Philosophical claptrap

[sauergeek]

Depending on who you ask, people are here for at least one of two commonly cited reasons. The religious will point at their particular religious traditions and beliefs, and say that people are here to worship whatever deity or deities they happen to favor. The scientific will point at the biological imperative, and say that people are here to make more people.

But for many -- myself included -- this is unsatisfying. Both systems imply that all people are fungible. Humans as a species don't much care if it's me making more humans, so long as sufficiently more humans get made to continue the species. And the deity (or deities) doesn't much care which people are worshiping -- if you worship, you're good, and if you don't, you're bad. There's no individuality in either system.

I've often wondered what I am here for. Neither religion nor biology can answer the question at the individual level. I have neither any idea what the answer to that question is, nor how to go about finding it out. I've felt for most of my life that I'm waiting to find out whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing here, so I can go about doing it. But just waiting for it to fall on my head is frustrating, and often feels pointless.

I've often heard about people getting a calling to do something or another. While that is a great thing for them, I've not had it happen myself, much as I'd like it to.

Does anyone here have any insight about divining an individual purpose? Or is the whole idea of searching for a purpose yet another exercise in pointless wankery, suitable only for late-night undergraduate bull sessions and mid-life crises?

Comments

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

I think everyone's purpose in this life is "to learn". And every person is here to learn different things. Part of the living one does is following different paths to see what resonates with them, and when they find those things that really ring true they run with them and learn what they are supposed to be learning in this life. And these opportunities to learn the things you are supposed to learn will pop up again and again until you notice them.

For you specifically, I think that if you pay a lot more attention to your intuition and a lot less attention to your logic, you'd find out some very interesting things about what your purpose is. Don't be afraid of your intuition. While it isn't concrete in the same way logic is, it is still as accurate.