Atheists: What is the purpose of life?

Question

"The Astonishing Hypothesis is that you -- your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules…" [Francis Crick]

Please no answers pertaining to God or religion. Oh, and don't say harmony because harmony is no more purposeful than gravity.

Answer 1

The point is to raise my son to be happy, healthy and wise. The point is learning and contributing and enjoying. The point is harmony and ideals and equality. The point is making the most of what you've got and recognizing what you don't. The point is living for good and living for bad and living for it all.

There is no answer to "why are we here" because there is no universal purpose. We are animals. We scurry about, working and reproducing and growing and creating and thinking and eating and sleeping and pooping and driving and ...... you get my point. That's it. We exist and then we cease to exist. The cycle repeats with more and more new animals. Life perpetuates.

That may be a scary answer. That may not be what you want to hear. It may not be "good enough" to be considered random and universally, ultimately pointless. Unfortunately it's all I can tell you because, again, that's all there is. False hope rarely does anyone any good so this is the truth for ya, pleasant or not.

Answer 2

No. I say there is no meaning or purpose at all to life beyond what we ourselves bring to it. We are, in essence, exactly what Crick says -- nothing more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. No free will even.

Answer 3

TO CONSTANTLY LEARN AS MUCH ABOUT THE UNIVERSE, THE PLANET AND ALL LIFE. WHY WOULD IT BE ASTONISHING THAT OUR JOYS, SORROWS AND SOFORTH COULD COME FROM THE COMPLEX SYSTEM OF THE BODY AND MIND. WHY IS IT SO HEARTBREAKING FOR PEOPLE TO EVEN ADMIT THE POSSIBILITY THAT IN THE END, IT ALL ADDS UP TO NOTHING? YOU ASK ME WHAT THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS AND I COUNTER WITH, WHY WOULD LIFE NEED A PURPOSE? WHY DO YOU THINK WE ARE SO SPECIAL IN THE FACE OF THE OTHER 100 BILLION SPECIES THAT HAS LIVED ON THE PLANET? ANYONE WHO TAKES THE TIME TO STUDY THE WORKINGS OF THE HUMAN BODY WILL TELL YOU THAT EMOTIONS AS A WHOLE IS A COMPLEX WAY OF REMEMBERING THINGS. HOW WOULD YOU KNOW THAT PICKING A FIGHT WITH SOMEONE ISN'T NECESSARILY A GOOD IDEA UNLESS YOU UNDERSTOOD THE CONCEPT OF ANGER OR FEAR? HOW WOULD YOU KNOW NOT TO PUT YOUR HAND ON A STOVE UNLESS YOU REMEMBERED PAIN AND FEAR? EMOTIONS KEEP YOU ALIVE. WE ARE MORE THAN THE SUM OF OUR PARTS BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE US SPECIAL. ONE OF MY PERSONAL FAVORITE EMOTIONS TO WATCH IN MYSELF AND OTHER PEOPLE IS EGO. WE CANNOT PICTURE A PLACE WHERE HUMANITY AND IDEA OF HUMANITY DOESN'T EXIST, THUSLY PEOPLE FEEL THEY NEED A PURPOSE. I'M HAPPY JUST BEING AND LEARNING.

Answer 4

I like your question. Although I am not an atheist, I would like to comment if I may, everyone in life is driven by something. As I read some of the answers, most of the ones that say there is no purpose, still name one. Before I became a "believer", I was driven by self. My purpose in life was to experience as much joy and pleasure as I possibly could, spread a little around to my fellow man, and live as long a life as was humanly possible. You see everyone wants to LIVE, and this is what drives most individuals, that is the "purpose of life" for most I would say. Thanks for such a meaningful question. Peace.

Answer 5

As you can see from all the responds you got, the purpose of life is different for everyone, therefore, I would suggest that the purpose of life is what you choose it to be.
It may sound simplistic and arbitrary but that’s what it is. If you could get this answer from creatures of different species, we would probably get a different purpose in life from a Chimpanzee than from your pet Dog, after all, why we humans should have the exclusive right to have a purpose in life? Does having a bigger brain give us that right? If there were to exist creatures with bigger brains than us (more intelligent or evolved if you want to call it that way), would it automatically negate us the right to have a purpose in life?
Even if you ask another human being, in a poor Country (lets say one in Africa), the answer would probably be to find something to eat for him and his family so they don’t die. It could be said that his purpose in life (at least his immediate one) is to eat in order to live. If he cannot meet his primary needs so he can stay alive (if he dies) then the question about the ultimate purpose in life becomes irrelevant.
I think is undeniable that one of the goals of every species in the planet is to not go extinct. If our purpose were to be the opposite, evolution would not exist, in other words, the need for better adaptation to our environment in order to have a better shot at life would not be necessary if our purpose were to go extinct.
Therefore, we could say that one of the purposes of life is to not go extinct, to survive, to live forever, to be immortal. However, what is the ultimate purpose? Why would we want to perpetuate the human race indefinitely? That is the Big Mamma of questions, and I don’t think anybody in this planet has an answer for it.
Should we feel bad for not having a universal right answer to the ultimate question? I don’t think so. It’ll be like saying that a Dog should feel bad for not answering an Arithmetics question. We are not the ultimate living machine (yet!), we are just a species in evolution, trying to better adapt to its environment so we do not become extinct. We are just trying to buy more time until we can answer the question. The more we evolve and advance our knowledge of the Universe, the more we can contribute to our common goal of not becoming extinct so one day we can understand and fully answer what is the purpose of our lives.
I think its natural to be reluctant to accept this concept for the “purpose of life”. We’ve become an arrogant species because, so far, we’ve succeeded at not going extinct. Even those who comprehend our place in the Universe and how fragile we are, tend to live every day thinking things revolve around them. Therein lies the key to our success or failure at answering the question. Do we get blinded by our arrogance so that we diminish our chances to prevail, or do we control it so it drives us to be better at keeping us away from an extinction path (call it a nuclear war, natural disaster, the natural death of our planet and solar system, etc.)
Do some people have a better purpose than others? I think so, some may have a purpose that is positive to the survival of the species and that contributes to that cause in a greater extent than other purposes.
In conclusion, there isn’t yet an answer for what is the ultimate purpose of life. However, there is an answer for what should be our temporary purpose in life so we can one day discover the ultimate purpose of life. The answer is “to survive”.
Think about Leibniz inventing the binary number system in 1679. Without his invention (or discovery) we would not be able to map the human gene. People at the time did not grasp the idea of DNA or genes, the knowledge foundation for understanding those concepts did not exist. It probably would’ve been heresy to say life has its origin in DNA. By the same token, we can not comprehend the ultimate purpose of life because we do not have the knowledge foundation to understand concepts that will help us answer the question. Our brains may not even be evolved enough to understand the answer to the question (we can’t even visualize the 4th dimension or the concept of infinite). But there are many modern Leibniz, Einstein, Ghandi, Mother Theresa, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, etc. out there laying the knowledge foundation and contributing to ensure our survival, so some day we can answer the ultimate question, or if necessary, rephrase it more accurately.

Answer 6

No purpose - that's what scares the hell out of everone. To realize that the only thing keeping the person next to you from burying an axe in your head is their decision to remain civilized. The idea that at any time any person can just snap and let go is incrediably frightening to people.

Of course, it's also amazing the acts that people undertake for other people with no other motivation that it's beneficial...

Answer 7

No purpose. You just do it. You get to the end, and hopefully have a little fun and make some good memories along the way for the people you leave behind to keep with them.

Answer 8

Why is harmony not purposeful? Creating harmony is a very noble goal...

Answer 9

To answer this again in the space of only a few pages..

Why do you need a purpose to life? You live. That's it, that's all. There's no grand purpose existing out there for you.

The fact that you ask this question only leads to how purposeless and dissatisfied you must be with your life right now. If you felt your life to be fulfilling, you wouldn't feel the need to ask this question.

Answer 10

No real purpose to life far as I can tell. Cept to have fun, and if there's no real point to life, then why should it matter if you follow the rules or not?