Preserved Topic: Why are we here?

What´s the purpose of life?? I have always wondered about what other people think about life itself. Maybe we are God´s pets, maybe we are parasites in a huge universe. But I don´t beleive we life to ascend to a better existence. Freud said that "religion was created by men to fulfill their own emptyness" The purpose of life it´s to find, understand and fill that emptyness. Or maybe worse, we exist only to breed...only to grow our specie. What do you think?? Why are we here??

tissue cultures in a petri dish. we're here for no other purpose than to replicate and die.

I think we r here as a part of a whole (a part of god), to learn how to control our emotions to learn how to love others no matter what, basiclly to learn how to leave aside your human emotions and live in harmony as a part of god, im not saying we r gods, but part of him, like a seadrop is a part of the sea ...same composition but not the sea itself, to learn to love ourselves and b happy with us and all arround us, well that's MY perception of life..., it's like a college we are here lo learn, each of us is unique therefor each of us has different lessons, different experiences, maybe you should ask yourself why are you here for, but ask you what can you do for others now that you are here....

100 lifes

Lala

we're here to protect the Earths water supply til the mother ship returns for us (well for some us that is)

Eat, drink and make Mary! Life is too short to worry about the big things ~Vp~

Well...weren't we all created from part of the left testicle of Blind Io?



Koan 63:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

I thought the purpose of humans was to annoy the crap out of every other human?



-= 'I'm not insensitive...I just don't give a shit =-

I don't think life has any divine purpose. We are born, we live for a couple of years, then we die and our memory is soon forgotten.

The purpose with life is to breed new humans so that they can go through the same (evil?)cycle.



-= Veneficuz =-
"Mundus vult decipi. Ergo decipiatur."

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quote:

---

To me, faith in God is a helper, it gives faith and hope, for free!

---

Technically speaking its not really 'free'. To believe in God, s/he requires a great deal of self sacrifice. Just a thought

[affirmation of my position]
Ethereal Existence, we need food to survive and it exists, we need water and it exists, we need air to breathe and countless other physical properties of the universe to be "just so" to maintain what we call life. In your post you mention a need to fill an emptyness that we all have... and there exists absolutely *nothing* to fill that void?

Whether you, or my other dear friends here, think that God is an invention of mankind is your prerogative. But I think very few would deny that He fills that void pretty darn well, real or not. I think He exists.

I also think that we are here to glorify Him by living to our fullest potential according to the two greatest commandments which are to love God and to love one another just as He loved us. I also hold firm to Christ's promise of everlasting life for those He has called His own.
[/affirmation of my position]


[questions for other positions]
It seems quite clear to me that God has been described differently over the course of human history as mentioned by mobrul. ( http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum17/HTML/000414.html ) But can't that be explained by progressive revelation and/or progressive understanding of God just as readily as concluding God is just an invention of the human mind?

Think about how much work and discipline is required to properly execute the scientific method. Consider how many myths, misconceptions, and outright deceptions there are about our physical universe compared with what we know through science. Do we do ourselves a disservice by expecting any less effort in the search for and understanding of God?
[/questions for other positions]

. . : newThing

[This message has been edited by Bugimus (edited 04-27-2002).]

[in response to questions for other positions]

"...But can't that be explained by progressive revelation and/or progressive understanding of God just as readily as concluding God is just an invention of the human mind?"

(I'm going to start on a sidenote, because my main focus is significanly more important)
"...just an invention" seems like you are dismissing creations of the human mind as being somehow, less powerful, meaningful, real, or important than something not created by the human mind. Perhaps, ...that is most certainly your perogative, and I'll never dismiss your thoughts as being unworthy or somehow less important than mine. Never. You're one of the most intelligent men I've never met, I hold your thoughts in the highest regard.

For the record, however, I'll simply say that was not at all what I meant. god most certainly does exist, most certainly is important, relevant, and meaningful...even if only as a creation of the human mind.
Not intending to start an argument...only meaning to clarify what might not have been put clearly in the post in question.

(now, on to the more important matter...answering the question!)

Absolutely!
100% this phenomonon could be explained by a progressive knowledge of god over time...on one condition.
That is, if one believes in this progressive knowledge theory, one must also be willing to accept the condition that we (as humans) are not done learning about god.

Nobody today has a definative answer on god...only theories. This 'if-you-don't-believe-x-about-god-you-are-going-to-die-and-burn-in-hell' attitude many people have (not pointing fingers at anybody or any group...except those with such attitudes) is contridicory to that 'progressive knowledge' theory. One can't hold both attitudes / theories simultaneously.

I'm happy to accept that theory. Why? Because it allows for the scientific method to work. We study things, we take guesses, we test those guesses, we make conclusions (which are just new guesses) then we study them, then we test them, then we make new conclusions...forever. The whole time openly saying 'this answer may not be correct, but it is the best we can do today...I hope someone comes along tomorrow with a better answer.'

More importantly, it doesn't go against my theory that god is in a serious state of transition right now. (my 'god is a creation of the human mind' theory might be wrong...I don't know)

Gravity has gone through many transitions over time.
Pre-Newton (I don't know what they thought about gravity)
Post-Newton (gravity is a function of mass and distance)
Post-Einstein (gravity now has something to do with time and light...don't ask me the specifics!)
Partical physics (gravity might actually be transmitted in the form of particles called 'gravitrons'...again, don't ask me for specifics.)

Throughout time this thing we call 'gravity' has changed significantly.
The actual reason people stick the ground (and I'm not talking about chewed bubble gum!) hasn't changed...but 'gravity' (that idea humans use to try to understand why we stick to the ground) has changed.

Just like gravity, god has changed, and is changing now.

Some may say this is a matter of semantics.
It's important though, to distinguish between an 'idea' (little i) and an 'Idea' (big I). Plato made a very good point when he distinguished between the two. What we see, or think we see, or pretend to see, is important. It is what is effecting us today. Sure, we always aim to get out of the cave, but we also have to understand and acknowledge the shadows on the wall.

[/in response to questions for other positions]

mobrul

Bugs and mobrul: Interesting points. If science is our torch/flashlight to push back the boundaries of knowledge is God becoming better defined by our investigations into the shadows (like a chair in a darkened room) or is 'God' constantly defined by the absence of explanation (like the shadows are defined by the absence of light)?

I'd go with the latter - mankind's curiousity has, in my opinion, constantly reduced the importance of the role of God(s) from beings who intercede in our affiars on a nearly constant basis to an entity (or entities) who's role may still exist in corners of the room where our torch light can't yet penetrate (e.g. the origin of the Big Bang).

Why are we here? - DL said it and it has been mentioned by musicians before:

Birth, School, Work, Death (the Godftahers)
Mate Spawn & Die (Lard)

There are few things of our lives that live on after we've gone - our deeds and our genes. So lets do something about both those categories!! Make history and babies (not necessarily in that order).

Emps

Thanx, guys, your point of view was very important to me, but i think must of you misundestood what i meant about God. I do beleive in God. i beleive he/she/it is the cause of causes, the motor of motors and the perfect element. I beleive he/she/it is the cause of life itself and i quoted Freud (religion was made by humans...) for reference.

In despite of all of this, im very glad all of you replied at my quote. Thanx bigimus and mobrul

[IMHO] anything beyond what I stated is not *why* we are here, but what we have decided to do with the time inbetween birth, replication, and death.

~shrug~ some call that pessimistic. That confuses me. I don't see anything negative about it all. It's the way of things....life can be quite happy nonetheless.

To be perfectly honest...still sorting that one out. Waiting for all the 'pieces' to come together, so that I have a complete enough picture to draw a conclusion from. I could go into a long, weary explanation of what I mean...but I will spare you all that. It's only important to myself, anyway.

As for God...does it even matter? What if no-one believes in god in 10,000-20,000 years from now? No-one believed in god 30,000-40,000 years ago...apparently, that didn't matter, either.

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Lol!! Gives a whole new meaning to 'when celestial bodies collide...'

Such a difficult question, which I ask myself almost everyday.

Sasha »

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.