1. Where did we come from?
2. Why are we here?
3. Where are we going?

1) nowhere worth visiting

2) To ride trains

3) nowhere

Are you you don't mean "To play with trains"?

'cause that's why I'm here. :-)

I'm going to stick to my "to ride trains" answer, although I have nothing against your purpose in life. But I'm worried about too much fiddling with my answer may soon get me to "to pull a train."

So safety first!

My answers,

1. We evolved from a single celled organism, which likely came from DNA contained in viruses.
2. To live, experience love and to leave behind a generation that is an improvement upon our own.
3. Wherever we are determined to go. Life will continue, with or without us.

I didn't ask to come here. Now I have to finish it out. I love my children to death, but knowing what I know now, would I have children? Yes, I still would. But I worry about them after I die--well one of them. And my children certainly didn't have a choice in coming here.

I didn't come here to have kids, no matter what I was taught. What did I come here for?? Relationships? I don't know. I don't know what I believe.

I find joy in life, but sometimes it feels like getting up in the morning, working to earn a living and pay bills, going to bed at night, and getting up and starting over again.

I think if I were a "god," little old me could have done a better job.

I'm sure you could! I'd be in your world.

1) See Richard Dawkins’ documentary on The Genius of Charles Darwin.
2) Because natural selection got us here. We are lucky. We make our own definition of what we value and what life is to about for us. No one else can tell us that.
3) No one can predict the future. Those that can, profess to speak for god and I don’t trust people who say that. Certain predictions can be made with science of course. And as to where we go after this life, perhaps we just become one with the universe. Personally, living forever is my idea of hell. Especially with family. Thank goodness that isn’t true at least.

These are the conclusions I’ve come to for myself after thinking it through for almost a decade. I never thought I’d end up an atheist, but I’m happier than I’ve ever been, because in trying to believe anything else meant doing mental gymnastics. Conversely, science actually makes sense. Most moral and existential questions have been debated for hundreds of years by philosophers and what they say is far more interesting, fulfilling, thought provoking and satisfying.

schrodingerscat Wrote:
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> 1. Where did we come from?

Currently, someone's womb. That may change in a braver new world.

> 2. Why are we here?

The question you should ask is why are we still here. In a several hundred years we might not be.

> 3. Where are we going?

Many different places but we are all going to die.

Even the church's answers aren't answers.

1. Where did we come from?

The church: From a pre-existence.

Me: And before then?

2. Why are we here?

Church: To pay for your sins or reap the blessings from your behavior in the pre-existence. If you're white and Mormon in this life, that means you were valiant in your earlier life and deserve more in this life than non-white, non-Mormon people. You're ready to acquire more in this life and have it sealed to you for the next, putting you on the path to godhood.

Me: Why ask why? In the words of Doug Adams, "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Be kind and helpful to others, especially the poor and weak. Clean up after yourself and don't leave a mess. But above all, enjoy this time. It is a gift.


3. Where are we going?

Church: Another world that is a lot like this one except the men who played their cards right in this life will get a lot more sex and power.

Me: This is like asking a flatworm what it has on its calendar for next Wednesday. We just don't have the capacity to deal with the question. We can't even identify the substance, dark matter, that makes up the bulk of the universe. We have two versions of reality, the Einstein relative model and the quantum model and we cannot, so far, even reconcile these two types of reality. How can you expect our little brains to wrap themselves around the notion of infinity? Infinity is not just more and more of the finite. It is something completely different and beyond the human experience. Where are we going? What possible answer could there be if space and time turn out to be illusions?

"Where did I come from?" We came from dead stars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAV96XSdMQo

"Why am I here?" To carry it on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08gyjR0Sk4s

"Where am I going?" Back into the universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuHr3ErT34I

I really enjoyed the first video. Thanks for sharing.

>"1. Where did we come from?"

There are multiple ways to answer this. The simplest is my parents. The longer one, is a description of evolution. I see multiple variations of these above.

>"2. Why are we here?"

Everyone has their own answer to this, and why not? My life is my own, why would I want some external source to define my life for me.

>"3. Where are we going?"

Assuming the question means, "after we die", for me the answer is that it's likely nowhere. I didn't exist as a person for the vast majority of the timeframe of the universe, and that's likely to be the case after I cease to be "me" as well.

schrodingerscat Wrote:
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> 1. Where did we come from?
Genetically created by he Annunaki space travelers as a slave species to dig for gold
> 2. Why are we here?
As a slave species to serve the current masters
> 3. Where are we going?
I don't know but I have a three dollar harp and a forty dollar coalshovel

I find the questions packed with hidden assumptions.

we came from somewhwere
we didn't sponateously arise
our self is not all we are an6e the questioner has hidden knowledge to reveal
we all came from the same place

Can we start from evidence please?


There must be a reason
existence itself is insufficient
whatever it is were doing isn't enough or not the right thing.

Again, lets work from evidence.


Who says we're going anywhere?
Why is that claim even authoritative?
Is there even anywhere to go
why do i want to go there of all places

What evidence do we have?

Those were never my questions.

Wasn't the first question in Man's Search for Happiness, "Who am I?" That seems to me to be the appropriate starting point, if for no other reason than we can introspect a few "facts" about ourselves and go from there. I also suggest that it might be prudent to give our humanistic intuitions about ourselves the benefit of the doubt, regardless of what modern philosophy or neuroscience might suggest. That said . . .

we are conscious human beings having freewill to think, discover truths about the world, make decisions, act upon those decisions and more or less determine our own lives. (I realize, of course, personal freedom is constrained by the culture we live in and our social and economic standing, so let's just say we have a potential for such values.)

Where did we come from? I take this to mean where did each individual conscious self come from, and all that such a self implies? My answer: I don't know, but human life, consciousness, cognition, freewill, human creativity, and human morality, most certainly cannot explained by an appeal to materialist science, in any or all of its forms. So, the door is left open, at least for now, for a more transcendent explanation.

2. Why am I here? Well, I am stumped in providing any sort of philosophical explanation. However, when I reflect upon human values, and the ability human agents have to react to the world, and change the world, including themselves, and others, it might be appropriate to assume that somehow in the big picture what we do with our lives does matter. Maybe we should therefore pay close attention to our moral intuitions and try our best to follow their dictates when making choices. Perhaps in so doing we will some day have an epiphany as to why our life matters that, again, transcends arm-chair philosophy.

3. Where are we going (after we die)? My answer: I don't know, but there is "evidence" of a continued existence after death, if one chooses to believe in the reports of such things. Perhaps summary dismissal of such reports is not per se justified by our limited scientific knowledge.

It strikes me as odd (and scientifically unwarranted) that many people respond to this post in a consistently negative manner. Surely no one lives their life with the assumption that they are *just* an organism, whose life in the general scheme of things doesn't really matter. No one teaches that to their children -- do they?

Has leaving Mormonism robbed us of our ability to have any type of non-religious faith that (1) life has an ultimate purpose; (2) we can experience transcendent thoughts and feelings that reflect the real world; and (3) there is room in rationality to have at least a hope for meaning? If so, that, in my view, is the singularly most tragic consequence of rejecting Mormonism and religion generally.

Henry Bemis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Has leaving Mormonism robbed us of our ability to
> have any type of non-religious faith that (1) life
> has an ultimate purpose; (2) we can experience
> transcendent thoughts and feelings that reflect
> the real world; and (3) there is room in
> rationality to have at least a hope for meaning?
> If so, that, in my view, is the singularly most
> tragic consequence of rejecting Mormonism and
> religion generally.


Some RfMers have lost the ability to even *use* the word "faith", or read it without being triggered. Also, the word "transcendent" is a non-starter from the get-go and "meaning" has been reduced, in some, to what-I-will.

But "singular most tragic consequence"? Hardly.

You are only evaluating what some ex-mormons choose to write on a message board. Always assume that people are more, far more, than their words, their ideologies, beliefs, faiths etc. Just as materialists don't actually live and experience their lives in accordance to their reductionism, RfMers still squeamish about religious-seeming words and/or formulations don't actually live their lives sans faith in purpose, mind and meaning.

The most tragic consequence to leaving LDSinc behind, is the rejection of family that often results. Their is an attendant rejection of friends and community, but that can be made up for. But family is family, brother sister mother father aunts uncles cousins grandparents and etc, all this is difficult to make up for. Losing connection to that, on both sides, is rather tragic.

Happy day in the sun, Bemis!

Human

Don't encourage him!

Why are they big questions? They are a nice setup for implausible answers from a religion with no credibility. How many angels can fit on the head of a pin? What did Frodo eat for second breakfast? Is Darth Vader really Luke’s father?

Where did I come from? My mommy’s hoohaa.
Why am I here? To consume oxygen, food, and other resources, and to sometimes irritate people.
Where am I going? Into the ground, or a crematorium.

Simply be an honest grown up and admit we don't know.

It may not be as comforting as believing made up stories without any evidence, but it is a heck of a lot easier than making up excuses for faith-based claims.

1) Where'd we come from: a woman's va-jay-jay.

2) Why are we here? Because we are living organisms.

3) Where are we going? Who knows? Who cares? Use the life you know you have to the fullest!

My twins were born by C-section.

Me too. That's why whenever I leave the house I go out through the window.

Agnostic country music...

I kind of lean towards reincarnation even if it's not biblical. So I think:
1) We came from some other existence like this one.

2) We are here to learn to solve our own problems as much as possible. Think for ourselves, to get away from religion and god.

3) We are going to another existence. A place to continue to learn new things. And create new societies that are more socially justified. A place where we can all become Democrats in good faith.

Give me a tenth of your income and I’ll tell you.

1) In the absence of any real evidence or a-priori reason I think it's fine to believe whatever we like as long as it isn't harmful to do so and we don't over-state the rational case for what we believe/assume/guess. I'm pagan and I just *like* the idea that maybe we've been reincarnated and/or are separated parts of some larger "divine" pantheistic consciousness, so I might as well decide to just assume it's true without any rational reason if it adds a net value to my life. That's not irrational (it's no less rational than believing we did not exist in some previous form because there can be no null hypothesis in this case), but it is definitely *non-rational.*

Other than that, we only understand what happened back to the Big Bang. Anything before that is total supposition.

2) I take the existentialist or absurdist view: we all decide our own reason or meaning in life by the personal values we accept and live by (eg compassion, discovery, truth, community, fun, etc). There's no inherent reason, but even if some powerful entity had a reason for putting us here we are still free agents and would have to either choose to accept or reject their given reason.

3) See #1.

I can agree that believing something for comfort is a valid justification.

What I'm not sure about is your statement: "That's not irrational (it's no less rational than believing we did not exist in some previous form because there can be no null hypothesis in this case), but it is definitely *non-rational.*"

I'm not so sure all things that can't be proven are equally irrational. For example, claiming there is an invisible Coke machine on Pluto is not the same as claiming there is no plausible evidence that we existed in some previous form.

I don't think it is a 50/50 chance that reincarnation does or does not exist. I would need a whole lot more than people thinking they were someone else or non-verifiable claims of connected consciousness before I would agree it is just as irrational as breaking laws of physics.

I'm not saying I'm not open to new evidence or new understanding of physics. Believing what makes us feel good or wish might be true is fine, but the answer to any of our questions has never been magic.

I think you make a good point in your #1. There is the question of comfort and perceived value of life. That's really what McReligion has been providing all along for people who do not think existentially.

There's very good reasons to believe there is no coke machine on pluto: we know coke machines are made by people, we know people haven't been past the moon, and with all the data we've collected about our solar system we have found no evidence of any type of artificial construction on any planets in our solar system. The default belief/null hypothesis is to assume what we've already found is generally accurate until we find data to disprove our default belief, ie no coke on pluto.

We DO know that consciousness exists and it is *connected* to having a central nervous system, but we can't even begin to explain how or why despite knowing quite a bit about how the brain processes information. We don't know that a brain causes or creates consciousness, or merely facilitates it in some other way. We also don't know if consciousness can exist in other contexts or not. So, the default belief here isn't that consciousness starts at birth and ceases at death because there is no default belief or null hypothesis without some point of knowledge to start from. We know almost nothing, and certainly not enough to even hazard a guess as to the likelihood of any particular notion of an afterlife being true or false.

This is the distinction between irrational and non-rational; it's *irrational* to believe that there's a coke machine on pluto because rationality contradicts this belief. It's *non-rational* to believe in an afterlife or pre-life because rationality has nothing to tell us about it one way or another and so neither contradicts nor supports such beliefs.

All we can do is say "I don't know" or make a wild guess. I'm a pragmatist; "I don't know" is really uncomfortable and there's not really any downside to making a wild guess that makes you feel better.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2019 02:44PM by ophidahlia.

I'm not sure what you mean by "*connected*" consciousness. True, consciousness happens when the neuron network is firing in hyperdrive in an individual brain. It ceases when the brain is damaged, altered or dead.

Since neurons, we know as fact, are required for consciousness in humans (and animals), I don't see any evidence of invisible neurons connecting individuals. This seems only slightly more plausible than a Coke machine somewhere.

Like you said, for all we know, consciousness is something that arises from atoms and maybe rocks are conscious. Maybe there is something invisible that connects something, but I would need a whole lot more evidence. None of the most plausible explanations for reincarnation claims have been ruled out (I could come up with several). There is no reason to add complicated invisible connection mechanisms to explain what we observe, IMO, both for consciousness and reincarnation (which aren't even the same topic to me).

There are several here who believe there is something else externally but all they provide are personal anecdotes or quotes from philosophers. This is not reproducible, verifiable evidence by itself. Being a scientist myself, I'm happy to say I don't know but would be happy to see scientific verification some day. Meanwhile, we might see a Coke machine on a planet before that.

Sorry, by "connected with" I simply mean that consciousness (ie. phenomenological experience) is associated with neuronal activity. Reincarnation obviously depends on consciousness extending past the life of the human body, so that's the overlap between the two subjects. I'm not actually making a case for reincarnation at all (there is no empirical case); the case I'm making is that we know so little about consciousness that we can make absolutely no truth claims about it other than "we experience it while we have active neuronal activity". I agree with you 100% that there are no empirical or rational reasons to ditch occams razor to come up with fanciful explanations, but there can be *utilitarian* reasons to do so in the absence of any rational/empirical explanations (or we can just say "We have no idea"). That's my argument.


We know neuronal activity is required for consciousness in humans but we only know that *we stop knowing anything about it* after brain death. It could keep existing or it could cease, but both ideas are equally pure speculation because we don't know why or how it exists in the first place. Science has absolutely nothing to say about consciousness outside of what it can directly observe and we can't even *begin* to explain what we observe.

Honestly, IMHO it's the greatest mystery in the existence and also the most frustrating since we don't even know how to begin to go about studying it.

Thanks for that.

After Monson passed, a Pepsi machine was installed on Kolob. That’s my revelation for today, thus sayeth the Lord. Actually I just made it up. Same thing.

“but the answer to any of our questions has never been magic.”

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C Clarke

It's not magic after it is understood.

The answer in all our scientific advances never turned out to be, "that part is magic" even if we have not fully identified all parts of the process.

Science is at a disadvantage if the magic is real.

1. Stardust
2. Our planet has an impulse towards life. Our solar system and the universe may very likely have the same impulse. Isn't that interesting?
3. With any luck, to space and beyond. Fasten your seatbelts!

I stopped asking when I realized anyone claiming to have the answers just wants your money and power.

Another thing about these questions: if you're in good company, knowing the answers isn't that big a deal.

Perhaps it's the other way around.

Perhaps people are so desperate for the answers to those questions that they are looking for someone to whom they can surrender their money and their power.

Sweet surrender!

1. We came from/are a part of Source Energy/God.

2. We came to experience, learn, and improve us and the place we inhabit ---- this is not the only place we have or will inhabit.

3. We are 'spiritual beings' undergoing a 'mortal experience' and will likely have more 'mortal experiences' to experience, learn and improve.

As far as our 'current 'temporary' human existence' and getting a human body ---- that has been adequately explained above.

That sounds right to me! We agree on our purpose.

Yes, we seem to agree on purpose and reincarnation.

And yes we just don't jump from one human experience to another, we do go to a 'in-between life' place to regroup and plan. So in effect, before coming into this life, we did come from another 'place/existence' to which we will return after this life.

As far as the 'D' statement ---- we do not agree!

Still important questions. I have found the best answers so far here:

https://www.humancondition.com/?ref=adgrants-search_wtm&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImaCvrYbF4wIVTNbACh35WAhtEAAYASAAEgI5d_D_BwE

and here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVL2Y5z2jLU

1. I don't know and neither do you.
2. I don't know so I made my own goals and reasons for living.
3. I don't know and neither do you.

Likely story...!



Ha! I thought I was typing in a text window! Good thing it was innocuous!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2019 04:56PM by elderolddog.

1. We are the children of life's longing for itself

2. To become aware that we are aware

3. Back to the source

1. My parents had sex.
2. To have sex so my species can continue.
3. Into the ground to become food for the living things that remain on this planet.

I really don't care about the questions now that I have left. I live my life, try and experience new things, see new places, enjoy good food, love my family, and treat people with kindness. Everything else is beyond my control anyway, so why waste the time I have worrying about those things.

When I left the Morg it was because I’d engaged in critical thinking for the first time. I made a promise to myself that I would keep doing that.
Well, ten years later I was still holding onto Christianity and a belief in god, the main reason being, it was a comfort thing, in particular I want to see my dad again in the afterlife. But it wasn’t making complete sense. So I did the same thing I did then: played devils advocate and looked at opposing views. I figure if something is true, it will hold up in the face of criticism.
Well, it didn’t take long to lose my faith, something I wasn’t counting on either.
Science offers a lot in answering these questions. We know where we came from and why we are here. And where it doesn’t, I figure I will accept that no one knows. At worst, we’re not going anywhere else when we die. I won’t believe in something based on faith with no evidence. Faith is non-thinking which is what got me brainwashed by the Morg. That’s just me.

Ditto to every word you said here ^^, lj12 from me too!

There are no questions I have anymore, let alone big ones. I am here. All I need to know is that I should do the absolute best I an while I tarry. I will die. Anything after that will manifest itself at that time. If doing my best wasn't good enough for what comes next, something's really fucked up.

1. Where did we come from?

Here

2. Why are we here?

To Ask Why

3. Where are we going?

There.

No nonsense explanations-

A. I don't care.

B. To learn to love.

C. I don't care.

1. Where did we come from?
Limit the answers to your ancestors and do you have an answer.
As for humanity, only modern theories attempt to provide an answer to what the Homo sapian was 70K to 200K years ago. Fossil records and anything found at digs is all we have to throw theories around. None of which can be proven 100%. It's just a best guess thing. With Humanity creating multiple religions and belief systems to try and answer this question all are mixed with intentions that are not pure.

2. Why are we here?
You are here because two people screwed and you were born. If lucky, you were nurtured in a loving family that took time and effort to develop you to be a responsible person and to repeat the process or not. Hopefully, you become a good person who engages in helping others and get a happy feeling with those efforts. You learn from each experience. That' s it.

3. Where are we going?
Kind of a loaded question but at the end of whenever you life expires on Earth I would say it is the end. Only because nobody has died and able to come back to say it was anything different and had evidence and proof to back it up.


Enjoy your time that you have because it is likely all you will have before you are nothing but a memory in your son/daughter's mind until they expire.