If There's No God, Then the Purpose of Life Would Be?

[Physics-Man]

To have fun

To Repopulate

Nonexistent; there would be no purpose

Other

[stepyo99]

I believe in the Gods, but "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus is the best atheist take I've seen on finding purpose in a life without God. It's a short book, but the two key points I quoted here:

The human condition: "The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor."

The purpose of such an absurd life? Rebellion: "At that subtle moment when man glances backward over his life, Sisyphus returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions which becomes his fate, created by him, combined under his memory’s eye and soon sealed by his death. Thus, convinced of the wholly human origin of all that is human, a blind man eager to see who knows that the night has no end, he is still on the go. The rock is still rolling."

[Siri137]

Rebellion? That's it? You do of course realise that in order to rebel against whatever situation one finds oneself in, there must actually be something (in the case of the story, the gods) to rebel against. If life is all there is, if there's no afterlife, no God or gods, nothing beyond the physical, and this is it, then what is the point in "rebelling" against our predicament, our plight? Wouldn't that just be silly because it would ultimately be futile?

[stepyo99]

@Siri137 I'm not an atheist myself, but Albert Camus writes that it's rebellion against "the absurd". I'm also not a philosopher so I can only claim to have a superficial understanding of these things. But I believe that means it's rebellion against the absurd state of being that man finds himself in.
We're born, we die. The things we work for crumble away, the life we lived is forgotten as the years pass. I really suggest reading the book. It's short. "The Myth of Sisyphus"
I'm not Christian either but another really poignant take on the absurd state of meaningless existence is found in Ecclesiastes. "I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind." The whole book is chock full of stuff like this. Also highly recommend reading Ecclesiastes.
Of course, Ecclesiastes comes to a different conclusion than Albert Camus stating that a fulfilling, purposeful life is one that is godly.

[MementoMori777]

There wouldn't be a purpose which in a way wouldn't make sense unless you want to believe that and accept it, to me personally a God and a purpose of life makes more sense than everything just happening for no reason, in everything in life, if you dig deep down, there's always a reason, it being a stupid reason doesn't make it without reason so everything has a reason and believing everything falls into place so perfectly the self regenerating bodies to the perfect percentage of gasses that make our breathable air... breathable, all it just happening by itself and for no reason just sounds extremely unlikely to me.

[Wade12345]

The only rational reason God has to Create us is to show his Love to us, but because most people reject God whole-heartedly, God doesn't even do that much of the time.

God does not gain anything of value from our pathetic existence for his own personal sake, so his Creation was actually a selfless act. In fact, the act of Creating us lowered and perhaps even harmed God. (Genesis 6 et al) where God "Repents" for having created humans because humans became evil willfully an it says "every thought and imagination of man's heart was only evil continually".

So people are Created PERFECT by God, but they WILLFULLY choose to become evil and rebel against God. This injured God.

Anyway, the Bible says the Cosmic Microwave Background was Created after the Earth and the water on the Earth, but before the Sun was Created. The present version of the Big Bang model claims the CMB was created billions of years before the Earth.

I just trust the fact God made everything either way obviously.

[strateguy632]

your 2 examples "regeneration and breathable" are both false. when humans lose hand finger etc. not self regeneration. the percentage is not "precise" any percentage of oxygen with nitrogen would be breathable even the inverse. unless you mean the type of gas available, oxygen that we need is available.

[Siri137]

Ah, that's easy. There would be no purpose. Atheists will often happily tell you that they don't need God because they "find meaning in other things, they create meaning for themselves". Really? How? If life is inherently purposeless, then how is that even possible? Aren't they just deluding themselves?

I could go on, and on, and on about this, but it is sufficient for me to simply say that if life is ultimately just a silly, meaningless accident, a fluke that ultimately means nothing, then pretending that one can extract meaning from that which is inherently meaningless is the very definition of arrogant stupidity.

[Siri137]

Thanks for the MHO! :)

[Anonymous]

I believe there is a God, but let's just say for arguments sake for the question there isn't one. Then I would say to live your life to the fullest and try to be the best person you can be. Whether there's a God or not, the goal should be to live life like there is no tomorrow. So you should try to set out to do as much as possible.

[Rangers]

For what? Nothing any of us do will make a difference and satisfaction will never come

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers I've been satisfied in life many times, more than I can count. As for making a difference... in what?

Thats way too subjective, lots of things causes different outcomes, its how everything in the universe works.

[Rangers]

Making the world a better place is the difference.

Regression always wins. It has been for the past 20,000 years.

No matter what a good person does, evil will always prevail because there will always be more bad people and things than good

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers Better for whom? Life is a competition. One being's advantage is another's disadvantage, one person's better is another's worse. Its not good vs evil, its preference vs preference vs preference vs preference and so on. There are countless preferences, all competing, all with limited views and understandings. The only universal improvements are resource and knowledge access, which has improved greatly over time.

[Rangers]

Competing for what? There's no rewards for winning, and there's 8 billion people in the world, so your chances of winning are at best 1 in 8 billion

[strateguy632]

the purpose would be personal and depend on each person different ability. not one purpose for everyone who are not same. each would need to look inside themselves for their personalised purpose... they should do that for self fulfillment even if they also obey one of the gods.

NOT to have fun, kuz the planet is a place of suffering n misery due to nature people n predators so not here. not to "repopulate" considering each city has thousands so no need to add baby. that is not purpose. it is a choice.

[genericname85]

so my take is this:

there's no purpose. you just have like 80 years, which if "the entirety of all existence" would be reduced to a human lifespan wouldn't even be the lenth of a nanosecond.

so since you like all of us are thrown into this world without consent and there is no purpose or plan for you and you have very limited time... why not just make the best of it while you're around?

[sawno]

To be the most authentic version of yourself, enjoy experiences you want to enjoy and leave this life having done what is meaningful to you and as the person you truly are.

[burlen]

If there's no God, then the purpose of life would be to create our own meaning, forge connections with others, and strive for personal growth and fulfilment.

[Rangers]

For what?

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers For happiness/pleasure/etc.

[Rangers]

Trying to find happiness or pleasure is so fruitless that I'd make more progress if I tried to reach up and grab a handful of stars at night

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers Thats because you think like a depressed philosopher instead of an amused child.

A child looks at something and is amazed by it and asks how it exist, a philosopher looks at something and is depressed by it and asks why it exists.

Forget the why.

[Rangers]

I'm not depressed about things existing, except for industrial buildings, those need to be destroyed.

I look at a waterfall and wonder what the big deal is, it's just water filled with disease ridden bacteria falling down. Gravity affects water, I already knew that

[Razp_Sorbet]

Whatever purpose you want your life to have. That's the beauty of life, you can do whatever you want.

[Rangers]

We really can't, cause any time you try to have fun, there's 100 laws against it

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers No one has outlawed video games, art, movies, tv, sex, love, books, legos, etc in most places on this planet. Yes some fun things are illegal for safety reasons. but to suggest no legal fun things exist? Pfff, would take a year just to list every hobby that exists.

[Rangers]

And those hobbies get old in a few minutes and become boring

I want to shoot off brand soda cans and broken refrigerators, but no, land is $10,000 per acre, and you need 100 acres to legally do that.

You do the math, I have. Land used to be $23/acre but urban expansion has destroyed almost all of it, shooting the prices into the high heavens.

No range will even let you shoot steel cased ammo or more than 1 shot per second, much less bring objects to shoot.

And if I found a random place to do that, I'd get a ton of felonies and be facing decades in prison, no matter how safe I did it.

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers If you get bored with video games quick, you will be bored by everything quick, because video games let you do anything, including those. It doesn't make any functional sense that only that would be entertaining either.

[Rangers]

So as I said, there's no joy or pleasure that I can experience

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers For you, but that seems more like a stubborn illogical choice than an lack of actual stuff to do.

[Rangers]

There's a lack of fun things to do, there'd be a lot more if we got rid of those useless industrial buildings and planted trees instead

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers I disagree, but then your kind of fun I'm glad is illegal, it lets me do my kind of fun without worrying some dumbass is going to launch a fridge at my house.

[Rangers]

Launch a fridge? What guns do you think I have?

And I'd be nowhere near anyone's house, cause otherwise I'd be putting people's lives and property in danger.

Still not sure why people care about their lives, since it's just an endless cycle of work and sleep, but I still have no right to endanger it.

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Rangers You said you wanted to shoot off brand soda cans and broken refridgerators, if you meant shoot bullets at those things, you are missing an "at" in the sentence.

People care about living because they enjoy it (as previously mentioned).

[Rangers]

If only I could feel joy, that'd be great
The only logical decision for me is to stop living so I can stop suffering

[Razp_Sorbet]

@Rangers you 🤡 "I can't do anything because I can't do these very specific things because they have potential to endanger people therefore my life is meaningless"

[Rangers]

Shooting guns on one's own property far away from any buildings into a burm is nowhere near as dangerous as getting in your car every single day like we all do.

It's the only thing in the world that can bring me joy but I go to prison if I do it

[Razp_Sorbet]

@Rangers wow you're totally right. Life is completely meaningless because guns r Luv guns r Lyfe

[Rangers]

It's the only thing I find interesting, I've tried literally every hobby that's ever existed, nothing is enjoyable

[Rangers]

And you still have yet to answer the question of what the purpose of living is

[Razp_Sorbet]

@Rangers I did in my opinion actually.

I'm sure you haven't tried every hobby that would literally be impossible. But I'm sorry that you are finding it hard to find something you enjoy in Life

[Rangers]

All I heard was "it is what you make it" and what could you make it?

We work so we can eat and sleep, all we have time to do is work, eat and sleep. We do that every single day, wash dishes, wash clothes, exercise then start over on days off.

And for what? So we don't die as soon? That's it? 100 years from now, every person on this planet right now will be in the ground with their flesh eaten down to the bone by animals and worms, there's no escaping that.

We eat, work, and sleep just to continue eating, working, and sleeping?

[Razp_Sorbet]

@Rangers sure if that's what you think

[TheSpaceGnome]

I shoot guns in video games all the time, even ones that can't exist in real life.

Rangers is just being a stubborn ass who wants everyone else to be as mopey as he is.

Meanwhile most people are enjoying their lives.

[Rangers]

I don't want others to be "mopey" I want an answer to the question of all questions. Perhaps the knowledge can allow me to regain my ability to feel joy.

I want to try that, at least before I resort to ending my life

[Razp_Sorbet]

@Rangers there is no overall purpose of life, at least that is what I believe. You can believe whatever you want. But for me I live, I die and whatever I do in-between is up to me. I personally have no desire to do anything that is immoral or highly illegal.

[Rangers]

I don't have a desire to do immoral or illegal things, either. I don't have a desire to do anything besides fill the emptiness in me and quell my mental and physical pain

But I have no direction and years of therapy along with trying every legal medication under the sun has only made it all worse. It seems the only solution is ending my life but I don't want to pass pain onto my girlfriend which is why I haven't done it yet

[Razp_Sorbet]

@Rangers sorry to hear that. Mental health issues are a bitch

[Rangers]

I'm trying to get her permission to end my life, but she's not budging.

I don't get why she'd miss me, I really don't have any redeeming qualities

[razelove]

Spread your seed and values having as many little ones as you can sustain. It's what the bible says to do anyway, so it tracks.

[Yucy_Gluttony]

I always believed we have the same purpose all other animals were given. Survival and to procreation.

[Rangers]

For what?

[Yucy_Gluttony]

@Rangers just basic instincts, to make sure the species keeps existing,

[Rangers]

Again, for what? What does it matter if humans keep existing?

[Yucy_Gluttony]

@Rangers That is the only reason to procreate. That's always been the purpose of life. To survive and procreate.

[Rangers]

To survive for what? There's no joy in it or accomplishment

[Yucy_Gluttony]

@Rangers So the species keeps living on. Just nature. Nothing past that. We are number 1 because of our intelligence, we climbed the top of the food chain. So we can afford doing extra things, unlike a lion, we can choose what we eat the next day. We even have sex for fun now.
But it's still there, we still have to survive, and in many of us the need to start a family is still there. Society even paints being single as being a failure or being unhappy at times.

What is the purpose of life? Such a general question, so I give a general answer I always believed to be true. But due to evolution we can afford to do more things with our time other than the basic needs. Whatever you want to do with that extra time, those extra options that's up to you. But that choice, that 'purpose' is something that's different from person to person. The things I have on my mental list, things I want to do, to achieve. I don't see it as something I was born to do. I wasn't put on this planet to do what I want to do. They're just things I want to do before I die. My goals. Survival. Finding a mate. And, living life to the fullest trying all kinds of options that life, being part of the animal species that happens to be on top of the food chain, has to offer, that I want to do.

[TheSpaceGnome]

@rangers Life has joy. Joy is the reason to exist, purpose however is meaningless.

Accomplishments only have value in their fruit, which is only of value in relation to creating or preserving joy (including anything survival based, since to feel joy, you have to be alive)

[Yucy_Gluttony]

@TheSpaceGnome I never liked the word "purpose". I always read it as "Why are you on this earth?" "Why were you born?" As if we're on a mission.

[Rangers]

I don't experience joy or accomplishment in anything.

Even if I did, it would just be an illusion that I've done something that matters or makes a difference when, of course, that's not the case. Evil rules the universe, no matter what we do, we can't change that

[Yucy_Gluttony]

Well that's you.

I do find joy, also in accomplishment. It's what makes me get up everyday

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Yucy_Gluttony Exactly, thats my view as well.

@rangers That is a you problem, do not project it onto others as if no one experiences joy or accomplishment. What matters is never an illusion, because its subjective opinion on what matters. Also nothing "rules the universe". You seem to be delusional.

[Rangers]

You can feed starving children, they'll get robbed at gunpoint 10 minutes later, and politicians will do everything they can to keep them starving on the streets.

You can arrest a murderer, the judge will let him bond out immediately and he'll go out to victimize more people.

You can make money, all you'll be able to do with it is buy food, pay rent, and go back to work in the never-ending cycle.

You can create blueprints for a building, you can weld the steel they need, the project will be scrapped, and the steel will be dumped into the ocean.

You can workout to get fit and live longer, but you won't enjoy any additional free time because you have to spend it working out anyways.

You can give a homeless man enough money to get his own place, he'll spend all of it on drugs and overdose the same day.

You can work your way up to manager, inflation will catch up easily and your life won't change.

Nothing we do matters, nothing we do makes a difference, we always lose in the end. To say otherwise is to delude one's self and hope that one day they'll be happy if they hold in all their screams. It won't happen

[Yucy_Gluttony]

@Rangers The things I want to do, the challenges I put out for myself, those things matter to Me. I don't look at others when looking at things I want to achieve. It makes a difference in my life. Whatever I experienced and am going to experience in life defines who I am as a person. All that matters to me.
I saved someone from suicide. I didn't know until he told me, himself. It mattered to him. My time spent with him mattered more to him than I could have ever imagined. I made a difference in his life. He's still going strong, he's happy. We're very close.

You can say things don't matter, but that's like Space said, a you problem. Because I don't share your view and feelings on this topic at all.

[TheSpaceGnome]

@Yucy_Gluttony Agreed, and thats wonderful that you saved someone from suicide. :)

@rangers You are projecting your own opinion onto things as if it gives it an intrinsic value, but the value of anything is subjective, so like Yucy said, if it matters to the person, thats enough for them to keep doing it.

[TheSpaceGnome]

There isn't a god, and no one needs a purpose.

Wanting a purpose is like saying you can't enjoy life unless someone is telling you how to live it.

Just do what makes you happy.

[NamerOfStars]

What we make it. If we are the highest authority in the universe, then we have MORE potential to give life meaning, not less.

[Quackthulu2]

Why do you think life has to have any purpose at all?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

If there's no God, we wouldn't have purpose because we wouldn't exist to begin with.

[slatyb]

Find your own purpose. If someone tries to tell what it is, ignore them.

[Rangers]

There's no purpose of life WITH God, so I can't even begin to properly characterize how much more pointless life would be without him

[TheSpaceGnome]

There isn't a god, so it would be exactly as it is now. Freedom.

[Rangers]

There is no freedom here

[exitseven]

I put to have fun. I would be rally disappointed if it was just to replicate my DNA.

[AngryCarl2]

Our purpose is to perpetuate the species. Everything else just passes the time.

[Still-alive]

live how you want to live as long as it doesn't harm other people

[zagor]

If there is God, then what would the purpose of life be?

[Anonymous]

To re-populate as what we’re designed to do but we should have fun also

[Paris13]

But THERE IS OUR FATHER. xxoo

[boggboss]

What we nake out of it

[Agape93]

Whatever you decide your purpose is

[poetic_pisces]

to discover yourself

[LimitedBenefits101]

Meaningless.