Simple:
To leave this world better than I found it and in the process continually strive towards improving myself.
No heaven required. Yes, everybody will one day die, but if their lives, while they were alive, were made better because of me I am quite satisfied. In my view, that’s purpose enough.
I don’t view eternity as being necessary for purpose. The purpose to me playing a game is chess is to enjoy myself, even though the game is over when it’s done.
Because there is a marked difference between theory and practice, and just because I think there’s no difference between dying now and dying in 60 years’ time or by my own hand or from a heart attack doesn’t mean I’m going to hop into the bathtub right now and slit my wrists, because there is the world and there is us, and as much as you may try to distance yourself from your own context when considering things like this it remains that you can only think about this because you are human, just like my ancestor example, and this fades into the background so that you may forget that you are looking at the world through human goggles but you are, and human goggles tells you that suicide is bad, life has a point, the earth is big and the universe is small etc etc. And the other thing about them is that they don’t come off, ever. And people say “So why is death such a big deal?” because of them, but it’s a VERY big deal precisely because it’s a much smaller deal than most people realise. And yes, I realise the human goggles are wrong in the same way the homunculus theory is wrong.
You got to cut out reading those existentialists before bed, FRM. 
While I’m here, I’m going to maximize the enjoyment I get out of life, which involves doing things for others as well as enjoying myself. I’ve got kids, and watching them do stuff I could never do is great. Having a student tell me he’s used one of my papers in his research is great. Enabling people to talk together and improve the quality of our computers which can improve the quality of life for a lot of people is great. I used to work on stuff that was a minute contribution to keeping telephone switches up and running, and maybe saving someone’s life. That was great.
And how do you know humanity has no future? Maybe some of our genetic contribution, far into the future, can open up a new universe for us to go into when this one wears out.
And I also don’t see how an afterlife gives purpose. Nothing seems less purposeful than sitting in stasis for eternity. And why should I structure my life to get in there? How selfish! Would you really do something that went against your ethics and morals to win entrance to an afterlife? I wouldn’t.
I agree with the OP, I think, that there’s no purpose to life. The idea of purpose smacks of hubris to me – what the hell does it matter to the Universe that I exist? Nothing, that’s what.
Doesn’t really keep me up nights, though.
–Cliffy
All of this suggests that philosophy, like life, is pointless. And yet, we can’t stop!
You don’t know that we are all going to die and mankind will all become nothing. Many influential scientists believe there are ways for us to escape the probable death of this universe if we advance our technology far enough.
I’m an atheist, I don’t believe that there is anything after death. However, I do believe in the intelligence of mankind and I have hope that we will someday advance to the point where, if I can’t live again, at least mankind will, in whatever form it takes. Death does not define my life, the way I live defines my life and gives it purpose.
There’s short-term “meaning” and long-term “meaning.” Short term is important, as it affects the time you spend here in your life (providing you WANT to have a life). Long-term meaning is more the big picture stuff…and I don’t think anything we conceive of or know on this planet today has any control or effect on that whatsoever. We’re less than a blip on the screen of the universe.
If a finite amount of something is worthless, then I can’t see how an infinite amount of it could be worth anything either. Either the experience of existing is meaningful and important to you however little of it you get, or it isn’t. It doesn’t matter if its eternal or not. Everything is eternal in the sense that it is what happened, will have happened, and will always be what happened.
Just like trying to bring God into a discussion of morality, trying to bring the afterlife into a discussion of purpose adds nothing of value to the debate.
There are nights when I lie awake, wondering “What’s the point of it all? Sixty years from now I’ll be dead, and not long after that I’ll be forgotten. None of my life’s work will last more than a hundred years, if that- and odds are, even my offspring won’t survive more than a million years. And even the Universe won’t last forever- so why bother?”
But then I realize that while I’m here, I can have fun. I have good friends, family that loves me, and if I don’t make the best of it now, I won’t get any other chance.
Frankly, I don’t understand how theists can honestly see the purpose in life here on Earth if, when they die, they get to spend ETERNITY in heaven? Life here is just an infinitely small blip compared to eternity- and a crappy (comparitively) blip, at that? Why does what you do in THIS life matter at all compared to the afterlife? Heck, throughout the course of your life you’re given millions of chances to screw it up; the only ones that are completely guaranteed eternal happiness are the ones who don’t get the chance to screw it up- newborn infants.
Taking this sort of logic to the extreme, wouldn’t it be the ultimate in self-sacrifice to go around killing babies, thereby guaranteeing their place in heaven? THAT’S why religion frightens me- at their core, all religions are “I know what’s better for you than you do.”
Back to the subject, though- why does life have to HAVE a purpose? What’s wrong with just living, and having fun?
Well, that’s my point exactly. Life really doesn’t mean anything. It has no purpose, apart from what I stated: being nice and having fun.
There’s no afterlife. You are judged by those with whom you interact, and those who depend upon you. 10 years after your death you’ll be fondly remembered as a good friend, a great Mom/Dad, or as a selfish prick. I choose the former.
This is why I see afterlife-obsession as a religious failure. An abrogation of responsibility to deal with meaningfulness in the present, as it were.
The question of getting a cookie when I’m dead is spectacularly irrelevant to whether or not my life is conducted well.
I agree - I don’t think there’s a point to life.
Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it while I have it, and try to make things a bit better for other people, though. And I might have kids - that could be good. What is the OP suggesting? We just all sit around and wait to die?
So if I’m planning to not have kids, does this mean I’m without a purpose and therefore fucked?
I’m going to hijack this for a minute, and then back to topic:
FRM, I had a philosophy professor in college who said to us “If you can’t say what you mean, you don’t know what you mean.” If his intent is not obvious, I took it to mean that our inchoate thoughts may seem brilliant and deep to us, but they don’t count as such unless we can express them well enough for someone else to understand them. I have found this to be true, especially here on this board. Reading through an interesting thread I may think I have a valuable new insight, but when I try to write it down it turns out that I hadn’t thought it through and that there really wasn’t much there.
Also, you seem to be saying that most people don’t have these deep thoughts about the ultimate meaning of life, and I think you’re dead wrong.
Now back to the topic. When anyone asks me, I tell them “the meaning of life is to live it”, which seems to be pretty much what most other people are saying. My life is mine, thank you very much, and it has meaning to me. Once I’m dead, I won’t be around to care whether it had meaning to anyone else.
Which is fine as far as it goes. Just keep in mind that the person who is remembered as a selfish prick has made a decision that is exactly equivalent to yours. Neither of you has made any difference, both your purposes are equally valid because they are equally meaningless.
The problem comes when you need to argue in favor of something. Why should I do nice things to other people? It will make no difference. Why shouldn’t I steal from the poor if I want to? It will make no difference.
Hitler and Gandhi made different choices, but they were equally valid, IOW. And things like murder, suicide, sadism, child molestation, are all just as valid as supporting your family or donating to the hurricane victims.
Since it doesn’t matter anyway.
Regards,
Shodan
Yeah, but my point is that more Gandhis advance mankind; more Hitlers don’t. If I was concerned about my impact 4 billion years from now it wouldn’t matter. I’m concerned about my impact to my generation and the few more to come.
I don’t know what Hitler’s upbringing was like, but I’m guessing it’s a little different from the way I’m raising my kids. My influence on my kids, and my friends, could potentially have world-changing implications. What if I taught my son that all non-caucasian people, or all Jews, or all Muslims were evil incarnate and we should destroy them by any means. What if he then decided to start his own personal agenda and fulfill his dad’s dreams by attempting to eradicate other races.
Most of the time our little day-to-day actions aren’t going to solve anything. But what if we continued, as a race, to be more accepting, understanding, tolerant? I think that’s what we have indeed been doing since the beginning of time. And, like I said before, in a few thousand years we might actually have created a nice planet.
You eat an elephant one bite at a time.
**“If a finite amount of something is worthless, then I can’t see how an infinite amount of it could be worth anything either… It doesn’t matter if its eternal or not.” **
Yepper.
If a worm ate muck on the ocean floor for two months 70 million years ago, how is that less meaningful than if that same worm eats muck on the ocean floor forever and ever?
Sorry FlyingRamen, but the only way to have a meaningful existence is to let yourself believe that something has meaning. Most humans automatically feel that some things are important. It’s possible to reason away those feelings, but I don’t think that’s something you should do on a daily basis.
~Baal~
Sure it matters. It matters to me and I’m the only one that counts. My life’s “purpose” is defined only as it matters to me personally. Hurting people would make me unhappy and detract from my quality of life. I, and I alone, will decide what is “valid” for me.
Objectively speaking, you’re sort of right. There is no objective purpose to the universe and nothing matters. Subjectively, though, my life matters greatly and all my choices are profoundly valid because I am the center and the point of my subjective universe. Once I am dead, my subjective universe ceases to exist so it’s irrelevant what what happens objectively.
The question you raise is a common one from theists and it always sort of puzzles me. Essentially the question is “if you’re not afraid of a venegeful, invisible sky god, then why don’t you go out raping and murdering people?” Because I don’t want to, that’s why. Are you saying that if you didn’t believe in an afterlife, you would go out raping and murdering?
The purpose of life is to glorify God and keep His commandments.
That’s independent of any after life isn’t it?
Then we all die, and nothing that we did makes any difference to us. Exactly the same situation, in fact, as if we had dedicated our lives to torture and genocide.
A difference which makes no difference is no difference.
Sure, but that identical argument can be used to justify murdering someone if I feel like it.
See above.
And my point was largely that there is no way that you can disprove any other decision, nor any valid basis to argue that someone else should make a different decision. Maybe you are happy with your subjective existence. There exists no logical way to show that I am not equally justified in murdering you. If it makes me happy, then my decision to kill you is just as valid as yours to remain alive.
And so death answers all. It makes no difference what was done to you before death once you are dead, and therefore murder is not immoral.
There isn’t any logically valid reason not to. What difference would it make?
So you don’t want to. What difference is there between you and someone else who does want to?
If meaning is just subjective preference, then it has no meaning to anyone besides the subject. So again, Hitler is just as valid as Gandhi.
Regards,
Shodan