The purpose of life throughout the animal kingdom is only to avoid death for as long as possible. As human beings who are consciously aware of just how futile an exercise that ultimately is, nature has given us other reasons for playing the pointless game. Religion is, in my opinion, also a part of that.
Not quite, otherwise we wouldn't observe extreme cases of seemingly selfish acts of altruism that lead to death at times. It's mostly to pass on as large a proportion of your genes as possible. My question is though, why can’t we just live for the sake of it without the nagging necessity of an ultimate or even temporary purpose? Religion definitely provides many of us with a ready made narrative regarding our purpose so that we don't have to face the challenge of finding it for ourselves.
Same Jema, I think about it too. Back in one of my classes we were talking about Lacan's theory of the womb, where babies' needs of warmth and food and safety are all met. Then we are born and it's taken away from us and no matter what we do, we'll never get back to that stage of safety. We are seeking something that no longer exists. Idk that lesson always stuck with me and rang true.
Interesting. Never heard of that theory before.
Although i do have a goal of moving out of my parents house and live on my own with a job, after that then maybe i will consider the next goal to aim for. It sounds pointless but thats the only way i can keep living i guess.
Perhaps, but my point is that you, much like the rest of us, only follow that line of thought/logic because of the way you were raised. I want you to now imagine that you were never introduced to that way of thinking. How different would your life be? Would it be different at all?
Of course it's possible. It's my standard assumption.
Well, you’re probably the only one then
Fill us in, how’sit working for ya?
No, because humans are aware of their demise, its like our ego doesn't want to accept mortality. I remember even as a child when people talked of eternal paradise, eternal bliss...I always thought "for living such a short existence? do we deserve such a place?"
I’m not denying my mortality. I fully accept it. In fact, I would argue that acknowledging our mortality is what gives our lives meaning. My issue is that we NEED to derive meaning from an external entity whether it’s God or coffee. All of us (but Os up there) think that life has a point and some of us spend our whole lives trying to find out what that is. Why? Why is it necessary for us to assume that life has a point? Why do we need reasons to live? Are we not able to live otherwise? I think we could (exhibit A: Os).
What I meant in my original post is that because we deem purposeless lives unworthy we create the hunt for purpose. The whole system perpetuates this struggle, and in my opinion, creates more frustration and suffering. If we were to rid ourselves of that, I think we’d be happier. Those of us who are driven enough to still search for it won’t be robbed of much, but the rest of us (i.e. me) don’t have to constantly face the fear of never finding it. As for eternal paradise, it is merely the poorly thought out fiction of greedy mortals.
Don't ask what is the point of life. Instead ask, what would satisfy you? And is it within your power to have?
The problem is I don't know what would satisfy me. Asking that question is just a different way of asking what the point of life is. It just makes it more personal. This pretty much sums it up:
If we didn’t need reasons to live, rather if we weren’t taught that we did, we wouldn’t be so damn miserable for not finding any. We wouldn’t give up on life when we realise we have nothing to live for because that necessity wouldn’t exist. I dunno, it’s probably a stupid cop out on my part. I guess I’m just personally so tired of trying to find something I’m passionate about, or a good reason to stay alive that I’d like to entertain what life would be like if I didn’t have to do that - if I could be content with life as it is. Meh. Or maybe I’m just lazy and want to shift the blame onto society instead of getting off my ass to explore the world and myself and find satisfaction on the way.
Topic: Do you sometimes wonder....