The Purpose of Life

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Originally Posted by Loki

To ask the meaning of life one has to define life itself. What is life, after all? I know; something that moves, respires, grows, reproduces, reacts to environmental stimuli, etc. But is that all? A virus, for example, does not fit into the definition of life.

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It's funny because when I was making my engineering class I had to answer this question at an oral exam: "is the virus a living organism ?"
I answered yes because biologically a virus has not DNA but still has an RNA, it parasits others to reproduce but it is clearly the same kind of reproduction than any other more sophisticated organism.

If I was asked rather "Is the virus conscious (of being alive) ?" I would probably have answered no because he doesn't have a brain like superior animals. I think that the reason we ask such question is just due to the fact that we have a brain. But this question could also be asked for any non-brained organism.

Maybe the question is just brain artefact and there is no purpose in life, maybe there is some gods that may be our fathers or ... just children playing with us as toys :D

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Originally Posted by atiguhya padma

Life is not simple.

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D'oh! Why wasn't I warned before???

;)

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Originally Posted by Scheherazade

D'oh! Why wasn't I warned before???

;)

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:lol: so now you are. Better to be on guards. :lol:

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Originally Posted by subterranean

As Betrand Russel said (which quoted form the book), "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless".

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I used to think Bertrand Russell was brilliant and humanistic but not any more when I discovered that SIR Bertrand Russell (because he is a British Lord) wrotes things like

"Really high minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's."

and if you read in context it's even worse :

"War, so far, has had no great effect on this increase [of population], which continued throughout each of the world wars.... War has hitherto been disappointing in this respect…but perhaps a bacteriological war may prove more effective. If a Black Death could be spread throughout the world once in every generation, survivors would be free to procreate freely without making the world too full." Russell went on, "this state of affairs may be somewhat unpleasant, but what of it? Really high minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's."

Bertrand Russell in "The Impact of Science on Society"
published in 1955 so AFTER nazism period.

Hi, NWO. Yes, I'm not really in to Russell's either. I quoted his words in the attempt to show whether there's a relationship between the existance of divine being (God), and the purpose of life. As we all know, Russell was an Agnostic.

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Originally Posted by subterranean

Hi, NWO. Yes, I'm not really in to Russell's either. I quoted his words in the attempt to show whether there's a relationship between the existance of divine being (God), and the purpose of life. As we all know, Russell was an Agnostic.

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It is natural that you quoted Russell because you ignored the whole nature of the man like 95% of people - in fact like myself a few months ago - but now you know who the guy is, then it's up to you to quote him in your conciousness.

Hitler was supposedly christian but I don't think any christian today would quote him. As for me I have decided to never quote Russell like I used to because he represents the horror of nazism.

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Originally Posted by NewWorldOrder

Hitler was supposedly christian but I don't think any christian today would quote him. As for me I have decided to never quote Russell like I used to because he represents the horror of nazism.

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Russell was a sanctimonious hypocrite since he never tired of villifying Nietzsche as a warmonger and the progenitor of Nazism. He even said Nietzsche was a misanthrope because any woman could whip his butt.

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Originally Posted by starrwriter

Russell was a sanctimonious hypocrite since he never tired of villifying Nietzsche as a warmonger and the progenitor of Nazism. He even said Nietzsche was a misanthrope because any woman could whip his butt.

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I agree Nietzsche was unfortunately associated to nazism whereas he wasn't even alived. And when I read Nietzsche I can't see any real nazi idea (just crude thoughts may be) like when I read some book of Russell : I wonder if it wasn't done on purpose to kick off Nietzsche and substitute Russell as the great humanitist philosopher who in facade joined Einstein for a United World whereas he is the beast of Apocalypse :D

I also agree that Nietzsche's association with Nazism is unfortunate, however, I can see it. While I do believe that it's a misinterpretation, I think that it's easy to see how Hitler's ethnic cleansing came from the social darwinist undertones of Thus Spake Zarathustra.

I love Nietzsche, don't get me wrong. I just don't think it's that hard to see why people associate the two. Did you know that Hitler passed out a copy of two books for every German Nazi soldier to carry in his backpack during the Holocaust and WWII? One was the Nazi party handbook and the other, none other than Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra .

Quite a dangerous misreading, no?

I don't really understand your point. What do you refer as the nature of the man here?

And have you even read the book I was reffering to in my first post in this thread?

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Originally Posted by NewWorldOrder

It is natural that you quoted Russell because you ignored the whole nature of the man like 95% of people - in fact like myself a few months ago - but now you know who the guy is, then it's up to you to quote him in your conciousness.

Hitler was supposedly christian but I don't think any christian today would quote him. As for me I have decided to never quote Russell like I used to because he represents the horror of nazism.

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The purpose of life is to externalize one's idea (or best attempt at the "form") of oneself and then to recognize it in the waking world.

It might be better to ask what is a life of purpose?

A life of purpose is one in which the person leading that life seeks to help others lead a life of purpose, that being to achieve harmony with the universe and most importatnly the inhabitants of it. The sum total for those who don't want to read all the print: don't be a jerk (since those nouns referring to donkeys are edited).

I do not believe there is a purpose to life. To me, it's meaningless, in the sense there is not any specific or general aim for us to be here. Having said that, I do think life is worth living (though there are times in which I contemplate the possibility of suicide). Anyway, if I really committed that act, it would be for concluding that my life was not worth living, but not life in a generic sense.

I think it is not necessory to add some purposes to life. Maybe not everything which exist in the world has a purpose. Life is life, just an "exist". Even the whole human being dose not have a purpose. Who knows where we human being will go, what is our destination.