The Point of Life - Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology

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Noteworthy
Sophyphile

Registered: 10/05/08
Posts: 5,599
Last seen: 11 years, 2 months

The Point of Life

#11344227 - 10/29/09 09:48 AM (14 years, 5 months ago)

Ok so this is the latest and greatest perspective on the Point of Life.

The point to something is considered the reason for it being so. The point of something is determined by the agent that makes it so. If something happens accidentally, or without any agent's determination, then it cannot be said to have a point. So whenever an agent does something/controls the world to be a certain way (these phrases have the same meaning), the 'motive of that agent' is the 'point of that action/event'. This is an a-priori truth. For every action that comes from a motive, an event occurs that has a point.

So if I ask about the point of life, I might mean the point of life overall, or the point of 'my life'. I might be wondering about the point of humanity, or I might be wondering what is the point of all the things that I have done in my life/continue to do/may do one day?

So as for the point of life in general, you might think it is a false question, if you believe that the universe came into being without any thinking agent.
If you believe that life was devised for a reason, then we must ask: how would we work out the answer to this question? If we stumble across a design, we can tell, perhaps, that it was designed (I dont personally agree with this argument, but many people are affected by it so I will entertain the notion). How do we tell what the design is for? Well it might be obvious, for example, if we found a clock, because we all know what a clock is. Intrinsic to our understanding that something was designed, usually, is our understanding that it has a known purpose. But it is obviously common to find things that have unknown uses whilst being clearly, designed.
Now, the agent of life, do they leave much indication of the purpose of their action? What do we know of their motive? Well, nothing, unless we chose arbitrarily to take one person's word over another. Islam or Mayan? mmmHard choice...
So we can look at the design and see if we see any function or place in a larger scheme of designs.
Look!
Humanity.
Theres a fine design.
What is the point of them?

Indigenous peoples all across the world tell us that they understand their purpose to be, to take care of the natural environment, and to live in harmony with it. They seem to be doing this. They develop strong social bonds and use their hands for all kids of manipulations, and exist at the top of the food chain. However, they can eat everything, and so they appreciate all levels of the ecosystem. They dance, make art, and create new patterns of behavior in all of the spheres of their life. They often have periods of comfortable living and thus have time to think about many things that are not to do with survival. The point of their actions may be anything. Their point in the larger scheme of things however is often as a social group that is prey to everything, due to its constant creative behavior.

Humans are very effective though and after a certain point began creating their own environments, and detatching themselves from the ecosystem. They develop new technologies, art, and civilisation.

Modern civilisation. They are reproducing at astonishing rates due to medicine and peace. They require more and more resources and have less and less by the year. They engage in a range of behaviors to entertain eachother, attain power, and provide food, in their own artificial ecosystems.

They do so many things for so many reasons, and yet, they stop, and wonder, 'what is the reason for it all?'. As if the reasons they had were not good enough. Well of course, that is because sometimes the reason we do things is to stay alive. What is the reason to stay alive?

Well I would assume it is.. to be able to fulfil more motives.. to be able to acheive more things for more numerous reasons.

But what about life in gggeneral? Well life in general.. we are expanding our reign towards ultimate doom. Hmm is that our purpose? Maybe that is not what we were meant to be doing? Let's ask other cultures that arent plagued by this growth and construction disease: "Ya you are meant to live in harmony with the earth"

Well its damn to late for that! humanity as a whole has fucked up there. If there was a thoughtful agent of life, and the intention of humanity was to live in harmony with nature, we have failed that purpose. So the agent is clearly not perfect, and thus our own imperfections can be justified.
But assuming the thoughtful agent of life was perfect, then whatever we are doing would have to be our point. Seems like Our point then is to keep doing what we are doing.

And this just brings us to the question: what is the point of the things we do?
Anyone can ask this question, be they non-spiritualists/atheists, or spiritualists/believers.

And we can give answers to many of them. I tied my shoe so that there was a lower chance of them ending up in such a way that I would trip over. I went to work so that I could keep my job and thus secure pay, and I get this pay so that I can choose from the options in society. I avoid certain things so that I can stay alive. For example, I avoid jumping off bridges or driving off piers into the ocean or eating brightly coloured berries in a foreign field. I want to stay alive so that I can keep doing things in order to attain enjoyment or contentment.

A lot of people spend so much time working towards things they don't understand the point to though. They work towards getting lots of money, for example, or fame. And they tally up what they are gaining and they are rising the ranks but in the end they don't know what the point of living is for. And so they might ask religion: I managed to buy a second car.. but... what is the point of it all?

Or perhaps they are struggling to get a job, or trying to get through school, and theyre wondering 'what is the point?'. This is a valid question indeed. But then people give answers 'the point is so that you can get a job' or 'so that you can earn money' etc. This of course is not really the reason. The reason you get a job is so that you have the opportunity to acheive other things with the money you earn.

And so the point of everything you do is to attain enjoyment and contentment (for yourself or for loved ones), or to secure yourself the opportunity to do so in the future.

The point of life as a whole is either:
Not meant to be known
whatever we are doing at the moment
Or something else.

If it is something else, how are we meant to know what it is without arbitrarily picking a religion?
Well we can look to indigenous people, living most primitively, and thus closest to the way humans have always existed. They are living in harmony with the earth. So you can take that as a source of purpose for your actions, if you can understand that it is important to preserve the earth.

And otherwise? Well.. Make it up! You can't possibly be expected to read god's mind. If you are non-spiritualist, then it doesnt really matter what you do, does it? so at least if you make it up, then you get to decide the point of your existance!

And otherwise, you can just follow society and be a part of the giant system that rapes the earth. In this case, it is at least important to use the system to one's own ends, and not just be part of other people's schemes.

ps. I actually spoke to God, or my spirit guide, or heaven's tech support, or whatever it was, once. It told me that the point of life was simply to love eachother, and that human ambitions and intelligence was only good if it helps to acheive love, in the end.
Eventually the DMT wore off... But at any rate my objective in life waspreviously to use my ambition and intelligence to acheive great things. I am not an all-loving person, but this way I see the greatest acheivement as being to unite the world more. So I can just keep doing what I'm doing, and still abide by God's personally gifted Law.
:billymaythumbup:

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Edited by Noteworthy (10/29/09 03:12 PM)

Extras:

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