logic, seek truth from facts, and tell truth.

Don Booker

As life is an absurdity and one sees it as such , the purpose of the existence is then in the hands of the individual to derive individual meaning. Once absurdity is accepted, true freedom is found outside social/religious or any other realms, and it is with that freedom an individual can mark their own existence. However that may be.