I serve an amazing God

[GM_Tood]

So we've conclusively proven in this thread that Po Belini is as accurate as WebMD.

 

Hey now! Don't insult me or If I ever have to x-ray you, Ill make sure I mis-position you so I have to repeat ...not like it will do anything though since getting a diagnostic x-ray is like being exposed to the sun.

Radiologic tech? I've got a friend that does that.

 

Still a student, so not registered yet.

You looking to work in Omaha when you finish school?

[muzicman0]

I have had severe gas before (go ahead...laugh away)...was very intense. This was different. way different.

[The Dude]

Hypothetically speaking, if I believed there were no God to serve, the purpose of life would be to leave the world in better shape than you found it.

Why?

 

What if there is, wait for it, no purpose! DUN-dun-DUUNN!

[HuskerShark]

Hypothetically speaking, if I believed there were no God to serve, the purpose of life would be to leave the world in better shape than you found it.

Why?

 

Well whatever purpose you apply to it would likely be better than "to live a long time and make babies."

[Enhance]

I don't think anybody knows the true meaning of our existence, but I can almost guarantee that is not it.

How can you almost guarantee this? The most basic purpose of organic life is to procreate and continue the species, and live long enough to do that. There's no way of arguing against this because it's undeniable fact, and it's not just prevalent in our ecosystem - it's prevalent in all ecosystems. Obviously, our females don't kill our males (jokes aside), but that still doesn't deny our purpose - continue the species.

 

Now, if you want to argue a spiritual purpose or something like that, go right ahead. But, that's not what I believe in so it will do you no good.

 

Even speaking non-spiritually, it still wouldn't make sense for living as long as possible to be the purpose of life. Hypothetically speaking, if I believed there were no God to serve, the purpose of life would be to leave the world in better shape than you found it. Just living as long as possible wouldn't make any sense to be the purpose of life. If I were to go around murdering and raping people but live to be 400 years old and conceive 30 children through the women that I raped, by your definition of purpose, that would be a successful life.

Success and purpose are two very different things. Purpose is the initiative or what you set out to do, while success is the culmination of your efforts. I said purpose in life was to procreate and keep the species going - I did not say anything about it being a "successful" life. I think people should try and leave the world a better place, but that doesn't extend to what human beings (and all species) should be doing - extending the life cycle. Your example doesn't apply because your hypothetical self would be ending humans lives voluntarily, which goes against my purpose.

 

Animals are no different from humans. Yet, because we have the ability to think about these kinds of topics, we somehow arrive at the conclusion that 'we have some greater purpose in life and must fulfill it!' Animals are born, procreate, and die, leaving the world no different than how they found it (at least, most creatures do). I don't see a difference between humans and animals, outside of the obvious physical differences. We just got lucky in the evolutionary process and developed higher brain functions.

 

You also can't "almost guarantee" anything because I know you have a deep spiritual background. Your guarantee comes from faith, and as that is your only evidence, it's difficult to use in this topic because I don't agree with your perceptions on faith. If there were no God, I would think your 'purpose' would be to just live right now in the moment, because you get nothing out of the future for yourself.

[carlfense]

Hypothetically speaking, if I believed there were no God to serve, the purpose of life would be to leave the world in better shape than you found it.

Why?

 

Well whatever purpose you apply to it would likely be better than "to live a long time and make babies."

Do you assume that better = more likely?

[knapplc]

To be clear, the pain started on my left side, just below the rib cage, on the back half of my side. Not saying it wasn't gas, but I doubt it.

 

Not messing around - I've recently dealt with pain like this. Turned out, after many tests, that it was most likely caused by bad posture, since I sit in front of a computer all day. I was prescribed core exercises, and the pain largely went away. I never had anything that was sharp enough to make me leave work, but I've had pretty sharp pains at times.

 

I would recommend getting it checked out by your primary physician. Internal pain is nothing to mess around with. Maybe it's only kidney stones, at which point you'll just have pain so bad you'll feel like someone stabbed you, repeatedly, but it's better than possible tumors or colon strictures.

[knapplc]

Well whatever purpose you apply to it would likely be better than "to live a long time and make babies."

 

I think making a baby and then striving to leave the world in a better place for that baby is a pretty good way of living your life.

[HuskerShark]

Hypothetically speaking, if I believed there were no God to serve, the purpose of life would be to leave the world in better shape than you found it.

Why?

 

Well whatever purpose you apply to it would likely be better than "to live a long time and make babies."

Do you assume that better = more likely?

 

Yes, probably both. But then again, if there were no God, then a person's purpose would not be universally defined, but rather different for each individual person.... Which kind of would make this entire discussion irrelevant.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Enhance, I'd like to make one simple amendment to your statement. If the purpose of life is to procreate and continue on long enough to ensure their survival into the next generation, explain to me why grandparents (who have long since done enough to procreate and help their children move on to the next generation) are still around? It is, an interesting question (and note that I'm on your side of this argumentative fence)

 

As to this whole purpose of life thing, only you can give your life purpose. You are the only one who sets forward what you value, and then by fulfilling those values, you live a purposeful life. It doesn't matter what other people think...they don't share your values, they don't share your goals. They can not understand your actions without having been there themselves in some way, shape, or form.

 

So if you're religious, then you live your life the way your religion dictates. If you value other things than religion, you live by the way those values dictate and the way you dictate those values.

[HuskerShark]

Well whatever purpose you apply to it would likely be better than "to live a long time and make babies."

 

I think making a baby and then striving to leave the world in a better place for that baby is a pretty good way of living your life.

 

Agreed. That purpose is a good one whether you are Christian, atheist, agnostic, Hindu, or whatever.

[Enhance]

Well whatever purpose you apply to it would likely be better than "to live a long time and make babies."

 

I think making a baby and then striving to leave the world in a better place for that baby is a pretty good way of living your life.

As do I. But, because of my lacking religious beliefs, and my belief that humans and other Earth species really aren't spiritually different from one another, it doesn't really make sense to say we have some great purpose in life when less advanced creatures don't really add or detract from the world. As we are the most advanced species on this planet, I might think it's a job we inadvertently were given to make the world a better place, not necessarily a basic purpose in life.

[Enhance]

Enhance, I'd like to make one simple amendment to your statement. If the purpose of life is to procreate and continue on long enough to ensure their survival into the next generation, explain to me why grandparents (who have long since done enough to procreate and help their children move on to the next generation) are still around? It is, an interesting question (and note that I'm on your side of this argumentative fence)

Well, after humans procreate, they live on just because they can. There's no murderous female waiting to end our life as soon as we're done having sex (jokes aside). I do think people should be trying to make the world a better place, but that's only because we CAN, not because it's some God-given purpose, if that makes sense.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Hypothetically speaking, if I believed there were no God to serve, the purpose of life would be to leave the world in better shape than you found it.

Why?

 

Well whatever purpose you apply to it would likely be better than "to live a long time and make babies."

Do you assume that better = more likely?

 

Yes, probably both. But then again, if there were no God, then a person's purpose would not be universally defined, but rather different for each individual person.... Which kind of would make this entire discussion irrelevant.

 

Regardless of if there is a God or if there isn't a God, a person's purpose is not universally defined. It is different for each individual person. A lot of us may share the same values (in, as Enhance has put it) living a successful life, but the ways in which we fulfill those values different so drastically that it is incomprehensible.

 

Shark, I don't understand (and maybe it's just because of the slant of my religiosity or other things) why a lot of your answers have so much of a 'definite' characteristic, like it is either this or it is either that, but there is no mixture of this or that. The world is not painted in just shades of black or shades of white. A lot (if not all) of concepts that we as a human race know and understand lie in that shade of grey.

[It'sNotAFakeID]

Enhance, I'd like to make one simple amendment to your statement. If the purpose of life is to procreate and continue on long enough to ensure their survival into the next generation, explain to me why grandparents (who have long since done enough to procreate and help their children move on to the next generation) are still around? It is, an interesting question (and note that I'm on your side of this argumentative fence)

Well, after humans procreate, they live on just because they can. There's no murderous female waiting to end our life as soon as we're done having sex (jokes aside). I do think people should be trying to make the world a better place, but that's only because we CAN, not because it's some God-given purpose, if that makes sense.

 

I have an answer to that question, and really was only trying to gauge different responses to that question, because it is an interesting one. Living on into old age makes almost absolute NO EVOLUTIONARY sense if you look at it from that perspective that we should live to procreate and advance the new population into their procreation stage. It does however make evolutionary sense if you look at it from the perspective of allocare or alloparenting. Meaning, grandparents often help with their children's children, ensuring their survival rate beyond what it would be had their parents (in a society like we have today) would give them.

 

It's really difficult to understand why some things are the way they are. Nearly impossible.