Why do human beings exist? Is there a higher purpose? If not...?

Question

...are we just there by chance, because of the process of evolution and countless fortuities? And if there was no purpose in the beginning, should there be a purpose anyway? What should this purpose be? Or is the main purpose in the end, as for all other things alive, just to survive? But why? For what?

Think about it and write your comment.

Interesting answers so far so let me add something.

Troll Patrol said: "Whats the point to being born when youre going to die anyway?"

Really interesting question. For me, one of the possible explanation would be that you are there to reproduce to keep the evolutionary process alive. This necessarily includes the death, because with out death there would be no real evolution.

So beside that, you are free to enjoy life while you are on earth? There is no other purpose humans beings have?

Is there no other long-term(!) goal for the human species? I mean if we take just the survival question into account. For me it is unavoidable that humans one day leave this planet. (1) to have at least another location to live in case the earth is hit by a huge asteroid again, making life impossible on earth. And (2) because one day the sun will make life on earth impossible for sure.

So if I look just on me personally, yes I could just enjoy life. And I do! But there must be more? Isn't there?

Answer 1

It is said that there are 84 lakh species or living organisms in this world and the human life is the rarest of the rare privilege for one to get so that he can attain God.If you lose this opportunity you will never know when you will get it back again.Dont waste this and enter the animal planet.

Answer 2

80% of humanity, the religious folks, don't need to ask the meaning of life, the church tells them....the supernatural explanation. But the rest of us can't swallow religious dogma, because there's no evidence. Nobody can prove that there life after death, that people are tortured or rewarded after life or that there's invisible spirits running around.

I've come to two conclusions recently:

1. Life has no meaning
2. Life has a million meanings.

First, there's a certainty that death and annihilation awaits not only you, but the Earth in general. It's an astonomical certainty that our sun will supernova and leave the earth a burnt crisp, not to mention all the other extinction level events around the corner.

Second, the million things that give us meaning are the pleasurable experiences we can conjure up during the short period we are here on the earth, in the form of the relationships we have with our kids and other people, and the 'housekeeping' types of purposes. What i mean by that are the curing disease, ending hunger, improving literacy, reducing crime, preventing war, helping other kinds of things.

So the bottom line is, we only have a temporary meaning to life, to reduce pain and increase pleasure, other than that everything is lost to oblivion.


To be or not to be? "To be" is temporary and "not to be" is inevitable.....

Answer 3

You're asking why we are here. That question requires God.

“Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.” –Bertrand Russell (noted 20th century mathematician, philosopher and Nobel Laureate)

Without God, your question is meaningless. Natural processes cannot give purpose. Evolution can no more give us a reason for being here than a snowstorm can give a reason for a snowflake. And so your purpose cannot be to reproduce or die or live. Evolution doesn't "care" about any of those things.

We know that things without purpose have no worth and if our life has no purpose, then we are without worth. But our human nature demands that our lives be worth living.

"There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that." (Albert Camus - philosopher and writer)

And so, if we reject God, then we have to invent some activity and then pretend that it is our purpose for living. We either do that or risk suicide as Camus pointed out. "Live life to the fullest", "make a difference", "learn all you can" are examples of invented purpose.

But if God exists, then we can see that He must have put our great need for purpose and meaning and worth into our human nature to point us to seek Him. Seek and ye shall find is our purpose.

Answer 4

Evolution is a purposeless driven theory, man is an accident of millions of years of sloppiness through death and destruction. In creationism, man is unique in this universe; he is capable of learning, reasoning and building upon knowledge. He is self aware, because he can contemplate his own existence and discover his purpose. Man's purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Here in this life one can find God's purpose through a relationship with Jesus. Man is the crown of God's creation, and has capacities for greatness not yet realized. Alas, we are sinful and separated from God, so many people can't find their purpose because they don't know their creator, who knows them inside and out. Read Romans 3, 5, and 8 in the New Testament, and think about how much God loves you.

Answer 5

Any "meaning" life has, is given to it by the one who lives it. Looking for some secret cosmic purpose is a pointless waste of time.

Answer 6

Things makes more sense as we continue to grow.

Acceptance is the most helpful quality here. It is best just to accept and use our time to continue growing in knowldege and experience.

Here is some knowledge on the quickest way to grow so that everything can be understood.

Answer 7

The only possible credible answer is to say we don't know. We can't know. So look for people who respond by saying I don't know and at least you identify people who know the difference between what they know and don't know.

Also, I'd be damned wary of people who propose that they DO know and even more so those who organize followers to share their belief. Hmmm - what does that sound like ...

Answer 8

God gave us life to have a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.