The Purpose of Life

Discussion in 'Eastern Philosophy' started by kmguru, Jul 18, 2014.

  1. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    That's my point. If you pretend to know something when you're only sure, you don't come across as knowing what you're talking about, much less able to help anybody else understand anything.
    We may have the free will to create our own arbitrary "purposes". That's not the same thing as "life having purpose".
     
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  3. Dicart Registered Senior Member

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    Thats the same.
    Life is part of creation.
     
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  5. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    No it isn't.

    Yes is it, but so what?

    I can't say it better than SSB: We may have the free will to create our own arbitrary "purposes". That's not the same thing as "life having purpose".
     
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  7. Dicart Registered Senior Member

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    If life is a creation then .... IT HAS A PURPOSE
    If life is not a creation then ... IT HAS NO PURPOSE

    We have free will but we dont create life

    So thats the same.
    YOU have free will, so you do things by purpose.
    CREATOR has free will, so he do things by purpose.
    CREATOR create life.

    Read again what i have writen before, i am sure you will finish to understand.
     
  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    It may or may not have a purpose. There's no way to know.

    True.

    Not necessarily. Sometimes I do things unintentionally.

    Not necessarily. For all we know, we are an accident. You have no way of knowing.

    For cryin' out loud, stop telling us to read and try to understand. If we are not getting your meaning it is because you have not clarified your intended meaning sufficiently.
     
  9. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    Working on doing so, we'll get there

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  10. Dicart Registered Senior Member

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    Yes, you do things unintentionally
    1 Sometime : If you have free will and dont have full control of your body and reality.
    2 Always : If you dont have free will, but you think you do things intentionally and other not (and this is an illusion of your mind : Your are only an observer of the "laws of nature").

    Philosophers dont say they know, they do some reasoning.
    In this case, if the creator is almighty it would be illogic that he created the reality by accident.
    You could also say that the creator have created the reality using randomness, trying something.
    But if so, why do we live in the reality (amongts many) where reality is not total nonsense ?
     
  11. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    If there is a creator.
    And now If that creator is omnipotent.
    Sounds like you're got the makings for a story. Not sure what purpose it serves in a discussion.


    More: Are you confident you know what is "logical" for a creator of a universe?
    Do you think an ant is confident it knows what is "logical" for a human?
     
  12. Dicart Registered Senior Member

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    If you dont use "if" you are not doing philosophy, you are doing religion.
    (Why do i always need to repeat ...?)

    It is not about being confident or not.
    The creator has some properties (due to other philosophical toughts) and if the creator is almighty, so it is only logical reasoning that he do not mistakes, not confidence.
    Nothing more, nothing less.
     
  13. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    I think we can boil this down pretty easily.

    If you imagine all the things required to give purpose to life - to-wit: a creator, an omnipotent creator, an omnipotent creator who has a purpose to create life - then it follows that life has been created by an omnipotent creator and given it purpose.

    It is the logical equivalent of this:
    If 1+1 were equal to 3,
    and 3 x 3 were equal to 10,
    then (1+1)x(1+1) = 10.

    This is called a forgone conclusion. In fact, it is a truism: it is trivially true.



    Can we move on to something a little more constructive?
     
  14. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    No. The creator (if any) may have had a purose in mind for his creation - and he may have hoped to impose HIS purpose on his creation.
    That is not the same as "life has a purpose." MY purpose is not to serve "the creator" by serving HIS purpose. MY purpose is what I say it is (and I might say it's nothing). I have "free will" to ignore "the" purpose.
     
  15. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

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    You mean like Dicart posting something approaching sensible?

    Doubtful

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  16. Dicart Registered Senior Member

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    Yes this point is a total obvious one.
    Dont know why some "clever guy" was arguing about....

    The only interresting thing is :
    If a creator has created the reality then the reality is here by purpose.
    If there is no creator then the reality has no purpose.

    Just to say that it is related to the question of this thread.

    (but i repeat, i repeat...)
     
  17. Dicart Registered Senior Member

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    Total obvious.
    This is the definition of free will...

    You mean a almighty creator hope he will be able to create the reality ?
    And he has failed you think ?

    "It is not the same" doesen't mean anything if you are not more precise.

    Water and H2O is not the same : true.
    Up and direction is not the same : true...
    etc.

    But i repeat : Life is part of the reality.
    Therefore you dont need to go into the detail : You can talk about the purpose of the reality instead of the purpose of life.
     
  18. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    If there was a creator, "almighty" or otherwise, he would certainly be a failure. Giving us free will and expecting us to follow HIS will? Come on. It shouldn't have been difficult to figure out that that wasn't gonna happen.

    But of course there is no creator, almighty or otherwise.
     
  19. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Well, I don't see it as totally illogical. I prefer to think of it like lab rats. The lab scientist breeds the rats and sets up the maze for the rats, then lets them loose in the maze to observe their behavior. If the rats escape the maze, he captures them and puts them back in so they don't get eaten by the cat.
    He has a purpose for creating it all, but it is not conflict with his allowing the rats to have a large degree of personal agency.
     
  20. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Until he no longer has a use for them and kills them.
     
  21. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    Alas, we can no more defend this claim than Dicart can defend his that there is one.
     
  22. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    We can say that lack of evidence is evidence.
     
  23. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    You can argue that the opponent's claim is not defended adequately, but you can't claim there is no God and be able to defend it.
     

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