Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What is the point in life?

252 replies

Baconbuttymad · 15/11/2025 13:51

Just curious to read about all your viewpoints?
is it to acquire money/career?
is it to provide for your children once you’re gone? (Leave money in your will so that they will be comfortable)
is it to enjoy life “in the moment” through travelling the world, experiencing cultures, eating out, etc
is it through charity and good deeds
or to just simply exist and be grateful for it regardless of anything else (finances, etc)

OP posts:
breezyyy · 15/11/2025 21:58

Calliopespa · 15/11/2025 21:54

Yes we are.

But there is also something in us that makes us practise a piano piece until it sounds right, or simply move the furniture about in a room to get the balance right. You don't really see, say, a fish doing that tweaking with much in tis existence: if it works for survival that tends to be enough. I feel as though humans have a "non-essential" strive mode.

We definitely have the need to be entertained/fill our lives up with something. Other species survive. Their life is purely about survival, the same as plants. . It’s innate in all living things.

MerryGoRound9 · 15/11/2025 22:01

.

Gair · 15/11/2025 22:11

I don't think there is a point.

You can try to to create a 'point' by giving life meaning. See Viktor Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning' and 'The Unheard Cry for Meaning'.

What an interesting and unexpected AIBU. Thanks!

Bufftailed · 15/11/2025 22:15

Do some good for a wider group of people, have a positive impact, have fun.

ChessorBuckaroo · 15/11/2025 22:19

Linnytwinny · 15/11/2025 19:05

I think we originated in a higher place and we come down here for the deeper harder challenges

Where is the higher place?

We are on a ball of rock suspended in space, that goes round a star, of which there are 400 billion in this galaxy alone, and there are at least 200 billion galaxies (up to 2 trillion) in the observable universe.

We are but a tiny speck among the trillions of planets.

Carl Sagan's pale blue dot is the most profound thing I think we have ever seen. The Earth, a tiny dot, captured on a sunbeam in a photo taken by a probe that that passed through much of our solar system. Gives us an instant perspective.

Saw a wonderful video recently that I've linked that I think similarly captures our place in this existence. It's a journey facing backwards from Earth to the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest galaxy to our own Milky way (2.4 million light years away), with the camera staying fixed on Earth until you can see it no more, the same with the Milky Way. Growing up I (and most of us) viewed the solar system as this vast thing. And yet, as the video shows, it's a star with a few (8) balls going round it, and as the camera travels on you pass more of them, thousands more solar systems, ultimately billions more, on this galaxy alone, and the camera then exits the Milky Way, it becomes smaller, the camera pans round and you see galaxies everywhere, each with billions of solar systems.

I'd like to think there is something more, or something "higher" as you put it. But when you grasp where we are, a speck among trillions of others, you soon start to think, it ain't about us. As Galileo said those centuries ago, we ain't the centre.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xiwJlsARS8

Gowlett · 15/11/2025 22:21

Some are born luckier than others. In many ways…
I think circumstance would influence life somewhat.

breezyyy · 15/11/2025 22:27

Gowlett · 15/11/2025 22:21

Some are born luckier than others. In many ways…
I think circumstance would influence life somewhat.

Definitely. When people talk of coming here to learn lessons, to become better and then to move on after death to somewhere else. Then to return in another life. All those lessons learned, all that wisdom - gone. Born as a baby with no memory of all the learning, no tips to help you through an arduous journey. “Oh, I remember this point, I deal with it before, it was a particularly traumatic time…”. Nope, all that learning gone.

Pretty pointless.

MferMonsterSearchingForRedemption · 15/11/2025 22:37

To keep the species going and to do shit to pass the time until we die!

Of course my kids and loved ones keep me going, and there is enjoyment to be had, but ultimately, there is no point to us.

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:38

OvenChick · 15/11/2025 19:22

The point of life certainly isn't to be happy. I can't take anyone who says that seriously.

Why not? What other point is there to life?

RedRiverShore5 · 15/11/2025 23:39

To reproduce, that's it

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:43

RedRiverShore5 · 15/11/2025 23:39

To reproduce, that's it

No, that is just what we are biologically hardwired to do. It is not 'the point' to life.

breezyyy · 15/11/2025 23:44

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:43

No, that is just what we are biologically hardwired to do. It is not 'the point' to life.

You’re entitled to your opinion but telling people their opinions are wrong?

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:46

breezyyy · 15/11/2025 23:44

You’re entitled to your opinion but telling people their opinions are wrong?

They are wrong. It is ludicrous to say that the 'point' to life is procreation.

Fantomfartflinger · 15/11/2025 23:48

To survive long enough to reproduce and launch offspring.

breezyyy · 15/11/2025 23:48

In your opinion.

Everyone on this thread has given their opinions, you’re the only one telling
people they’re wrong.

I’ll leave you to it.

louderthan · 15/11/2025 23:49

To have a fulfilling working life and enjoy yourself out of work.

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:50

louderthan · 15/11/2025 23:49

To have a fulfilling working life and enjoy yourself out of work.

100%. I was starting to think I had strayed into The Handmaid's Tale. Grim.

Fantomfartflinger · 15/11/2025 23:50

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:43

No, that is just what we are biologically hardwired to do. It is not 'the point' to life.

They are both the same thing.

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:51

Fantomfartflinger · 15/11/2025 23:48

To survive long enough to reproduce and launch offspring.

Bleugh. It's 2025. There's a difference between genetic hardwiring or whatever you want to call it, and actually living.

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:52

Fantomfartflinger · 15/11/2025 23:50

They are both the same thing.

No, they're not.

TutTutTutSigh · 15/11/2025 23:52

As someone with 0 urge to reproduce it's an interesting question. I envy people who do feel the "primal urge" because it must be very satisfying to feel like you have one single purpose in life, and you've completed it.

ResusciAnnie · 15/11/2025 23:54

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:46

They are wrong. It is ludicrous to say that the 'point' to life is procreation.

What do you think is the point of an ants life, or a snake’s life? It’s literally just to keep their genes going. We’re all just an accident. There’s no point to it.

Welshwabbit · 15/11/2025 23:54

Love

Clingfilm · 15/11/2025 23:55

I distinctly remember holding my new born baby and thinking 'oh now I get it, this is the whole point (of life)' and being surprised.

However I don't feel that's what everyone should do. Having kids is equally the hardest and most self indulgent thing you could do.

So I suppose just enjoy yourselves and try to be good-ish?

AliceMaforethought · 15/11/2025 23:57

ResusciAnnie · 15/11/2025 23:54

What do you think is the point of an ants life, or a snake’s life? It’s literally just to keep their genes going. We’re all just an accident. There’s no point to it.

Well we're not ants or snakes, are we? Specious argument.