Death and Meaning
In the next 100 years, none of you reading this post will be alive.
Life is so fleeting when one considers how short it can be.
Also consider that our galaxy is over 10 billion years old. We never get to even live a quarter of that time frame.
What really is the point of life if it ends all in death?
One lives all his or her life struggling to survive ie struggling to avoid death which will inevitably occur.
A medical student who was the best in his class throughout university died on his first day as a doctor.
You can work hard all your life and die the moment you want to reap what you have sowed.
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An animal life
What is the purpose of a fish? To be eaten by sharks and human beings? Just to live and die as food for other animals?
What is the purpose of a cat? To beg for milk and fish from humans?
We can all agree that assigning a purpose to an animals life is ridiculous. Why then are humans exempt?
We
think we are special because we can reason. A dog looking at the moon
can not understand the significance of the lunar cycle. The same way we
can never understand the universe in its entirety. So how are we really
different?
Our reasoning has limits. What if the purpose of life
is truly beyond our reasoning abilities? What if the minds of the gods
were meant for more evolved beings?
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Purpose and Religion
To
the religious people claiming that our purpose as humans to serve and
worship God, they should understand that it is not just true logically
if you consider the death of babies.
Babies who die in the womb
due to natural/spontaneous abortions never get to worship God or even
develop the reasoning ability to understand any concept of God. Natural
abortions are the most common abortions that occur in millions every
year.
Those babies that die in the millions do not get to worship God in their brief life. So, I ask again; what is the purpose of life? What exactly is God’s purpose for babies dying natural deaths in the womb?
What
is even the essence of religion? The way religion was practised in the
7th century is different from the one practised today. It all seems
arbitrary- religious doctrines sway to the interpretations of whichever
religious leaders are in power or the most vocal.
Buddhism
promises some inner peace, Islam promises a total way of life for peace,
Christianity promises salvation, Paganism promises oneness with the
earth. But all these do not guarantee a better life on earth. You could
die the same day you convert to any of these religions. One can live a
fulfilled life without any of these religions.
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So what is your purpose in this life?
What exactly is your purpose?
1) To leave a legacy?
All
legacies get bastardized after a while. Jesus Christ is now popularly
known as a white Italian hippie. Whereas, in reality Jesus would have
been a dark skinned radical Jew.
Worse, only few people get to
leave legacies. If you dont have money or power, you will die a nobody.
Afterall, even the few people that will remember you will die
eventually.
2) To enjoy life to the fullest?
Hedonists usually
die quicker. What if you were born without legs or as a Siamese twin?
What then? You wouldnt be able to enjoy most sports. Most people will
treat you as a freak. Se.x or marriage partners would be harder to come
by. And so on.
3) Religious devotion (to the afterlife)
Yes, the afterlife. A life after death that you have never seen and
cannot prove. A haven that you have been promised by religion but with
crazy standards to fulfil.
If preparing for heaven is the purpose of
life then, life is truly pointless. Why not just send us to heaven
directly? Why would we need to be tried and tested if God knows our
inclinations? What is the point in putting us in such a world where the
only the fittest survive? This life is such an unnecessary test if one
adheres to an all-knowing God. We are nothing but pawns in an eternal
chess game.
4) I was born to be a leader/accountant/doctor
Hitler
could also claim that he was born to lead the Aryan race and
exterminate “rats” like the Jews. No one is born to be anything. We can
only prepare ourselves and our talents for a brighter future.
Wayne Rooney was also a talented boxer. Man chooses his destiny (at the discretion of fate).
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What do I believe as the purpose of meaning of life?
Life
has no meaning. We only ascribe meaning to it because it is our human
nature to see patterns even where there are no patterns.
The best we can do is give our lives meanings ourselves through the one factor that distinguishes us from animals- reasoning.
As
arbitrary as that sounds, reason and logic are the only effective tools
for understanding our universe and navigating it. A well reasoned life
is a better life.
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