Why Are We Here?

Why do we exist? What is our purpose? What is the point in life? Well, we make our own goals in life, but overall there is no real target, other than to die, which is a depressing thought, so if our lifetime goal, is inevitably, to die, then why are we here? Why do you live where you do, and what is the point of your existence?

Well to answer that we need to delve deeper into who ‘WE’ are. Well ‘WE’ are humans. Modern humans have existed for about 200,000 years, but society as we know it hasn’t really been around for long. The television was invented less than 100 years ago. Modern pop music has been around for, well, it changes all of time, so if life as we know it changes all of the time, then surely it is impossible to pinpoint exactly the meaning of human life. Maybe our existence does have a purpose, but we just don’t know it yet. Maybe we have to continue our evolution to discover our purpose on earth.

However, if we have a purpose, then surely the dinosaurs must have also had a purpose. Maybe, if they had had more capable brains, they too would have been asking themselves ‘Why are we here?’ in the long scheme of things, they just existed to inevitably, die. So who is to say that we aren’t here just to die in the end?

Plato had an interesting theory on the subject of the supposed ‘Meaning of Life’. His philosophy is known now as Platonism. It is that the meaning of life, is to attain the highest form of knowledge, which is Good.

Another interesting theory I will quickly discuss is Utilitarianism, which originated in the 19^th Century. It states that all possible acts can be divided into ‘Good’ things, which provide pleasure to people, and ‘Bad’ things, which provide pain to people, and the way you lead your life should be focused on providing pleasure to the largest number of people. However, this theory has many flaws, but a follower of this theory could say that the reason we are here, is to provide pleasure to the most amount of people? I am not talking about some kind of massive orgy by the way.

There are other theories, some less explanatory then others. One I particularly find interesting is ‘Naturalistic Pantheism’ which states that the meaning of our life and existence is to care for nature and the environment. Another is ‘Logical Positivism’ which asks the questions I have asked ‘What is the meaning of life?’ and ‘What is the meaning in asking?’ and it also asks ‘Is life meaningless?’. However it goes on to say that the meaning of every person’s life, and every person’s existence, is the sum of his achievements. So if you make the most out of your life, try hard, and achieve everything there is to achieve, the meaning of your life was to create that amount of happiness for yourself and for everyone around you.

Now all of those theories are good, but they still doesn’t really solve the main question, which is why are we here? People who believe in God, will say that we are here because God put us here, but then this creates many more questions, Why did God create us? Why was God created? Who created God? I am not here to question religious beliefs at all, because scientific theories also have so many holes in them, and at the end of it all, no religion, or theory can answer the simple question of Why we are here.

We may never find out the real reason for our existence, right up until all human life is wiped off of the earth, and we are replaced, but that is no reason for us to not make the most of our time. Just because life has no real goal, does not mean that we shouldn’t make our own goals, because every single person on this planet plays a role in the events that happen on the entire earth, so whilst our time here may be short, it really is a good idea to make the most of it.

Thank you all for reading, please leave a like if you enjoyed this, and feel free to follow for more posts!

The Life Poster