What is the purpose... ?

Question

... of living? This isn't a question of suicide or anything like that. I'm looking for the proverbial 'meaning of life'. And I don't want a person's personal goals; I want an all-encompassing theory or philosophy explaining the existance of people. Thanks. <3

Bah. This'll go to vote.

Answer 1

wow, under the quran.... that's an interesting place to be...
anyhow... i wish i could answer for you, but i can't. i think we would all like to know the meaning of life... i used to question it all the time, but never got answers. these are a few of my favorite life quotes i have collected over the years. i want to try to keep it shorter and on another level... lol.... and these help sum it up for me......

to ask the hard question is simple....

Robert Byrne: The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

"The great and glorious masterpiece of humanity is to know how to live with a purpose." -- Montaigne

Bertrand Russell: Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge, And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind]. Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness. In the union of love I have seen In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined. With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of [people]. I have wished to know why the stars shine. Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens, But always pity brought me back to earth; Cries of pain reverberated in my heart Of children in famine, of victims tortured And of old people left helpless. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.

Ernest Becker: I think that taking life seriously means something such as this: that whatever man does on this planet has to be done in the lived truth of the terror of creation, of the grotesque, of the rumble of panic underneath everything. Otherwise it is false. Whatever is achieved must be achieved with the full exercise of passion, of vision, of pain, of fear, and of sorrow. How do we know ... that our part of the meaning of the universe might not be a rhythm in sorrow?

"I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no 'brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." -- George Bernard Shaw

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, and things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art; to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life... I think that what we're really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive."
-- Joseph Campbell

"Although a man may have no jurisdiction over the fact of his existence, he can hold supreme command over the meaning of existence for him." -- Norman Cousins

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Life is a succession of lessons, which must be lived to be understood.

Mitsugi Saotome: If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.

Elbert Hubbard: Life is just one damned thing after another.

Joni Mitchell: I've looked at life from both sides now .... From win and lose and still somehow ... It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all.

hmm... i really didn't keep it shorter, sorry..

Answer 2

Life is about creating meanings.
The human universe will become richer as it gets more meanings. The more YOU CREATE significations, the more your life will mean. The more you don't find things normal. You see beyond the ordinary.
Many people die without even being born, and keep asking "What is the meaning of life?" Well, none - If a person himself is meaningless, he'll never find meaning in life.

The same aplies to Literature, for example. Good ficcionists, what do they do? They give a new meaning to something that is already known and already has billions of meanings. So you don't say that a certain author's work is about X. Instead, you ask what meaning has X acquired in that author's work.

Now, just to mention the greek term ποίησις - poesis. It means to make something pass from not being to being. "Poetry" derives from that word as well. Because things are given a new meaning. It's not about copying. It's not about diving in everyone else's points of view, but having your own.
Things are not supposed to be reproductions, but productions!


But the truth is some people will never find meaning in life, they'll die in indigence... either physical or mental.

Answer 3

The purpose of living is to get to know your Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and serve Him. John 3:16

Answer 4

I think I have answered this 10 times in 13 days. Learn to use "Search for questions" and you will find your answer pronto. The purpose of life, as so many here will tell you, is to find your own purpose.

Answer 5

That is tough to answer......see, the purpose of living and the "meaning of life" are different with each person.....so we aren't the ones that can answer this for you.....you are the only one who can.......= )

Answer 6

The purpose of life is to procreate so that life will continue.

Answer 7

The purpose in life is to discover your purpose in life and fulfill it.