Does your life have a purpose?

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horrible answer in real life application, though.

I think my purpose also involves learning as much as I can with a minimum of suffering to myself and others in the process. You said it well.

Life overwhelms me. There doesn't seem to be any place for me on this planet. The only family I have is my mother and we aren't close. I have few friends and they're more like acquaintances. I desperately long to find home and go home but I don't know where home is.

Freedom is important to me but I feel we live in one of those negative utopias like "Animal Farm" or "1984" so all that remains is relative freedom for those at the top of the food chain.

My spiritual walk is a good fit and it helps me sort things out and keep to the middle path. I have fleeting moments where everything makes sense then it's back to feeling overwhelmed again. As long as I stay away from most people most of the time I'm a pretty happy camper.

I value friendship and I almost think my purpose involves finding at least one person to have that kind of relationship where you just sincerely value each other's company.

True. Asking for trouble really but it shows courage at least.

meh, not like i have much choice. nor am i as bombastic in real life (for obvious reasons). i more try to make people think on things and question more than anything. people don't get nearly as mad about questions.

Evidently, you're still stinging from being spanked at some time. Too bad for you. Or did I somehow touch a nerve by having goals more lofty than merely avoiding pain and seeking pleasure?

Will to power.

Because I can make being a herd animal sound bad by using denigrating language too

LIfe has no purpose unless you assign it one. For me, the meaning of life is happiness, and happiness the goal. How to achieve that? Living a life of service, being part of a Christian ministry that reaches out to the poor, the hungry & the disenfranchised. I can think of no better life for me than that.

This is why I don't really mind when skeptics and haters make fun of me for what I believe in.

What do you mean by "purpose"? Is it a plan of action? Is it an attitude? Is it a function to conform to some other general social function? What?

Life really sucks when you don't feel like you're part of a community. You are content because you are a part of a community.

I will start as an ESL assistant next week, in the same lab where I was often helping people well before I had the chance to come in 'professionally'. So that makes me feel good. I know a lot of people there already.

Even so, I have a very ambivalent view towards our species and am pretty indifferent towards our future.

If anything, knowledge is the heart of my existence.

"Purpose" is all of those things you've mentioned and more. If you even have to ask that question, you may not be living a purposeful life.

The question is extremely valid. When you question what is accepted as obvious you frequently get at the heart of things and make startling discoveries. When you are too smug or too frightened to question your basic assumptions your mind has become petrified.

Indeed it has.

Hmmm...This is a hard one. I would have to say my current purpose is to raise sensible children with their own goals and brains in their heads. But is this the purpose of my life? ...surely not... I'll have much more living to do after that. I guess I'll have to figure it out later.

I suppose I could reframe the question by asking what is the most important thing in your life? Children? Romantic partner? Job? Education? Money? etc.

I dont know, I am still looking for one, there might be something but my ability never matches what is needed I am sure I will find something.

Perhaps the question should be examined in the light of all life. Any individual, be it a human, a mushroom, or a rather rapacious blood sucking arthropod, it must be aware of its environment and react correctly to it to stay alive and to reproduce its kind. Although individual humans vary greatly in adherence to these fundamentals, the species, up until now, seems to have done well. But success has its own limitations and it is traditional in all life that an excess of success is inevitably fatal for the species. We seem to be rapidly approaching that point. What is distressing is that, with all its successful qualities, humanity seems only marginally aware of this pitfall and is neglecting the basic necessity of any life. That is: to be aware of its environment and react properly to it. The purpose of life is to stay alive.