Is Life meant to be ONLY for pain and misery? (purpose)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sometimes I wonder if we were put on this earth only to be in pain, misery, loneliness, and suffering. Everywhere I look I see these negative qualities in the lives of millions of people-from the hundred of thousands of poverty refugees crowding other countries' borders to the millions starving to the millions suffering from the after effects of COVID to the sex slave trade to the poverty, disease and hunger in every nation on earth and on and on. Unhappiness is relentless and getting worse each day with extreme climate change coming upon us in 20-30 years. happiness and contentment seem like elusive dreams reserved only for the privileged 1%.
For most people starting from the bottom there seems to be no way anymore to climb the ladder out of poverty into success. The cost of living makes most struggle just to get a meal into their stomach let alone get a college education. Life shouldn't be like this and yet it is.
Humans don't have the monopoly on pain, misery, disease, hunger etc. We aren't special.
We may or may not have been put here to suffer, but that is no different than any living creature on this planet.
The animal in the forest breaks a leg, other animals come to eat it alive = suffer, pain, misery ?
(no need for other examples)
Maybe it's aliens, they put us here on earth like a ranch holds cattle - For Food.
We live, build experiences and knowledge. Our life is only so we die so they can consume us, our knowledge and energy leaving only bones. Same for all living things. Some for the main course, some for desert.
I don't think your post is about pain and suffering though.
More about inequality - by your statements;
"happiness and contentment seem like elusive dreams reserved only for the privileged 1%."
"seems to be no way anymore to climb the ladder out of poverty into success."
Sometimes I wonder if we were put on this earth only to be in pain, misery, loneliness, and suffering. Everywhere I look I see these negative qualities in the lives of millions of people-from the hundred of thousands of poverty refugees crowding other countries' borders to the millions starving to the millions suffering from the after effects of COVID to the sex slave trade to the poverty, disease and hunger in every nation on earth and on and on. Unhappiness is relentless and getting worse each day with extreme climate change coming upon us in 20-30 years. happiness and contentment seem like elusive dreams reserved only for the privileged 1%.
For most people starting from the bottom there seems to be no way anymore to climb the ladder out of poverty into success. The cost of living makes most struggle just to get a meal into their stomach let alone get a college education. Life shouldn't be like this and yet it is.
Four Noble Truths (Sanskrit: catvāri āryasatyāni; Pali: cattāri ariyasaccāni; "The four Arya satyas") are "the truths of the Noble Ones", the truths or realities for the "spiritually worthy ones".[1][web 1][2] The truths are:
dukkha (suffering, incapable of satisfying, painful) is an innate characteristic of existence in the realm of samsara;[web 2][3][4]
samudaya (origin, arising) of this dukkha, which arises or "comes together" with taṇhā ("craving, desire or attachment");[web 3][5][6]
nirodha (cessation, ending) of this dukkha can be attained by the renouncement or letting go of this taṇhā;[7][8][9][10]
The original thrust of my OP was that misery suffering and pain seem to be the dominant force in our world. nature could have designed us to be pain free but it didn't. I can easily think we evolved to suffer pain when we didn't have to. There's no logical reason pain has to be excruciating. Pain evolved as a warning sign of something wrong with our body, but why make it a 10 when 5 would suffice? Why is it so hard to pay rent but so easy to get evicted? Why is ti so hard to stay in shape and so easy to get out of shape? Life evolved to be our worst enemy, it often seems to me.
The game show of existence where you get three doors to open. Whoops. You opened pain and misery. Only the emcee knows which door is which and he keeps his mouth shut.
What 'should' it be like? We don't control anything but our own thoughts/behavior relative to our own lives - and others' pain/misery, for that matter, as well.
Asking what life is meant to be implies that you presuppose the existence of someone who means this or that by creating life. Moreover, in asking whether pain is the intended meaning of life, you assume that the life-creator is interested in the quality of your life experience. There it is right there! embedded in your question is a hidden premise: the existence of a personal God.
What are the chances, do you think, that the God hiding in your question made a universe that would take several billion years to evolve into an environment where sentient life forms would arise for the sole purpose of generating pain? Such a God would not really be God, would he? Maybe a sociopathic, Cheeto-eating programmer living in his mom's basement who gets off on the wailing and gnashing of teeth that comes from his computer-simulated world - - but not God. Unless we're living in a sadistic IT guy's program, I think we can safely discard the theory that pain is the sole meaning of life.
Last edited by Arizona Humphrey; 11-11-2021 at 12:22 PM..
Asking what life is meant to be implies that you presuppose the existence of someone who means this or that by creating life.
It's a philosophy forum; therefore, one may certainly ponder life, meaning, whatever without presupposition or belief in a god/'creator of life'. In fact, 'life/purpose' becomes an even more meaningful question without such. Hence the reason (the majority of) 'philosophers' were/are atheists.
It's a philosophy forum; therefore, one may certainly ponder life, meaning, whatever without presupposition or belief in a god/'creator of life'. In fact, 'life/purpose' becomes an even more meaningful question without such. Hence the reason (the majority of) 'philosophers' were/are atheists.
In the context of the OP's question, I disagree. If I say that my guitar is meant for music, I imply that music is the goal for which my guitar exists. As I understand goals, they are things pursued by conscious entities. Planned results. The same goes for the word "purpose". Can there be a purpose without a purposer?
You can be an existentialist and say that you set your own purpose, meaning and goals, and that is a perfectly legitimate point of view. But I don't think the OP is suggesting that he himself is the alleged pain-maker.
In the context of the OP's question, I agree with you - particularly relative to the statement above i.e. life 'should' or shouldn't'. It simply is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arizona Humphrey
If I say that my guitar is meant for music, I imply that music is the goal for which my guitar exists. As I understand goals, they are things pursued by conscious entities. Planned results. The same goes for the word "purpose". Can there be a purpose without a purposer?
Point being, there is no one-dimensional goal/purpose to life other than some would say, philosophically, the pursuit of knowledge, reason and/or happiness. As such, we are the 'purposer'.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
