Does life have a purpose? is it simply there to be lived? or is the purpose of life to have no purpose?
or is the purpose of this post to see how many times I can use the word purpose?
Is it to be lived to its fullest, experiencing everything there is to be experienced?
Is it a race to see who can accumulate the most stuff?
Is a sense of success everything?
Where does power fit into the equation?
Is it simply to get by?
What is happiness?
Is life to be used as preparation for some eternal hereafter?
Is it all pointless?
If life has no purpose, then, for me it has no meaning. It all ends the same.
Whether you are slave, a pauper, a billionaire, an average Joe, nothing would matter.
Without an ultimate purpose to life and a continuation thereof in some form all would end when we stop breathing and our hearts cease beating.
Without something else all would be in vain...
Elon Musk's quest for mars...
Motherhood...
Success...
Goals...
Character building...
Pain...
Pleasure...
Happiness...
Sorrow...
Triumph...
I'm an inventor and a product designer. What is the purpose of the things that I invent and design?
I custom-design each of my inventions for a purpose. The purpose of one invention is to link two network nodes together into a cooperative unit. The purpose of another invention is to be a high-resolution infrared touch screen, made for a lower cost and power consumption than its predecessors. The purpose of yet another invention is to produce ionic silver automatically and safely.
I suspect you'll see where I'm going with this. I think that most of us are intellectually honest enough with ourselves to recognize that someone or something invented and designed us. It follows, then, that we would do well to try and discover and fulfill whatever the purpose is that we were designed for. That seems only natural to me.
Two things, nevertheless, amaze me; first, that so many seem to go to such great lengths to deny the obvious, evident truth that I have stated, namely that we are the amazing product of a brilliant designer. Second, that said designer has evidently left us with sufficient autonomy to reason through these matters and choose whether or not to fulfill our purpose, i.e. "free will." 😄😇😄
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I'm with you on this one. Well articulated.
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Thanks for responding, friend @gavvet - I appreciate that you've raised such a fundamental question. I think that it's always valuable to stimulate people into serious thought by raising significant questions! Great work!
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I would express it succinctly with, to love, nurture and manipulate creation for the purpose of achieving our highest potential. We are creators.
I once heard it expressed that the pursuit of excellence was a path to fulfillment, so I would often ask people as I met them, "Are you excelling today?"
They would, of course, look at me like I was an idiot, but I felt that I had implanted the seed of excellence within them. :-D
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Interesting take on excellence.
To destroy is easy, a path of least resistance as we can see by those who choose it.
To create is divine.
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True, speaking from experience I take it.
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Life really has no purpose. In the sense that it doesn't have a built in, inherent purpose, independent of the observer. It takes meaning from you. Your eye is at the same time observer and projector, taking in information and projecting it "forward" based on previous patterns.
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Now we are entering deep waters...
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To love. Like Elon Musk loves building the future, a mother loves her child, a business man loves success, an achiever loves their goals. To love is to know deep happiness and pleasure, but also deep pain and sorrow. It builds character though and you will triumph.
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I saw what you did there... great spin!!!
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Thank you for posting @gavvet. Appreciate the opportunity to contribute to the resulting dialogue from your queries.
Have you ever read Ecclesiastes of the Bible....this was written by Soloman, the wisest man, when he had tried everything in his pursuit of happiness...his conclusion...All is vanity/meaningless without God. He also wrote Proverbs...many wise sayings. Proverbs eight in particular stands out...that life is pursuit of knowledge that God offers mankind. God has a plan for mankind...two issues for mankind in this life.
What think you of Christ? Do you reject or accept Him? He provided the salvation solution on the cross....For God so loved the world (mankind) that He gave His Son, the uniquely born One, that anyone who believes on Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
After accepting the salvation solution of......Faith alone in Christ alone. The query...What think you of the doctrines of the Bible ?
(as taught from the original scriptures by a prepared ICE Paster....ICE standing for isagogical, catagorical, exegetical teacher of the Bible.)
Thank you for giving a hearing to this reply.
Wishing you all the best in your search for the meaning of life.
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First time I have heard of ICE... the rest is very familiar territory.
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The end goal of life is happiness, because is the only thing we want that is not a secondary goal for something else. There are multiple strategies to achieve it, so it is up to the individual to discover the best strategies to accomplish it.
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But... what is happiness?
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Contentment.
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It is one of those things hard to define. My favorite definition is: happiness is the emotional reward for the effort in the pursuit of pleasure.
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...but what if I find pleasure in bashing strangers skulls in, am I happy then?
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Now that is the question. As to how to go about answering it I would say the answer changes based on life around us and what we perceive as important at that moment. So is there a purpose it depends do you have a goal? Do you have something your working to accomplish? Or are you simply spinning your wheels no goal no direction, if so you may feel like life has no purpose.
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Agreed my life's purpose has changed as my thinking has matured.
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Lol really
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It is all of these and more, yet none. It is the choice of the individual, within the parameters of the possible, which is not to be confused with the conceivable.
I think it is also 14.
or at least LUE-U-E=L
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If it takes a week to walk a fortnight, how about a banana | this | color?
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The same exact color as that of a chameleon on a mirror.
How many surrealist painters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
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I have no idea
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A chicken.
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Life in general only has a purpose if you believe some intelligence put it here. I think it's up to you to give your life purpose. If you help others or create something with meaning then you have left a mark, in a good way.
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Nicely put... If we haven't figured out the general purpose, we can still find our own purpose, if I understand what you are getting at.
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The idea that life does have a purpose is relatively new idea, its only about 300 years old. Before the enlightenment and rationalism came about there was no thoughts of this at all, they would have thought you utterly mad to think such things.
It might have a purpose and then again the purpose might be hidden from you. You just can't see it as you are too busy chasing the tyrant god of happiness.
Love is not to be found there.
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Obviously you are understanding correctly baby
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:D Here's a few more options:
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@clains/the-purpose-of-life
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Aah, those were the days... (attack of nostalgia coming on)
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Let be, for all is yet to come. The readiness is.. :D
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I like it. So true. upvoted, resteemed
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thanks
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Life is what you make of it.
Biologically the point of life is to make more life.
Spiritually for some the meaning of life may be serving some higher power.
Actuality it's very much what you've said in this article. I enjoyed it.
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Glad you liked it...
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I have the simple belief that each of us has been created for a purpose and as we go through life and follow God's laws we will fulfill that purpose by using our talents and loving our fellow man. Usually, I feel the purpose is identified as we look back on how events unfolded in our lives.
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