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Narrator
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11 Sep 2014, 8:59 pm

TallyMan wrote:
azaam wrote:
What is your purpose for this life?


To eat cheese. :D

This goes nicely on top of the flying spaghetti monster.


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The_Postmaster
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11 Sep 2014, 9:29 pm

I don't know if there is an afterlife or not. I know I'm alive right now. Why waste the only time I know I have on something I don't know I will get? You might as well just spend your entire life locked in a padded cell to appease the padded cell gods.



thinkinginpictures
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12 Sep 2014, 10:06 am

Narrator wrote:
thinkinginpictures wrote:
Also, just because something is from the past, doesn't neccessarily mean it is ignorant. The future could be as ignorant as the past, or worse or better.

Enrol in a course on creation theology and then get back to me.


It's not about the creation of the world. It has a deeper philosophical understanding.
Please conduct a little more research into ancient Mesopotamian/Sumerian thoughts.

The Bible is just a collection of refined stories from the ancient world. It is NOT a history book.

To understand the Bible, one needs to fully understand and comprehend the vast texts of the ancient world, including Sumerian texts.
They were not trying to explain the creation of the world. They were trying to tell the stories of the negative impact that agriculture and technological advancement has on humanity.
And it is as true today as it was back then.

In the stone ages, the people gathered the food they needed, and left the remaining for the others.
Today, we harvest everything we can eat, and more so, only to reduce humans into work animals, with little to no value other than our productivity.

That is what Genesis is really about. The fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, is, in-fact, agriculture.



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12 Sep 2014, 9:15 pm

thinkinginpictures wrote:
Narrator wrote:
thinkinginpictures wrote:
Also, just because something is from the past, doesn't neccessarily mean it is ignorant. The future could be as ignorant as the past, or worse or better.

Enrol in a course on creation theology and then get back to me.


It's not about the creation of the world. It has a deeper philosophical understanding.
Please conduct a little more research into ancient Mesopotamian/Sumerian thoughts.

The Bible is just a collection of refined stories from the ancient world. It is NOT a history book.

To understand the Bible, one needs to fully understand and comprehend the vast texts of the ancient world, including Sumerian texts.
They were not trying to explain the creation of the world. They were trying to tell the stories of the negative impact that agriculture and technological advancement has on humanity.
And it is as true today as it was back then.

In the stone ages, the people gathered the food they needed, and left the remaining for the others.
Today, we harvest everything we can eat, and more so, only to reduce humans into work animals, with little to no value other than our productivity.

That is what Genesis is really about. The fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, is, in-fact, agriculture.


While some of what is written about does reflect on agricultural issues, the ideas you mention are not broadly held (in theology/anthropology circles). They don't disagree, but generally see it as a theory that hasn't yet been widely explored.

What is more widely accepted and discussed (in such circles) is things like the Documentary Hypothesis. The DH agrees with you, that the stories weren't trying to explain history. Unlike today, back then, history wasn't what was important. Story was more about other truths, and story was an important ritual. For example, the Biblical creation story is a cobbling together of two totally different stories, placed side-by-side (seemingly on purpose) to explain two different truths. The origins of the two stories seem to have Sumerian/Gilgamesh and other influences, kind of like 'Chinese whispers' passed around over hundreds of years.

In my early days as a Christian (mid-70's), while formally studying theology, I learned about the DH and understood that 'creation' and 'evolution/BBT' are not in competition. It wasn't until many years later that I stepped away from Christianity. DH is broadly accepted by theologians and anthropologists, though some of the details are hotly debated. Generally speaking, the only theologians who don't accept DH are Christian and Jewish fundamentalist theologians, who insist that the Pentateuch/Torah is an historical collection written by Moses.


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A smile is not always a smile.
A frown is not always a frown.
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12 Sep 2014, 10:24 pm

Quote:
What is your purpose for this life?


To moonshine.



mr_bigmouth_502
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12 Sep 2014, 10:58 pm

Life is just a coincidence, so you may as well make the most of it and enjoy it. Sadly, it's hard to do this because of how sh***y and screwed up humanity, and the world as a whole truly are. It's still worth being a good person though, because it makes you feel good, and it makes other people feel good too. I guess you could say I'm a hedonistic, misanthropic, pessimistic, humanist. Kind of a walking contradiction.



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14 Sep 2014, 11:50 pm

we were born from infinitesimally small coincidences, all the exact same way, screaming, bloodied, skin a grayish purple hue, covered in amniotic fluid and connected to our mothers by a cord.

my destiny? to cartograph. :)


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IndividualSurvive
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15 Sep 2014, 7:25 pm

First off, I see no evidence that there could be or would be any kind of afterlife as the brain ceases to function after death. Increasingly, I am beginning to realize that having the purpose for life of being happy is not truly attainable as pain and suffering are far more common. lately I have been thinking that my purpose in life would be to find and experience love, if indeed there is such as thing as love. Of course I don't really know if love is possible but I would like to find out. However, I do not see reason to be very optimistic about anyone loving me. Therefore I can only hope that I don't have a soul, because if I did have a soul then it would be a tortured one and maybe it would have been better to have never been born. Maybe some of this is my depression talking. However, I realize that I can't waste anymore of my life alone and that I have to do everything I possibly can to try to find love. I don't want my life to turn out to be a complete waste.



drh1138
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15 Sep 2014, 8:23 pm

OP wrote:
What is your purpose for this life?


Victory and power. "God" and the "afterlife" are irrelevant fairy tales used to content the unwilled masses. A default "worth" for those unable to find their own worldly value.

Getting into hobbyist beekeeping is something I'd like to do at some point, and make mead.



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15 Sep 2014, 10:24 pm

Quote:
What is your purpose for this life?

Not to die.



khaoz
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16 Sep 2014, 1:42 am

Death. If there is on common factor connecting every creatureborn into life, it is that death is unavoidable. Therefore the purpose of life is to prepare for death



sonofghandi
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16 Sep 2014, 10:06 am

IndividualSurvive wrote:
First off, I see no evidence that there could be or would be any kind of afterlife as the brain ceases to function after death. Increasingly, I am beginning to realize that having the purpose for life of being happy is not truly attainable as pain and suffering are far more common. lately I have been thinking that my purpose in life would be to find and experience love, if indeed there is such as thing as love. Of course I don't really know if love is possible but I would like to find out. However, I do not see reason to be very optimistic about anyone loving me. Therefore I can only hope that I don't have a soul, because if I did have a soul then it would be a tortured one and maybe it would have been better to have never been born. Maybe some of this is my depression talking. However, I realize that I can't waste anymore of my life alone and that I have to do everything I possibly can to try to find love. I don't want my life to turn out to be a complete waste.


^This was exactly me for years and years after I first lost the faith. It wasn't until I started reading a lot of Thomas Paine and a lot of humanist writings that I eventually got to the mindset that minimizing the suffering of those immediately around when you can (even if it only in a tiny way) is enough purpose for me. I didn't meet my wife until long after that, though. I think it is actually part of what drew her to me (I would probably not have noticed her if she hadn't approached me, as I often don't notice people I don't know in general).


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