Purpose of Life

[Truthspeaker]

Looking for 3 separate Agnostics or Atheists to kindly answer these questions for me and help me complete my English Paper:
1. What is the purpose of life?
2. If your answer to question 1 is universal for all living things, then why do you believe this way?
3. If your answer to question 1 depends on the individual or species of life, please explain why?
4. If you do not know the answer to question 1, is it important for you to know? If yes or no, why?
5. Are there more purposes in life than one? Please explain.
6. How have you come to your conclusion on this answer?
7. Where did you learn of your belief on the purpose of life?
8. Which person, living or dead, has influenced you the most to believe the way you do?
9. What is your belief on the purpose of life for humans compared to all other living things?
10. What advice would you give to help others seeking the purpose of life?
11. What, if anything, could be more valuable than knowing the purpose of life in its entirety?

 

[Politico]

1. What is the purpose of life?

No one knows.

 

[Truthseeker420]

There is no purpose of life. There is no beginning or ending to life, the universe or time.

 

[Tank]

 

[hjmick]

Why do people think there has to be a purpose to life?

 

[Coloradomtnman]

Looking for 3 separate Agnostics or Atheists to kindly answer these questions for me and help me complete my English Paper:
1. What is the purpose of life?
2. If your answer to question 1 is universal for all living things, then why do you believe this way?
3. If your answer to question 1 depends on the individual or species of life, please explain why?
4. If you do not know the answer to question 1, is it important for you to know? If yes or no, why?
5. Are there more purposes in life than one? Please explain.
6. How have you come to your conclusion on this answer?
7. Where did you learn of your belief on the purpose of life?
8. Which person, living or dead, has influenced you the most to believe the way you do?
9. What is your belief on the purpose of life for humans compared to all other living things?
10. What advice would you give to help others seeking the purpose of life?
11. What, if anything, could be more valuable than knowing the purpose of life in its entirety?

1. To find meaning AND purpose to one's own existence. This is individual and universal. The reasons why are that as a species, it is in the nature of human beings to perceive and attempt to find patterns and/or order in behavior and in experience. It is part of human nature to find pleasure beyond just the senses, beyond the intellect, and beyond personal aspiration. To seek meaning for their actions, direction, and lives.

6. & 7. I came to this conclusion when I contemplated morality. Many wonder from where do atheists get their morality. I wondered the same. That thought for a long time bothered me. For without morality, there is chaos, life has no value. The conclusion I came to was that for a life to have value beyond nihilism, hubris, and hedonism one needed to find meaning in their lives; to have a purpose for their own existence - not a purpose from an external source such as God, but a purpose one gives oneself.
For example, let's say that as an atheist I think there is universal purpose to life, that life is meaningless, that there are no eternal consequences for misdeeds, and that existence is only the here and now. So I rob, cheat, steal, rape, and murder to please my senses, to succor my ego, to rise up above others, to deny that life is difficult and suffering inherent in this universe. Then I die. I will be remebered in infamy and there would have been no point for my existence. I only added to the suffering of others and I denied my own human nature which is to find order, to seek happiness, to love and be loved, and to have a direction or purpose for my activities.

8. I couldn't say who influnced me the most in this. Maybe Robert Pirsig, Kant, Nieztche, Royal Robbins... I have never read of this perspective. I only stumbled on it alone after months of suffering, depression, and contemplation.

9. Huh?

10. Think, analyze, educate yourself, read, have experiences beyond the mundane: I was an extreme climber and long distance hiker, I'm a former active duty Marine, I surfed, I read philosophy and physics, all of this and some near death experiences (not the comatose walk into the light kind but almost dying while climbing) all lead me to perceive that my life can have more purpose than hedonism and ego.

12. Depends on the person I guess. For me purpose is the most valuable thing one can have - with it comes all the experiences of life magnified and more: a fulfillment of the human condition.

 

[westwall]

I believe the answer is 42...

 

[g5000]

Life is a gift, and it is to be treated accordingly. The purpose is to live in gratitude and enjoy it, for that is why it was given to you.