Purpose of our existence???

Questions of Life... Purpose of our existence???

What's the purpose of our existence on earth? What is the meaning of us being here? Is there any meaning? Why are we here? What's the point of our lives?

Are we here to live and die and to be forgotten? Do our lives have a purpose? What's the point of waking up tomorrow?

Why live until tomorrow if it will have the same meaning as living 30 years? Or will it have more of a meaning? If there is a meaning, then what is this meaning? Surely we won't be remembered forever. We will just be a breath of the past. Someday after our existence, surely, we will be forgotten. So then what is the point of our existence?

Why are we us?

And even if you say the point of our current life is for an after life, then I want to know what's the point of an after life? What's the point of living forever? Isn’t it selfish and conceited of us to dream of living forever? What's the point of a super happy after life? I thought there is no pleasure without pain. Let’s go with Christianity. So supposedly in heaven it would be a constant feeling of happiness so what would it be more pleasurable than? What would it be better than? You would know that your just going to be happy forever, what's the point in that? Why exist if knowing your just going to be happy and live forever? I see less point in that after life that the current life I’m living now?

At least this life has the goal of an after life. This goal gives us reason to live. It gives us hope and faith that there is better to come. But once we arrive in an after life, then what?

Being human it seems impossible for me to comprehend living an eternity. We, human beings, can't comprehend this seeing as we are only human. We live by time, we live knowing our time is going to run out. So how are supposed to be able to relate to how great an eternity would be? We’re just supposed to hope that it will be great?

Should I even try to comprehend things like this, think of the point of life, or am I just wasting my time? All I want is to find an inner peace, some contentment, to know what’s going to happen when I’m gone, when I die.

So if god really exists, why put us through this earth to then only live forever? Why not just skip earth and put us on heaven? What's the purpose of earth? If Jesus really is our god, then why did god allow us to think? Why didn't he just make us all Christians right off the bat without the ability to reason otherwise? Why does he let other religions such as Islam and Judaism thrive, when he could just make Christianity the only one?

An unthinkable amount of people have died over religious issues. How is a suicide bomber terrorist any worse than a Christian bombing an abortion clinic? Both were driven from their religious views. What's to say a Christian is better than a Muslim. Or should I say who's to say Christians are better than Muslims, not what’s to say. We're all people. No one is better than anyone else. We are not perfect. So why should one go to heaven and the other not, when neither are perfect? So why do Christians act like they deserve heaven more than anyone else? They aren’t perfect, and, surely, Jesus would understand the other religious people aren’t perfect, so shouldn’t Jesus take anyone to heaven?

I'm just a little confused with life at the moment. This post was more of a vent and, although I am looking for answers, I'm not expecting that anyone would actually read through all my ramblings, but, please, try and explain your feelings on this whole issue if you can.

All this got me to thinking….

Ok, well now I think, maybe I'm not supposed to think this much. Maybe I'm just supposed to go with the flow of life. It'd be a lot easier and I’d be a lot happier just to avoid thinking about things like this. I don't know why I do, but I do.

And lately it seems to be on my mind all the time. I here it come up places, I think about it.

It's just killing me hearing things like we all know we're going to die. The unknown is scary. No one knows what is going to happen when we die.

Some people have faith and hopes, and think there is an afterlife. Some think nothing will happen.

NO ONE KNOWS. And that fact is frightening. Everyone has their own views/ideas of what happens when we die, but it's impossible for us to know. It's scary.

Let's say Christianity is right. It's hard for me to imagine that millions upon millions of people (especially in Asia) can be wrong and are going to **** because they aren't Christians. It would be hard for me to imagine if my mom became an atheist that she would go to ****. What a great person she is and yet because she didn't declare her Christianity she can't go to heaven. And yet some murderer, ex convicted rapist, smoking, alcoholic guy will ask for forgiveness and go to heaven? And my dear mother won't?

I would think that if Jesus was so forgiving that anyone could go to heaven? Why exclude people, excluding them for not asking for forgiveness is just as bad as excluding them for sinning, in my opinion. I thought he was supposed to be perfect, and perfect to me would be for everyone to go to heaven.

No human is perfect so we're going to make mistakes. If my mistake is not having Christ in my life, why should I have to pay with eternal damnation? Why won't he forgive me? The best person in the world could go to ****, but yet the worst person in the world could go to heaven, just for asking a few words?

Honestly, I want to be a Christian, I want to believe, I want to find some answers. I want to live a long happy life and believe in god and heaven. The troubling thing is that I don't know if there is an answer set in stone, but I’m looking. I'm just having a lot of trouble putting faith into anything. I wish, more than anything else, that I could put faith in god, and become a Christian, and live a happy life.

Maybe it's because I'm young, cynical, and pessimistic. I hate that I am cynical and pessimistic, and I'm trying to fight it. But it’s so hard to change and I'm trying, but sometimes I don’t know if I’m trying hard enough.

All of this makes me realize that one thing I have to look forward to is the future, because the future has time, and time is what I need to find these answers in my life. I recently got a girlfriend and she is Christian. She has pretty strong faith, but even she said she has questions. She wants me to be Christian, and I want to be Christian. For the both of us it would be the best thing that could happen if I did. It would bring us that much closer, make our relationship that much stronger. And more than anything I want to make that relationship stronger.

This is the longest post I've ever written, and if you've read this whole thing, which I would be surprised if anyone took the time to do, bless you.

Digoy

Plain and simple - we were put on this earth the reproduce and die.

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we were put on this earth the reproduce and die.

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but by whom ?

If I had a satisfactory answer to all those questions I would
be a rich author of "inspirational" books. I had a terrible time
with these issues when I was around 18 years old. Many friends
were totally happy in their lives (or so it seemed to me) while
I was torn between extremes. Coming from the rock and roll
generation, I just wanted to smoke dope and have fun,
but life is short, and we would all like to believe that we
have spent in on things that are good and right.

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And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against
the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him
letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way,
whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto
Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly
there shined round about him a light from heaven

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http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/B..._Apostles.html

Sometimes you envy people who were born and raised in their
religion, and never have a crisis of faith, or people with no religion
who never seem to worry or sweat blood over whether they
are doing the right thing. The most encouraging thing I can say
about your questions is that they are good questions.

You might consider the possibility that it is God himself who
raises these questions, and if God is bothering you, it's not
necessarily a bad thing.
:cool:

If we had answers to all of those questions, then what would be the purpose to continue on?

"Cogito, ergo sum" René Descartes

This is me, sitting on the fence.....

Agnosticism is a concept, not a religion. It is a belief related to the existence or non-existence of God.

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An agnostic is a person who feels that God's existence can neither be proved nor disproved, on the basis of current evidence. Agnostics note that some theologians and philosophers have tried to prove, for millennia, that God exists. Others have attempted to prove that God does not exist. Agnostics feel that neither side has convincingly succeeded at their task.

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Source

I am a diehard cynic/skeptic and until I see unequivocal proof, then I will make a decision...and if it happens that little green men/people/things come down to announce that we are all fruit of their loins, then so be it...cause I for one can't be so arrogant as to think that in this whole universe, we are alone,or we are made in the likeness of some supreme being.

Edit: Digoy, I hope you find what you are looing for, and trust that when you have found it, that you will accept it as part of "your" life, and not try to preach to other's, I respect all people of many faiths who strongly believe in it, but for themselves, I have always wondered why it is that we have to build places for people to worship in, what is wrong with your own homes, why can't this sort of thing be private, between you and your god, why do some evangelists insist on spreading the word to those who don't nescessarily want to listen or swing to another beat???

just my 0.02 censt worth...

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Originally posted here by Digoy
Questions of Life... Purpose of our existence???


An unthinkable amount of people have died over religious issues. How is a suicide bomber terrorist any worse than a Christian bombing an abortion clinic? Both were driven from their religious views. What's to say a Christian is better than a Muslim. Or should I say who's to say Christians are better than Muslims, not what’s to say.

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I'm a Christian and I hate it when someone bombs an abortion clinic, I see them the same as terrorists. In that situation there is no "who's better than who", they're equal, they're both terrorists. I also can't stand that precher down south that thinks these terrible things (i.e. Katrina) happen to heathens.

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No human is perfect so we're going to make mistakes. If my mistake is not having Christ in my life, why should I have to pay with eternal damnation? Why won't he forgive me? The best person in the world could go to ****, but yet the worst person in the world could go to heaven, just for asking a few words?

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I'm a born-again christian and I believe you need Christ in your life because he's the only way into heaven since he died for our sins, this is God forgiving us, he has the capability to forgive everyone, you just have to make the first step. His death is essentially the ultimate sacrifice (this replaces the burnt offerings they did in the OT). You go to hell when you die because you have sin. God is perfect and without sin (so is heaven) and since you have sin you can't enter into heaven (I personally believe in the doctrine that ALL sin is equal). It isn't fair when someone thats "good" dies and goes to hell and some horrible person that "just asks a few words" goes to heaven. Most people I think go to heaven really meant it when then "pray the prayer", I don't think a serial killer is gonna do that on death row 'cause I don't think he/she is thinking about/like that.

I believe what I do because it give me comfort knowing where I'll go when I die. If I'm wrong? I don't think there's anything wrong with living a decent life :D

Is this thread about life, or a critique/criticism on Christianity?

To me, it matters not why or how I ultimately arrived here. I am here--that is all that is relevant in terms of my meaningful existance.

I pursue my dreams, indulge in my passions, and I do as much with as little regrets as I can before I die. What else can a person do?

We live as we all see fit, and I'm content to do exactly that. I don't think any diety has the right to judge me on that. Since I know the possibility of living in eternal youth to absorb all of the world is quite impossible, I'm actually hoping that oblivion is what awaits me at the grave.

The purpose of life is to live your life happy with the way your living it. To go out, not saying " I coulda done that or I shoulda done that". To believe in something. to do something to be remembered by. Dont just live 80 years on this earth and do nothing. do SOMETHING.

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<quote>
we were put on this earth the reproduce and die.</quote>

but by whom ?

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Who cares, just enjoy it. :D
:umph:

1. Drink Beer
2. Fornicate
3. Learn
4. Run minivans off the road
5. Sip Wine

All earthly being and motivation is to achieve my corrupted Maslo theorum.

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And Ye Harm None, Do As Ye Will.
And Ever Mind The Rule Of Three:
What Ye Send Out, Comes Back To Thee.
Follow This With Mind And Heart,
And Merry Ye Meet, And Merry Ye Part.

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My personal theory on living. Life is what it is, analyzing it too much isn't going to change much of it.

rcgreen, I may not agree with it, but I admire your ability to have such faith.

Why does there need to be a purpose?
You exist, deal with it.
Biologically you exist to reproduce and only live long enough to ensure the survival of your offspring. Other than that you're just meat.


If there has to be any sort of meaning then I'm with RC.
Not so sure about #4 though.

Some things are just too coincidental to be explained by science. Some things are beyond our comprehesion. It seems to me we are looking for answers of questions that cannot be answered in this world.

We are looking for complicated answers that are really quite simple. A quite simple answer being that there is a higher being, somewhere, somehow.

Nothing is fact. Tomorrow some scientist, who knows where, could prove Quantum Physics wrong. He could find a new theory. And years later another scientists could find another thoery. And we can keep pretending to find answers, and giving ourself this false comfort.

Some may say relgion is, too, just a false comfort. Something to give reason to things, just as science does. Well, either way you look at, what comfort comes from science about death? Nothing, your just in fear and think you're going to rot in the ground.

From religion? You have hope, faith. You think that there is a better place beyond this world, where we are all destined. And for the worst of us, a worse place to burn an eternity.

There is no loss from believing in a religion. So what if you have a few morals and do end up rotting in the ground? No loss. You lived a good life and were a good person either way. And the people you left behind on this earth will remember you that way.

On another note, how can science explains thing like free will? How can it explain the emotion a human feels? It is so much more than a chemical reaction. I'm not sure on how to elaborate on this, but I hope you get my point.

I think my original post has helped me come closer to what I believe. It was good to reflect on those questions, but I don't think we're supposed to wonder forever. We just have to find what suits us best, what we believe is right, and go for it.

We can worry about being wrong when we are dead. We'll have an eternity to think about it. Whether that eternity is in the ground or if it's in heaven.

Maybe I'll see you guys wherever we end up, and then we can finish this argument.

So until then, god bless.

Digoy

Why does there have to be a higher being?

Just because something is unexplained does not mean it is unexplainable.

Oh boy, here goes!

Dig, I'm no guru, but most my age, have learned through experience. I've had many tribulations in life and at one point fretted about each and every one, almost to a nervous breakdown. Here is the kicker, no matter what it is, if you are true to yourself and in what your beliefs are, whether they be God or as simple as the golden rule, you will do the best you can to resolve everything as they come, what better is expected.

I've been through so many and when they occurred in the past I always wondered how I'd make it through it, but guess what, 20 years later, here I am, happy, content and satisfied I did what I can to do what is considered right and made it though each and every one, so now I don't fret, I just deal with things as they come. I've got this saying I say each time and move on, "It's just one damn thing after another", it always is and always will.

You live in a society, one that we may have not have chosen, but we are part of it, to be successful and thought of as a proper participant, we do what we've been taught and what we believe is ethical, but it is based on that society, same as other society. Life is nothing more than one change after another, our persona dictates on how we perceive these change and how we react. some over react and some act with great composure.

Am I religious, sure I am, but that is between me and my God, how I conduct myself is how I perceive my God and what I believe is expected of me, nothing more, nothing less. Is there an after life, right now, I don't care, I'm not living the after life, I'm here and now, I'll live that first. If there is an after life, I'll worry about it then, if not, will I really know it? Can you be totally honest with yourself, regardless of motivation, some motivations dictate greed, but can you over come them, can you be honest and recognize it.

Will I push my beliefs on you, certainly not. As I've developed into an adult, I've hope that by how I live my life, others would notice. You seem to be in a struggle with your inner self and most of us go through it at some point in our lives.

Getting down the the main questions, "what is the meaning of it all", I honestly believe none of us can tell you, you have to work it out on your own, If I try and explain it or anyone else does and you accept it, you are living their experience, not what your experience drives you though. So many time here at AO we try and help people, but spoon feeding them only provides them with the current answer, not on how to find the answer for them selves, which is far more satisfying.

Feed a man a fish, he eats for a day, give a man a fishing pole and he drinks beer all day.

Simplicity. The purpose of our being is to use our senses to wonder what our purpose is. We can only use the input of what our senses allow.

who knows why we're here
who CARES

we ARE here
so lets try living

I prefer to adopt the philosophy as stated in Moxnix's sig

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO - What a Ride!"
Author Unknown

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And if god IS waiting, I hope he's got plenty of beer on tap
cos I'm a thirsty bunny :D

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And if god IS waiting, I hope he's got plenty of beer on tap
cos I'm a thirsty bunny

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I am sure you have heard the American style country song... In heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here.... and when I'm gone from here, I hope you'll be drinking all the beer." Or something like that. :D

I DO remember the Gillan song

about nothing allowed in heaven
this place is HELL

To quote the Dave Matthews Band

"Eat drink and be merry...for tomorrow were dying"

off of the CD Crash>Tripping Billies

Thats my philosophy ;)

MLF

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Originally posted here by Aspman
Why does there need to be a purpose?
You exist, deal with it.
Biologically you exist to reproduce and only live long enough to ensure the survival of your offspring. Other than that you're just meat.


If there has to be any sort of meaning then I'm with RC.
Not so sure about #4 though.

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Originally posted here by Aspman
Why does there have to be a higher being?

Just because something is unexplained does not mean it is unexplainable.

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Agreed on all points. I exist, not sure why, but I decide if and why I continue to exist--and that's all that matters. Not quite Decart, but I think along the lines of "I exist because I choose to exist, with reasons of my own discretion."

thanks to Dilbert I have dicovered my purpose

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilber...6034070818.gif

I have no idea why we are here, nor do I really care. I am going to live instead of exist. I honestly could give a care WHY we are here, I am just going to try and leave this world better than when I entered it. No I wont save the world, but if I had some small, yet meaningful impact on this planet and its people, then my life was successful.

I honstly don't think that anyone can awnser why we are here. Religion wants us to believe that we are going to be rewarded if we do right, I say who needs a reward ? Just do right.

Being of the belief that all we build, do, or create as a race (the human race that is), is done towards procreation or the practicing of procreative methods, I tend to believe that we are here simply to multiply. We are the virii that infect the world, and as soon as we develop the tech to do it, we'll infect other worlds too.

Why am I here? Oh that's simple. Same reason, plus to have a bit of fun along the way.

Hold on who said you are all here. You may just be a figments of my imagination :eek: :D . I really go more with the biological reasons for being here but I also feel that if we have an overwhelming curiosity about the how and why it is not for nothing.

oh yeah Go Dilbert.........!

Purpose of my existence
Is to be born, reproduce,then die

I did two of the three already so i basicly done

I'm now just wanting for the third

Why are we here, and to do what? Why? Who sent us or created us or why did we crawl out of slime and into a monkey and then into a human? AH, the ages old question of purpose. What is our purpose? This question has probed the minds of millions and I do not believe there is one direct answer. Surely it isn't something so simple as making money and reproducing. But what else is there?