What is the Purpose of Life ?

[iNow]

I believe the correct response would’ve been: define “love.”

[Intoscience]

Why does there have to be a purpose? Which by I mean - a fundamental purpose. Purposes can be assigned and not necessarily intrinsic to existence.

But if we insist on assigning a purpose to life then,

My favourite idea is that, the ultimate purpose of life is to evolve so that the universe can experience and wonder on itself. 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Intoscience

[studiot]

10 hours ago, Ferrummageticium said:

 

Please show me proof of other life forms not experiencing love please to validate your reply if you could. ill be waiting a long long time i am betting

 

10 hours ago, TheVat said:

Zapatos,  poor sod,  has never witnessed the passion of earthworms mating and the forbidden love between a toad and a cat,  the love that dare not speak its name.  From the humble paramecium and its many paramours, to the literate and steamy sonnets of the witty dolphin, the biome is drenched in love!   

Waiting a long time ?

Only till my response.

What 'love' do you thing a single celled organism experiences  and where does that 'love' come from ?

 

3 hours ago, Intoscience said:

Why does there have to be a purpose? Which by I mean - a fundamental purpose. Purposes can be assigned and not necessarily intrinsic to existence.

But if we insist on assigning a purpose to life then,

My favourite idea is that, the ultimate purpose of life is to evolve so that the universe can experience and wonder on itself. 

 

Perhaps your are right there is no purpose, but I like your idea of hedging one's bets when we simply don't know the answer. +1

Edited October 20, 2021 by studiot

[Ferrummageticium]

Heres your cookie Zapatos! good job! you validated yourself with only proving that some species do not love....maybe? Seems to me that data on Love between species with lower functioning nervous systems may be a bit hard to test on such a subjective interpretation maybe yes? clearly to validate yourself true you will have to explain WHAT love is in its fullest and then explain why a jelly fish doesnt feel that emotion at all, bc couldnt it be possible that experiencing love for one species may be interpreted differently from another species especially when the tools for this measurement dont exist? and if no is your answer then why not?

13 hours ago, zapatos said:

Love is a complex mental function, which has been found to interact with other mental functions, such as memory ( Alea & Vick, 2010 ), attention ( Langeslaq et al., 2014 ), perception such as taste ( Chan et al., 2013 ), and reasoning ( Weber & Lehman, 2005 );

while this may be a possible explanation and only and explanation and possibly not fact for what love is for OUR species, does that apply to all other species exactly the same? And if so prove that to me if you would!

Edited October 20, 2021 by Ferrummageticium

[TheVat]

Would just like to say to whoever zeroed out my plus one:

My post was entirely in jest, a bit of gentle satire, nothing more.   Perhaps some need an emoji to guide them?   

[zapatos]

29 minutes ago, TheVat said:

Would just like to say to whoever zeroed out my plus one:

My post was entirely in jest, a bit of gentle satire, nothing more.   Perhaps some need an emoji to guide them?   

I've been looking for some bacteria love stories on Amazon! 😄

[studiot]

8 hours ago, zapatos said:

I've been looking for some bacteria love stories on Amazon! 😄

+1

[TheVat]

13 hours ago, zapatos said:

I've been looking for some bacteria love stories on Amazon! 😄

Hahaha!   Amoebazon is also good.   

[mistermack]

All this talk of love being the purpose of life is baloney. 

As I said before, the PURPOSE is to reproduce your genes. Love is just part of the mechanism to achieve that.

Saying that love is the purpose of life, is like saying that the purpose of a car is it's steering wheel. 

[dimreepr]

1 hour ago, mistermack said:

All this talk of love being the purpose of life is baloney. 

Saying that love is the purpose of life, is like saying that the purpose of a car is it's steering wheel. 

Indeed, I'm surprised you get that, given your first sentence???

Quote

As I said before, the PURPOSE is to reproduce your genes. Love is just part of the mechanism to achieve that.

The purpose is to live first, ask question's later...

It's just so much nicer, "with a little love in your life"... 😉

[mistermack]

13 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

It's just so much nicer, "with a little love in your life"... 😉

It can be, but not always. Ask Romeo and Juliet.

[dimreepr]

Just now, mistermack said:

It can be, but not always. Ask Romeo and Juliet.

That's life... 😉

[zapatos]

32 minutes ago, Jacobthomas345 said:

we are all aware of our purpose

Not me.

[Phi for All]

46 minutes ago, Jacobthomas345 said:

Giving my children a good life is my primary purpose in life.

Defining "a good life" seems like the purpose of life. 

21 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Not me.

You think, and you know things. And you're a big grandkid pillow.

 

[zapatos]

11 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

 And you're a big grandkid pillow.

 

 What a lovely metaphor! 🙂

(I don't know what is happening but every time I try to upvote your post it shows up as a nasty red down vote. Well, here's a verbal +1. 😄)

Edited March 10, 2022 by zapatos

[beecee]

1 hour ago, Jacobthomas345 said:

Our lives are wonderful blessings, 

Life is an accident of evolution. 

1 hour ago, Jacobthomas345 said:

 and we are all aware of our purpose, but we often forget this purpose. 

To live, love and be happy, free from suffering and pain, as much as is humanly possible. I aim to live forever; so far I'm doing OK.

[Arete]

You are all wrong. I thought it was common knowledge that the answer is 42 and am disappointed in you all. 

[beecee]

1 hour ago, beecee said:

Life is an accident of evolution. 

To live, love and be happy, free from suffering and pain, as much as is humanly possible. I aim to live forever; so far I'm doing OK.

On a more serious personal note:

(1) Know yourself....Discover yourself....The truth will set you free.

(2) Live for the moment. 

(3) Embrace discomfort before it overwhelms you.

(4) Be kind, be assertive, be humble but not weak, be respectful to those that deserve it.

(5) While life is an accident, it is also a gift; Live it to the fullest and the best according to your capabilities.

 

Happiness and maintaining and adhering  to a strict life philsophy, very rarely go hand in hand. I prefer happiness to following any particular brand of life philsophy.

(something I read somewhere, sometime)

 

[joigus]

Purpose is indistinguishable from the illusion of purpose.

[naitche]

On 10/20/2021 at 6:52 PM, Intoscience said:

 Purposes can be assigned and not necessarily intrinsic to existence.

What if the purpose is to express your existence,  as you believe Humanity should?

Humanely.

Edited April 3, 2022 by naitche

[mistermack]

The purpose of life is . . . .

 

It's better than the alternative. 

So far, anyway. 

[Qilin]

The purpose of life in my opinion is to make experiences. As many and as diverse as possible. In other words, and since you requested very few words: The purpose of life is to live it.

[Phi for All]

!

Moderator Note

Apparently the purpose of life is commercial spam. Posts have been removed via spammer bans.

 

[M.Ross]

I think purpose of life depends on the frame of reference.

The more we level down, the more meaning there is. Cosmically we are insignificant. In our small family groups and by ourselves, we find meaning in many things.

Also religion, spirituality or lack thereof play a part. If you don't believe in anything after death, there is little meaning to living other than the continuation of the species (o your family line). But that is only relevant in the local frame. Aliens on a planet 8 billion LY away don't really care if we exist or not.

 

 

[mistermack]

2 hours ago, M.Ross said:

But that is only relevant in the local frame.

And only relevant in the local time era. Genghis Khan probably has the most descendants ever. But now, those descendants probably have about 1% of his genes. (wild guess, can't be bothered to research it).

So basically, if you want life to have a meaning, you have to invent one.