RE: What is our purpose here on earth?
February 29, 2016 at 8:43 am
(This post was last modified: February 29, 2016 at 8:50 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(February 27, 2016 at 1:54 pm)thool Wrote: I'm interested in discussing this with you all here...No different with respect to being an animal, part of the food chain, and built to multiply, no.
When you boil it down, humans exist for one reason only: to make more humans, either directly or indirectly. When you consider other animals, they reproduce in order to continue the lineage, possibly eat other animals, and provide food for other animals. Even at the top of the food chain, a dead animal clearly provides food. So they are part of a chain of dependencies. Humans are really no different in this respect, although the way we do this has far different impacts (a separate discussion).
Quote:If you do not have children, you still play a role. Your existence usually requires good and services from others, so you are creating demand. Your job may also enable the continuation of our species, such as being a doctor or teacher. Even if you do not have a job, you consume goods and services from people who exist, in part, to serve society.Seen any Magpie MD's......perhaps a Grouper schoolteacher? You've just described some of the ways that we are different from all other animals.
Quote:Being an relatively new atheist, I no longer believe that we exist to glorify or serve something. We exist to make more of us.That we're not stuck with the "purpose" our biology might suggest, as so many other species are. We can be more than breeders. We can be doctors, schoolteachers, we can own a store that buys and distributes goods. Our lives can be "about" these things, and much more. We can live to serve each other, as many of us do at one point or another. These things, this purpose, those meanings to our lives, are all just as true and present -regardless- of whether or not there is a god. If there isn't, or if you simply don't believe that there is, all of that remains untouched. If there is no "divine meaning" or purpose to our lives...this does not mean that there is no meaning or purpose, or that the meaning and purpose can only be reproduction.
I'd love to explore this more. Any thoughts?
Do you exist just to make more of you, or is there...as I suspect, more to you than that...regardless of whether or not fairies are really real?
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