Why are we here?

To completely trash the planet. We aren't much good for anything else it would seem. Anything else we do is always for our benefit and nothing else, because if we find the need to correct something in the world it is always to try to put right something we have mucked up.

Discuss!

I think some cosmic particles landed on our planet, enabling life to evolve and........ta da! Here we are!

Galen, what a difficult question. Since losing DH I have felt lost and aimless. When I asked myself what I am for I couldn't answer it so I stopped asking.it felt too scary to consider that there may be no reason for our existence. I feel that it's important to try to live in the present, be kind , fight injustice without necessarily having any idea what the purpose of it all is. I'm interested to see what replies you get.

I am with you sewsilver - generations upon generations have agonised over galen's question and come up with no answer.

I favour not using up too much of my one life worrying about it - I do not believe that humans will ever know the answer. But what we can do is to espouse kindness and live our lives decently and honestly.

Your DH lives on in you as all our loved ones do - and the love that they have left with you is passed on by you to those around you. We are all immortal in that sense.

We are not aimless - we just need to define our aims in human terms in the present moment; and kindness has to be the only way forward.

Already some different interpretations of your question, Galen. Are you asking is there a purpose for us now we are here, or what caused us to arrive here in the first place?

There doesn't have to be a reason for why we are here, does there? We just are. I think when we were placed/evolved here, it was simply to 'be'.

I think we are all here as part of a giant lab test. We are each given life and are put (born) into various walks of lives. Some of us are born rich some poor, some good looking, some not. The test is to see what we can do with what we have been given and if we leave the earth having made it a better or a worse place than when we arrived.

Why should there have to be a reason?

(there was this little amoeba, and one day he crawled out of the water.....)

and here is the little chap's picture

jing incorrect according to current evolutionary theory. It was some sort of fish.
Though actually I think it was the FSM!

Seriously, is there any point to going on day after day?

What is the alternative?

And yes. Just find a nice book and something good to eat. Be good to yourself.

If that is the case though, gillybob, do you think that there's something that oversees what sort of job we make of it? We're always striving, aren't we? Not always to 'better' ourselves, but working toward something that would (or could) make things better for ourselves or those dear to us. I can understand what Sewsilver means when she says she stopped asking herself what she was 'for'.

The amoeba thing was taught to me by my science teacher when I was twelve! Good remembering eh?!

And anyway, why shouldn't you go on day after day? It's your right to be here and to find happiness where you can. Just simple things will do.

Eat some chocolate.

I don't know what the purpose of my life is, as I have received no instructions (no mysterious being out there, as far as I'm concerned) so I have got a mental manual of values like trying to leave my bit of the world better when I go than when I got here.

Agree with you there, when. And chocolate is definitely a reason for 'being', jings.

Yes there is a point in going on day after day Galen and as jingl says "what's the alternative?"

I honestly think that if we look hard enough we can all try and find "the reason". It might be that someone needs us, or someone might need us in the future. It might be that your expertise or knowledge helps to make the world a better place ( I think this applies to you in particular Galen)or it might be something much simpler than that, I don't know.

A few weeks ago when my gran was particularly poorly she said that she didn't want to go on any longer and I could understand her as her quality of life was so limited it was almost non existant. A few weeks on she is back doing her crosswords and puzzles, eating good food(her favourite pastime) and receiving various visitors. She still moans and groans for England but that way we know she is her "old self".

Does there have to be a reason? Apart from chocolate and GN obviously

I find the whole thing far to difficult to contemplate so just go on doing the best I can - getting it wrong mainly!

That brings us back to Gilly's experiment theory.

If you believe in any kind of afterlife, could we just be a source of energy for some reason, after our death?

Well this is all getting very deep isn't it?

I don't believe in god, never have. I do however believe that it is the memory we leave behind that matters nothing else.

If we have tried to do good in our lives, maybe not managed all of the time, but never knowingly set out to do harm.
If, when others talk about us they tend to say more good things than bad.
If our memories make others smile.
If the people we leave behind are genuinly sad that we have left them

Then surely we have made the world a better place.

My grandad and grandma were/are the most important people in my life. When my grandad passed away I can honestly say that the world was a worse place for me and for all of those whose life he touched. He could not have been or felt any more loved. I can and still do cry for him. My grandma and I talk about him almost every day and whilst he was no saint, he was the goodest person I have ever known and his reward for this is his lasting memory.

Yes we are always striving to do more or do better Marelli I think its human nature but what more can we do that love and be loved? It isn't about what you do, how much you earn, how big your house is. It is all about the good memory that we leave behind. I stopped asking myself "what I was for?" a long time ago as the list got too long and it was wearing me out.

I think that ideally the aim of our existence should be to have a good time and enhance the lives of others.

I think that ideally the aim of our existence should be to have a good time and enhance the lives of others.

Oh dear this question strikes at the root of my anxiety - are we here? why am I here. DH says its the will of God and we must strive to learn here for the life to come. I waver about on this all the time. Science tells us there is no proof of life after death and yet millions still believe. When I'm in church I believe it and then yet. I believe its my duty to be a good citizen of the world and to help others- doesn't stop being being a nasty old bag at times though.

I think the only "life after" is the memory of life that we leave others suebailey1. I simply cannot believe in a magical place in the clouds where we all wear angel wings and play the harp. If however the thought brings comfort to some people then that can only be a good thing.