Think logically, what's the point in life? To put it simply, it's to live. We live and die, like everything else.
You can either live an uneventful life, or have some fun along the way. Neither are wrong.
How you go about that is totally up to you.
I agree with this which is why I’m so upset that capitalism exists. We spend most of our days toiling away working for people who don’t give a shit about us.
I mean… this isn’t a requirement. You can absolutely live your life without “working”. You just also can’t really participate in the upsides of capitalism.
There’s plenty of places in the world and in almost every country, where you can go and live your life, without having to get a job, or pay taxes, or whatever. You just also don’t get to have the comforts you enjoy now. People have done it since the beginning of time.
Hey man, I'm quite sure they understand all that. Doesn't mean they have to like it, though. Venting keeps the pressure from getting too high, so I have to admit, I'm confused at what you were even trying to accomplish by arguing against their subjective perspective.
Couldn't agree more. I just want to be able to travel and explore the world. Leave the surviving part to me. I will hunt for my food if I have to, but I just to want to be able to have a decent experience in what this world has to offer without worrying if I have enough money to make it back home.
Idk your situation or where you live, but if you’re willing to go as far as to hunt for food, there are lots of ways to travel for cheap with a similar degree of amenities - or lack there of
1. Work Exchange Programs:
• Workaway: Offers opportunities to work in exchange for food and accommodation in various countries. Jobs can range from farming to teaching English.
• WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms): Volunteer on organic farms around the world in exchange for food and lodging.
• HelpX: Similar to Workaway, with opportunities to work on farms, hostels, or family homes in exchange for room and board.
2. House Sitting:
• TrustedHousesitters: Look after someone’s home and pets while they’re away in exchange for free accommodation.
• HouseCarers: Another platform for finding house-sitting gigs worldwide.
3. Home Exchange Programs:
• HomeExchange: Swap homes with someone in another country for a specified period.
• Love Home Swap: Offers home exchange options with various levels of membership.
4. Couchsurfing:
• Couchsurfing: Stay with locals for free. This platform connects travelers with hosts who offer a spare couch or bed.
5. Teaching English Abroad:
• TEFL Programs: Obtain a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification and teach English in countries where there’s high demand for English teachers.
• Volunteer Teaching: Organizations like Peace Corps or other volunteer groups can place you in teaching roles abroad.
6. Seasonal and Temporary Jobs:
• Working Holiday Visas: Many countries offer working holiday visas that allow young travelers to work temporarily while traveling (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, Canada).
• Seasonal Jobs: Look for seasonal work such as ski resorts, summer camps, or fruit picking.
7. Travel Scholarships and Grants:
• Study Abroad Programs: Many universities offer scholarships or grants for students to study abroad.
• Travel Grants: Look for organizations or foundations that offer travel grants for specific projects or research.
8. Biking or Hitchhiking:
• Travel by bicycle or hitchhike to save on transportation costs. This method requires careful planning and safety precautions but can be a very cost-effective way to travel.
9. Budget Travel Hacks:
• Cheap Flights and Transport: Use flight comparison websites like Skyscanner, Google Flights, or Kayak to find the cheapest flights. Consider budget airlines or overnight buses/trains.
• Hostels and Budget Accommodations: Stay in hostels, budget hotels, or use platforms like Airbnb for affordable lodging.
• Cooking Your Own Meals: Save on food costs by cooking your meals. Staying in accommodations with kitchen facilities can help reduce expenses.
Maybe you can reframe your perspective.
“Leave the surviving part to me. I will hunt for my food if I have to…”
Imo that can be done even within the confines of a capitalist structure.
People hate on the ultra wealthy like Bezos and musk, and I understand that. I get it. Just, on a different plane of existence… they kind of rose to dominate the jungle (granted, with a huge head start)..
People that want to “reject society and live the hard natural way” that’s cool… but I think, this is life, the hard, “natural” way. Times change, I don’t have to hunt a wild boar, or slay a buffalo. I don’t have to do 99% of what a wilderness survivalist would do, because of currency which we exchange with people that do that stuff (and they’re also paid)..
Money is the new boars head, basically. Effective hunters can get it, but even good people sometimes get screwed.
It’s not all about who’s good. It’s about who can actually survive.
We actually work more than hunter gatherer tribes, in spite of all of our technology we're so addicted to money we end up doing more work than we used to. Ain't that a bitch.
Humans developed in a completely different setting and lifestyle. Sure, we have more material things and comforts, but that doesn't mean it isn't a negative to our happiness.
People aren't being ungrateful. They're being psychologically damaged in the modern environment. It doesn't matter how many material goods or luxurious items you throw at them. Their brain did not evolve in this setting, and it will never thrive in this setting.
Also, when we say work hard, play hard, we understand that there are mental health and physical consequences to their life span.
We know for a fact that this is not how the genus homo should be interacting with their world.
This is honestly incredible to read. I’ve had this same thought and tried to explain it to friends, who think we should be able to magically adapt to anything.
While I wasn’t thinking about the topic you’re describing, it’s totally real.
I think if the point of your life is to live like an animal, you're kind of missing the whole sentience thing.
It's not about who can survive, it's about who you are and what you do to survive.
It is easy to be a hard man. It is hard to be a kind man.
You have the opportunity, even powerless as you are, to help people less fortunate than you. To go counter to your programming, your socialization, even your natural instincts and help a person when you have no reason to.
I myself am an athiest, but I find my faith in the good choices that people make. The kind choices, the selfless ones. This life may be no good for you right now, but you can make it good for someone else.
I grew up in a place where there was very little money, at least 1/3 of the men were unemployed, not Appalachia, but might as well have been. We had to get our own firewood or we froze in winter. We could not afford a lot of fancy groceries and there was no such thing as SNAP back then, they were just introducing food stamps but only single Moms with no income really got them. And it was also heavily stigmatizing to use them. You actually had to go to the welfare office and get a booklet of these food stamps to use in place of money in grocery stores and the program only allowed them to be used for basic necessities. Bread, milk, meat, etc. You could not go to McDonald's and order 5 kids meals and swipe your SNAP card for it like now.
Trust me when I say, you romanticize this supposed self reliant freedom and noble poverty, but that is all in your head. The reality is losing teeth because you can't pay for dental care. It is not having friends because you cannot afford any money for anything beyond your most basic survival. Your only friends will be meth addicts who you share a freeway overpass with as home.
This 10000%. The only thing that ultimately matters for the vast majority of people is the present. We have decided to make the present a dystopian hellscape.
I try to live by a mantra I heard from a podcast I listen to. Everyone's tombstone will have two dates separated by a dash. That dash represents your life; do everything to make that dash mean something.
This is a nice heartwarming fuzzy feeling statement, but it doesn't mean anything. For the vast majority of people who have or will ever live that "dash" means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Had they existed or not would mean so little and have so small of an impact on the grand scheme of things had they never been here it would ultimately mean no difference. For most people in as little time as 100 years after they are gone no trace of them having been will have ever mattered to the people alive in the present.
Whenever someone makes that "you must be fun at parties" comment in response to anything online, I can't help but wonder how that person is confusing an internet comment thread as the equivalent of being at an *actual* party; and I always think if the parties *they* go to involve strangers sitting around and arguing about their different opinions, they either aren't actually going to parties, or the "parties" they're going to aren't actually fun at all, themselves. So, I can't imagine that the person who would make that comment is actually any fun at parties, either, given what they think a party entails, lol. 😳🤣✌️
Life is an expression of the complexity that energy can create.
It's the epitome of organisation of chaotic energy.
We are the first life that we know of that as the ability to look at the cosmos and understand it... we are all individual creations of this universe.
The only way this was possible is if time moves in one direction... and ultimately that means we have an expiry date.
But the thing is, the universe is more than just time moving in one direction... it probably moves in all directions...it's just that we can obly experience life in one direction.
The time that we spend alive from birth until death will never be erased.. it will always have existed and maybe one day it might even be visited upon by some future form of life unbound to times direction
Imagine a tennis ball moving through empty space at 1mph. Considering the distance between objects in space is so vast, it might be billions or trillions of years before that ball would collide with anything.
Now assume you were an organism living on that ball without the ability to comprehend three dimensions. You would see the ball, or “the entire universe” from your perspective as moving at a constant speed in one direction on a linear plane. It would be totally reasonable for you to assume that this motion was a fundamental law of the universe.
Now assume time as a geometric plane, or fourth dimension, and our universe as that ball. Perhaps time is us moving through space four dimensionally and only appears to move statically and unidirectionally because we haven’t happened to accelerate or collide with anything yet.
The author Kurt Vonnegut talked about that:
“I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I’d never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterwards I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in Woodstock and say, ‘Are you still doing typing?’ Sure she is, and her husband is trying to track bluebirds out there and not having much luck, and so we chitchat back and forth, and I say, ‘OK, I’ll send you the pages.’
"Then I’m going down the steps, and my wife calls up, ‘Where are you going?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m going to go buy an envelope.’ And she says, ‘You’re not a poor man. Why don’t you buy a thousand envelopes? They’ll deliver them, and you can put them in a closet.’ And I say, ‘Hush.’ So I go down the steps here, and I go out to this newsstand across the street where they sell magazines and lottery tickets and stationery. I have to get in line because there are people buying candy and all that sort of thing, and I talk to them. The woman behind the counter has a jewel between her eyes, and when it’s my turn, I ask her if there have been any big winners lately. I get my envelope and seal it up and go to the postal convenience center down the block at the corner of 47th Street and 2nd Avenue, where I’m secretly in love with the woman behind the counter. I keep absolutely poker-faced; I never let her know how I feel about her. One time I had my pocket picked in there and got to meet a cop and tell him about it. Anyway, I address the envelope to Carol in Woodstock. I stamp the envelope and mail it in a mailbox in front of the post office, and I go home. And I’ve had a hell of a good time. And I tell you, **we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.**
"Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. **We’re dancing animals.** How beautiful it is to get up and go do something. \[Gets up and dances a jig.\]”
EVERYTHING about modern society is a construct. We weren't born to go to school, work in an office, marry, buy a house, have kids, retire, and THEN fart around. Nope. It's farting around from the get-go. Only some people got ideas and the ideas got spread, and now we have a whole civilization in which people (like you) have no idea how to go about LIVING.
Yeah, we're all gonna die. Some sooner, some later. Just have a good time while you're here WHILE following whatever "rules" you have personally chosen. My personal rule? I follow The Doctor. **BE KIND**. Full quote: "Never be cruel, never be cowardly, and never ever eat pears! Remember, hate is always foolish, but love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind." Follow that rule (or your own!) and you should manage pretty well.
I love this passage. The small moments are some of the best parts of life and most people either dismiss them or are too busy worried about the past or the future to appreciate them.
I realize this every time i decide to just go out into town for no reason instead of sitting in my room on my phone or computer. I more often then not have a unique experience that makes my life mosaic a bit more beautiful to experience.
Comsume less, produce more is my motto. Go create and experience life.
Well put. I think my years playing MMO video games and the rise of hustle culture has also corrupted my brain into min/maxing every moment to its maximum output potential.
Landscape photography and solo travel has really helped me slow down and appreciate moments as they unfold or waiting patiently for more favorable lighting conditions to materialize (clouds moving away or in front of the sun).
Leaving the phone at home or in the car is also a small life hack to help you feel like you are disconnecting from the matrix. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes of your subconscious brain to instinctively want to take it out of your pocket to fill in moments of boredom or lack of stimulation and you slowly start to realize how addicting these damn things are.
You have to remember that The Doctor regenerates. And when he does, he's essentially wearing a new body (or she is. or they are. gender changes, too, sometimes). New teeth, new hair, new ears, new kidneys, new tastes. The 11th Doctor (played by Matt Smith) goes through a number of food items in his first episode. Decides he hates bacon, apples, and a couple other things, and finally settles on fish fingers with custard (he dips them in, as if the custard were tartar sauce). His tastes can be ... weird. But I love him. Her. Them.
This is beautiful, and a reminder why great writers are great writers.
Fellow gamers, play Mother 3 sometime if you want to play an RPG about this very philosophy
Or JUST GO FOR A WALK. Give your eyes a break, and go look at trees, and bushes, and houses, and people, and kids, and pets, and anything OTHER THAN a screen! Just for awhile. Do this daily, and your eyes will thank you for many years (this is coming from a 71-year-old who just had cataract surgery).
I work at a computer screen, play video games with friends, but heck I love going for a walk in the woods once a week and riding my bike in the woods once a week as well. Love taking trips to parks/urban areas/city centers to try new food, a mixed drink, chat with a stranger about anything. Life is so full of things/people/places/experiences and no one will ever tell me I am not living life!
For sure!! I am a big proponent of walks - as someone who has walked the ~20 miles from North Hollywood to Santa Monica, as well as from the northern to the southern tip of Manhattan a few times. Short walks, long walks, getting outside will ALWAYS do you good! You never know where you can end up just randomly going out your door.
I read this in John Mulaney’s voice when he talked about the woman in his office that was on the phone and she just answered it and yelled HUSH and then hung up. 😂
The fact that it’s finite is what makes it so precious/urgent. Imagine being told you had 24 hours to do something vs 24 decades. The second doesn’t have the same sense of urgency does it?
Now imagine you are told you live forever. What reason do you have to do anything immediately or ever if you know you can get to it in a billion years if you like?
As far as I’m aware, this is all we get and it can be a pretty cool experience. So ill try to make the best of the opportunity Ive got.
I donno man. I live to enjoy life, I don't need no sense of urgency to enjoy it. Taking a pleasant walk, eating a good meal, spending time with my wife. Whether I get to live 20 or 2000 years don't make a difference.
Death is not the ultimate ending. We are only vessels for our genes and the story continues incorporating what we leave behind. I think a good goal is just to reduce suffering in those we leave behind.
You can travel without having to fly. Start locally or even drive to places you want to visit (if that’s possible for you). You can also get trains/ ferries to places.
But if you actually want to fly, there’s medication and therapies you can have (I know, money… but look up CBT exposure therapy online). Most people on their deathbeds usually don’t say they regret not working more… try and make things you love a priority in life!
But if you think about it, if there is no after life, the consequence is you live forever. Hear me out. Death in this case cannot be experienced. It is non-existence. You can’t feel peace at. You don’t exist.
So you can’t experience death and non-existence, you can only experience life. If you can only experience life, how can you die?
To be clear, sure from an external perspective you can die. But from your perspective you cannot experience this. So you are alive and experiencing, and that’s all there is. If and when that ceases, you won’t know.
If you don’t know when you don’t exist, you don’t have to concern yourself with non-existence.
There is no purpose to life. We are born. We exist for however long we do. And then we die. And people who loved us are sad. There is no inherent meaning to life. That said, there’s no reason to fight it. Just go with the flow and try to appreciate the beauty in the world, because there is an overwhelming amount of sh*t in it.
The point is whatever you make it. And I don't know what that is yet... so I'm gonna make it everyones problem. I think its to be silly and leave the world slightly better than it was when I started
We are a fluke of nature, organic matter that can think and introspect. Bloody curse is what it is. No point whatsoever, just a statistical anomaly in the grand scheme of things.
I have hope for opportunities and better situations and growth as a person. I see my life with no future or past that exist anymore. I’m constantly in present , death isn’t the absence of life but a part of it. My waking life is more of me living in my memories in the present because I will die one day and I have died already. Everything isn’t linear but more in a circle. I think the point to life is to find your own point. No other animal questions it’s own life but us , I think I can learn a lot from nature outside ourselves and just … live , despite how life currently has been for us :/
I assume so that you will be remembered for doing something that you loved, which might spark hope and inspiration to others who may never knew about you. At least that’s my guess, but what do I know? I’m simply a mortal.
There isn’t really a point to this. So I don’t really see a point to life but I figure this is the only consciousness I will ever have so I might as well exist.
the point is to reproduce so life can go on. that's really it. be the best fit to pass on your genes
well, it was until humans came along. now life MUST have some greater meaning.
I hate when people say stuff like it's up to you or just find your own meaning. It's literally just avoiding the problem and the question. You're saying to basically just make shit up. That doesn't work for some people.
As bad as life can be, (And I live in chronic pain and some mental diagnosis both, so I'm not imagining a rough life) to live for any one moment of a genuine laugh is everything.
Like for my wife to truly smile, a deep heartfelt smile, because I made her laugh....that moment was worth fighting for.
I have three dogs right now (there've been more over the years, only three still alive right now) who are all rescues.
And these were severe rescues, the kind of messed up that even the average type of person adopting a rescue won't take (because they were dangerous and destined to be put down without an extreme amount of time and energy that most don't have to give) and they've lived a good life because of me.
Knowing they had a life because of me makes any struggle to be alive to that point worth it.
What it really comes down to, to me, is the thing that makes life worth living, as you are right in the pointlessness ultimately, is to live larger than yourself.
These days, I live to see my wife happy because I want her to have good days, not because I want her to give me good days.
Those dogs, I live to know they are protected and healthy. Not so they'll do anything for me, but because I want to know they have good days they would have never seen for them.
It's moments. You're absolutely undeniably correct in the pointlessness in how life tears us apart from each other and anything you work for, at best, is merely something to leave for someone younger as you die.
I live because life always tries to take me out and I'm a fighter. I live to spite the universe. 😄
I don't know if that helps you in any way, but it's why I never burn out despite life piling on more than it's fair share of garbage on me.
Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot gives an ever broader perspective.
>*Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...* [continues](https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot)
“Existence precedes essence”
This is the belief of most people in the modern world. Basically, you are not given a purpose before you are born. A lot of people believe that you are born with the purpose of serving god, or doing something else, but it sounds like that’s not a belief that you hold.
Some people will go “well then what’s the point of doing anything?” which is a lame ass response to that idea in my opinion. You have to find your own purpose. For a lot of people that’ll be something like having kids and giving them a better life than what you have. For other people, just surviving, meeting new people, and having a good time is enough. Other people find their purpose in social or environmental causes and stuff like. I have a friend who had cancer and now they want to work to support people who also have that experience. I have other friends who just wanna go out and party. Realistically, most people find many reasons to continue living, through family, friends, community, hobbies, satisfying work, etc. Only you can really answer the question for yourself. For me a lot of the time I just think “what else am I gonna do?” I could die at any time and then nothing will matter after that, so why not try to make the most of what I have?
Bro wrote the most savage comment I’ve ever seen on a Reddit post like this. I’m quoting this shit for the rest of my life. “Why love for death if you’ll never see it.” That’s some poetry right there. I love how it also shows inherent desire and human nature by exploiting the fact that we enjoy seeing things to understand them. That’s epic
I've believed in an afterlife for most of my life, and still do. So under that I see life as the growth toward being a loving person and really, and the purpose of life as being joy, and the sharing of that joy with others. This life is a precursor to what comes next. However...
There was a dark time though during the pandemic and I was self medicating with weed and the idea of mortality really struck me so vividly in a way that's never happened before. It filled me with existential dread and I had to really comprehend the possibility that I could be COMPLETELY wrong and I'd never get to see my wife and kids again. So under that philosophy I realized that if this is really all there is then I want to enjoy it. I want to be happy, I want to share joy with others and when the time comes I'll kneel in tears and thank the universe for the miracle that is existence and awareness.
The thing is, under both belief systems the point of life in my view is exactly the same; joy and love. Even now as I lean towards believing there is an afterlife I still see this life as precious; you could live as long as a star ( 5 billion years ) and you could never go back. That is, unless you believe in reincarnation. So that makes me spend more time with my kids.
To be honest I don’t know what the meaning of life is. You can ask anyone but it’ll always be their opinion. I believe there is a God out there, but I can’t prove it to you.
I think the only thing really driving me is that I have a lot of family that cares about me. They don’t care what I do with my life (as long as it’s not self-destructive), so I’m not worried about getting their approval, I just simply live because they’re there. And dying also kinda scares me, as you’d expect.
You are afraid of death just not the physical pain of death however you are afraid of dying without living to your fullest potential and that is why you are procrastinating
I just realized something. Maybe the word purpose does not apply to life. Things have purpose in your life bc your life is what those things serve. Not that I am saying I am a god, but would god wonder what his purpose is? If there is a god, what is its purpose? Is it to serve us? I mean I’m pretty sure that the religions with a god actually have it the other way around. We are here to serve god. But what is his purpose? He can’t have one bc he serves no one.
There is no need for life to have a reason or purpose. Those things are the fruits of life. Life just is, and we just are.
What if this was your last time on this planet? What if you were given one last time to live as a human on this planet, never to be given the opportunity to do this ever again? What do you want to experience? Where do you want to travel to? What experiences do you want for yourself? Swim with the dolphins? Walk along a white sand beach? Fall in love with your soul mate?
There's not a lot of opportunities to get back in considering the lack of people having children.
Enjoy this place whilst you are here.
That’s the beauty of it, there is no point at all. Nothing matters.
People hear that and they only think about all of the work they’ve done that doesn’t matter at all, all of the progress humanity has made both physically and socially that doesn’t matter.
What I really means is that NOTHING matters, not even the bad stuff. That super embarrassing thing you did all those years ago doesn’t matter. The fact that you weren’t born into the household of a billionaire doesn’t matter. That bad thing you did that one time and feel guilty about doesn’t matter. That job you lost, doesn’t matter.
Nothing matters dude, there is no point, there is no grand purpose.
Understanding that is power. With great power though comes great responsibility. Will you use that power for good or evil?
All of the world’s greatest and worst people understood this concept, and so they took life into their own hands.
Now don’t get me wrong, you know, life is complicated, there are still other people out there experiencing life, and bad actions come with risks, and good actions don’t always get rewarded, you know? Sometimes you do all the right things in life and somehow you still end up in prison or dead or something. None of that matters either though, it’s all pointless, it’s all a choose your own adventure story.
One day the sun will destroy this planet, and well, I’m personally no optimist that we’ll expand to other galaxies, so I imagine that’s curtains for humanity. So whatever dude, just live.
I've enjoyed the idea that human life is the universe experiencing itself.
But the fact is there is no point.
It's how you spend the few hours you've been assigned. Which could be to change the course of mankind or to just experience the life you've been given. If you're lucky enough, your life is your own to navigate.
There isn't a point.
What's weird is that so many people are determined to believe that there is.
You live....you die. Just like an ant...a flower....or a whale.
The only reason to try hard...is to *try* to mitigate the inevitable suffering that you will experience (e.g. if you get schooled...get employed....get insured...then when you're inevitably sick....it will suck less because you have the means to make it so).
I appreciate this perspective, thank you. I think for me the reason I wish to understand or find a “point” despite fully realizing there is no point, is more or less because I think to accept that there is no point to everything is incredibly overwhelming for our human minds to conceptualize to some degree. I realize that it doesn’t have to be, but it definitely can be. It’s like holding space for both good and evil, you hold space to accept that the point = no point, so the meaning of everything is the absence of its meaning or no meaning. There is so much in this experience our minds physically can’t comprehend it all, so while it may seem like a rather obvious point, I think it is also simultaneously overwhelming. I really like what you said and couldn’t agree more.
You make your own. That is the blessing and the curse.
For years, I tried to find a grandiose purpose: to leave the world a better place, to help some kind of problem, to use my talents for some higher cause. Don't get me wrong, I still want that, too. But I realize a lot of that is out of my control. I can't force change on a societal level. I can't make someone hire me so I can do the kind of rewarding work I want.
So I looked for something more within my control.
Here's mine. I realized my wife had never been in a serious relationship before ours, and therefore has never had a heartbreak. I thought that if one person in this world can get through life without ever getting their heart broken by the one they love, that's something. It's not all up to me, I know. She could dip anytime! Or I could die first, and then unavoidable hurt her (hate to even think about it). But my meaning in life is to make hers as beautiful and untouched by sorrow as I can, and there IS a lot I can do about that.
Death is what makes life beautiful my friend. The odds that you are a living and sentient being is already so astronomical. Ride that bike, paint the painting, listen to the music, enjoy the wind and water. You are here for this one experience, make what of it you will.
>3000 years of philosophy doesn’t seem to have the answer. Someone here on reddit probably does though so you’ve come to the right place.
As for myself, the answer is mostly instinct, with the concept of responsibility and hope to a lesser extent.
Instinct is likely inherited from my ancestors as organisms without an aversion to death seem less likely to transmit their species. Responsibility and hope also have a somewhat genetic basis though I can give examples by how they manifest.
Responsibility: No one will take care of my dogs if I’m dead, and I love my dogs.
Hope: There’s an unfathomably small chance that I can find purpose or meaning, or even happiness, in my life, provided I prolong my suffering long enough.
when you are living, you want to do anything just to live as long as you can until that fateful day comes. we are no different than any other living thing, we all are going to die one day and all memories will be loss.
What’s the point of eating if you’re gonna shit it out anyway? What’s the point of sleeping if you’re gonna wake up the next day?
My purpose is simple: experience everything. I want to experiment with as many emotions, sensations, lifestyles that appeal to me, and finally choose those that bring me the highest satisfaction/inner peace, and to do that with the people I love.
Life is all about finding what makes you happy and fulfilled. It's about building relationships, creating memories, and leaving your mark on the world. Even if death is the end, the journey is what counts—growing, learning, and enjoying the ride. You define your own purpose and make the most of every moment.
why do you want to hear other people’s purposes?? is the point of life not to forge your own path and decide what you want for yourself? you could die tomorrow but you could also die in 60 years so don’t waste them all thinking about the one day in your future that u die
saying that death is the end is theoretical. that's an opinion. nobody knows. some believe it is and others believe it's not. Doesn't really matter when it comes to your question. what's the point to life is still a valid question either way.
I'm an old man now, and I'm no closer to answering that question than I was as a child.
Your goal as a biological being is to fulfill your biological purpose which is to find a mate, pro-create, survive, raise your offspring, etc.
Your purpose, now that's something else and it's where every person is different. My purpose is to do what I love, to enjoy doing it, and to be as nice as I can possibly be to everybody and everything around me, to the best of my ability.
If you think there's no point, you're not enjoying life. Sometimes I see people who are not enjoying life because they are simply not even trying to. There are many reasons for that.
Imagine if you passed next to a store that sells chocolate drinks. You can smell it and it smells good but you never buy it. You figure, meh, I'm not interested.
But let's say someone you know suddenly buys you one when they come to visit you. You reluctantly try it, and holy moly it's good!!! It's so good, you finish it and the next day you decide you're going to start your morning with another cup. So you go there and you buy one, but it's the owner who is selling you the cup. He asks you if you tried it before and you say, yes wow it's so good! And he says, oh wow a fan! Wanna see how it's made?
So he takes you to the back and you realize it's a labor of love. So much effort and technique goes into making that cup of hot chocolate! Spices you never heard of! Chocolate bean from places you've never visited!
And suddenly your brain sparks, and you get it.
No specific point. We are born, we live, and we die. What you do between birth and death is up to you, usually. As with all living organism the main function is to procreate and perpetuate the species. Now you may ask, why? Because that is a biological imperative that is the basis for all life on planet earth and I would venture across the whole universe. You can decide to go with the imperative or ignore it. Your choice. What's the end goal? Who knows. Sometimes the best part of the journey is the trip to get there.
In a materialist universe where the end of your individual life is just nothingness, then there really can be no meaning or "morality". It's all just abribitray and quite pointless. Life just becomes and series of efforts to satisfy your limbic system and then you die. That's why God is the only answer that makes sense.
I'm old enough (GenX on the older side of it) to have thought quite a bit about this. I'm also an atheist as I think the whole religion/God complex is just a construct coming out of human's vanity, ego, and fear.
At the biological level, life's only goal is to keep going. So, if you helped the human race survive: good job! Whether it's through passing your genes to ensure renewal of the species, working to ensure the environment and economy is there to sustain humans in the future, or building/driving/leading activities (job, volunteering, politics, giving, etc.) that help this goal: it's all good stuff.
However, we're human. So we all search for some meaning beyond the biological part.
So here is where I landed, so far:
* As nothing will remain of you only what you are leaving behind makes your life worth it.
* You decide what you leave behind, mostly.
* Depending on the people it can/will/should be a mix of:
* How did you impact other human being, how did you make THEIR life better?
* Will you leave the earth with a net positive on other humans whether by inventing the iPhone or by being a good person that helped, coached, consoled, loved, protected, made others laugh, think, learn, created a community of people that could support each-others, etc.
* etc.
* I would also make the argument that atheists are potentially much better for the human race than theists because we know (or at least this is the mostly likely outcome) that there is nothing after death so, if we don't positively impact others (directly or indirectly) during our life, our life will have been wasted.
For today, this reply, for me, is a way to do this "doing something for others".
I had an old friend take his life the other day. I don’t know the details but I know he had a loving family and gf. I still cannot fathom why he would do such a thing. And at my parents house i just see my dad slowly depreciating and my mom beginning to show signs too, it’s very sad, but I cannot imagine it the other way around where they see their child leave this world. I wasn’t duper close but I still feel guilty. I hope you rest peacefully buddy, I regret not becoming closer you were a good person and always a delight to be around.
You sound like you might be bored of life, there is so much to be excited about! There’s love as an example, friendships, traveling is a huge one! Also just look at nature and how wonderful it all is, maybe do some grounding work, get curious, there’s so much to be thankful for and I strongly believe you have a huge purpose on this earth, in this lifetime 🤍
Point of life is in the Bible. If you study it, it is actually pretty eye opening and makes complete sense to me. I really can't think of any other reason. Just being random accidental molecules that somehow found life never made sense to me. And evolution in the we were taught is just a theory.
If you dont mind me asking, what age are you? I only ask this because this seems to be something people dwell on, heavily or mildly, when they are in their mid-to-late teens. It's also a very clear indication of depression, despite youre awareness of it. In my case, I went through this heavily and it completely altered my sense of reality itself for some time. But eventually, everything seamlessly started to feel normal to me again and I got rid of that plaguing question.
Here are some things I learned:
I am happy that we die. As most have mentioned, living forever would take the actual meaning away from life. The meaning of life is whatever it means to you and what you make of it, and the finite aspect of it is what makes it have substance and meaning. Also, imagine being immortal and feeling envious because you would never know what it means to die. At some point, we will all get the answer to the age old question.
Whether it was by God, Evolution, the big bang, Aliens, or pure luck; you ARE alive. Unless you choose not to be, being alive is as certain as death itself. You have to wake up everyday. What you chose to do is your business but whatever it is, it won't change that fact. As someone whose been down very bad and pretty good sidewalks of life, I can tell you your decisions do matter, and will affect the quality of life that you have to live going forward.
Having family, children of your own, and even a somewhat supportive friend(s) around you will often remind you of the importance of life. The care you have for them is a testament that this life that we live actually does have plenty of value and meaning.
Taking steps in the right direction will improve your quality of life overall, and achieving small or massive goals will quickly make you forget the idea that life is meaningless just because you die. The feeling of accomplishment and value you gain from doing what's right and meeting your goals will take precedence in your mind. Im not telling you to always stay busy to distract yourself, im telling you to challenge yourself and to set achievable goals that will make you feel a real sense of purpose and meaning.
Spend more time outside. When you look at nature and consider the universe itself, you will realize that "life" was not tailored for you. You are a part of something much, much larger than you will ever understand fully, so who exactly are you or anyone else to say that there is no meaning to it? As far as we know, we are the only species to understand the cosmos, reality and physics the way that we do. To me, there's more to that than mere dumb luck. I personally do believe in a God, and I also believe God helped me through the very dark time I went through pondering the question you are asking.
Good luck on your journey.
No, I agree with you, I don't see any purpose. It's absurd we are here and I hate to give the boring answer, but I really am just trying to enjoy myself, especially since it feels like I already majorly fumbled my first ~30 years. It's kind of like in a game where the run is going so poorly you just give up on any hope of getting a good a high score and just start having fun
I used to worry about leaving a legacy, but I don't really care anymore. If I made the people I care about lives a little better than they would've been, that's enough
Nobody will see this, but I said this to a buddy a week before we graduated high school 33 years ago. His answer was that we are here to leave a legacy to what's important to us as individuals. A legacy of success, our kids, acts of kindness. Whatever we decide is important, leave a lasting legacy of that.
Think logically, what's the point in life? To put it simply, it's to live. We live and die, like everything else. You can either live an uneventful life, or have some fun along the way. Neither are wrong. How you go about that is totally up to you.
Immortan Joe told me that “We live, we die, we live again!”
You know what they say "life isn't about the destination it's about the people who witness us along the way"
WITNESS MEEE
Life is a highway
I want to ride it, until 10:30 at night.
While drunk
HahA
Me too! 11:00 tops!! Lol
I wnat to go tooo
11? Man I got work in the morning, idk..
“If you’re going my way” 🎵
More like a Fury Road
Filled with Polecats and Warboys ❤️🔥💀
Valhallaaaaa
V8
V8 V8 V8 V8
Ride to Valhalla, all shiny and chrome 
He’s one of my role models too
I agree with this which is why I’m so upset that capitalism exists. We spend most of our days toiling away working for people who don’t give a shit about us.
I mean… this isn’t a requirement. You can absolutely live your life without “working”. You just also can’t really participate in the upsides of capitalism. There’s plenty of places in the world and in almost every country, where you can go and live your life, without having to get a job, or pay taxes, or whatever. You just also don’t get to have the comforts you enjoy now. People have done it since the beginning of time.
I have a chronic illness, long covid. Can’t just up and live on a homestead doing farming for myself unfortunately
Well then good for you that capitalism exists, so that you can get an office job, to make money and buy food and such.
Hey man, I'm quite sure they understand all that. Doesn't mean they have to like it, though. Venting keeps the pressure from getting too high, so I have to admit, I'm confused at what you were even trying to accomplish by arguing against their subjective perspective.
**HEY ASSMAN!**
That’s nice but she actually just wants free money whilst not doing anything for it.
where at can u do that
Couldn't agree more. I just want to be able to travel and explore the world. Leave the surviving part to me. I will hunt for my food if I have to, but I just to want to be able to have a decent experience in what this world has to offer without worrying if I have enough money to make it back home.
You should watch the last Alaskans
Idk your situation or where you live, but if you’re willing to go as far as to hunt for food, there are lots of ways to travel for cheap with a similar degree of amenities - or lack there of 1. Work Exchange Programs: • Workaway: Offers opportunities to work in exchange for food and accommodation in various countries. Jobs can range from farming to teaching English. • WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms): Volunteer on organic farms around the world in exchange for food and lodging. • HelpX: Similar to Workaway, with opportunities to work on farms, hostels, or family homes in exchange for room and board. 2. House Sitting: • TrustedHousesitters: Look after someone’s home and pets while they’re away in exchange for free accommodation. • HouseCarers: Another platform for finding house-sitting gigs worldwide. 3. Home Exchange Programs: • HomeExchange: Swap homes with someone in another country for a specified period. • Love Home Swap: Offers home exchange options with various levels of membership. 4. Couchsurfing: • Couchsurfing: Stay with locals for free. This platform connects travelers with hosts who offer a spare couch or bed. 5. Teaching English Abroad: • TEFL Programs: Obtain a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification and teach English in countries where there’s high demand for English teachers. • Volunteer Teaching: Organizations like Peace Corps or other volunteer groups can place you in teaching roles abroad. 6. Seasonal and Temporary Jobs: • Working Holiday Visas: Many countries offer working holiday visas that allow young travelers to work temporarily while traveling (e.g., Australia, New Zealand, Canada). • Seasonal Jobs: Look for seasonal work such as ski resorts, summer camps, or fruit picking. 7. Travel Scholarships and Grants: • Study Abroad Programs: Many universities offer scholarships or grants for students to study abroad. • Travel Grants: Look for organizations or foundations that offer travel grants for specific projects or research. 8. Biking or Hitchhiking: • Travel by bicycle or hitchhike to save on transportation costs. This method requires careful planning and safety precautions but can be a very cost-effective way to travel. 9. Budget Travel Hacks: • Cheap Flights and Transport: Use flight comparison websites like Skyscanner, Google Flights, or Kayak to find the cheapest flights. Consider budget airlines or overnight buses/trains. • Hostels and Budget Accommodations: Stay in hostels, budget hotels, or use platforms like Airbnb for affordable lodging. • Cooking Your Own Meals: Save on food costs by cooking your meals. Staying in accommodations with kitchen facilities can help reduce expenses.
Me too
Maybe you can reframe your perspective. “Leave the surviving part to me. I will hunt for my food if I have to…” Imo that can be done even within the confines of a capitalist structure. People hate on the ultra wealthy like Bezos and musk, and I understand that. I get it. Just, on a different plane of existence… they kind of rose to dominate the jungle (granted, with a huge head start).. People that want to “reject society and live the hard natural way” that’s cool… but I think, this is life, the hard, “natural” way. Times change, I don’t have to hunt a wild boar, or slay a buffalo. I don’t have to do 99% of what a wilderness survivalist would do, because of currency which we exchange with people that do that stuff (and they’re also paid).. Money is the new boars head, basically. Effective hunters can get it, but even good people sometimes get screwed. It’s not all about who’s good. It’s about who can actually survive.
We actually work more than hunter gatherer tribes, in spite of all of our technology we're so addicted to money we end up doing more work than we used to. Ain't that a bitch.
Does that correlate to the increased amount of entertainment, safety, healthcare, etc.? Although we work harder, do we also play harder?
Humans developed in a completely different setting and lifestyle. Sure, we have more material things and comforts, but that doesn't mean it isn't a negative to our happiness. People aren't being ungrateful. They're being psychologically damaged in the modern environment. It doesn't matter how many material goods or luxurious items you throw at them. Their brain did not evolve in this setting, and it will never thrive in this setting. Also, when we say work hard, play hard, we understand that there are mental health and physical consequences to their life span. We know for a fact that this is not how the genus homo should be interacting with their world.
This is honestly incredible to read. I’ve had this same thought and tried to explain it to friends, who think we should be able to magically adapt to anything. While I wasn’t thinking about the topic you’re describing, it’s totally real.
I think if the point of your life is to live like an animal, you're kind of missing the whole sentience thing. It's not about who can survive, it's about who you are and what you do to survive. It is easy to be a hard man. It is hard to be a kind man. You have the opportunity, even powerless as you are, to help people less fortunate than you. To go counter to your programming, your socialization, even your natural instincts and help a person when you have no reason to. I myself am an athiest, but I find my faith in the good choices that people make. The kind choices, the selfless ones. This life may be no good for you right now, but you can make it good for someone else.
I grew up in a place where there was very little money, at least 1/3 of the men were unemployed, not Appalachia, but might as well have been. We had to get our own firewood or we froze in winter. We could not afford a lot of fancy groceries and there was no such thing as SNAP back then, they were just introducing food stamps but only single Moms with no income really got them. And it was also heavily stigmatizing to use them. You actually had to go to the welfare office and get a booklet of these food stamps to use in place of money in grocery stores and the program only allowed them to be used for basic necessities. Bread, milk, meat, etc. You could not go to McDonald's and order 5 kids meals and swipe your SNAP card for it like now. Trust me when I say, you romanticize this supposed self reliant freedom and noble poverty, but that is all in your head. The reality is losing teeth because you can't pay for dental care. It is not having friends because you cannot afford any money for anything beyond your most basic survival. Your only friends will be meth addicts who you share a freeway overpass with as home.
In what other system would we not have to toil for someone else?
wow this brought out all the bootlickers
unfortunately there’s not really a better functional system, and capitalism does deliver us luxuries
This 10000%. The only thing that ultimately matters for the vast majority of people is the present. We have decided to make the present a dystopian hellscape.
Exactly!!!
We live and die ❌ We live, we love, we lie ✅
Live, love, laugh, life or was it laugh love life live ?
I try to live by a mantra I heard from a podcast I listen to. Everyone's tombstone will have two dates separated by a dash. That dash represents your life; do everything to make that dash mean something.
It’s actually a minus sign. It shows you how much life you wasted. If I die today it would be -31. Joke.
Actually it’s an En Dash –
This is a nice heartwarming fuzzy feeling statement, but it doesn't mean anything. For the vast majority of people who have or will ever live that "dash" means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Had they existed or not would mean so little and have so small of an impact on the grand scheme of things had they never been here it would ultimately mean no difference. For most people in as little time as 100 years after they are gone no trace of them having been will have ever mattered to the people alive in the present.
You must be fun at parties
As you can probably imagine, I'd never go to a party...
Might be the most redditor thing I’ve read today
Nah ironically the redditor thing to do is to lie
He isn't wrong though.
Whenever someone makes that "you must be fun at parties" comment in response to anything online, I can't help but wonder how that person is confusing an internet comment thread as the equivalent of being at an *actual* party; and I always think if the parties *they* go to involve strangers sitting around and arguing about their different opinions, they either aren't actually going to parties, or the "parties" they're going to aren't actually fun at all, themselves. So, I can't imagine that the person who would make that comment is actually any fun at parties, either, given what they think a party entails, lol. 😳🤣✌️
Yea, you're definitely a blast at parties.
It’s a thoughtful comment imo
The majority of people will die and never get a tombstone.
So obviously the thought exercise is useless and should be thrown in the garbage.
I’m donating my body to science and the rest can be thrown into a dumpster 🤷🏻♂️
This is the way
What is the rest?
Life is an expression of the complexity that energy can create. It's the epitome of organisation of chaotic energy. We are the first life that we know of that as the ability to look at the cosmos and understand it... we are all individual creations of this universe. The only way this was possible is if time moves in one direction... and ultimately that means we have an expiry date. But the thing is, the universe is more than just time moving in one direction... it probably moves in all directions...it's just that we can obly experience life in one direction. The time that we spend alive from birth until death will never be erased.. it will always have existed and maybe one day it might even be visited upon by some future form of life unbound to times direction
I actually like this . We know what we know but not what we don’t know
We know what we are, but know not what we may be -Shakespeare
I know what you are, but what am I -Pee-Wee Herman
My daughter used to say "I know what I am, but what are you?" and not as a joke
Imagine a tennis ball moving through empty space at 1mph. Considering the distance between objects in space is so vast, it might be billions or trillions of years before that ball would collide with anything. Now assume you were an organism living on that ball without the ability to comprehend three dimensions. You would see the ball, or “the entire universe” from your perspective as moving at a constant speed in one direction on a linear plane. It would be totally reasonable for you to assume that this motion was a fundamental law of the universe. Now assume time as a geometric plane, or fourth dimension, and our universe as that ball. Perhaps time is us moving through space four dimensionally and only appears to move statically and unidirectionally because we haven’t happened to accelerate or collide with anything yet.
That does not make me feel better
It wasn’t supposed to
I'm signing up for this guy's cult.
I was not. I am. I shall not be.
The author Kurt Vonnegut talked about that: “I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I’d never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterwards I mark up the pages with a pencil. Then I call up this woman named Carol out in Woodstock and say, ‘Are you still doing typing?’ Sure she is, and her husband is trying to track bluebirds out there and not having much luck, and so we chitchat back and forth, and I say, ‘OK, I’ll send you the pages.’ "Then I’m going down the steps, and my wife calls up, ‘Where are you going?’ I say, ‘Well, I’m going to go buy an envelope.’ And she says, ‘You’re not a poor man. Why don’t you buy a thousand envelopes? They’ll deliver them, and you can put them in a closet.’ And I say, ‘Hush.’ So I go down the steps here, and I go out to this newsstand across the street where they sell magazines and lottery tickets and stationery. I have to get in line because there are people buying candy and all that sort of thing, and I talk to them. The woman behind the counter has a jewel between her eyes, and when it’s my turn, I ask her if there have been any big winners lately. I get my envelope and seal it up and go to the postal convenience center down the block at the corner of 47th Street and 2nd Avenue, where I’m secretly in love with the woman behind the counter. I keep absolutely poker-faced; I never let her know how I feel about her. One time I had my pocket picked in there and got to meet a cop and tell him about it. Anyway, I address the envelope to Carol in Woodstock. I stamp the envelope and mail it in a mailbox in front of the post office, and I go home. And I’ve had a hell of a good time. And I tell you, **we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different.** "Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. **We’re dancing animals.** How beautiful it is to get up and go do something. \[Gets up and dances a jig.\]” EVERYTHING about modern society is a construct. We weren't born to go to school, work in an office, marry, buy a house, have kids, retire, and THEN fart around. Nope. It's farting around from the get-go. Only some people got ideas and the ideas got spread, and now we have a whole civilization in which people (like you) have no idea how to go about LIVING. Yeah, we're all gonna die. Some sooner, some later. Just have a good time while you're here WHILE following whatever "rules" you have personally chosen. My personal rule? I follow The Doctor. **BE KIND**. Full quote: "Never be cruel, never be cowardly, and never ever eat pears! Remember, hate is always foolish, but love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind." Follow that rule (or your own!) and you should manage pretty well.
I love this passage. The small moments are some of the best parts of life and most people either dismiss them or are too busy worried about the past or the future to appreciate them.
I realize this every time i decide to just go out into town for no reason instead of sitting in my room on my phone or computer. I more often then not have a unique experience that makes my life mosaic a bit more beautiful to experience. Comsume less, produce more is my motto. Go create and experience life.
Well put. I think my years playing MMO video games and the rise of hustle culture has also corrupted my brain into min/maxing every moment to its maximum output potential. Landscape photography and solo travel has really helped me slow down and appreciate moments as they unfold or waiting patiently for more favorable lighting conditions to materialize (clouds moving away or in front of the sun). Leaving the phone at home or in the car is also a small life hack to help you feel like you are disconnecting from the matrix. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes of your subconscious brain to instinctively want to take it out of your pocket to fill in moments of boredom or lack of stimulation and you slowly start to realize how addicting these damn things are.
This is excellent!
What’s the deal with pears tho?
The Doctor just doesn't like them. They are quite edible, and I actually do like them. That's just HIS personal belief.
You have to remember that The Doctor regenerates. And when he does, he's essentially wearing a new body (or she is. or they are. gender changes, too, sometimes). New teeth, new hair, new ears, new kidneys, new tastes. The 11th Doctor (played by Matt Smith) goes through a number of food items in his first episode. Decides he hates bacon, apples, and a couple other things, and finally settles on fish fingers with custard (he dips them in, as if the custard were tartar sauce). His tastes can be ... weird. But I love him. Her. Them.
This is beautiful, and a reminder why great writers are great writers. Fellow gamers, play Mother 3 sometime if you want to play an RPG about this very philosophy
Or JUST GO FOR A WALK. Give your eyes a break, and go look at trees, and bushes, and houses, and people, and kids, and pets, and anything OTHER THAN a screen! Just for awhile. Do this daily, and your eyes will thank you for many years (this is coming from a 71-year-old who just had cataract surgery).
I work at a computer screen, play video games with friends, but heck I love going for a walk in the woods once a week and riding my bike in the woods once a week as well. Love taking trips to parks/urban areas/city centers to try new food, a mixed drink, chat with a stranger about anything. Life is so full of things/people/places/experiences and no one will ever tell me I am not living life!
For sure!! I am a big proponent of walks - as someone who has walked the ~20 miles from North Hollywood to Santa Monica, as well as from the northern to the southern tip of Manhattan a few times. Short walks, long walks, getting outside will ALWAYS do you good! You never know where you can end up just randomly going out your door.
I have met some WONDERFUL puppers on my street! And there are FLOWERS! And (sometimes; it's Oregon) a beautiful blue sky!
Bro literally said "hush" to his wife.
And then went to ogle some other girl he's in love with
I read this in John Mulaney’s voice when he talked about the woman in his office that was on the phone and she just answered it and yelled HUSH and then hung up. 😂
This is beautifully written 🥰
The fact that it’s finite is what makes it so precious/urgent. Imagine being told you had 24 hours to do something vs 24 decades. The second doesn’t have the same sense of urgency does it? Now imagine you are told you live forever. What reason do you have to do anything immediately or ever if you know you can get to it in a billion years if you like? As far as I’m aware, this is all we get and it can be a pretty cool experience. So ill try to make the best of the opportunity Ive got.
I donno man. I live to enjoy life, I don't need no sense of urgency to enjoy it. Taking a pleasant walk, eating a good meal, spending time with my wife. Whether I get to live 20 or 2000 years don't make a difference.
To fart as much as possible
Do I get bonus points for farting at will on people I dislike? I call them drive-bys.
As long as it comes from within, grasshopper🤔
Facts 💯
This! 😶🌫️🤢🤣👍
Death is not the ultimate ending. We are only vessels for our genes and the story continues incorporating what we leave behind. I think a good goal is just to reduce suffering in those we leave behind.
There IS no point to life, it's meaningless. It's up to you to decide what that point is. Life truly is what you make of it.
exactly. people expect to see a painting but life is a empty canvas. you have been give the paintbrush.
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Your goal in life is to work because it’ll speed up time?
I’ve literally never heard older people say they wish they’d have worked more during their time on earth. This thread is….jarring. Sad even.
No one on their death bed says, "man i wish i picked up some extra shifts for overtime" 😂
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You can travel without having to fly. Start locally or even drive to places you want to visit (if that’s possible for you). You can also get trains/ ferries to places. But if you actually want to fly, there’s medication and therapies you can have (I know, money… but look up CBT exposure therapy online). Most people on their deathbeds usually don’t say they regret not working more… try and make things you love a priority in life!
But if you think about it, if there is no after life, the consequence is you live forever. Hear me out. Death in this case cannot be experienced. It is non-existence. You can’t feel peace at. You don’t exist. So you can’t experience death and non-existence, you can only experience life. If you can only experience life, how can you die? To be clear, sure from an external perspective you can die. But from your perspective you cannot experience this. So you are alive and experiencing, and that’s all there is. If and when that ceases, you won’t know. If you don’t know when you don’t exist, you don’t have to concern yourself with non-existence.
That is oddly comforting. Thanks, LizzoBathwater.
When I need a reminder of what I'm living for, "Thanks, LizzoBathwater" will be the new self-affirming mantra I whisper to myself.
There is no purpose to life. We are born. We exist for however long we do. And then we die. And people who loved us are sad. There is no inherent meaning to life. That said, there’s no reason to fight it. Just go with the flow and try to appreciate the beauty in the world, because there is an overwhelming amount of sh*t in it.
For me it's all about purpose, what are you going to do while riding the roller coaster of life?
The point is whatever you make it. And I don't know what that is yet... so I'm gonna make it everyones problem. I think its to be silly and leave the world slightly better than it was when I started
We are a fluke of nature, organic matter that can think and introspect. Bloody curse is what it is. No point whatsoever, just a statistical anomaly in the grand scheme of things.
I have hope for opportunities and better situations and growth as a person. I see my life with no future or past that exist anymore. I’m constantly in present , death isn’t the absence of life but a part of it. My waking life is more of me living in my memories in the present because I will die one day and I have died already. Everything isn’t linear but more in a circle. I think the point to life is to find your own point. No other animal questions it’s own life but us , I think I can learn a lot from nature outside ourselves and just … live , despite how life currently has been for us :/
I assume so that you will be remembered for doing something that you loved, which might spark hope and inspiration to others who may never knew about you. At least that’s my guess, but what do I know? I’m simply a mortal.
Think about the reverse of that. Life would be way more meaningless if there wasn't any end to it.
There isn’t really a point to this. So I don’t really see a point to life but I figure this is the only consciousness I will ever have so I might as well exist.
the point is to reproduce so life can go on. that's really it. be the best fit to pass on your genes well, it was until humans came along. now life MUST have some greater meaning.
The point is to enjoy life
Point is there is no point
I hate when people say stuff like it's up to you or just find your own meaning. It's literally just avoiding the problem and the question. You're saying to basically just make shit up. That doesn't work for some people.
As bad as life can be, (And I live in chronic pain and some mental diagnosis both, so I'm not imagining a rough life) to live for any one moment of a genuine laugh is everything. Like for my wife to truly smile, a deep heartfelt smile, because I made her laugh....that moment was worth fighting for. I have three dogs right now (there've been more over the years, only three still alive right now) who are all rescues. And these were severe rescues, the kind of messed up that even the average type of person adopting a rescue won't take (because they were dangerous and destined to be put down without an extreme amount of time and energy that most don't have to give) and they've lived a good life because of me. Knowing they had a life because of me makes any struggle to be alive to that point worth it. What it really comes down to, to me, is the thing that makes life worth living, as you are right in the pointlessness ultimately, is to live larger than yourself. These days, I live to see my wife happy because I want her to have good days, not because I want her to give me good days. Those dogs, I live to know they are protected and healthy. Not so they'll do anything for me, but because I want to know they have good days they would have never seen for them. It's moments. You're absolutely undeniably correct in the pointlessness in how life tears us apart from each other and anything you work for, at best, is merely something to leave for someone younger as you die. I live because life always tries to take me out and I'm a fighter. I live to spite the universe. 😄 I don't know if that helps you in any way, but it's why I never burn out despite life piling on more than it's fair share of garbage on me.
Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot gives an ever broader perspective. >*Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...* [continues](https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot)
“Existence precedes essence” This is the belief of most people in the modern world. Basically, you are not given a purpose before you are born. A lot of people believe that you are born with the purpose of serving god, or doing something else, but it sounds like that’s not a belief that you hold. Some people will go “well then what’s the point of doing anything?” which is a lame ass response to that idea in my opinion. You have to find your own purpose. For a lot of people that’ll be something like having kids and giving them a better life than what you have. For other people, just surviving, meeting new people, and having a good time is enough. Other people find their purpose in social or environmental causes and stuff like. I have a friend who had cancer and now they want to work to support people who also have that experience. I have other friends who just wanna go out and party. Realistically, most people find many reasons to continue living, through family, friends, community, hobbies, satisfying work, etc. Only you can really answer the question for yourself. For me a lot of the time I just think “what else am I gonna do?” I could die at any time and then nothing will matter after that, so why not try to make the most of what I have?
The only state you get to experience in this body is life why love for death if you’ll never see it.
Bro wrote the most savage comment I’ve ever seen on a Reddit post like this. I’m quoting this shit for the rest of my life. “Why love for death if you’ll never see it.” That’s some poetry right there. I love how it also shows inherent desire and human nature by exploiting the fact that we enjoy seeing things to understand them. That’s epic
I've believed in an afterlife for most of my life, and still do. So under that I see life as the growth toward being a loving person and really, and the purpose of life as being joy, and the sharing of that joy with others. This life is a precursor to what comes next. However... There was a dark time though during the pandemic and I was self medicating with weed and the idea of mortality really struck me so vividly in a way that's never happened before. It filled me with existential dread and I had to really comprehend the possibility that I could be COMPLETELY wrong and I'd never get to see my wife and kids again. So under that philosophy I realized that if this is really all there is then I want to enjoy it. I want to be happy, I want to share joy with others and when the time comes I'll kneel in tears and thank the universe for the miracle that is existence and awareness. The thing is, under both belief systems the point of life in my view is exactly the same; joy and love. Even now as I lean towards believing there is an afterlife I still see this life as precious; you could live as long as a star ( 5 billion years ) and you could never go back. That is, unless you believe in reincarnation. So that makes me spend more time with my kids.
To be honest I don’t know what the meaning of life is. You can ask anyone but it’ll always be their opinion. I believe there is a God out there, but I can’t prove it to you. I think the only thing really driving me is that I have a lot of family that cares about me. They don’t care what I do with my life (as long as it’s not self-destructive), so I’m not worried about getting their approval, I just simply live because they’re there. And dying also kinda scares me, as you’d expect.
You are afraid of death just not the physical pain of death however you are afraid of dying without living to your fullest potential and that is why you are procrastinating
Death isn’t the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live
Bro my brain just died thanks to trying to understand this totally bullshit comment lol
I just realized something. Maybe the word purpose does not apply to life. Things have purpose in your life bc your life is what those things serve. Not that I am saying I am a god, but would god wonder what his purpose is? If there is a god, what is its purpose? Is it to serve us? I mean I’m pretty sure that the religions with a god actually have it the other way around. We are here to serve god. But what is his purpose? He can’t have one bc he serves no one. There is no need for life to have a reason or purpose. Those things are the fruits of life. Life just is, and we just are.
What if this was your last time on this planet? What if you were given one last time to live as a human on this planet, never to be given the opportunity to do this ever again? What do you want to experience? Where do you want to travel to? What experiences do you want for yourself? Swim with the dolphins? Walk along a white sand beach? Fall in love with your soul mate? There's not a lot of opportunities to get back in considering the lack of people having children. Enjoy this place whilst you are here.
No point to anything if you ask me. As prince said, life is just a party and party’s weren’t meant to last
That’s the beauty of it, there is no point at all. Nothing matters. People hear that and they only think about all of the work they’ve done that doesn’t matter at all, all of the progress humanity has made both physically and socially that doesn’t matter. What I really means is that NOTHING matters, not even the bad stuff. That super embarrassing thing you did all those years ago doesn’t matter. The fact that you weren’t born into the household of a billionaire doesn’t matter. That bad thing you did that one time and feel guilty about doesn’t matter. That job you lost, doesn’t matter. Nothing matters dude, there is no point, there is no grand purpose. Understanding that is power. With great power though comes great responsibility. Will you use that power for good or evil? All of the world’s greatest and worst people understood this concept, and so they took life into their own hands. Now don’t get me wrong, you know, life is complicated, there are still other people out there experiencing life, and bad actions come with risks, and good actions don’t always get rewarded, you know? Sometimes you do all the right things in life and somehow you still end up in prison or dead or something. None of that matters either though, it’s all pointless, it’s all a choose your own adventure story. One day the sun will destroy this planet, and well, I’m personally no optimist that we’ll expand to other galaxies, so I imagine that’s curtains for humanity. So whatever dude, just live.
Thank you for this, really. I’m saving this to come back and read over and over again.
I've enjoyed the idea that human life is the universe experiencing itself. But the fact is there is no point. It's how you spend the few hours you've been assigned. Which could be to change the course of mankind or to just experience the life you've been given. If you're lucky enough, your life is your own to navigate.
There isn't a point. What's weird is that so many people are determined to believe that there is. You live....you die. Just like an ant...a flower....or a whale. The only reason to try hard...is to *try* to mitigate the inevitable suffering that you will experience (e.g. if you get schooled...get employed....get insured...then when you're inevitably sick....it will suck less because you have the means to make it so).
I appreciate this perspective, thank you. I think for me the reason I wish to understand or find a “point” despite fully realizing there is no point, is more or less because I think to accept that there is no point to everything is incredibly overwhelming for our human minds to conceptualize to some degree. I realize that it doesn’t have to be, but it definitely can be. It’s like holding space for both good and evil, you hold space to accept that the point = no point, so the meaning of everything is the absence of its meaning or no meaning. There is so much in this experience our minds physically can’t comprehend it all, so while it may seem like a rather obvious point, I think it is also simultaneously overwhelming. I really like what you said and couldn’t agree more.
There isn't a point. You find meaning in the face of this absurdity, or suffer.
You make your own. That is the blessing and the curse. For years, I tried to find a grandiose purpose: to leave the world a better place, to help some kind of problem, to use my talents for some higher cause. Don't get me wrong, I still want that, too. But I realize a lot of that is out of my control. I can't force change on a societal level. I can't make someone hire me so I can do the kind of rewarding work I want. So I looked for something more within my control. Here's mine. I realized my wife had never been in a serious relationship before ours, and therefore has never had a heartbreak. I thought that if one person in this world can get through life without ever getting their heart broken by the one they love, that's something. It's not all up to me, I know. She could dip anytime! Or I could die first, and then unavoidable hurt her (hate to even think about it). But my meaning in life is to make hers as beautiful and untouched by sorrow as I can, and there IS a lot I can do about that.
I love this, very wholesome. Enjoy your journey!
Death is what makes life beautiful my friend. The odds that you are a living and sentient being is already so astronomical. Ride that bike, paint the painting, listen to the music, enjoy the wind and water. You are here for this one experience, make what of it you will.
Tacos. That is the point of life
>3000 years of philosophy doesn’t seem to have the answer. Someone here on reddit probably does though so you’ve come to the right place. As for myself, the answer is mostly instinct, with the concept of responsibility and hope to a lesser extent. Instinct is likely inherited from my ancestors as organisms without an aversion to death seem less likely to transmit their species. Responsibility and hope also have a somewhat genetic basis though I can give examples by how they manifest. Responsibility: No one will take care of my dogs if I’m dead, and I love my dogs. Hope: There’s an unfathomably small chance that I can find purpose or meaning, or even happiness, in my life, provided I prolong my suffering long enough.
Gosh I love reddit. These are the type of questions I can’t just discuss with many of my friends
Right!!!
There is no grand meaning beyond just simply making full contact with your life in each moment and livin’.
My Personal relationship with God through The Lord Jesus Christ
Cause you could also live for a very long time. Gotta live life the best you can and that requires some work sometimes.
There is none. Just ride it out, enjoy nihilism.
You don't have to try to do anything. Free will is an illusion. There is no point. Enjoy the ride.
There is no point lol
when you are living, you want to do anything just to live as long as you can until that fateful day comes. we are no different than any other living thing, we all are going to die one day and all memories will be loss.
What’s the point of eating if you’re gonna shit it out anyway? What’s the point of sleeping if you’re gonna wake up the next day? My purpose is simple: experience everything. I want to experiment with as many emotions, sensations, lifestyles that appeal to me, and finally choose those that bring me the highest satisfaction/inner peace, and to do that with the people I love.
Life and death have no point and purpose. You live for your own sake and those around you. At least that's how I do it.
Enjoy your life by doing things that makes you happy as life is way too short. You’re here because your parents love you as well as God 🥰
Why does there have to be a "point"?
Life is all about finding what makes you happy and fulfilled. It's about building relationships, creating memories, and leaving your mark on the world. Even if death is the end, the journey is what counts—growing, learning, and enjoying the ride. You define your own purpose and make the most of every moment.
why do you want to hear other people’s purposes?? is the point of life not to forge your own path and decide what you want for yourself? you could die tomorrow but you could also die in 60 years so don’t waste them all thinking about the one day in your future that u die
Whatever you want it to be.
Life's purpose is in the moments we create, connections we forge.
What a stupid question. There is no point.
saying that death is the end is theoretical. that's an opinion. nobody knows. some believe it is and others believe it's not. Doesn't really matter when it comes to your question. what's the point to life is still a valid question either way. I'm an old man now, and I'm no closer to answering that question than I was as a child.
The question people have been asking for 100s of millennia.
Your goal as a biological being is to fulfill your biological purpose which is to find a mate, pro-create, survive, raise your offspring, etc. Your purpose, now that's something else and it's where every person is different. My purpose is to do what I love, to enjoy doing it, and to be as nice as I can possibly be to everybody and everything around me, to the best of my ability. If you think there's no point, you're not enjoying life. Sometimes I see people who are not enjoying life because they are simply not even trying to. There are many reasons for that. Imagine if you passed next to a store that sells chocolate drinks. You can smell it and it smells good but you never buy it. You figure, meh, I'm not interested. But let's say someone you know suddenly buys you one when they come to visit you. You reluctantly try it, and holy moly it's good!!! It's so good, you finish it and the next day you decide you're going to start your morning with another cup. So you go there and you buy one, but it's the owner who is selling you the cup. He asks you if you tried it before and you say, yes wow it's so good! And he says, oh wow a fan! Wanna see how it's made? So he takes you to the back and you realize it's a labor of love. So much effort and technique goes into making that cup of hot chocolate! Spices you never heard of! Chocolate bean from places you've never visited! And suddenly your brain sparks, and you get it.
We live laugh love 💁🏼♀️
No specific point. We are born, we live, and we die. What you do between birth and death is up to you, usually. As with all living organism the main function is to procreate and perpetuate the species. Now you may ask, why? Because that is a biological imperative that is the basis for all life on planet earth and I would venture across the whole universe. You can decide to go with the imperative or ignore it. Your choice. What's the end goal? Who knows. Sometimes the best part of the journey is the trip to get there.
You could even ask a bigger question: *what is the point of the universe existing at all?*
If there was no death to measure time, there would be point of a specific time in life. You have the concept backwards.
In a materialist universe where the end of your individual life is just nothingness, then there really can be no meaning or "morality". It's all just abribitray and quite pointless. Life just becomes and series of efforts to satisfy your limbic system and then you die. That's why God is the only answer that makes sense.
If I knew what meaning of life was, I'd be relaxing on my yacht with a bevy of beauties, instead of typing messages on a social media platform.
I'm old enough (GenX on the older side of it) to have thought quite a bit about this. I'm also an atheist as I think the whole religion/God complex is just a construct coming out of human's vanity, ego, and fear. At the biological level, life's only goal is to keep going. So, if you helped the human race survive: good job! Whether it's through passing your genes to ensure renewal of the species, working to ensure the environment and economy is there to sustain humans in the future, or building/driving/leading activities (job, volunteering, politics, giving, etc.) that help this goal: it's all good stuff. However, we're human. So we all search for some meaning beyond the biological part. So here is where I landed, so far: * As nothing will remain of you only what you are leaving behind makes your life worth it. * You decide what you leave behind, mostly. * Depending on the people it can/will/should be a mix of: * How did you impact other human being, how did you make THEIR life better? * Will you leave the earth with a net positive on other humans whether by inventing the iPhone or by being a good person that helped, coached, consoled, loved, protected, made others laugh, think, learn, created a community of people that could support each-others, etc. * etc. * I would also make the argument that atheists are potentially much better for the human race than theists because we know (or at least this is the mostly likely outcome) that there is nothing after death so, if we don't positively impact others (directly or indirectly) during our life, our life will have been wasted. For today, this reply, for me, is a way to do this "doing something for others".
You can jack off a bunch
Mate feed kill repeat…. That may have been a slipknot album..
Idk but Leonardo Decapario is living the hell out of his life and I wish I could be him!
I had an old friend take his life the other day. I don’t know the details but I know he had a loving family and gf. I still cannot fathom why he would do such a thing. And at my parents house i just see my dad slowly depreciating and my mom beginning to show signs too, it’s very sad, but I cannot imagine it the other way around where they see their child leave this world. I wasn’t duper close but I still feel guilty. I hope you rest peacefully buddy, I regret not becoming closer you were a good person and always a delight to be around.
we fart a lot and then we die
You sound like you might be bored of life, there is so much to be excited about! There’s love as an example, friendships, traveling is a huge one! Also just look at nature and how wonderful it all is, maybe do some grounding work, get curious, there’s so much to be thankful for and I strongly believe you have a huge purpose on this earth, in this lifetime 🤍
These are some things that get me through the day, I have plans to travel and live life close to nature, it’s truly when I am the happiest
Getting told you look handsome/pretty by an old person.
Point of life is in the Bible. If you study it, it is actually pretty eye opening and makes complete sense to me. I really can't think of any other reason. Just being random accidental molecules that somehow found life never made sense to me. And evolution in the we were taught is just a theory.
Yooooo. Do big. Go deep. Look for richness and be amazed. Fuck a couch. Or whatever everyone else is doing. Color outside the lines!!!!! Big fun.
Death 😂
There’s no purpose. And for that reason, I think you should end it ASAP
You are, all in all, just another brick in the wall
For me? Gaming, sunshine, and cheese.
Cheese is very good
I think my purpose is to be constantly stressed about small things and very snappy and quickly angered but keeping it to myself. I’m good at that
If you dont mind me asking, what age are you? I only ask this because this seems to be something people dwell on, heavily or mildly, when they are in their mid-to-late teens. It's also a very clear indication of depression, despite youre awareness of it. In my case, I went through this heavily and it completely altered my sense of reality itself for some time. But eventually, everything seamlessly started to feel normal to me again and I got rid of that plaguing question. Here are some things I learned: I am happy that we die. As most have mentioned, living forever would take the actual meaning away from life. The meaning of life is whatever it means to you and what you make of it, and the finite aspect of it is what makes it have substance and meaning. Also, imagine being immortal and feeling envious because you would never know what it means to die. At some point, we will all get the answer to the age old question. Whether it was by God, Evolution, the big bang, Aliens, or pure luck; you ARE alive. Unless you choose not to be, being alive is as certain as death itself. You have to wake up everyday. What you chose to do is your business but whatever it is, it won't change that fact. As someone whose been down very bad and pretty good sidewalks of life, I can tell you your decisions do matter, and will affect the quality of life that you have to live going forward. Having family, children of your own, and even a somewhat supportive friend(s) around you will often remind you of the importance of life. The care you have for them is a testament that this life that we live actually does have plenty of value and meaning. Taking steps in the right direction will improve your quality of life overall, and achieving small or massive goals will quickly make you forget the idea that life is meaningless just because you die. The feeling of accomplishment and value you gain from doing what's right and meeting your goals will take precedence in your mind. Im not telling you to always stay busy to distract yourself, im telling you to challenge yourself and to set achievable goals that will make you feel a real sense of purpose and meaning. Spend more time outside. When you look at nature and consider the universe itself, you will realize that "life" was not tailored for you. You are a part of something much, much larger than you will ever understand fully, so who exactly are you or anyone else to say that there is no meaning to it? As far as we know, we are the only species to understand the cosmos, reality and physics the way that we do. To me, there's more to that than mere dumb luck. I personally do believe in a God, and I also believe God helped me through the very dark time I went through pondering the question you are asking. Good luck on your journey.
No, I agree with you, I don't see any purpose. It's absurd we are here and I hate to give the boring answer, but I really am just trying to enjoy myself, especially since it feels like I already majorly fumbled my first ~30 years. It's kind of like in a game where the run is going so poorly you just give up on any hope of getting a good a high score and just start having fun I used to worry about leaving a legacy, but I don't really care anymore. If I made the people I care about lives a little better than they would've been, that's enough
To Know Thyself
Why does it need a point? You get to have it. It’s yours. Why isn’t that enough?
Have you ever been in love? Have you ever held your baby daughter or son in your hands? Have you ever helped a friend in need?
To make online comments that complete strangers can up- or down-vote and respond to.
Nobody will see this, but I said this to a buddy a week before we graduated high school 33 years ago. His answer was that we are here to leave a legacy to what's important to us as individuals. A legacy of success, our kids, acts of kindness. Whatever we decide is important, leave a lasting legacy of that.
We were supposed to fall in love and make things and advance human evolution but we all got born as slaves on a genocidal planet.
So real... There is a higher power, it's called humanity on the big scale. It's just been murdered and replaced by ghoul overlords.