Is there a purpose to our existence?

 No.

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—Hey!

What?

—You can’t just end it like that!

I just did.

—I mean, it’s not a good idea.

Why not?

—Because you haven’t explained your reasoning.

Why would I need to do that?

—Because people won’t know how you reached your conclusion otherwise. Do you expect them to read your mind?

Yes? Obviously.

—Uhh...write it like they can’t, then.

Why? Because you said so?

—Yes.

All right. Let’s start over.

The meaning of life has been an ongoing debate for thousands of years without reaching any clear answer. Answers have been proposed from many different perspectives, from psychological to philosophical to religious, all radically different, and different cultures and people have different beliefs about the answer. A related question is whether life has a predetermined purpose; that is, if we were created for a specific reason.

But wait!

—What?

Why do we want our life to have a purpose anyway?

—Because having a purpose to life gives it meaning?

Does it? This reminds me of something I read in a book a long time ago. I don’t remember what it’s called, so if anyone knows anything about where it could be from, please tell me.

It proposed a hypothetical situation in which our existence does have a clear purpose: to wash clothes for aliens. Aliens put us here to reproduce, and soon they’ll take us back to their planet, where we’ll wash their clothes for them, and find fulfillment and happiness in doing so. After all, we were created specifically for that purpose.

In this scenario, our life has a purpose, but is washing clothes for aliens really a meaningful existence?

—Yes. 

For you, maybe, but I think most people would disagree. What meaning is there to be found in being a human washing machine? Don’t answer that; we don’t need another one of your rhetorical question blunders.

A picture of you

—Okay, but can life even have meaning without a purpose?

The question should instead be “Can life have meaning with a purpose.” 

—What?

What is meaning? Here, it means inherent value. And things with more possible functions are more valuable than things with only one, right? Pencils are fairly cheap now, but they would be more expensive if, for instance, they could turn into fruit peelers and forks. The same applies to human life. Having only one purpose for all of humanity would greatly decrease its meaning; that is, its value.

—Isn’t that overly simplistic?

Definitely, but this is an English blog, not a philosophical dissertation. 

—Well, what’s your point here?

My point is that our existence has no purpose, no plan assigned to us by some higher power that we are bound by.  (At least not one we can prove exists.) But that doesn’t mean our life has no meaning; quite the opposite. The meaning of life comes from all the different reasons for living that we assign to ourselves. The ability to make our lives about whatever we want them to be: that is the meaning of life.

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