Life's Purpose: What is the consensus here?

[Angelo John Gage]

So I'd like to see what most of you have concluded here:

What IS life's purpose?

If there is one, wouldn't this imply that there is a predetermined fate? If so, this would deny free will. I know most of you here believe there is no free will, and if you believe this, then you must believe that your only purpose is to submit to the flow and you have no choice, no reason to worry, no reason to strive to make any changes, because all those things would happen regardless as they are predetermined to happen.

There are some who believe life has no purpose or meaning, and that we are here to create meaning and purpose for ourselves. I find myself in this camp mostly, because I do believe in free will (limited however). In this case, life's meaning is subjective and there is no standard purpose for us and so we take our infinite selves and create special unique 'life' in the absolute, whatever we wish it to be. We weren't created to achieve a goal or for any reason specifically. We weren't created to 'serve' God, but simply because God creates things. One can argue, our physical 'purpose' is survive and replicate, as all life does, but we are way more complex than most life out there (that we know of). Perhaps God also is here to replicate infinitely. But just surviving and replicating does not fulfill any nonphysical and emotional 'needs' we may have.

I know none of us have the answer, nor will we ever, but curious to see different perspectives.

[RichardY]

I believe the universe is indeterministic(not sure if that would relate to impermanence?). Order brought about by chance (quantum events?).

Freewill exists as a potentiality, limited by the interplay of the conscious and unconscious mind (Alien hand/Dr Strangelove Syndrome). Perhaps more along the lines of degrees of freedom. Achieving "Absolute Freedom" I think would depend loosely on how the Ego is structured

Purpose I think would be along the lines of teleology(becoming). To have purpose is to have the distinction between self and other. Maybe morality or Ethics, though not sure how to answer them in the positive sense.

Having said that Actualism, perhaps along the line of Spinoza might be it, the predestination of reality would allow the fortelling of the future, Final Destination style. I think everyone at one time has odd occurences that they can't quite explain. 

Edited April 4, 2018 by RichardY

[Nahm]

@Angelo John Gage You can have the answer to everything you wrote, but no one can tell / give it to you, because it is literally unbelievable. Unbelievable in the most literal all encompassing sense. God could give you a personal seminar and explain it perfectly, while Jesus is illustrating it on a dry erase board - and you’d be further from it. Truth is only accessible by means of direct experience. It’s not as tall of an order as it seems, getting there. You can man. When experienced, ‘your brain’ is ‘rewired’ just to accommodate it, and it is not possible to undo, not that ‘anyone’ would want to. The level of best case scenario is unfathomable, and you do die to see that you don’t die, and then you are awoke and living. Questions like free will or not, etc, become really funny.

“This place is a dream, only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief”. - Rumi

No belief is true. Practices, theory, and or psychedelics are the way. It’s as if you must make a home for the Truth, that when it comes, was never needed. 

 

[Angelo John Gage]

Yes well I have been in states which there was nothing but existence itself. It doesn't tell me why or what its purpose was if any. The only thing I can conclude is that there is no purpose, which is what I leaned towards anyway.

[Nahm]

@Angelo John Gage Who could tell you your purpose? Who could tell you if you have a purpose? If you did, what difference would it make? If you didn’t, what difference would it make? 

And what if, being you is the purpose? Just being you. Is it not enough?

What is the purpose of Starry Night? What is the purpose of The Mona Lisa? What is the purpose of you?

[Nenesha]

@Angelo John Gage  There is a purpose.  But the purpose is not ours. The purpose is with the creator of the Universe and all that it contains, including man. 

The aggregate of all the things you do in life is your destiny, so there is therefore no question of "why not wait for your destiny to manifest?" You cannot  refuse to act your divine obligation nor can you succeed in doing what is not in your life's chart.

Your thoughts which are your guiding force are not generated by you. You open your mind to an issue and thoughts flow. From whence they come no one knows, yet it obviously emanates from the creator to guide you to fulfill your destiny positively or otherwise.

[Epiphany_Inspired]

I was going to type a rather "logical" response.... but the poetry of the other responses chased it away, like a fox out of the hen house