Now that we're no longer Mormon, what do you think the purpose of life is?

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Or more simply stated, live for today, drink good beer, and chase pretty women. ;-)

The purpose of life is to live, learn, work, love, and make it all as meaningful as possible. Then we die, optimally leaving some sort of a legacy behind, and maybe we become spirits, maybe we become angels to help others, maybe we're reincarnated, who knows? So many possibilities.

The purpose of your life is whatever you think it is.

That's the great thing about leaving Mormonism. You get to decide for yourself.

nobody knows.

For me, it's to love my family to the point that they have no doubt about my love for them.

After that, enjoy every little detail that crosses my path.

...get born'd.
...go to a creepy dentist at age 4; drills useless holes in your teeth.
...go to elementary school; begin the indoctrination. Learn pablum. Feel unfulfilled.
...finish high school; buy a car, go to college, get in debt.
...get a crappy job, try to survive, eat TV dinners.
...buy a house, get in serious debt; get back on the treadmill.
...seek psychiatric counseling; you feel locked in. Buy a gun.
...run away from responsibilities; become a jazz musician.
,,,hitch hike to Las Vegas; live on the strip, behind the Circus Circus dumpster.
...call the ACA medical exchange hotline. You don't feel well.
...wake up in a velvet-lined box.

What did I miss?

Hahaha loved this!

I disagree with anyone who acts as if they know. As a couple others have mentioned, it is what you want it to be. Don't fall back into the trap of thinking there is always one right answer. If you were just polling to find out opinions, man I feel like a horse's ass...

Does there have to be a purpose?

For me it's in the realm of things I won't ever know, so I go about my life loving all, and trying to improve the lives of those around me.

I agree with the emperor. Must there be only one purpose? Is "the purpose" unchanging throughout life's many stages. I have lived many roles, and each one had different purposes, but I suppose the most constant purpose is "to love."

Don't be an arsehole. Empathy to all life.

No specific purpose, but I hope to be remembered fondly when I die as a person of kindness, compassion, and humor who did more good in the world than I took from it. I think my "purpose" changes frequently.

I don't think there *is* a single overarching purpose to life in general. "Purpose" implies intent. It implies someone set it out that way for a reason. When we talk about the "purpose" of a car, or the "purpose" of a fork, we're really talking about the intention behind its existence, what it was designed for.

Given that I'm a naturalist, I don't think there's a God up there defining what our "purpose" is.

As such, if we have a purpose, it's because we *decide* to have a purpose, and what that purpose is. *We* intend certain missions in life.

My purpose in life, for instance, is education. My own, and others. That's the purpose I chose. To see the world made better by an improved understanding. Perhaps someday that mission will be replaced by another one. But for now, that's my purpose.



I remember hearing Richard Dawkins talking some time ago about some work done by a group of psychologists. When shown things like rocks with rough edges, when kids below a certain age were asked if those rocks were that way because of some natural process, or because they helped animals scratch themselves when they were itchy, they favored the purpose driven "so they can scratch themselves" explanation. Beyond a certain age, however, they favored a process driven explanation for the shape of the rock.

In other words, at an early point in their development, they inferred intent behind the shape of the rock where none existed, and later on they did not. That's my view of the "purpose of life". We have a natural inclination to think of things in terms of the intentions of others, because we are social beings. That's probably why people invent gods to begin with.

But that's not always appropriate, because not everything in the universe *is* driven by purpose. Volcanos don't appear to be driven by purpose, for instance. A bank however, has a purpose. Again, the difference lies in intent.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2013 03:17AM by doubtisavirtue.

To live. That's why you get hungry and horny.

Your purpose in life is yours to find. It's easier if you're LDS since you don't have to seek out your purpose.

Look around you. Life IS the purpose. What meaning you attach to that is your own.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2013 10:17AM by elciz.

..."The Purpose in Life is to attend a dark, cheesy strip club in Tijuana called "FuzzyLand"....wha? You no likee?

...I'm hurt, and upset.

It is to be the LAST one to the finish line.

To send me all your money..

The "purpose" of "life" is to perpetuate itself, replicate, continue on, etc.

What we do with it during our time of it is up to us.

I don't see any reason to drag Flipper into this. Oh, purpose, I thought it said porpoise. Never mind.

I don't know. What I do know is that I keep going to sleep at night and waking up the next day. When that stops, I may find out what the purpose is.

To evolve, and enjoy the process. Then to aid evolution by passing down genetic codices and experience energy to physical incarnations of your creation.

It's a strange journey out of the cocoon of false comforts that is the Church. You can be left with a underwhelming black hole of reality piercing through your shattered lenses of hope.

It can take time to retrain the brain, bruised and mislead systematically - to regain authenticity as a sentient creation.

If I could believe in Karma for sure, then I'd say that I accepted a unique challenge of emerging from the hazardous debris of dodgy doctrine and replenishing my life with new directions - seeing from the inside; the nature and and process of conditioning and the power of thought. Maybe to help those who need the wisdom I gained from the trip. Maybe to discover something vital to the transformation of deception into harmonic truth.