What is the reason for Human existence?

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UniversalAlien
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What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by UniversalAlien »

After many thousands of years of recorded human history I have yet to see a clear direction to this history
and the reason for it. Why does man exist? Can anyone give a reason why humans exist? Do we have a
purpose, a destiny? And if so what is it?

And as a hypothetical afterthought to this question, if a superior alien race that does have a destiny, say
to build new star systems, were to ask you as a human what you think your destiny is, could you give them
an intelligent answer? Theoretically they just stumbled upon humanity recently; They studied human history
and human behavior and they are bewildered - could you give them some indication that humans are an intelligent
race of beings with a destiny in the Cosmos?
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Belinda »

Who is this, if anyone, who may have a reaon for human existence?
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Tibbir »

To love God with all our hearts and minds and souls and to love our neightbours as ourselves. So that we can have fun enjoying life and joining in loving relationships with the whole of existence "the Great I am". That is basically we need to learn inner peace and restore ourselves to Grace. This multiverse is just a learning place as to why we should love God. The answer as always is simple because he loves us.

As to why I believe God Loves us and this is true let me explain...

“The Great I am” of the Jews has to be the set of everything that exists otherwise it cannot be omnipresent.

As “The set of everything that exists” is exactly what theoretical physicists are studying, “The Theory of Everything”, which implies they are studying “The Theory of God”.

Without words there can be no thoughts, no reasoning, no philosophy and no mathematics. Scientists hold that “The Universe is nothing but mathematics”. If that is so, without words we could not exist.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1

The word is a symbol used to share meaning: any and every symbol, including but not limited to:
Letters, normal words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, books, dictionaries, entire libraries, the world and the
whole of the physical Universe, indeed the whole of logical existence.

In logical existence there is nothing more fundamental than the word. Everything is a symbol used to share meaning. So the word is the foundation of logical existence.

For example, the meaning 1 + 1 = 2 has always existed and has never not existed. It existed before time started and will exist after time stops. These happen to be mathematical symbols but the same is true of paradoxes too.

“This statement is false.” has always been a paradox and always will be a paradox and it has never been a part of mathematics. That does not stop it from existing. It can be seen to have an effect on the physical world just because I wrote about it.

“So in the Beginning” was logical existence, which exists outside of time. The meanings are timeless even if the symbol used to share that meaning is very much within time.

Every word is defined in terms of other words and so the whole of logical existence is nothing but every possible combination and permutation of words it is truly infinite and limitless.

This definition of the whole of logical existence assumes that the word is the most fundamental unit of logical existence. As everything that logically exists is just a meaning and that meaning is by definition:

“Something that one wishes to convey, especially by language”

That is it can be shared. It must be a symbol used to share meaning that is a word.

Words are omnipresent because they are everywhere including are thoughts and dreams.

As the Word is omnipresent and it is equivalent to the set of everything that exists, so it must be equivalent to “the Great I am”.

So, our little defining words are “with God” and the whole of logical existence, “The Word”, is God.

Every possibility is inevitably described within “the Great I am” which provides predestination. Some of these we choose to follow, some we do not. Whether a thought becomes a physical reality is in our hands, this is our free will as we choose. We have free will to choose which reality we live in. We have the possibility to do whatever we want. Another way of saying this is that in the logical multiverse (of deliberate choices) as in the statistical multiverse (science talks of) there is a Universe out there somewhere for every action to happen in some are no more than fictions because no one would choose them, that does not stop them existing.

So The Word is Omnipotent

As the Word has all words in it. It is omniscient. Seth Lloyd among others reckons the multiverse is one big quantum computer. The population of the multiverse is infinite because there are an infinite number of possibilities of what we can do today and so the Word is omniscient. Richard Feynman’s integral should be done over the whole of space-time which implies particles can go back in time and so the cosmos can learn like a neural net. It gives the feedback loops needed for a truly intelligent neural net of p-branes.

The Word is omniscient because it has infinite knowledge and an infinite brain to think about it.

Without a desire to share, love; we have no need for the Word. Without knowledge, we have nothing to share, nor know anyone to share it with.

The Word is the most fundamental building block of life. With out a desire to share, love; we have no need for the Word. Without knowledge, we have nothing to share, nor know anyone to share it with.
The whole of evolution can be seen as one slow building process in better and better forms of cooperation through communication; using love, to share knowledge. With the invention of the Word that progress exploded! Each human civilization is richer or poorer directly in proportion to the amount they communicate and with the freedom they communicate. That is the amount they cooperate. It seems that without both love and knowledge, none of creation could happen, with both love and knowledge all of it has to happen.

When taken out to the infinite population of the multiverse an infinite population requires infinite tolerance and infinite love to be that forbearing. So The Word is almost certainly benevolent.

Lastly as stated at the beginning the world is eternal.

So “The Word “is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent and eternal. “He” exists and “He” is God; where “He” is a pronoun for an entity, which includes every sex and is probably of no sex at all as He has always existed and never not existed.

God loves you.
Q.E.D.

Is there any purpose in going to heaven? Well that is to gain greater integrity with God. The alternative of going to hell, which is a lot less fun and it is not want God wants for us, which is to be filled with love, joy and peace and it is probably where you will have more fun too.

As to why I think we go to Heaven? Heaven is a state of mind and I have a good idea of what it feels like because I am on my way there and it gets better every day. When you have accepted that God is in you and you are in him you will understand. Until then what ever I write will be like a very boring essay on the Mona Lisa. Not worth the paper it is written on.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Misty »

UniversalAlien wrote:After many thousands of years of recorded human history I have yet to see a clear direction to this history
and the reason for it. Why does man exist? Can anyone give a reason why humans exist? Do we have a
purpose, a destiny? And if so what is it?

And as a hypothetical afterthought to this question, if a superior alien race that does have a destiny, say
to build new star systems, were to ask you as a human what you think your destiny is, could you give them
an intelligent answer? Theoretically they just stumbled upon humanity recently; They studied human history
and human a behavior and they are bewildered - could you give them some indication that humans are an intelligent
race of beings with a destiny in the Cosmos?

Mankind exists because we were created to exist. Mankind are on earth because we wanted to know good and evil.
When mankind dies and God resurrects us, our existence will no longer include good or evil. It will be the paradise
we left to experience this good and evil idea. Paradise is living with our creator that is neither good or evil, but only
love. Not the kind of love we experience on earth, but love that is beyond our comprehension.
Things are not always as they appear; it's a matter of perception.

The eyes can only see what the mind has, is, or will be prepared to comprehend.

I am Lion, hear me ROAR! Meow.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes »

If Bob shows up at work late and Bob's boss asks, "Bob, why are you late? What is the reason for you being late today?" Bob could say, "Because there was lots of traffic," or "Because when I was just a child my parents didn't teach me the importance of punctuality," or "Because after the conditions in and following the Big Bang could started a causal chain that eventually lead to me being late this morning." The fact is that each of those responses and indeed countless other possible responses are all equally accurate answers to the question. This is because the question is intentionally vague and both the question and answer use especially equivocal words such as cause and reason for.

Scientifically speaking, the documentaries Ape to Man (History Channel) and Becoming Human (PBS) both do a great job explaining what we know about the evolutionary conditions that lead to generally the homos and eventually specifically the homo sapiens and how we know it. Basically, it seems that at some point human-like creatures were quite common but the conditions in which they thrived worsened (in a relative way) such as with droughts and the ancestors of homo sapiens were on average only ones smart enough to survive. Also, Human Family Tree traces modern humanity back to "scientific Adam" and "scientific Eve" -- the two people from which every human alive is descendent; every other human alive at the era of "scientific Adam" and "scientific Eve" have had their blood-lines die off, which explains why there is so little genetic diversity in the homo sapien species as compared to other species and subspecies. That documentary doesn't really get into why the children of "scientific Adam" and "scientific Eve" survived and their peers did not, but it gives us a rough outlining idea of why us humans are here: that our ancestors were lucky and/or genetically more fit to survive during the time of "scientific Adam" and "scientific Eve".
My entire political philosophy summed up in one tweet.

"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."

I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by The_Patriarch »

We could say our purpose is to conquer the Universe, since it has been our instinct ever since. But a holy man will see that as an absurdity. We could say our purpose is to love one another and work together as a global family, but as much as that sounds incredibly beautiful and intuitively accurate, it is difficult for us to accept it because... we are inherently, though NOT uncontrollably, immoral.

And then there's the middle-ground of believing neither and simply accepting that life is what we make of it.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Stormy »

I think we exist simply to ask how. How is a greeting, and that is how we simply come to know what it means to be human. Everything we have achieved, either personally or as a species, revolves around how. How can I achieve this? How can that be? How are you, how dose it feel, how is it that I am affected this way, and HOW...meaning I want to know more about you. What other species asks how, either it knows what it needs, or it follows what it knows. We however.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by UniversalAlien »

Let me try to be more specific so you can understand what I am looking for. There are many ways to view history,
and many philosophical views of history and the history of man. Unfortunately there is not much on the subject
of why man is. Yes, there is the religious viewpoint of God created, and the Darwinian view of survival of the
fittest and man is the fittest. These views lack meaning. So even if you believe in the creationist view or the
Darwinian view, you still have no real direction, no philosophical meaning. I say Man is more than a meaningless
survivor of evolutionary procedure or servant of a God who has yet give his created man a reason and/or a destiny.

We can do better. On faith grounded in no more than the fictional abstractions and creations of Science Fiction
I can see a being called Man who can create a destiny for his species. When God said "man has become one of us
to know the difference between good and evil" that was a long time ago. Maybe humanity failed the test and
that is why we are still trapped in an endless repetition of historical errors that leave the Middle East for example
not much better off today than it was 5000 years ago. Maybe we still can be 'One of Us' {the Gods?}, maybe we
still can inherit the stars instead of a polluted and dying planet with a species of being that still can not see
himself as a higher form of life than the bests around him and still waddles in senseless mortal and
and now meaningless warfare to give him a sense of meaning; a species of being determined to hold on to
hell whatever the cost. We can be more. The world does not have to stay a meaningless existential
nightmare. A New Dawn is still possible - we still can inherit the stars; That is what I believe is the reason
for Human existence. Any better ideas?
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Stormy »

The greatest thing that we possess is the imagination, followed by mysticism which has resulted in science. Imagination is of the mind and although the mind exists through grey matter, it is not matter as we know it, in fact it is as mysterious as Dark Matter, something that sculpted everything from light.
My guess is we are more a part of it, than we are able to imagine. That in life we look to our dreams to make real,and in death our dreams look to our life to be so.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by UniversalAlien »

Stormy wrote:The greatest thing that we possess is the imagination, followed by mysticism which has resulted in science. Imagination is of the mind and although the mind exists through grey matter, it is not matter as we know it, in fact it is as mysterious as Dark Matter, something that sculpted everything from light. My guess is we are more a part of it, than we are able to imagine. That in life we look to our dreams to make real,and in death our dreams look to our life to be so.
I agree with the relationship between science, imagination and mysticism even though the issue of what mind is can be much more. Hence we have philosophy to separate the imaginative and theoretical so as to reach for facts of existence that are more provable and definable. So one can ask if the reason for human existence can be seen as being definable? Is there an intrinsic factor to our existence which transcends the personal and imaginative should be, could be, and I would like it to be? The Darwinian view does not seem to indicate this - survival of the fittest is very mechanistic and does not show any creative direction or purpose. The same problem arises with the Creationist view point - we were created for what reason? Maybe and ultimately imagination is all it is but it is conceivable that there is an intrinsic factor and we must advance far enough to see it. If man's science and imagination continues to perpetrate humans in a way that maintains survival of the human species then it is possible man will one day see human existence as a real destiny - a meaning for human existence will be found. For now we can assume that the meaning for human existence is just that - to find the reason for human existence.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes »

UniversalAlien wrote:So even if you believe in the creationist view or the Darwinian view, you still have no real direction, no philosophical meaning. I say Man is more than a meaningless survivor of evolutionary procedure or servant of a God who has yet give his created man a reason and/or a destiny.
I don't believe there is some sort of teleological reason for the existence of humans as described above. That's because I do not see any evidence of such teleological reason or planning. In the absence of evidence for an ontologically positive assertion like the one that there is a teleological reason that mankind evolved and thus now exists, I feel disbelief is the reasonable conclusions for the reasons explained in my topic Default positions and the increased burden of proof.

Also, humankind is one thing, but I think conscious life in a more general sense must logically precede meaning. Meaning and purpose come from conscious intent. The purpose of a stove is to cook because that is what a conscious creator intended it to do. The meaning of a drawing on the wall is what was meant by the conscious person who intended it. One conscious person can be in a sense creator by another, such as how one could say my wife and I created our kids for some purpose or that they mean something to us. However, that leads to a regress. But it's not like the chicken and the egg problem because in this case logically we know which must have come first. Conscious life must have preceded purpose and meaning and any other consciously and/or intentionally subjective qualities.

I wouldn't simply say are lives are meaningless, however. That would seem to be forgetting the possibility of subjective meaning or self-created purpose particularly that stemming from the process of and leading up to self-actualization.
My entire political philosophy summed up in one tweet.

"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master."

I believe spiritual freedom (a.k.a. self-discipline) manifests as bravery, confidence, grace, honesty, love, and inner peace.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Prismatic »

My own view is that no general reason or purpose for human existence can be given, but that individual lives very often do have a purpose—a purpose devised or chosen by the one living the life or by those around him. However a "one size fits all" purpose does not appear possible to me, nor do I see all lives as equally meaningful with respect to a purpose.
Everywhere I have sought peace and never found it except in a corner with a book. —Thomas à Kempis
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Spectrum »

There is no teleological reason for human existence.

Conscious 'reason' is exercised soley by humans and if there is to be any reason for human existence, then it is a human-reasoned reason for human existence.

There is no absolute truth, thus no absolute reason for human existence, but by induction, humanity should work out a dynamic coherence truth of the reason for human existence that would be optimal for humanity, other living entities and the supporting environment.

Humanity is in a mess at present, but ideally all humans should work toward co-operating and uniting to establish some sort of dynamic universal reason for human existence.

The reason for human existence can be establish from a convergent and coherence of the various observation, examples;

1. All human strive to survive at all costs within an optimal life cycle - no immortality. 2. Resources are limited, thus their usage need to be monitored. 3. There are various threats to the survival of the human specie and others, thus need to be monitored, prevented, etc. 4. To list, perhaps another 100+ points or more. *

Once we have listed as many points as possible, we can then find the dynamic (changeable according to circumstances) optimal reason (s) for human existence.

Till we have worked toward something like the above, it would be advisable to suspend judgment on any reason for human existence. However, one may have their own personal reasons subject to all existing conditions.
Not-a-theist. Religion is a critical necessity for humanity now, but not the FUTURE.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by Stanley Huang »

UniveralAlien asked: "What is the reason for human existence???" This is is an interesting question??? But it may be a flawed question. Because, are you assuming that there must be a reason for human existence???? Maybe there is no reason. Or maybe humans do not exist according to nihilist. But I feel UniversalAlien came up with this interesting question, and I have asked this question before. Secondly, UniversalAlien talked about alien. So far, no scientists have saw the existence of UFO. So at the moment, no scientists saw aliens. But biologist did see maybe life form in mars or other planet. Before, I have heard a person saying that alien may be a myth created by CIA. So far, I am not sure whether or not is there alien.
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Re: What is the reason for Human existence?

Post by UniversalAlien »

There is no teleological reason for human existence.

Some of you seem to agree upon this. I disagree. In fact, and if anything there are many reasons for human existence. But you say it is not 'teleological' : "tel·e·o·log·i·cal  {adjective Philosophy } of or pertaining to teleology, the philosopical doctrine that final causes, design, and purpose exist in nature."

You see my problem is that there are so many causes, designs, and purposes that I can not see 'if' there is a design pattern. is there something I am missing? But to say it does not exist because current evidence whether it be from science or elsewhere has not shown this purpose is still not evidence that it does not exist.

If two ants in a hive are discussing the nature of the reason for ant existence the conclusion might be reached that maintaining the ant hive and feeding the queen is the sole reason for ant existence. And to these ants that is the sole reason for ant existence. I expect humans to do better. Convince me that there is a better reason for human existence than maintaining the status-quo. Show me human existence is higher than that of ants.
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