I’m not sure how to word this, so I’m just gonna say it. What was the purpose behind our creation, if such an act occurred? As my understanding of it goes, God has a Great Plan for us. He created us with this plan in mind and loves us. Why? So he loved us even before he created us? He made up this plan and decided to make us, not out of any need but simply because he had a plan for us? In other words, what purpose do we serve for an allegedly Almighty deity?
I’m really sorry that this seems like a rant, I’m just curious if there’s been any effort to “explain” our purpose here from this point of view (if one exists in the above paragraph).
As my understanding of it goes, God has a Great Plan for us.
My pesonal belief is that for a person to be fulfilled,they need to live with intention and purpose. I think a person could be happy, just living day to day and without care. But to reach a deeper and more meaningful place, a person needs to make some sort of contribution. The quality of our participation in life is in some way connected to purpose. It feels good to feel and think that you have a “mission” and that focus is what gives a sense of contentment, accomplishment, and energy. No cite. That is just my take.
As for why God created us? Dunno, but my bible says he created us in his image and that man should subdue the earth and increase in number.
To experience the physical world.
Relationship.
To know and to be known.
To know other people, and to be known by them. And to love them.
To know God, and to be known by Him. And to love Him.
We are here for relationship.
Hell, there could be a trillion sentient races out there in the universe. As far as we know, we’re a control group.
[carlin voice] Plastic. Assholes.[/carlin voice]
All joking aside, I honestly think that we’re here to eventually figure out why we’re here. Doesn’t exactly make sense, but that’s just my version.
My wife has some interesting thoughts on this, that I’m not sure where she got.
She says that after the Fall, God needed to replace Lucifer and the 1/3rd of the angels who were kicked out. Instead of making the same mistake twice, He decided he’d give potential candidates a test first (ie, life on earth).
It calls into question Gods omnipotence, but I thought it was an interesting theory.
We’re here because DNA is a self-replicating molecule that is programmed to continually preserve itself. Mutations on the replication process result in different ways of preservation. Out of the billions of experiments that DNA has tried, one became us. Bacteria and Insects seem to have worked out a little better, though.
“Everybody’s got to be somewhere” – Eccles
Well, since we’re throwing out quotes…
“Because we’re here. Roll the bones.”
This is not a question which science attempts to answer. What Dragline says about DNA may be true, but it is not the answer to why we are here. It begs the question as to why DNA is here, and why atoms and molecules are here, and why the big bang occurred, and why the universe exists rather than not existing. And science does not address this question; it starts from the premise that the universe does exist. All attempts to address the question of why it exists are philosophical or theological, not scientific. It is in the nature of a philosophical or theological answer that it will either appeal to you or it will not, but it is not susceptible of external “proof”. And, if you’re not satisified with a philosophical or theological answer, then I’m afraid there’s no answer.
It is my opinion that we are here for no reason whatsoever.
I’d just like to add that the thread ID of this thread is #123456. 
As to why we are here, let me roll out this classic exchange between a mother and her child:
Child: Why are we here, Mommy?
Mother: We were put on this earth to help others.
Child (in a confused voice): Then what are the others here for?
Seriously though, that’s a question that could be answered on many levels. My personal belief is that we are here partly to fulfill God’s plan for us as human beings. I have no idea what the other parts would be. We are here to bring joy and happiness in others’ lives, and to touch them with out warmth and caring. (not sure what that says about old curmudgeons, though
We are also here to experience life to the fullest, and to hopefully leave our mark on this earth for the future generations to come. Also, I agree with what robinc308 said. Having relationships can be one of the most fulfilling dynamics on earth, if you let them take you to places you’ve never dreamed of.
I’m going to stop now, before I really don’t know what I am talking about.
F_X
Darn… I really should have closed that parenthesis.
F_X
I think about it a lot.
You see, I believe in God. And I believe that He has power and perception so vast that the apprehension of my entire being is a minuscule instant in an infinite sea of being and knowing.
But after He made angels, who are but points of His own being, He still felt it important to make mortal beings, and into them he put a tiny spark of His own will, and power. He made them so that they could wield that will wherever they choose, knowing that many would take paths that led away from Him, and those precious souls would be lost. I think He did that because it was important. I think that He has need of those souls that take their own spark of divine will and seek Him, and His spirit.
I think that in the end, uncounted billions of souls, now grown beyond the mortal world, and gathered into His presence, and made into beings greater than angels, will gather. And from that moment beyond this world shall we begin His great work, for which all this is but the setting of the stage.
Infinite struggles, for infinite purposes, shared by all the hosts of Heaven, out of infinite love and joy. And such a thing shall be made which could not have been, but for the Love of God, AND MAN. What could such a glorious task be that God, who made the vast hall of space, and set the myriad suns blazing in it had first to pause, and call to His aid the souls of men, now made immortal? I tremble to even consider it. And if some small stone in that grand work has been moved forward by some tiny step, because I lived, and toiled, and learned to serve, then there is reason enough, and overflowing purpose for me to have been.
It’s gonna be way cool. Don’t miss it.
Tris
No matter where we are, that’s gonna be here.
That’s a sort of anthropic principle answer. In the great marketplace of narratives, it’s not particularly tasty, or filling, or at all satisfying–it’s sort of like a plain rice cake. Not a big seller, but enough movement that it finds a place in the non-obvious shelves.
Here’s another, perhaps a bit more tasty: the great wheel of reality begins and continues in nescience, in non-awareness. But formlessness, for all its inertia, holds within itself the yearning for form. Form holds within itself the yearning for life. Life holds within itself the yearning for awareness. Awareness, the yearning for knowing itself. And sentience…yearning for something we don’t know a term for yet. We are here to bring that mystery into waking.
Not your product of choice? Here’s another. Creation was, in many ways, a terrible mistake. The En Sof contracted to make void within Its own Limitlessness, to make a space for creation. The first vessels fashioned were not strong enough to contain and shape the pure radiance of divinity, and shattered. The shards fell in fragments, and those dead fragments of form hold trapped sparks of divine fire, and those sparks hunger desperately to reunite with their source. The next attempt at Creation went more smoothly, and we were brought here, to raise those infinity of sundered and separated sparks, to reunify the whole, to repair the terrible wound in the world.
Not sure you want to buy? No worries. There’s plenty of products stocked. New ones being added all the time, old formulas being tweaked, flavors being combined. And it’s an interesting place to browse through.
Which is yet another explanation, come to think of it.
42
(sorry, someone had to say it)
I got your back: )
Now for the OP, why are we here? To Dance, Dance, Dance!!!
::Boogies down, terrible dancing causes other posters to become ill::