What is the point of life?

No really, what?

We live, we die, we (maybe) live again. But why?


Edit to make randyvs happy: People claim that the point of life is to think, and love, and I don't claim those to be wrong, but how does that work when there are people in this world who don't or can't love, and have limited thinking capabilities?

I know it shouldn't be to work your arse off, sleep, eat, get drunk, talk sh!t and repeat the process. There has to be a bigger purpose than that surely. And just to add to that, do as your told and shut up otherwise.......

It's to learn to love. Basically a training ground for the after-life.

No, really.

reply to post by typwar
The point is to get the good chemical reactions flowing in your brain. Feel good, enjoy yourself, and don't hinder anyone elses ability to do the same. That's it, nothing else matters.

Originally posted by typwar
...But why?

Why not?

It ain't like you got anything better to do, now is it...



Life is the Infinite playing hide-and-seek with itself. And there is no death; the fear of death is the fear a child feels when mommy's face disappears behind the hand in a game of peek-a-boo. Mommy's still there, and the Infinite is still there, too, in life and in death.

Peace.

Originally posted by typwar
No really, what?

We live, we die, we (maybe) live again. But why?

edit on 27-3-2011 by typwar because: (no reason given)

The endless question with endless possibilities.

Who knows, but enjoy it while you can.

reply to post by Redevilfan09


That's what I think... But it sure doesn't seem that way right now. I look around at the world, it is just the same thing over and over. Go to school/work, come home, watch TV, play games, read, eat, sleep, repeat.

reply to post by CanadianDream420


That may be true, but then what is the point of the after-life, and love?

Originally posted by typwar

That may be true, but then what is the point of..love?

Love is its own point.

Originally posted by typwar
No really, what?

We live, we die, we (maybe) live again. But why?

edit on 27-3-2011 by typwar because: (no reason given)

Life... don't talk to me about life.

"Now the world has gone to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infra-red,
How I hate the night.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
Try to count electric sheep,
Sweet dream wishes you can keep,
How I hate the night."

Why should I want to make anything up? Life's bad enough as it is without wanting to invent anymore of it.

Marvin the paranoid Android to the rescue!! Life... don't talk to me about life...

OP why do you post a thread with thirteen friggen words in it? Do you think this is up to stansards? Did you get tired of typing and send the thread thru early? This is exactly how you do not post a thread here.

reply to post by typwar


Life is an experience. Before it is all said and done you will be every body and every thing so that you have experienced and learnt everything you needed to learn in order to be a creator of your own universe/dimension.

We are training to be gods. In order to be a god you must know what it is like to be everything you will create.

The creator of our universe experiences it's own creation. Much like you can experience your own realms in your mind.

Ever had a thought about something in your mind that you was imagining and you could deff experience what it would be like to whatever it is your imagining? Well imagine that the universe is imagining what it's like to be you. And everyone else at the sametime. You think your real but your just a reflection of an imagination. Or thought.

When your die you will be someone or something else so you can learn some more and experience what you haven't yet.

Originally posted by silent thunderLove is its own point.

Well, if the point of life is love, then why do we have other feelings. I'm not saying your explanation of life is wrong, but it just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I can honestly say I have never really felt much love, so am I not living?

Originally posted by randyvs
OP why do you post a thread with thirteen friggen words in it? Do you think this is up to stansards? Did you get tired of typing and send the thread thru early? This is exactly how you do not post a thread here.

I don't think I need more than 'thirteen friggen words'. I asked a question, and am hoping for answers. I don't need a multi-paragraph story to go with it.

The only point to life, death, taxes (LOL) and everything in between can be summed up in one word
"Experience"

The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment.

en.wikipedia.org...
We are here for the ride part of the big experiment

I like this explanation:

“The Egg”
by Andy Weir

[color=38ACEC]You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that’s when you met me.
“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”
“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.
“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”
“Yup,” I said.
“I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”
“More or less,” I said.
“Are you god?” You asked.
“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”
“My kids… my wife,” you said.
“What about them?”
“Will they be all right?”
“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”
You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”
“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”
“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”
“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”
“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”
You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”
“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”
“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”
I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.
“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”
“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”
“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”
“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”
“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”
“Where you come from?” You said.
“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”
“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”
“So what’s the point of it all?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”
“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.
I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”
“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”
“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”
“Just me? What about everyone else?”
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”
“All you. Different incarnations of you.”
“Wait. I’m everyone!?”
“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
“I’m every human being who ever lived?”
“Or who will ever live, yes.”
“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”
“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.
“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.
“And you’re the millions he killed.”
“I’m Jesus?”
“And you’re everyone who followed him.”
You fell silent.
“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”
You thought for a long time.
“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”
“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”
“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”
“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”
“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”
“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”
And I sent you on your way.

reply to post by typwar


Nobody really knows what the meaning is, but i like to think our universe is just a huge experiment inside a test tube. Like we're all just atoms inside a deck of cards, or some type of object. There's tons of theories on what our purpose is.

Maybe it's just to survive, or to get along with each other, maybe even to launch nuclear bombs at each other. The T.V. show South Park has an episode where aliens put tons of different species on one planet to see what happens.

That's one theory. But look at the comments of this video:

See, everyone has a perspective.

The meaning of Life. Some say it's 42.

My dad said it was.. to get born, go to school, finish school and get a job, then meet a girl and get married, then have kids, and work to pay off the house you leave the kids when you die.

That's when I knew there had to be more to life and we all had been Indoctrinated into our Culture to Believe something like my Dad said when I was teenager.

In the many years since then I learned Life is everywhere around us.. and not just all us animals. And I learned to think of life the opposite way to how we are indoctrinated into doing.

So if we think of Life as a short experience a soul chooses to have here, we begin to understand the reason for it is to have Experience Here. Because Here is full of experiences, constantly changing scenarios and opportunites for varied experiences.

Then we'd ask why would it do that? And we'd scratch our heads trying to think up a reason for it.. so back to thinking the opposite way around.....

If each massive soul was only a portion of the aware/energetic Universe, then the reason for having Life Experience would be so that the Universe could understand it's Capabilites and better understand itself.. just like we do when we have Life Experience Here.

Or, I might just be a nutter.....

Originally posted by typwar

Originally posted by silent thunderLove is its own point.

Well, if the point of life is love, then why do we have other feelings. I'm not saying your explanation of life is wrong, but it just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I can honestly say I have never really felt much love, so am I not living?

I didn't say the point of life is love. I said the point of love is love. Different story altogether.

Look, I'm a religious fellow but I learned a long time ago not to preach on ATS. I'll put it in a way even athiests can cotton to:

Finding "purpose" in things is a great survival tool. The purpose of a hammer is to pound nails; the purpose of a saw is to cut wood, etc. Identifying and seeking purpose everywhere has helped mankind to get the job done for a long time. But we can go too far with it. We can start applying the concept of "purpose" not to hammers and saws but to abstract concepts like "life" or "existence." Its something we can ask grammatically, but in terms of actual meaning its a kind of invalid question. Like the question: "What does the number "3" smell like?" This is a proper sentence, grammatically, and our brain can construct it, but it has no innate meaning. Beacuse the questioner does not fully understand the nature of "the number three" in the correct way, or he wouldn't ask that question. Same with "existence itself." Its just not something that can be questioned in that way.

We are here for only one reason. To experience this psysical planeand learn from it and grow. As we learn, so does the collective consciousness. We break this experience down into increments of time so that we can experience the NOW of time in a second to second existance so that it is broken down into times of feeling, and how we react to the experiences that come our way.

As we learn, we change our thought process and we grow. As does the collective consciousness. The reality we live is a product of our thought process, and these wars and this turmoil is something we are all manifesting with our disturbed thought processes. As we turn within and find peace, so will the world and our reality will improve. We need to change our root thought processes and change that petulant voice within until we find peace.

As enough of us do this, the world will stabilize...or if not enough of us do, we will continue to ride this rollercoaster and do the best we can with it all. This is our purpose. To see it all and learn from it on an individual basis.

Peace...