»Purpose of life«

What is the purpose of a fish? What is the purpose of a Rock? A Sun? An atom? We are all objects of a universe, some more complex than others.

We could say the purpose of a leaf is to produce glucose to sustain a tree. Well, it is not any other way, so we call it a purpose.

Similarly, (a better example), we could say that the purpose of the Sun is to provide light and heat to our planet, thus sustaining lfe here. But...the Sun would still shine even if we were not here. We observe it doing what it does, and so assign a purpose.

The purpose of life? There is none perhaps. Only the gift (or curse) of conciousness has allowed us to ask that question. Without conciousness we would still exist, we would still live, just as a virus lives on and multiplies

Think of the purpose of emotions. With conciousness, we can overide instinct, and basic 'programmed purpose' (think of endless migrations, mating seasons and gathering). Love, lust? Ensures we procreate. Fear, planning, thought - self preservation.

It is hard to think of oneself as meaningless, as a particular arrangement of atoms. In fact, so hard, that so many religions have spawned, attempting to answer that great mystery. Oh, how religions can be such powerful things. Hope - our greatest strength...and weakness.

Inevitability wrote:

The theory of evolution has been called ‘the most powerful and the most comprehensive idea that has ever arisen on earth’. It has been so passionately argued and so heavily promoted in the mass media that millions of people with no scientific expertise assume it must be true. Evolution - Fact or fiction? What you should know: If life arose, developed and became increasingly more complex through a random evolutionary process, fossils should indicate that there were countless transitional stages between the different species. In 1981 a spokesman for the American Association for the Advancement of Science claimed that 100 million fossils, identified and dated, constitute 100 million facts that prove evolution beyond a doubt whatsoever. To Darwin’s embarrassment and frustration, the fossils did no such thing. He expected an ‘inconceivably great’ number of intermediate and transitional forms, but geologists discovered species, and groups of species, that appeared to have neither predecessors nor successors. Darwin soon realized that the absence of any finely graduated organic chain was ‘the most obvious and serious objection against the theory [of evolution]’, and his response was to suggest that later discoveries would fill in the gaps. This has not happened: the evidence we find in the geological record is not nearly as compatible with Darwinian natural selection as we would like it to be…We now have a quarter of a million fossils species but the situation hasn’t changed much. The record of evolution is surprisingly jerky and, ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin’s time… so Darwin’s problem has not been alleviated. It is not even possible to make a caricature of evolution out of the palaeobiological facts. The fossil material is now so complete that the lack of transitional species cannot be explained by the scarcity of the material. The deficiencies are real; they will never be filled. Don’t let Darwin make a Monkey out of you! Don’t let the Matrix (this so called reality, we call the civilised world) tell you who you are. Listen to the Oracle - ‘the Heart never speaks but you must listen to it to know’

Proof for evolution is not in some rock nor is it a fossil for that matter but instead is our ever changing bodies.

Ask just about any dentist and he/she will tell you that more and more people are being born without wisdom teeth. I too was born without wisdom teeth! Our appendixes are also smaller than they once were. Over time they will cease to exist because we do not need them. People are getting taller because for some reason this too was needed. I have seen actual clothes from the Civil War era and when I was in the 5th grade I was taller than the average man back then. Just go to any historical museum and see the changes for yourself. Over the generations our bodies change with an ever growing enviroment. If you seek proof for evolution than go look right into your bathroom mirror...it IS you.

Here is information about the appendix

A simple question - Why?

Why should we have purpose? Once again, just because we posses the level of intelligence to assign meanings and purpose to everything to justify existance.

Why should we have any purpose whaytsoever? I mean not to disrespect anyone that is religious; but belief, religion and hope are such strong things that they often serve well to obscure the obvious truth.

Back to assigned purpose(machines) and unassigned(humanity) - Within the Matrx Universe. In the new world, humans are units, and so have an assigned purpose - to provide power and/or processing power and memory. For those in the matrix, purpose has been given in the real world. Purpose has also been given in the matrix, in that all those in the matrix run the predetermined cycle of 'existance', and play their parts.

In Goliath, we see purpose given again. When dying on the ship, I believe we are seeing a man dying content because he balieves he is a man that has fulfilled the purpose given to him.

We can speculate, and hold belief that there is a god, and life beyond this; but remember in the matrix universe, a second plane (real world/matrix) is very real, and purpose is very real.

In the real world, perhaps hope really does govern our beliefs. So desperate to justify our lives we are, that we would question our very existence. Without religion we are lost - without purpose what are we? Oh how belief is such a thing hey.

The Matrix is a fictional film. Their is no reality to it. We live in the reality, yes guys, this is the reality. People are getting carried away by a movie. We have no purpose. We are 'not here to do what where all here to do', where here because thats just the way it is, so tough shite. Like it or not, we could sit around all our lives doing nothing, fulfilling no purpose whatsoever. As much as I'd like to have a purpose, I don't. Nobody has purpose. But at the end of the day, purpose is a word. The reality of it is what it implies.

Gundamdriver wrote:

Quote: Agent Smith: The purpose of life is to end We all know that Smith was talking about death. So what do you think of life? I tried to find it out but I can't. Someone said that we all live in this world is to imporve the world and wait for the coming of God. I would say what if all people die? If all people die and everything will stop. Then the purpose of life is nothing. What do you think?

I agree with Agent smith here---The purpose of life is to live, thus die...There really is no purpose; were here because were here, were not here because were not here, we're here because we are, yes many of you may claim, i dont believe were here for nothing.

Why not? You act like it matters to add purpose to your life, to add direction, to add orders and a way of identifying and understanding life under religion, but take me for instance.

im an atheist, but i add purpose to myself, to my life. Its quite easy.

Sure i believe that at one point in time people needed direction in their life, ways of easily understanding things; but the fact is now, we're far advanced in thinking, reasoning and technology that we HAVE THE CHOICE to do what we want to do with out lives, we ADD the meaning, we make the purpose, if you choose to follow religion, then so be it...thats your way of easily identifying and understanding life.

But if you want a way of seeing past more than just the easy identifying beliefs that simplify your understand of things, thats your fault. I, like many of you say also, say you want truth your want reality; well sometimes truth is different from what you want it to be, sometimes its hurtfull, hard to believe, and scarey.

But the only way to confront the truth is to face it, whether that be fear, hard to believe things, different from what you want, etc....The only way to see reality, is your choice to confront the truth. And as history shows...There are many ways of trying to reach the path of reality..Thats where choice comes in..

I think that the purpose of life is not to die, it is to live.

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"the purpose of life is to live THUS to end

why? because we have to do something when we die, we don't know? how can that be your purpose? and you definitely can't know your purpose then you can only believe.

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We're not here becuause we're here

doesn't it go "We're not here because we're free"?

djlartzu wrote:

I think that the purpose of life is not to die, it is to live. Quote: "the purpose of life is to live THUS to end why? because we have to do something when we die, we don't know? how can that be your purpose? and you definitely can't know your purpose then you can only believe. Quote: We're not here becuause we're here doesn't it go "We're not here because we're free"?

I wasnt quoting him.

why did that repeat 3 times?

Distorted Void wrote:

why did that repeat 3 times?

Fixed

NeoProgram wrote:

I think of God more in terms of an energy than some magical being remaining hidden.

The FORCE of evolution is turning to The Dark Side. Soon the machines will have evolved sufficiently to eliminate the scurge humans infesting the planet.

And God said, "Let there be Smith."

psikey

Okay, apologies for i had not much time to read this entire thing. Now, i have my own conclusions for this thing.
Life is a mistake don't you think? God (or whoever that is) was never supposed to create life. What if it was a mistake? What if smith is right?
He was always right wasn't he?
But coming to the conclusions of it all, as what Mr Inevitibility likes to say; smith is unable to see the point of life (as he knows it! Couldn't help that bit)
There is more to life then just a mistake. For people are a mistake, there is love.
And love is a many splendid thing!
But really,
Life is suppose to end isn't it?
The end of life is the end of illusion...
So smith is saying a good thing in a way?
Ironic don't you think?

7one wrote:

Okay, apologies for i had not much time to read this entire thing. Now, i have my own conclusions for this thing. Life is a mistake don't you think? God (or whoever that is) was never supposed to create life. What if it was a mistake? What if smith is right? He was always right wasn't he? But coming to the conclusions of it all, as what Mr Inevitibility likes to say; smith is unable to see the point of life (as he knows it! Couldn't help that bit) There is more to life then just a mistake. For people are a mistake, there is love. And love is a many splendid thing! But really, Life is suppose to end isn't it? The end of life is the end of illusion... So smith is saying a good thing in a way? Ironic don't you think?

Which then slowly after your thoughts develope in that sense, you slowly become an atheist freethinker such as myself. (i wish more people would)

And then again some people will think what you just said is complete bs, so there stands the fine line of clear differences in ideas.

Tell me, Distorted, what exactly does it mean to be an "atheist free thinker" because to some this may sound like an oxymoron.

To me, though, there are many things I don't believe to be true, (the tooth fairy, bigfoot, WMD in Iraq, to name a few) but I would never have thought to give my believes a name and CERTAINLY not thought of a name for my DISbeliefs. So to classify myself as an A-bigfootist or A-bushadministrationpropagandist seems both unnecessary and attaches too much importance to that which I claim not to believe in. So I never fully understood the concept of people calling themselves "atheists". Whether someone is a free thinker or not after dismissing some things as untrue right off the bat is another debate as well.

intell wrote:

I would never have thought to give my believes a name and CERTAINLY not thought of a name for my DISbeliefs.

The films point out that we very often define ourselves by what we fight against--

Why Mr. Anderson?
Because I choose to.

Exaaaactly, CaptPostMod. (And good to see you back.)

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The films point out that we very often define ourselves by what we fight against--

And as I said a while back, if we do that, we are not actually free.

"We're not here because we're free. We're here because we're not free. There's no denying reason, no escaping purpose...We're here to take away from you...Purpose!"

Paul summed it up fairly well in 1 Corinthians 15:32. He stated that in his opinion if there was no life after death then we might as well live it up right now. If there is no eternal afterlife and no deity to whom we are accountable, we should do whatever feels good to us. The hilarious part about that is that many people who profess to be Christians behave exactly in this fashion.

intell wrote:

Tell me, Distorted, what exactly does it mean to be an "atheist free thinker" because to some this may sound like an oxymoron. To me, though, there are many things I don't believe to be true, (the tooth fairy, bigfoot, WMD in Iraq, to name a few) but I would never have thought to give my believes a name and CERTAINLY not thought of a name for my DISbeliefs. So to classify myself as an A-bigfootist or A-bushadministrationpropagandist seems both unnecessary and attaches too much importance to that which I claim not to believe in. So I never fully understood the concept of people calling themselves "atheists". Whether someone is a free thinker or not after dismissing some things as untrue right off the bat is another debate as well.

Well the same way anybody gives themselfs a name of anything. Just like your name, your parents gave it to you, yes, but you COULD have told people to call you something completely different. Or how about religion, any religion calls themself that because of society labeling something to understand it (or for that matter any cultural orginization). Basically im categorizing myself so that way people know in a sense what I am.
**NOTE**
In a sense.

Which is intresting because i hate categorizing myself in life; i hate steriotypes and i hate when people dont understand something, and usually when something is steriotyped it is not fully understood.

Steriotyping, categorizing or labeling is all the human minds frailty to try and understand something easily. Thus the human mind does something simple (like usual) and categorizes things to easily justify why something does what it does. The human mind has this thing of trying to get the most possible with doing the least effort; and i hate that....ALOT.

An atheist freethinker would be anything but an oxymoran, and I see what you mean by some people they might think that it is, because many people do not understand what an atheist is, or what a freethinker is. Atheism is a way of life and a freethinker is basically a person open minded to anything; and i am open to basically anything, however i disagree with most beliefs and i deteste organized religion, thus making me an atheist. And i THINK quite alot, and i even question my own thoughts, and i accept facts and truth (yeah im a science guy, heh)

Dont Believe everything you think--Dont think Everything you Believe.

And with that said I still believe in freedom of speech until that interupts someone elses freedom of speech. So I dont condemn others, even theists for thinking what they think; i may hate what you think and why. But that doesnt give me the justification to destroy your thoughts.

I hatefully disagree with most theists and beliefs, but i will defend your right to say it.

If you want to understand more about what atheists are, i have a few good literature reading on what atheists are. (well not all of em)

Distorted, I've had a bad experience with organized religion, so in a sense I might know a little of what you're talking about. However, I still retained my belief in God and the Bible. I know that some of the people I've come across who claim to be atheists are not so much against God but against those who claim to follow God. Did you have a bad experience with organized religion? To this day I do not believe that organized religion is a good thing in a general sense, although I know that it is capable of doing good deeds. But I do believe that God is good and that when a small group of like-minded people gather in His name without worrying about giving each other titles or separating into clergy and laity, it can be a very positive and life-changing experience. I think I'm babbling a little at this point, so I'll stop for now.

Thank you both for your responses.

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Did you have a bad experience with organized religion? To this day I do not believe that organized religion is a good thing in a general sense, although I know that it is capable of doing good deeds.

I know exactly what you mean.

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without worrying about giving each other titles or separating into clergy and laity,

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i hate categorizing myself in life; i hate steriotypes and i hate when people dont understand something, and usually when something is steriotyped it is not fully understood..

Exactly and it is not necessarily the mind as it is the person following the memetic of society.

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I hatefully disagree with most theists and beliefs

I bet most theists do, too.

Distorted Void wrote:

Well the same way anybody gives themselfs a name of anything. Just like your name, your parents gave it to you, yes, but you COULD have told people to call you something completely different.

A name like "Neo" for example?

But changing your identity isn't always the best answer. Becoming Neo, or The One, wasn't enough for Thomas Anderson to accomplish what had to be accomplished... He also had to "become" Smith... the very type of being he thought he had become "Neo" to fight.

Feral Boy wrote:

Distorted, I've had a bad experience with organized religion, so in a sense I might know a little of what you're talking about. However, I still retained my belief in God and the Bible. I know that some of the people I've come across who claim to be atheists are not so much against God but against those who claim to follow God. Did you have a bad experience with organized religion? To this day I do not believe that organized religion is a good thing in a general sense, although I know that it is capable of doing good deeds. But I do believe that God is good and that when a small group of like-minded people gather in His name without worrying about giving each other titles or separating into clergy and laity, it can be a very positive and life-changing experience. I think I'm babbling a little at this point, so I'll stop for now.

Well to point out the obvious that sometimes we all fail to see sometimes. Atheists and Theists can accomplish doing amazing things and start distasterous effects (good and bad, so to speak).

Yes and to answer your question did i have a bad thing happen with organized religion. Its called having all the people i care for change drasticly (think i spelled that right.) change; nearly all of the people i care for have changed from being their own person and able to think for themselves into a religious faith bearing mindless robot, rather than the people they were, the people i cared for, they were this thing, like a gun, just a tool that acts on demand. They changed because of religion and i hate organized religion because of that. Especially when it gets out of hand.(extremism)

Most Atheists were theists, spiritual, superstitious or had a sever belief in something at one point, and ive experienced all of those. Thats partly what fueled me becoming an atheist (i believed, then i found differently), the second was all the things i once cared for started becoming the things i started to hate, the third was logic, and facts (truth, reality). All of those have slowly over time come together to build onto what i am now.

I was very superstitious, believed in god, read the bible at one point, heavy spiritual, i attempted magic (lol which of course isnt real, cause it never worked).

I would say from MY POINT OF VIEW, that religion to me is just a phase; at least for my life it was. I learned more about things of human nature and how humans act and why. Emotion, belief, desire, evreything.
I started studying psychology and have been doing Mixed Martial arts for some time now. I also got into the whole military phase and went to boot camp for a while before I realized that i disliked the militarys way of thinking. If there was something i didnt like, i would question. And they would of course disown me for it.

The Military aspect part of my life was my other phase, realizing that it was an intresting part of life (exhilerating)but, they dont like thinkers, they like followers.

And thats how I view many organized religions. They listen to priests and religious leaders without thought, without the ability to reason for themselves, only following their bible (or book), or whatever they follow without THINKING, which is the MOST IMPORTANT human potential and thing people can do for themselves and yet many things in our world condemn thinking while at the same time saying they promote thinking, which is clearly un-true.

Its not just religion, but many things, government, military, terrorist factions, gangs, cults, and the latter. I have been exposed to some extreme elements of what i just said. And i value thinking the ability to THINK FOR YOURSELF so much more than anything.

Which is why i dont like those things many of you do, but i wont try and take it away, its your thinking.

Distorted Void wrote:

Yes and to answer your question did i have a bad thing happen with organized religion. Its called having all the people i care for change drasticly (think i spelled that right.) change; nearly all of the people i care for have changed from being their own person and able to think for themselves into a religious faith bearing mindless robot, rather than the people they were, the people i cared for, they were this thing, like a gun, just a tool that acts on demand. They changed because of religion and i hate organized religion because of that. Especially when it gets out of hand.(extremism)

I know what ure talking about. it's like they have been brainwashed