So what exactly is the point of it all then?

[Thinkingthesethoughts]

Life? What are we here for?

I’m not depressed, just having a midweek musing while ill at home on the sofa.
If it’s just to reproduce and pass our genes on, how does that explain infertility?
Unless we have occupations that make a huge difference in people’s lives, or change the course of history somehow, how are we making any difference?

Why do you feel we’re here?

I don't feel there is any particular point to us being here.

I am more than happy to just bumble through life taking pleasure at the experiences I encounter.

I have to say the older I have got I have realised more and more that I need to cherish those experiences because really my life doesn't mean anything big and meaningful apart from my own inner emotions.

The universe operates according to certain laws and its history is therefore already fixed. According to Special Relativity, no spacetime event is privileged over any other and all such events can be considered in a sense to exist simultaneously.

There is no free will.

The more you look up into the heavens, the more you appreciate that there can't be a divine purpose to life or indeed a god. Why? Because our galaxy, the Milky Way has over 100 billion stars. In addition to these there are probably a further 200 to 500 billion planets orbiting these stars, that's just in our galaxy alone. From our galaxy, the Milky Way (a lovely example of a spiral galaxy by the way) we can see via the James Webb Space Telescope another possible 200 billion observable galaxies each of them containing their own stars and planets beyond measure. The concept that the Universe has been created by a monotheistic god and that this god has sent a theological scripture in the form of the Torah, Bible or Quran down to a single life form inhabiting a rather small water based planet orbiting a G-type main sequence yellow dwarf star (our Sun) positioned somewhere in the Orion arm of the Milky Way seems rather incongruous given the scale of the Universe.

However, the Universe in which you exist and you with it are amazing. When the Universe was created, the only elements that existed at the time was hydrogen (95%), helium (5%) and a trace element of lithium. As the gases gathered and formed into nebulae they in turn created the planets. Some became so large and dense that fusion started and these became stars. Through fusion consuming these first stars, all the heavier elements including oxygen and carbon were created. At first, these heavier elements were held tightly within the star that created them and only made available to the wider Universe when these first stars died and collapsed in on themselves with such a force that they exploded out again in a massive eruption called a supernova. After billions of supernovas, these heavier elements they had created during their lifetime were seeded across the Universe. These new elements in turn were collected into new nebulas and were included in the creation of subsequent generations of stars and planets. Every atom that makes you has previously existed and will continue to exist after your death. The fact that you are a life built from elements that didn't exist at the moment of the Big Bang means that you are the product of a star, you are built from star dust. When you die, you will go on to build something else.

In the meantime, just enjoy yourself. Countries, Governments, money, everything is just made up. Enjoy the moment. If you aren't having fun then go and do something that makes you happy.

I read some genetics academic who said that we are basically zombies programmed to reproduce because of chemicals driving us.

I know this, but seeing as these chemicals have somehow created consciousness, we may as well be happy.

For me it is feeling relaxed so that I can appreciate the small things that make me happy. Like a beer with my husband in the pub, hanging out with my son, walking the dog, going on holiday in the sunshine.

I never understand that question as there’s no ‘reason’ to be here. We just exist.

Richard Dawkins

To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

widower, and looking at a few years of declining health, and ever-increasing expense to keep living... for what. If I had the choice, I'd sooner give my money to the children/grandchildren, than spend it on care-home fees.
Maybe I should contact Dignitas.

I don't know what to say. I don't want to patronise you and urge you to find a purpose. Or ignore you if you are sad. I hope you have had an enjoyable innings and hope that your family appreciate you 🌺

I think that there is both no point which could be seen as nihilistic but also as a positive, don't worry be happy, type of a thing and, my current take on life, to be curious and to learn. Learning means different things to all of us. For me it's big and little things. Learning something unimportant but that tickles me. Deciding to deep dive into a subject that interests me. I think remaining curious and taking in new stuff keeps us feeling alive and living. You could argue that there's no real purpose to it and I wouldn't disagree but some people's curiousity takes us to magical places in art and science and all manner of things. And even if it doesn't, there doesn't have to be a purpose or a point for their to be some sort of pleasure in just the being of it all.

That said I'm quite Pollyanna today. If you asked me on another day I might be a tad more grumpy about it.

Yes, we are.

for example- we have the innate capacity to understand right and wrong, justice and injustice.

We are (unlike the animals) uniquely created as image bearers of God. Something of Him is reflected in us.

I don’t believe there is a why - we just are. No purpose, no grand design, nothing.

That said, it helps to have something to live by. I’ve always liked what Theodore Roosevelt said about the meaning of life - “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are”.

There isn't any prescribed meaning.

But I also don't think that it's helpful to talk about purpose and meaning. Maybe we are "small tiny specks in a deep uncaring world" or whatever, maybe there is a designer, maybe there is a functionalist explanation in terms of passing on genes. It actually doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter because there isn't an origin story that can give your life meaning. Your life has the meaning that it has to you, and to the other people who live life with you. There isn't an inbuilt meaning, and there isn't an origin story that could give you the meaning you're looking for. You've got to make it for yourself.

I don’t feel I have to justify my existence. I didn’t ask to be born.

That's the thing though, Dawkins has certainly popularised the view that the purpose of life is reproduction through our "selfish genes", but the idea that we can derive claims about meaning from claims about genes is just no good. We can't.

All that gene science tells us is the mechanics behind how generic selection and reproduction works. That's the scientific claim. It's terrible science to try and infer some claim about the wider meaning of life from claims about genes. You can't conduct a scientific study to test what the meaning of life is, it just isn't a scientific question in the way that "under what conditions do creatures successfully pass their genes on to the next generation" is.

There is also no good reason to reduce human behaviour, experience and value entirely to their genes, gene science doesn't license reductionism either. All gene science tells us is how genes work. Compatibly with this, we can think of genetic reproduction as just one of the many factors that explain the complex systems that animates our behaviour. Gene reproduction isn't "our" purpose, anymore than circulating blood around our bodies is "our" purpose. Genes are mechanisms that govern our bodies, they're not tiny little puppeteers controlling us, like mini ratatouilles under the chef hats of our souls.

Life is meaningless and everything dies.

I find it strangely contradictory in how I feel about this in many ways... my supposed surpise birth was obviously an accident and I was 3 months premature, on the brink of survival being weaned off heroin, then adopted into a wonderful family.

Given then that I nearly didn't survive, I find it that I feel an obligation in some ways to be more grateful for having a life, seeing that I literally almost didn't. OTOH, as PP said, none of us asked to be born.

So, in the days where I'm feeling quite down about my health, circumstances, things I can't control etc, I try just to get pleasure from the small things, and my family. This in some ways is where the contradicting feelings lie: when I feel depressed etc about life, it makes me feel guilty too that I'm.sitting there feeling down (which creates a vicious cycle at times!)

In short: enjoy your life, be kind, get meaning from the small things, love deeply, and live mindfully ❤️

Genes are mechanisms that govern our bodies, they're not tiny little puppeteers controlling us, like mini ratatouilles under the chef hats of our souls.

As much as this sentence tickles me, I just wanted to point out that the rat was called Remy, not Ratatouille.

It's funnier written your way though!

To be loved and known by God my creator through the Holy Spirit his tangible presence, to love others and him. Relationship not religion .Alpha course is a great place to explore the purpose of life.

Reminds me of the Moby song (I think) called "We Are All Made of Stars" 🌟✨️❤️

Could be helpful (good price too); https://www.amazon.co.uk/There-More-Life-Than-Questions/dp/1907950117

There's no evidence whatsoever that there's a purpose or point to life, which is why it's easy to believe there isn't. I was a Christian years ago but started reading more about the origins of life on earth and the evolution of species. That's when I realised there didn't need to be a god to create it all and my faith went up in smoke.

I also read more about the history of religions and spirituality, which is how I came to understand some people's desire for comforting fantasies more than the stark reality that we're not special. We're just apes with no guardian angels, no personal relationship with a god or divine prophet and there are no ancestors 'looking down' on us.

The world is amazing enough and amongst the horror there is beauty, love, joy, laughter and awe. We make our own purpose in the tiny amount of time we have before we die and become what we were before we were born. I'm certainly not going to waste it worshipping a man-made god or living by the creed of some ancient, uneducated men.

I mean that’s it’s isn’t it. We are here to reproduce and live and then die. We teach the offspring new things and we evolve.

Infertility as harsh as it sounds is nature weeding out those who should not reproduce, this can also be evidenced partly in the huge increase in sen since things like IVF and being able to keep 24weekers alive.

Yes I get the argument but broken bones, but antibiotics, but they just keep someone alive they don’t create people that nature never wanted to exist.

Though also sometimes infertility isn’t actually infertility, it’s two incompatible people. Get a new partner and sometimes the infertile are sometimes actually very fertile. Nature doesn’t care for love or feelings.

Well do you think every animal etc has a purpose too? I don’t think we’re special.