Somewhere a billion light years away, there is a dead airless planet that no intelligent creature will ever see. On a plain on that planet, there is a boulder. It exists; it has no purpose and never will.
Purpose seems to imply intent and a movement from state A to B. In order to have purpose, there should be some trait, behavior or ability of an object that lets it accomplish a certain goal. A rock has no purpose, since unlike a spoon it is not designed with the intent to accomplish a goal or a change of state.
However, the concept of goals are subject to evolution, and the overall goal is to survive and thrive. So from what I can tell their either is no purpose in existence, or the purpose is to (on some level) survive biologically. As far as where that purpose (survival) comes from, it seems to come from the laws of thermodynamics, chemistry, physics determining that some structures are more stable than others. But fields like that have no intent or purpose, they just are.
Purpose is not required to exist. The universe is without purpose, in the sense that there is no goal, and no changes are needed to achieve that goal. There is no ‘wrong’ universe just like there is no ‘wrong’ random rock. But there can be a ‘wrong’ tree or spoon.
Assignment of purpose requires consciousness. Purpose fits into a perceived causal or relational chain, which may or may not adequately fit the true nature of things. One could argue that e-m radiation in the form of light exists whether or not it illuminates something, and whether or not something uses it as sensory input.
Well, it does serve as a fine example of purposelessness.
Spoons are fashioned items – intelligently designed if you will 
– and have an intended purpose (although I may find additional uses for them, such as when I use one to lever open a container).
A spoon gets created to solve a problem, or act as a prosthetic. It would be odd to think of a person / creator making an item with a handle and a bowl and thinking “cool shape – perhaps I can find a use for it one day”. So yes, the spoon is created with intent.
The tree however, no, evolution has no “intent”, no intelligent plan. Evolution does not set out to create a tree. But with environmental niches, mutation and selection, trees may be an outcome – as may be some animals and other plants using trees as a habitat.
The “purpose” of a tree is not however to make oxygen or be an animal habitat; a tree is a method by which tree-genes make more tree-genes. (cf. The Selfish Gene).
I see nothing intrinsically preventing something from existing “without purpose”; as others have said, purpose is “to someone” (or something), to a consciousness to be precise.
As to whether or not there ARE any such things, that’s not directly dependent on the possiblity of same.
Garrison Keillor once said: "Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function”. If you believe that everything is intended, then everything that does not have a function may be there to teach us that not everything has a function.
I don’t personally believe that everything is intended. But I like the quote.
Lots of things exist without a purpose.
Everything exists without a purpose; a spoon has a function, which it may serve repeatedly, but a purpose? A destiny? A fate? Nah. I don’t think a spoon has a more meaningful life than I do, and I have no purpose whatsoever.
Interesting stuff.
Out of curiosity, how do you view the big picture? What do you wish to accomplish with your life, as all you’re doing is creating the illusion of meaning? Doesn’t that take some wind out of the sails? I don’t know, I just see Nihilism floating around here, but maybe there’s more to it.
Personally, I find it kind of liberating. What I do with my life is entirely up to me, and is not dictated by some grand, cosmological purpose in which I have no say. But then, I’m not coming from the position that nothing has a purpose, only from the position that nothing has a purpose that is not imposed on it by humans. Purpose is a human concept. Absent humanity, the term has no meaning.
How is it the illusion of meaning? It looks a lot like meaning.
I guess you could pick Nihilism. But that would apparently bother you, so you should probably pick something that doesn’t take the wind out of your sails. Existentialism is a Humanism, Jean-Paul Sartre 1946
No. Nothing has a purpose. There is no “Puppetmaster” in the sky directing everything and every action for his idle amusement and calling it purpose.
Life exists without purpose and that doesn’t reduce it in any way, because invented purpose and invented need for purpose are foolish frauds.
Meaning is just a human concept, a deluded perception of reality. Finding meaning does not change the truth that there is none, and that you are merely creating an illusion for yourself.
You had me and then you lost me: yes, it’s just a human concept – but why figure that conception is a deluded conception? Why not figure you’re creating meaning instead of creating an illusion?
I disagree; the truth is that there is meaning if you create it for yourself. It’s like what you said about a spoon: if I create it to serve as a scooping tool, then it really can exist for the purpose I intend. And if I can do that for a spoon, then why not intend a purpose for myself?
I agree that we can create meaning for ourselves, but in the end, does that really mean we are able to serve a purpose in this purposeless universe? I’m kind of a big picture guy, and I see one man’s sense of direction and self-satisfaction devoid of any purpose other than what he’s convinced himself of.
Speaking in terms of an inherently meaningless universe.
Cats may not have a function, but at least they have a purr puss.
Isn’t that enough for you? It is for me.
It sounds like you would want to live in a world where your purpose was imposed on you by someone else, instead of making it for yourself - but why? That sounds much worse than what we have.
But you do grant, right there in the OP, that we can create a spoon that serves a purpose, right? We can intend for it to fulfill that purpose? That’s presumably not a big-picture idea by itself, but it’s a fine building block for what’s to come; we can plant some trees to serve as a habitat for various animals while pumping out a little extra oxygen – or we can work to stop deforestation worldwide, preserving species after species while working to combat global warming, or whatever. You can dedicate yourself to overthrowing tyrants or curing diseases; it’s as big or as small as you’re capable of – and if that’s pretty danged small, then that’s still the best you can do, and what else can anyone ask?
So? Absent any alternative, I’ll take the best we can get.
Blut, it sounds like you’re bothered by the idea that in a few billion years the Earth will no longer exist (or at least not have life), and everything you and I do will not matter to anything else that exists in the universe at that time. Even if we managed to get to another habitat away from here (which I seriously doubt we will), eventually that chain of life will also be extinct when the universe is so cold that no life can exist.
What you’re missing is the here and now. Life is going on right now, all around you. Enjoy it while you can, and do something to make it more enjoyable for others now and in the future. You’ll be happy - what more can you ask?