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What is the purpose of life?

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14 April 2022, 09:19 PM
Daniel
What is the purpose of life?
Not the meaning, the purpose, in your opinion?
14 April 2022, 11:53 PM
BeeLady
Learn, Love, spread joy, help those in need...give hugs.


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"Wealth is like manure; spread it around and it makes everything grow; pile it up, and it stinks."
MillCityGrows.org

15 April 2022, 06:11 AM
jon-nyc
I’m not sure if the universe has a telos but evolution does and it’s reproduction.


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If you think looting is bad wait until I tell you about civil forfeiture.

15 April 2022, 07:50 AM
Daniel
jon, I guessed your possible answer. Lol.

BL, your answer is certainly commendable.
15 April 2022, 10:18 AM
CHAS
I prefer Beelady's answer, but see more evidence of jon's being the case.


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Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.

15 April 2022, 02:01 PM
markj
The purpose of life is what we have evolved to become. Which is very simply the evolution of the universe to a point where it gets to sit back in a lazy chair, contemplating itself.
15 April 2022, 05:55 PM
Mary Anna
The rational part of me knows that Jon is right. The more romantic part of me thinks that we are also here to experience the universe.

In other words, we are here for the ride. Carl Sagan said, "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself," and I like that very much. I'm not sure why the universe should know itself. It certainly doesn't seem necessary, but hey. We're here. We might as well look around.

Since we're here, and since suffering is a real thing, Beelady's thought that we should love, spread joy, and help those in need speaks to the notion that we're all in this together. I think we as humans value kindness and love for good reasons.


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Mary Anna Evans
http://www.maryannaevans.com
MaryAnna@ermosworld.com

15 April 2022, 07:01 PM
kluurs

15 April 2022, 08:35 PM
CHAS
No doubt there is a Star Trek episode that answers the question.


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Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.

16 April 2022, 04:04 AM
Axtremus
No one says anything about calculating the question to the answer 42?

Where is dol?


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www.PianoRecital.org -- my piano recordings -- China Tune album

16 April 2022, 09:17 AM
Mary Anna
quote:
Originally posted by CHAS:
No doubt there is a Star Trek episode that answers the question.


I've heard it said that everything Roddenberry wrote had one of two plots.

The Enterprise finds God, and God is:

a) A machine

b) A child


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Mary Anna Evans
http://www.maryannaevans.com
MaryAnna@ermosworld.com

16 April 2022, 12:54 PM
piqué
i think that depends on whether you are asking about higher purpose or lower purpose.

lower purpose is to reproduce, control, dominate.

higher purpose is to self-actualize so that we can elevate human nature to a higher plane of existence. one in which people everywhere are secure in the knowledge of their own stardust beingness, as mary anna alluded to, and act accordingly--from a place of understanding that we are all the same.


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fear is the thief of dreams

16 April 2022, 06:36 PM
Steve Miller
Dunno, but I do know this:

“Life is short. Eat dessert first.”


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

18 April 2022, 03:30 AM
jon-nyc
“The purpose of life” seems to ask for something universal, not even specific to humans.

But if we restrict the question to an ‘ought’ rather than an ‘is’, and talk specifically about people than I think it is summed up nicely by Horace Mann.

“Be ashamed to die before you have won some victory for humanity”.

This is pretty lofty though, and only a small minority will achieve it depending on how you define ‘victory for humanity’.


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If you think looting is bad wait until I tell you about civil forfeiture.

18 April 2022, 09:04 AM
Mikhailoh
Victories are small, but cumulative. If everyone does something, and I think most people who can do, we all benefit in the aggregate.


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"A mob is a place where people go to get away from their conscience" Atticus Finch