Plenty of atheists seem to think so. Some even go as far as to say that death is what gives life a purpose since it defines your time here on earth. So I ask everyone here who does not believe in the afterlife: what gives YOUR life purpose?
Personally I do not believe in an afterlife but it strikes me as shortsightedness, plain and simple, to say that your life has a purpose if this is the case. What do you do that’s so noteworthy? You have kids? You do volunteer work? You cured cancer? Big deal. One day, you will die, and all your children and grandchildren and everyone you loved or came in contact with or read about in a newspaper or saw on the street will be dead as well if they aren’t already. And then there’s the sun blowing up, and the whole entropy thing. I mean, when the universe grinds to a halt, I doubt there will be anyone around to care about you or your offspring.
I don’t think this sort of thinking translates well into writing, or maybe I’m just a bad writer so I’ll stop here. I don’t doubt that many people will see this and think “Hey, philosophical glurge, wangst wangst.” I think the human mindset prevents us from thinking too much about this and if this is all there is, then it makes sense that we should think this way. But you know, abstract thought is a bitch and sometimes a human will stop and catch a glimpse of the world behind the cyclorama backdrop that sometimes I think we were never meant to see.
A friend of mine once commented on how remarkable it was that it was so easy to die in the bad old days and yet all 1024 or whatever of our ancestors managed to die horrible deaths since if even one of them didn’t make it we wouldn’t be here today. But I don’t think it’s that remarkable at all since if someone doesn’t exist then they don’t exist, it’s not like there’s a great crowd of potential people sitting in some sort of galactic hammerspace, and if we didn’t exist we wouldn’t be able to think these thoughts anyway. So I wonder if the purpose of life is something similar, as in there either is or is not a purpose, and if there is good for us but if there isn’t then we’re still not consumed by angst simply because it’s the only reality we know?
Or, in other words, do people only believe in a purpose to life because they’ve never seriously considered the alternative?
Something doesn’t seem right here. You admit to not believing in the afterlife, and yet you seem to think there is a purpose to there being as point to the thing that does not exist. Does not compute.
Anyway, I don’t see how having your consciousness survive death would give life any purpose that it does not already have. To me, life is its’ own purpose, your question and your assumption that being remembered post-end of the universe is a big non-sequtor.
“Purpose”, “meaning” or “significance” are neuropsychological responses to sensory input or memories being combined in a particular way (“thoughts”) - they are cognitive outputs of this incredible biological computer in our skull. For those 13 billion years before these incredible organs evolved, there was no such thing as “purpose”.
And so, if we effectively create it ourselves, let’s try and make some here by the shapes we place upon our monitor.
I define “purpose” as having your existence come to something in the end.
Existence by itself is hardly a purpose.
Then again, it’s a fallacy to assume that many other things in life have a purpose, like, say, evolution.
I would just like to know what people are talking about when they talk about having a purpose in life. ESPECIALLY the atheists who talk about “making the most of your life, since it’s all you’ve got.” If that’s all you’ve got, it seems like a pretty good reason why it shouldn’t really matter either way.
It’s like going for a walk in the park: if you can’t remember going to the park, then what was the point of that?
My purpose is to raise nice children, who will, raise nice children, who will raise nice children… All toward the betterment of mankind. That, and by acting in a respectful manner toward all my fellow humans, not to mention most other living creatures, helps them with their life: smile, hold doors open, let people merge, go to parent/teacher night, pick up dropped mitts, empty the dishwasher or clean the toilets without being asked, have some fun, and a couple of beers now and again.
That’s about it really; there is no other meaing in life.
Neither will the Earth. Nor the solar system. Some would argue the Universe itself. But mankind will be around for a long time yet. In the mean time, try not to be a jerk to others, and enjoy a beer or two. Good damned philosophy really.
See what I mean? Shortsightedness again. Just because it’s a long time coming doesn’t mean it’s trivial. I’m afraid I can’t tell you exactly what I’m trying to say because I have a real problem with words. But my thesis is that there is a level of realisation of the world that most people never achieve because there is simply no reason for anyone to think like that which is beyond what you’re saying but as long as I continue to think in words I can’t even recall what that is and the more I try the less coherent I become. Sorry. This, if you’re interested, is why I suck balls at essays, because I can talk crap all day but there seems to be a coffee filter between my brain and my mouth that catches all my complex thoughts and prevents them from passing. And it’s also why nobody believes me when I say this. Right now I’m feeling pretty stupid and hoping someone who knows what I’m trying to say will come along and say it more eloquently.
Huh? Well yeah at the end of the day nothing matters because once you’re dead that’s it… finito… game over.
However you may as well enjoy life while you can as it’s all you’re going to get. I’d rather experience the most from life than sit in a room for 60 odd years and die. But you’re right at the end of the day nothing matters cause everything will die and it will all be ultimately pointless.
I still don’t see why you shouldn’t make the most out of what you have though just for the experience of it.
In fact I would say that religious people have less reason to experience things. Christians just need to accept Jesus and obey the rules to enjoy an afterlife of never ending joy. If I truly believed that I’d spend all of my years on my knees praying and accepting God because it would lead to a eternity of heaven.
Shortsightedness? How so? I admit the Earth and mankind won’t last forever, and that my life is infinitesimally insignificant in the overall scheme of things. So why not try to be nice and have a bit of fun in the mean time. That’s being realistic, not shortsighted.
I would be shortsighted if I thought otherwise. I just don’t believe that there’s more to life than simply trying to raise nice kids, being polite, and courteous, and trying to help others now and again. In that way, the people who have contact with me might do the same, and if we all do this for another couple of thousand years we might have a really nice planet. Until the sun burns out, of course.
But what’s the point of being nice and having fun? It might give you some transient joy, but it doesn’t MEAN anything. And you might think it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t mean anything, but still, the benchmark of one’s life is usually that it has some kind of meaning. That’s why we talk about “meaningless deaths” (as opposed to what, if we’re all meaningless?) being bad and someone “giving their life meaning” by doing good acts.
Many people who do believe in an afterlife believe that one purpose of this life is learning and spiritual growth, and that our learning and growing and becoming better people here on Earth will “pay off” when we come to the afterlife. Without an afterlife, of course, there is not this sort of purpose in life. But there are other sorts of purposes to life (e.g. enjoying it while we can, making this world a better place) that a person can live for whether or not they believe that this world is all there is.
Purpose and meaning are things created by people. Looking outside of people’s minds for some sort of objective source of meaning is doomed to failure, because meaning exists in those minds alone. The creation of meaning is, IMO, one of the most fundamental parts of the nature of humanity. I tend to think that obsession with finitude (often but not always manifesting in the form of afterlife focus) is a cop-out.
