Purpose of Life

Discussion in 'About the Members' started by Hermann, Sep 14, 2005.

  1. Ivan Seeking Registered Senior Member

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    Yes.

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    Nature is all about sex. Sex sex sex. Mother nature is a slut.
     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    What's the purpose of nature?
     
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  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Actually, both cases could very well be.

    The purpose of life is decided by the one with the life.

    deepslate lives to be a good example to others.
    IvanSeeking lives to reproduce.

    QED
     
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  7. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    It's not, "What is your purpose in life?", it's "What is the purpose of life?". These questions are often confused.
     
  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    No, the question is open to interpretation.

    You have chosen to interpret it as meaning all life.

    This is a very weak choice of interpretation, since most rational people would agree that all life does not share a single purpose. (Go ahead, find a rational person that answers the question the way you interpreted it. It will be a simple matter to show that it is a personal, subjective interpretation.)


    Therefore, the only meaningful interpretation of the question is the personal, subjective one.
     
  9. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    God giveth you live and put you on the earth to go for a ride , So enjoy the ride , If you don't like the ride you can get off at any time , Just be nice to the other passengers
     
  10. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Perfect. Timojin's purpose of life is to enjoy the ride and be nice.

    There are as many purposes as there are people.
     
  11. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    That's what Hermann was talking about, he started in about materialism and the soul. If we are discussing philosophy, it's important to be precise about meanings.
     
  12. Ivan Seeking Registered Senior Member

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    The question was based on the statement "I have spent a long time to make up my mind about the purpose of life". The purpose of life is obvious if you think about biology for a moment. Natural selection makes reproduction the purpose. We are inadvertently "designed" [by nature] to survive long enough to reproduce. One extreme example of this is sickle cell anemia. If you have sickle cell, you can't get malaria. And this makes it more likely to live long enough to reproduce. So sickle cell anemia offers an evolutionary advantage. Reproduction is the driving force of all evolution.

    I think you are confusing "the purpose of life" with the subjective concept of "the meaning of life". In a purely objective sense, our purpose is reproduction [to live long enough to reproduce]. And it is not my personal meaning of life, Dave. Like I said, that would be sex.

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    - the means to the end.

    Just pointing out that there is an objective answer here.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2016
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    What's the purpose of life? Reproduction. What's the purpose of reproduction? To make more life. Isn't that circular?
     
  14. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    Would you have a planet like Mercury or Mars were there is no noticeable life or the Earth with its beauty ? Things have finite life so in order to continue life reproduction must exist.
     
  15. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    It has nothing to do with what I want. Why must life continue?
     
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  16. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Most life on Earth doesn't have sex. Bacteria reproduce asexually.
     
  17. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Exactly.
     
  18. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    I think there is as well, but not the one you're touting.
    My objective answer is that life has no purpose - or perhaps, if one must provide a purpose, that it is simply "to live".

    Just because part of life is the function of reproduction does not mean that it is the purpose of life. Life did not form / arise to reproduce. That is just something that it does. It is just something that enables us to identify something as living. Just as I have the function of walking, my purpose is not to walk.

    Life did not arise for any reason at all, as far as I can tell. Religious people might think differently, though. Life simply does what it does, not for any purpose but because it can be no different.

    So no, I do not agree that the objective answer is to reproduce.
     
  19. Baldeee Valued Senior Member

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    Isn't there also the rather implicit statement (within the notion of reproduction being the purpose of life) that those who choose not to reproduce are somehow going against some higher order?
    Are somehow not alive?
    I echo your thoughts, Sarkus: life has the ability to reproduce but I do not see it as its purpose.
    If all life stopped reproducing the universe would tick on ignorantly.
    Out of your suggestions, though, I do prefer the notion of life's purpose being to live.

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  20. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Indeed: people are capable of giving their own life a purpose, and a great many of us do just that.
    I suppose it could be said that the reason life arose is that, in such an enormous universe, it would have arisen by sheer chance in at least one place--and perhaps more, once we figure out how difficult or simple it is.
     
  21. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Dawkins' The Selfish Gene made a pretty good case that the purpose of life is to promote genes.

    It is the genes that determine behavior, and thus, ultimately procreation. A mobile bag of proteins that can effectively find another mobile bag of proteins so it can make copies of itself will flourish. It matters not what the mobile bags of proteins think they want, in the end, it is the genes that live an eternal life.

    True, though it's a red herring; it does not inform the purpose of life.
     
  22. Baldeee Valued Senior Member

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    Oh, I have no issue with that being it's main function, I just have issue with the term "purpose".
    Life simply does what it does, and what it does is generally promote genes.
    But why "purpose"?
    I see "purpose" as subjective - we can apply it to ourselves, sure, but can we deem it objective?
    Maybe it is simply a matter of semantics of the word "purpose"?
    But do you not beg the question by assuming there is one?
    My point is that ultimately what is its purpose if, at the end of it all, there is nothing at all?
    Does that not negate the notion of an objective purpose?

    If I was religious I might claim that we are given one, but I am not, so I do not.
     
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  23. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    100% with you on this.
     

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