what is the point?

Question

We are born, we go to school, work for 40 odd years or so, we get old, we die.
What is the point in life???

Answer 1

boy, bet you're a joy to be around!

Answer 2

I often feel the same way. I always wonder if it is my lack of spirituality, which I know is what people who "got religion" might say. I don't really have an answer, except that when I am feeling my most optimistic, I tell myself there must be some reason we are on this planet. F**k if I know, though. I seriously hope I find an answer before I am old and die. You too for that matter! Right now, it all seems pretty pointless, and yet I don't want to kill myself! Go figure! Something keeps me going for one more day, and there must be a reason for that.

Answer 3

It's all that we experience, learn and achieve along the way. I would guess that you are feeling down because you are not using your natural gifts, or finding any outlet for the things that really interest you. Think about what those might be and look for ways to use/explore them and learn more. Sometimes the smallest changes can make a huge difference to the way you feel about your life.

Answer 4

Define purpose: The dictionary defines purpose as the intended result of an action etc: a feeling of determination.

The thesaurus adds: 1. REASON, point, basis, motivation, cause, justification: 2. AIM, intention, object, objective, goal, end, target, ambition, aspiration, desire, wish, hope.

My personal purpose/s in life? To live, to learn, to love, to raise my three children to be good spiritual Pagans, and to provide care, support, love and comfort for my children and husband, among others.

Do I have an intended purpose from the higher powers, or a divine purpose? I don't know is the most honest answer I can give, however. I would like to believe that I have been put on this Earth in order to care for others as well as the earth itself? To amuse people with my insanity, and my inane questions about life, the universe and everything in between? To better myself through education and debate, and thus educate others? Maybe I have only been put here to be the person that I am? Maybe that's all anyone is here for and there is no higher plan, we are just here to be here and fulfil our own personal purposes.

Why do we feel the need for purpose? I believe this is because without it we would have no reason to strive for anything. We would have no ambition, no sense of achievment, no aspirations. As humans we need to feel that we are here for a reason and therefore worth something.

Even animals must need a reason to be, at least the ones that are capable of thoughts other than to survive and procreate. Apes have this ability, as do Dolphins, evidence has suggested. There are species of Chimpanzee who will attack and kill others of their kind as well as other species, just for the fun of it, for sport. Of course they also kill for other reasons; defence, survival, anger etc. I don't know if they define purpose per se, but maybe they just have some feeling that there are things required of them even if those things are just to live and to procreate.

Maybe those are the only reasons we are here also? No-one knows for sure, and no-one can really comprehend what causes everything and why we are here, or why we were created or evolved in the first place.

Why do we have ambition and aspirations? I don't think anyone knows the true answer to that either, however, even cave men had ambition to live and to find a good mate and produce healthy children. All through time the homo-sapien has struggled to survive - why would we have done such a strange thing if we had no purpose? I do know that the idea of aspiration was ultimately given to us by the Victorians. They created formal education and gave us the desire to be more than we started out as. Before the Victorian age, if one was born rich they would usually expect that to remain the norm. Since the Victorians, people who were born with very little had the knowledge that with education they could aspire to be more than they were, and for many people this became their added purpose in life.

"There is one purpose to life and one only: to bear witness to and understand as much as possible of the complexity of the world - its beauty, its mysteries, its riddles. The more you understand, the more you look, the greater is your enjoyment of life and your sense of peace. That's all there is to it. Everything else is fun and games. If an activity is not grounded in "to love" and "to learn" it does not have value."

(Anne Rice - Servant of the Bones - page 142)

Maybe one purpose is simply to debate the very subject of purpose? Who knows?..

Answer 5

I tell myself that all the time :) Everyone finds his own answer though, its a personal voyage.

For centuries people thought that the answer is to have children and keep passing your genes to them...but i don't personally find this satisfying.

For me the answer is to do a difference in the world. This is different for everyone, some people want to be famous, others want to be very rich, i just want to help people in their most basic needs. Thats why i chose to become a doctor and do voluntary work.

I hope you find your path soon, best of luck

Answer 6

I have a cunning idea!
We should stay at school until we reach a defined educational standard.
Then we retire on full pay (prefferably a Doctors salary).
When we reach the age of 65 we start work, and work until we drop!
Then maybe life would mean something.

Answer 7

I think that we, as a society, have made the purpose of life to retire. We go to school, so we can work and have a family. We work and rasie our families with the hope to have the children leave home and to retire. Therefore the point is retirement.

Answer 8

Its the living of life, being with people we love and who love us, seeing the sun come up in the morning, hearing the birds sing, a child laughing. WE make a DIFFERENCE to the lives of people around us.

Answer 9

Is life worth living?
That depends on the liver.
Author Unknown

Answer 10

Life is what you make it. But if you love someone, and they love you then that is the point....
If you haven't been lucky enough for that yet, it'll come soon and by the sounds of it, you'll be glad!!

Answer 11

to learn and life each day as if it was our last.
we live to love and look at what life gives us.
i wish all people would just be or find a happy time in their lives and you need to have this to.
happiness