Life has a purpose, but seems to lack objective meaning
If you read my previous post, this might be a bit repetitive, but I had to jot these thoughts down somewhere. Sorry in advance.
When I was a religious Christian I thought life had objective meaning. It was to serve God and obey his commandments in the bible. But after deconverting and still seeking wisdom I have found that life seems to lack any true objective meaning. Although humans seem to need it, or the illusion of it, to motivate themselves to continue living, struggling and reproducing. That's why nearly every culture has some sort of religion or ideology that provides meaning.
The purpose of life is much easier to decipher. If we look at a fork for example, and observe it being used by a human to eat food, we can understand the purpose of this tool. Similarly by observing biological life on Earth, we can understand its purpose. Living beings steal star energy from each other, and gather material resources for the purpose of reproduction. On the molecular level this is about replicating DNA. That's the purpose of life, to replicate DNA through survival and reproduction. Without this song and dance, there would be no biological life on Earth.
But why do we exist? What is the meaning of life? People can invent some subjective meaning to their life. Like if someone wants to earn a million dollars they can make that their life goal and strive towards it. I'd say religions also provide subjective meaning that masquerades as objective meaning. However either there is no true objective meaning that transcends the subjective, or it is so elusive and unattainable that nobody can understand it or achieve it, so it might as well not exist.
Maybe this world is not made for everyone. People who think about these things and seek the truth may be less likely to reproduce as the truth is grim. I certainly don't want to do it anymore. To live is to suffer, and for no good reason. Why bring more people into this prison planet, considering we can't even ask their consent? Sounds like a raw deal. Especially looking at how the world is going at the moment, the future is bleak.
I don't mean to sound demeaning but it seems people who are more animalistic are more likely to thrive in this world. People who don't think too deeply about things and just go with the flow of society and their base instincts.
In my opinion, there is no "official" meaning of life. We were not brought into this world by any intelligent life form, and we were just born by chance, after all. Life is a fluke, so there isn't much reason behind asking why we exist. There is no reason. The sun is yellow because it is, and while I could tell you the chemical reactions behind this happening, and I could just as easily tell you how the Earth's primordial soup evolved into actual breathing life, it doesn't tell you WHY.
ReplyDeleteHowever, just because there isn't a meaning doesn't mean there isn't a goal. In order to stay living, organisms are all built with a certain way of thinking. This involves being rewarded by good feeling for actions that ensure the continuation of life, and punishment by bad feeling for actions that put the entity in danger. Vaguely, these feelings correlate to happiness and sadness. Therefore, if we are to enjoy living and make our time worthwhile, the only thing we can do is pursue happiness. I believe that happiness and sadness are the most objective things in our lives. While our vision may be tricked and our memory twisted, we always know the pleasure of happiness, and the pain of sadness.
I hope you reach the goal.