Wondering About the Purpose of Staying Alive

Even if there's no afterlife for the individual, perhaps there's a higher purpose to which each individual contributes, but by taking one's life, one could somehow jeopardize this higher purpose, maybe. There's also the possibility that someday one will experience an epiphany & understand the meaning of existence, if one lives long enough. Speaking as an agnostic, that's all I can think of at the moment.

Sometimes I think about that Bella. If this is it, it seems like a rather elaborate play with an incredibly large and diverse cast and set that is being performed for the amusement of...who? For some of us, it's pretty much an eighty year party, and for others it's just toil and strife and then finally oblivion - yet none of us have the choice to decline the invitation - or choose the table at which we'll be seated.

I stay alive because so far I'm enjoying myself. I guess while I'm here, I've decided my role is to help others try to make it as best they can. As Bruce Springsteen said "We're all riders on this train....". Though I don't know what it is, deep down, I believe there is a purpose.

Yeah, I know we might as well enjoy it but I think "I don't want to die!" and it just puts such a damper on my party.

It's surreal isn't it? Sometimes I do think that that fact - that we will all die - is just like some really bad joke that's been played on us. Like a really evil plot twist that's been added in. I've basically come to some kind of peace about it though so it doesn't bother me on a daily basis. Also, as I get older and more of my life passes, I really do feel more ready somehow. Strange - I wouldn't want to die - but if I did now - it wouldn't seem like such a tragedy as it would have twenty years ago.

You live on in the hearts and minds of those who remember you. Perhaps that is purgatory, or even heaven. Your life also continues through your offspring, if you choose to have any.

No one likes the bit about having to die.

Knowing that death is inevitable gives a resonance to what we enjoy now. And, as aidan suggests, that seems to happen more as we get older. No joy lasts forever, anyhow.

I also agree with cjhsa re how we live on in others' memories. I know that's true about people I've known who have died...

What is the purpose of life? Each individual determines that with the constraints of gene and environment. I would dare say, only a very small percentage of the human population really understands what the purpose of life is.

If we cannot live life for the here and now, we might as well die. My husband could not live life as he wanted to so he jumped off a cliff to his death. I get a lot from each passing day but if I didn't, death would not be so terrible an outcome.

Clary - Please accept my condolences. My brother also decided to end his own life - so I am acquainted with the absolute shock and grief that accompanies a suicide. I agree, it is important to look for purpose and pleasure in each and every day.

I'm with Clary; I live life for today and many tomorrows. It's really an exciting time to be living on tihs planet when we can travel half way around the world in one day, communicate with people all around this planet almost instantaneously, meet new people and make friends, eat and drink exotic foods, and plan for the next trip to some out-of-the-way place.

I don't know, but there are a lot of possibilities:

For our own pleasure
To develop our minds
To refine our souls through suffering
To help others
To advance the human race towards some goal
No reason, evolution allows us to survive past reproductive age only because there is safety in numbers

actually, before the invention of writing, elders were revered because of their accumulated knowledge, so surviving past reproductive age was adaptive to the species as a mechanism for cultural transmission.

My condolences to Aidan and Clary,

When a person becomes so dis-illusioned with life, that such drastic action is his/her only way out, the effect on those loved one's left to feel the grief and possible guilt is horrendous. I have experienced the same effect on my life by a close friend, speaking to me and explaining his dilemma. At the time, it did not seem such an issue to me, as he was making out it was to himself. I was also in a particular phase of business commitment that my personal concerns took precedence. I did listen to him, I gave him simple advice. Two day's later I received a telephone call. He had drunk best part of a bottle of whisky, sat in his car, engine running, windows open in a locked and well sealed small garage.

I did for some considerable time feel very strong concern that I had failed not only him, but myself in not taking a more concerned course of action when he had visited me. He never mentioned suicide to me, and I would not ever have considered him a suicidal type.

I have in my time come across drama queens and those who are crying for help and attempt a form of suicide, knowing that life saving assistance is on hand.

There is nothing worth taking one's own life for, of that I have no doubt. The balance of mind is obviously the critical factor in these occurences.

Depression, hate, jealousy and money appeared to be the most serious aspects.

Now we find bullied children doing it, those who are worried regarding examinations doing it. The most ridiculous of all, are these web sites, which apparently encourage the same whilst monitoring it on a web cam.

Is life not so precious at all to some in general?


I watched a blue tit feeding her young earlier to-day, I saw wild cat observing a robin, hoping to get his next meal. Ralph, my avatar, was stood chest deep in the pond, drinking and causing mayhem with the fish. They were pleasant moments, besides simply being here. The joys of life are indeed simple and all around us. I had a couple of pints in the local following a hard day's work. There was good chat and friendliness. There was a pretty lady eating a bar snack and drinking white wine and lemonade. I smiled at her, she returned the smile. Talking on here, {especially with Aidan and Luscious Lips Letty} is more than a good reason to be here.

One of the things I always thought disagreeable as I was being raised in a church was the idea of heaven. You know; in order to get there, you have to die first - BUMMER! Then I discovered that God's purpose for man was to live forever on earth. I've had to spend a lot of time digging for it; but so far it seems OK to me.