Why do we exist?

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When I think about other creatures around me, I see that it's created for a very specific purpose. The sun, the moon, the day, the night, the plants, the water, the mountains, everything is there for a specific purpose and I believe they are all there to serve us. And I feel they are happy and peaceful knowing what for they are there. What for we ourselves are there? What for?

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 4,811 • Replies: 88

@Mahmoudgh,

The need for "a reason" is a vanity of human cognition which attempts to interpret all within the simplistic paradigm of "cause and effect". The associated need for "a creator" is merely another example of such anthropocentricity.
Maybe you have an intellectual duty to escape from your religious conditioning. THAT is as a good a reason for "existence" as anything some preacher has a vested interest in regurgitating.

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@Mahmoudgh,

Mahmoudgh wrote:

When I think about other creatures around me, I see that it's created for a very specific purpose. The sun, the moon, the day, the night, the plants, the water, the mountains, everything is there for a specific purpose and I believe they are all there to serve us.

You may reach an answer to your question much faster by moving from the general "we" to the particular - why do you, personally, exist? Do you really believe that our own sun plus about another quintillion stars in our universe are there to serve you? Any evidence to support this belief?!

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@fresco,

fresco wrote:

The need for "a reason" is a vanity of human cognition which attempts to interpret all within the simplistic paradigm of "cause and effect". The associated need for "a creator" is merely another example of such anthropocentricity.
Maybe you have an intellectual duty to escape from your religious conditioning. THAT is as a good a reason for "existence" as anything some preacher has a vested interest in regurgitating.

Indeed.

There is no reason for human existence, nor for the existence of anything else. Things dont need a reason to exist, anyway.

That, then, makes us ask "Why is there something rather than nothing?", but, if you think about it, thats the same as asking why the laws of physics work the way they do. The universe simply exists, there is no reason for that nor ever will be.

And dont let yourself be fooled by the fact that the world seens to have been created for humankind. Its quite the opposite: The world was there, and humankind shaped itself to fit on it. Natural evolution and etc.

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@manored,

The original poster was reaching for teleology, not causality. You're unlikely to help him by conflating these 2 unrelated concepts.

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@Mahmoudgh,

Quote:

Why...

Meaning and motive are what brains (of some higher order) contribute to their tiny region of the world, not too much unlike assigning color to frequencies of light in the visible range or odor to wafting molecules. Even "How does it exist?" is formulating a scheme for the structure or relationships of the way something hangs together / functions - the seeking of an agent for a remedy to ignorance, a solution, or a plan of action.

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@manored,

I agree with Manored and Fresco. IF there was a reason for our existence it would probably be the same as that for snails and trees.

1 Reply

@JLNobody,

JLNobody wrote:

I agree with Manored and Fresco. IF there was a reason for our existence it would probably be the same as that for snails and trees.

Agree.

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@edgarblythe,

To imagine that there is special reason for the existence of humans is both egotistical and romantic.

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@JLNobody,

A human life is like a blossom that quickly opens and dies. Significance lies in transcendant moments, between the opening and the wilting. The transcendant too must pass away, as unrelenting processes fail to take notice.

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@edgarblythe,

...and so well put.

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@edgarblythe,

...and so well put.

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@Mahmoudgh,

You ask a very common question but I think you might not have 'done the work' here. I mean, really go into this question, what does it involve? What possible 'reason' could we exist for? What is 'reason' anyway? What's the 'reason' for reason?

This ever-present question of 'why' is never going to go away, all you can do is refuse to pick it up in the first place or drop it once you do. It is an unprofitable question, forget it. What's important is whatever 'it' was that lead you to ask the question of 'why' in each instance. Those are the 'nuggets' you receive in the process of becoming.

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@Mahmoudgh,

Mahmoudgh wrote:

When I think about other creatures around me, I see that it's created for a very specific purpose. The sun, the moon, the day, the night, the plants, the water, the mountains, everything is there for a specific purpose and I believe they are all there to serve us. And I feel they are happy and peaceful knowing what for they are there. What for we ourselves are there? What for?

do hurricanes and tornados and volcanoes, Earth-quakes , do the same for you?

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@JLNobody,

The point is that the OP's concept of "we" is predicated on theism as an a priori for "existence". So when he asks what is a rhetorical question for him he is merely playing the logical game of reductio ad absurdum (proof by contradiction) as a self<->God reinforcement exercise.
It seems to be one of the tragedies of Islamic thinking in particular, that transcendence of such simplistic logic seems to have been swamped by early conditioning.

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I think because I have mind to think, I’m not an animal a cow, a donkey, a hoarse that live to eat and drink and to serve me without any objections. And I have mind that makes me able to track and control other creatures. And because I never heard of any animal or insect that succeeded to deceive me, I can say I’m not there for them but they are here for me. And because I’m neither a snail nor a tree and I do have mind that makes me think and contemplate I have to ask myself, why? How? When? Where? Simply because I have mind that can think.
A request:
I’m a new member here and I’m not native. I found it difficult to comprehend some of your replies. Please simplify your English.

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@Mahmoudgh,

Look at this 3-D model of the HIV virus (orange) invading a human immune cell (gray). You have never heard of viruses? Do you think they can't "fool" you? Do you really believe that you're immune to infection? There are countless life forms that can "fool" you, make you sick, or kill you. You knew that. You also knew that all the stars are not there to serve you, any more than are the sun and the moon, the oceans, or anything else on earth, living or inanimate. Your problem is not thinking straight and has nothing to do with English. If you think about the stars and the viruses you will understand this.

http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/323/cache/best-science-pictures-2010-scivis-hiv_32345_600x450.jpg

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@High Seas,

Why are you attempting to scare people will that nonsense?

There simply are no such threats, if you've been paying any attention to your existence up to this point you will have noticed that very little even 'happens'(if that)

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@JPLosman0711,

What are you talking about? Nobody mentioned threats, only demonstrable facts. If demonstrable facts scare you, that's a problem for you, not the facts.

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@fresco,

That's not quite correct, as a simple reading of the Koran will show. The stars, animals, people etc are said to be subservient to Allah - not to MahmoudGH:

Quote:

[22.18] ...Do you not see that Allah is He, Whom obeys whoever is in the heavens and whoever is in the earth, and the sun and the moon and the stars, and the mountains and the trees, and the animals and many of the people....

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