The Purpose Of A Humans Life?

The purpose is to be happy,and help to make others happy.Make peace with your demons and find some occupation sympathetic to your abilities.Believe in your dreams and try to stay out of too much trouble,because I've got into plenty and it has certainly held me back.I think if there is a God he has enough trouble as it is,so I don't bother him or blame him.


Things turn out in funny ways sometimes.I had bought all the makings to set up a nice little home studio soon after which I had a very paranoid period so I sold all my gear for peanuts.It was a shame and I would dearly love to have that gear now but my commitment to recording has rarely been so high.Just want to forget as much as possible the whole history of rock'n'roll and let go and explore.I just so greatly hope my life path allows me the time and opportunity to pursue this adventure.Music is my God.

 

Good question. I think they have the same purpose.

 

God's will is to perpetually have us wondering if he exists or not.

 

Trouble with god's will is that it is very easy to actually do just what you feel like and say it's god's will. History furnishes countless examples of such things. At one time, people were convinced that doing god's will involved burning witches for example.

Some today believe god's will consists in shooting dead anyone who draws a comical picture of their prophet.

 

Do you think the church started hunting and burning witches because the people behind it who started that shit sincerely believed it was God's will, BB? I think it is at least as plausible that it came forth from a very human dislike and just because they felt it clashed/was incompatible/went against what their (very human) organized religion had made of it. It is more of a thing from those times and that society and what you can get in a society with uneducated pepole when state and church are not seperated for a long time. The same can be said about those preachers in Nigera who are actively after gays and also still condemn and punish people as witches. It appears that it is not so much the trouble with God's will, it is the trouble with uneducated people getting indoctrinated by biased fundamentalists.

 

That's my point though - that people will claim that whatever they want to do for their own reasons is then said to be god's will, and that gets accepted by the general population. Witch burning is a good example. I don't know why they did it, other than some hatred of women perhaps, and to instil fear, but it's undeniable that at one time people did believe that witches were a threat. The idea was put into them by religious authorities who claimed to be doing god's will.

And how else would ignorant and superstitious people react than to accept that what god's representatives told them was the truth?

After they flogged the guy in Saudi recently the crowd all shouted 'Allah akbar!' They'd just witnessed a spectacle that should be abhorrent to anyone with any human feeling. But because they've been convinced by religious authorities that it's god's will, they 'harden their hearts' to quote a phrase.

I know these are extreme examples, but we live in a world where religious extremism is evidently alive and well.

 

Yes, but every time I analyze that I come to the conclusion the trouble is more religious extremism and lack of education/ignorance, not the supposedly will of God on itself.

 

OK, but I think the problem is (assuming for a moment that god exists) how can we know what god's will is? The standard reply is that the Bible or some other scripture tells us all we need to know. But it's always open to interpretation.

I know that most modern western, or European at least, Christians think it's something along the lines of living a good and moral life, trying to help others and so on. And it's tempting to say that's harmless enough.
The trouble is, even the most liberal of Christians is still stuck with a book which details (deuteronomy etc) the exact human rights abuses demanded by god's will, even if they say that belonged to a previous dispensation.And even in the NT there's a lot of stuff we find unacceptable today.

 

We can't know that with 100% certainty but that doesn't seem to (have to) be the problem. The problem is certain people abuse this or let it mislead them. Again, when that is done it seems to be an issue of biased fundamentalism (the people who try to convince others that it is so) and ignorance/uneducated people (the ones that get indoctrinated).

They're not 'stuck with it' if it doesn't cause any problem for sensible/educated or liberal christians. If it is not a problem for them that their holy book (which does not dictates them what to do) contains some controversial lines from 2000 (NT) years ago. They seem to accept their holy book for what it is.

Just because it is the most important book in their religion does not mean the contents cause them or their belief system to clash with reality. It used to be the case for the majority in the past (when reality was often perceived differently and with less certain knowledge than now, and when people were consistently taught a specific view how to interprete it), and it still is for uneducated or maybe even insincere believers in countries like Nigeria or areas like the bible belt, but it seems not to be the case for most modern believers that are just as informed and up to date about and in tune with reality as you and me.

 

I think that if people say that the purpose of life is to do god's will, then its essential they should know what that will is.

Obviously it's easy for uneducated and superstitious people to be misled by those with political or other agendas.

I'm not sure its right to say that the Bible doesn't dictate what people should do. It certainly dictates that they believe in god and Jesus, and by implication, a whole set of other things.
It also contains many moral injunctions. I can't see what's left of christianity if you take away the Bible. Equally, I can't see how people can be comfortable with a book that contains so many negative things and whose values seem distant from those we commonly accept in modern society.

 

What I said is: it doesn't dictate THEM what to do. This is not based on wishful thinkng, it is based on observation and experience with those people in reality. I am not saying this to distort what you say through semantics, I really think it doesn't dictate modern christians what to do. It just looks like that when you do not focus on the text. When you look at reality to the people and actions who do say themselves they are dictated to do that stuff by the bible than it seems more an issue of.... well I explained that already But this seems a key element in people condeming organized christianity as a whole. It is by stereotypical associations though, and not objective looking or willing to take notice of these actual christians and their actions/thoughts.

I agree, when it is an assumption or a belief it is worthwile to point that out. And when people proclaim it to be an objective certainty it is worthy to point out that is not certain at all. When I say God's will is for us to experience life (which is our purpose imo) it is just what I am inclined to believe It seems fairly logical and reasonable to me too but that doesn't make it an absolute fact or something.

 

The trouble with what you're saying is that you talk about 'modern christians' as if that was a general group, but in fact there are many different shades. I guess you are talking about modern European protestants.

If you believe in god, then saying his will is for us to experience life is obviously a safe bet.

 

Well, that shouldn't be the problem at all.

I talk about all christians in this day that are just as pragmatic and reasonable as you. Not just european protestants but it is true I have the most experience with them. There are some very unreasonable protestants here too. It is just that the unreasonable ones are often perceived as the majority or typical christian, while I am always emphasing on what you say there too: it is just one part of many and to say God's will is the problem/main issue seems plain incorrect, as there are more christians talking about that just as reasonable as me than not. So when I say modern christians I don't mean they are all and the same AT ALL On the contrary, I've said many times they and their beliefs are as diverse as those of non christians, and I usually feel like saying that because the a(nti)theists are generalizing too much (I never start coming with it out of nowhere, it's always a reaction)

 

To ask what is the purpose of life is to construct an english sentence which does not have an answer or really a sense. It would be like pointing to a waterfall and saying "who built this?" and expecting a human name as an answer. Purpose is what sentient creatures impart on phenomena after the fact. The universe is, and there is no indication that there is an overriding consciousness guiding it from up above with a predetermined "plan" in place.

This question is anthropomorphization in action. You might as well ask "What is the profession of the universe" or "where will the universe's retirement home be"

 

You guys are so silly to watch bicker. Really, you are. But you're asking entirely the wrong sort of question.

 

Ask us some of the right sort then...

 

I cannot speak for god or anyone else, and would never assume to....but I think the value of anyone's life is to live and let live.

Elodin, I am not much of a people person, either....I can do without most around me.....but I do value certain people.....
and those I love.... I love always.

 

Well there is purpose in the form of function or what a thing is used for or how it behaves. On this basis we can say something of meaning. The evident function of life is to appear, preserve and extend, to occupy space. A functional manifestation of creative process. We as living beings have motive and when we ask the question what is life's purpose we cannot discount the fact that we ourselves are living and are purposeful of mind and functional of being. We can certainly say we find for ourselves as living beings a sense of purpose. As far as anthropomorphism we cannot help but process the environment through our human equipment which I suppose it not the same as personifying phenomena.

 

Life is an unwritten story. You can't say what its purpose is, if any, until the story is through. In the meantime, let's try to make it an exciting adventure!

 

An expression of a personal life's motivation.