Well since we're intelligent sapient beings we can give ourselves a purpose, but my point was that something that just came into existence because of random processes of nature doesn't a priori have any purpose, which is obvious because the processes which made that something come into existence do not have minds of their own and can't possibly plan a purpose for whatever it is that comes into existence because of them. Once something intelligent, sentient and sapient comes into existence, like ourselves, obviously things that are created by that will have a purpose that was assigned to it by those very beings and of course those beings will, because of their intelligent behaviour, assign a purpose to themselves. When someone decides to be a doctor that person chooses that his/her purpose is going to be healing other people's illnesses and saving other people's lives. When someone decides to be a musician that person chooses that his/her purpose is going to be making music. We choose our own purpose and adapt it to our feelings throughout our lives. But saying that Earth has a purpose or that there is an a priori purpose of us coming into existence is misplaced IMHO, , but my original point was that even if there is no purpose for Earth's or our coming into existence that still doesn't mean that we ourselves don't have any purpose because, as I said, each of us chooses his/her own.
I don't think this has anything to do with religion, please stop bringing it up so the mods don't close this down
(and I removed all instances of that word when I quoted your post, no offense)
The thing is that most people don't know. Various people have come up with various ways of finding out whether or not we have a purpose, but the funny thing is that some people go through some process and decide, "ah, we have a purpose!" and some people say "ah, there is no purpose! Make your own! Whee!" so obviously there is some kind of discrepancy there.
Now I wasn't there when all the stuff happened to create the universe and the planets (or at least, I can't recall being there
), and I wasn't there (or can't recall) when humans finally appeared on the planet and started doing their/our thing.
Instead, I have my own personal experiences, and other people have their own personal experiences. I think we should trust our personal experiences and we should keep going out there to try and get more personal experiences. And the funny thing is that, again, a lot of people have personal experiences that contradict another person's personal experience. So what to do? I dunno, let everyone think what they want to think.
For me, personally, I've been on both sides of the fence numerous times. I've towed the same line that you're towing now, I've towed other lines, I've refused to tow lines only to realized that's another line to tow
And each time I had very good reasons for saying the things I've said, so I think everyone has a reason for saying that, otherwise they wouldn't be saying it! So I try to respect all sides.
The only thing I don't respect is someone who refuses to try and understand the other position. And I think that's part of where the problems in the OP comes from, a lack of understanding. I can pull out some cliched lines about walking in someone else's shoes and whatnot, but I'm not going to (oh wait, I already did
) Getting angry or frustrated is not constructive to yourself OR others. It's immature, and extends from ignorance. The best thing you can do when someone annoys you is smile at them. I never really liked that saying. That is until I started to learn and UNDERSTAND peoples' points of view. So when someone threw an insult my way, I'd smile because I understood where it was coming from. Then I started to like that phrase.
So I would say that I think everyone needs to take some psychology courses in school. But I've taken a few psychology courses in school. Most of it is textbook crap and doesn't really teach you anything about LIFE. So I would say to just live life, but plenty of people live long lives and never get over their pubascent behavioral patterns. So I'm really at a loss for anything else to say except to pay attention. learn, and try to understand.
» Fri May 27, 2011 7:22 pm 
I removed those parts as well, I hope no one will get offended reading my post. :unsure:
