Philosophy Purpose of Existence

All right, I know this is one of the oldest questions in the book, but it was bound to show up here sooner or later, so I figured why not get it over with now?

If you look at the title it should be pretty self explanatory, but in case you missed the title...

In your opinion, what is the purpose of our existence? Not just our existence, but the existence of the world as a whole, and the solar system, and whatever else is out there? Why was anything created? If we're all eventually going to die out anyhow, what's our purpose here?

 

If there is a purpose to it all, it'd probably be hidden so that nobody could sabatoge it (whether intentionally or through trying too hard) and we could just accidently achieve our objectives as we went along.

 

Okay, now I know this is going to sound silly but bear with me for a little bit (as difficult as that may seem)...

Maybe there, really, is no purpose. Maybe just by pure and utter chance we are here, just some kind of luck of the draw, "Divine Creator" or not. Like we don't NEED to be here, we have no real purpose (except for maybe if there is a Divine Creator, to serve as amusement to him/her). It's like... say... bananas. We don't NEED bananas to live. They're just, y'know. Something nice to eat. Or television. It's not a necessity. It's just there to entertain us or maybe, even better, just to take up space. Maybe we're here just to take up space.

I don't know, sounds like I'm stoned.

 

Actually, I'm inclined to agree with that, strange as it may sound.

A lot of us often speculate about our purpose here, as I stated before "What's the meaning of life" is one of the more common questions asked among and within ourselves. I think almost every human, whether conciously or not, wants to believe they have some sort of purpose, that their being here is in some way going to affect the bigger scheme of things.

When in reality, we may just be here by sheer coincidence, and our only purpose as of now is to live our lives out to the fullest and enjoy the single moment in time bestowed upon us, as it'll be taken away before we're ready for its conclusion. I guess that's why I've never understood people who don't seem to fear death at all (well, aside from the religious ones who believe in an afterlife). How can you not fear death, knowing that we'll never breathe again, feel again, see again? The human mind can't fully comprehend eternity, but the thought of never again being able to experience emotion just...frightens me, even though I won't be concious during that eternity.

But that's getting off the subject...

Honestly I don't really believe that we have any sort of purpose here, only that our egos want us to feel vital to the greater scheme of things, therefore creating theories of purpose in our minds.

 

You find your own meaning, obviously. :catgirl:

 

I'm going to have to disagree. Why is a landslide? To create an equilibrium along the earth's surface, as well as to correspond a mountain with gravity. Why is a plant? To create oxygen for the other animals to breathe, as well as to feed herbivores which then feed omnivores and carnivores. Why is a human? Surely we must have some place in this ecosystem and universe rather than to just have no place at all. Maybe our original purpose was to be eaten XD Or maybe to control the balance of animals on earth, yet this is not something that we are good at considering that some species are becoming extinct. Unless maybe they were intended to become extinct even if there were no human intervention. Maybe our true purpose has yet to be shown?

Is there a constant union of events that we are part of? According to Hume, we are governed by some sort of necessity, when a force causes movement there is a constant conjunction of events. There is even a fixed course of development for everything:

 

I'm prone to call this a faulty argument; a plant is not aware of what it is doing; plus evolution would have caused animals to capitalize on the plants, rather than the supply and demand being created simultaneously.

Based on your prior statements, it would seem apparent that mankinds purpose is simply to do what comes naturally to him.

 

in the bible it says that god created all of us and the earth to worship him and give him glory.and the bible doesnt lie.

 

Of course it does. That or you accept God could quite willingly command the rape and slaughter of civilians. Besides, simply saying "The Bible says this" is an Appeal to Authority and is a fallacy.

 

of cours god can but why destroy what he has put time into creating.

 

Ask him, he routinely destroyed his creations in the old testament and apparently wishes to do so again according to Revelations.

BUT to keep this from getting off topic...

Why should I, knowing full well I could be dead any second now? A solar superflare, a gamma ray burst, or simply choking on my sandwich during lunch... I could die today for all I know, or it could be 80 years down the road.

It is fruitless to expend energy worrying about something beyond your control which is inevitable; you only reap stress and fear and this in turn hampers your ability to enjoy your life while it lasts.

Part of me wants to agree to this; electro-magneticism and gravity have no "purpose". However I cannot help but wonder if there is purpose manufactured by ones environment. The dodo bird had no "purpose" in the grand scheme of things, yet when the scope is reduced to its immeadiate environment we see that it had something of a purpose in helping spread seeds. Perhaps we have a purpose created by our circumstances which is simply more minor than we prefer.

 

What does purpose and sentience have to do with one another? Couldn’t it still be possible that when we make a decision to do something we are still filling some kind of purpose that we are meant to carry out? And these decisions that we make occur out of natural necessity, as Hume stated?

 

You postulate that...

a) a landslide occurs to maintain equilibrium on Earths surface (how you got that I have no idea since the Earths surface is nowhere NEAR smooth) and fulfill laws of gravity. However, this is a reaction to natural effects, not an action.
b) a flowers purpose is to give oxygen for animals and be food for animals. Thing is, early organisms were anaerobic and did not eat plants. So what purpose was it serving then?

If I'm reading you correctly then thats basically similar to one of my first posts in this thread... who knows? Maybe my purpose is to play devils advocate and get everyone thinking.

 

a) Under the earth's surface(near the bottom of the upper mantle) lies the asthenosphere where isostasy takes place - where the weight of everything on top must be equal on that layer. Yet how can you have similar weight across all of this since the earth is not smooth? The density is not equal from rock to rock. As well, due to gravity's effect on slopes they must maintain a constant slope of between 33 and 38 degrees, and landslides occur to compensate for steeper slopes. If the earth's surface is more dense on one part of the asthenosphere, nature uses negative feedback mechanisms to make them balanced. One thing affects the other, a constant conjunction of events occurs to keep this balance.

b) The question is, what purpose will it serve them? As plants and animals evolved this purpose unfurled.

 

Oh come on, you're making it seem like natural processes are being guided by a sentient force. What's the purpose of gravity? It has none, its the natural result of things. I doubt anything occuring naturally in reaction has purpose... It's not like a magical woman called upon her planeteers to, say, distribute the AIDS virus. And if she did I bet it was that little South American nancy with his "heart" power. What the hell was that anyway?!

Edit: It's not that landslides occur to maintain balance; its that balance can't be maintained and it drops.

Cart before the horse. Animals and plants evolved to capitalize on new resources, not to be nice to each other. Thats why plants develop things like thorns - to prevent being eaten.

 

Well yes, it would be wrong to argue that it's impossible for there to be minor purposes made for humans. I agree with that entirely, actually, for while at this moment the only thing I can think of that humans do to help is reproduce, and honestly that does much more for the humans then it does for the enviornment.

Actually (this may be getting a bit off topic here...) humans seem to be harming the universe more then helping it. Overpopulation is causing a vast selection of forests to be demolished, and the issues of pollution and global warming are growing more pressing every day. Animals are probably killed after losing their habitats (due to our need for houses), and humans are celebrating because they made a bomb or went to see the moon, most of them ignorant to the growing natural catastrophes around them. It can't be our purpose to make things worse, can it? Sure technology is greater now then during the era of the dinosaurs, but the world in general may have been a better place when they were around.

Back on topic...

Yes, we probably do have miniscule purposes, but my statement before wasn't only referring to human purposes in general (though the way it was worded it certainly seemed that way, so I apologize). I was referring to the purpose of.... everything, actually. Galaxies, solar systems, us, our dogs, universes, anything! Why is any of it here?

It may not be something we as humans were meant to know, as there are forces greater then ourselves (possibly anyhow..), and those forces may have purposely kept a truth from us. *shrug* We can only guess...

 

Personally, I believe that the purpose for humans existence on this planet is to learn as much as we can, expand our conciousness, and through that eventually gain complete oneness with the cosmos.

I don't think it is something that all can achieve in a lifetime, so we return many times to work on our path to enlightenment. So, I don't worry to much about dying. It's not that I want it to happen anytime soon since there a many more things I'd like to do. :anime:

I guess the best way I can describe my view of the universe is a dream world in which dream our lives. It is everchanging, and as endless as our imaginations.

 

i think we exist to live life to do what we want to do and be free to be us.
you shouldn't we exist

 

I just don't think there is a purpose, you can make your own if you want, or you don't have to at all.

 

The purpose of existance? There is no purpose. If there was a purpose to existance, then existance would have existed before this previously defined existance to give the purpose, thusly nulling the theory of the 'purpose of existance'. If you chase that tail, it will go to infinity. Better to accept that there was no purpose, that it happened as all things do over an infinite amount of time. Anything is possible over infinite time, as quantum dictates. Existance is also possible in this way, blinking in from no where, without a cause.