Humanity

[Lionheart]

''Why are we here? What were we made for?''

I don't think we were made for anything. We were made to procreate, I suppose. Romantic, eh? :laugh:
I always hear people say ''we need to have a reason to exist'' - that life is meaningless without it. Well, maybe it is - why should we care? As long as we're having fun and giving our lives meaning based on our actions, I don't see the problem. For me, playing video games, occasionally reviewing them and eventually getting a job is enough. A love interest would be nice, but I can live without it. 'Meaning' is something you give to your life, not something others give your life. 'Meaning' doesn't exist; it's all in our minds, but that's good enough for me. Call it nihilism if you want, but nihilism is a human construct too. Strictly speaking, it does not exist, just like color doesn't exist.

"In this world, is the destiny of mankind controlled by some transcendental entity or law? Is it like the hand of God hovering above? At least it is true that man has no control; even over his own will"

I stopped believing in God when I was about ten years old. I just decided that all this nonsense being repeated in church wasn't worth my time. If God does exist, he'll understand. I mean, he's said to be like a father figure, so I would not expect him to damn me to hell for following my own path. I looked at the Bible again later, but it's just too nonsensical, it contradicts itself sometimes, and it's historically accurate and inaccurate at the same time. Not to mention hateful and outdated compared to our societies' views. If it's the word of God, how would we know that? It was written by people as fallible as you and me, if not more fallible. If it's the word of God, how come we have made the world a better place by rejecting some of its teachings? Or was God outdated too? I thought he was supposed to be a perfect being.
Aside from that, if God needs to be obeyed, why did he give us the power to defy him? It doesn't make any sense.
If the Bible can't be relied upon, then why believe there is a God? There is no evidence to suggest he even exists. Many things ascribed to God have been explained by science. I expect that trend to continue.

If you didn't know anything about religion, then you would not have had a 'religious experience'. If you did, it's because you ascribe meaning to something that may not have meaning. That's how the human mind works: we always look for patterns and meaning in things, even when logically speaking they don't need one. We see the face of Jesus in a cookie - are you kidding me? :laugh:

I don't believe in any other destiny either; we construct our own path. If I decided to become an accountant, that's what I'd be. I'd hate it, but that's what I'd be. Denying my destiny? Well, destiny cannot be denied. If you have some role to fulfill, it will always come back to you. But if it doesn't because you happened to take a different path, destiny obviously does not exist. Besides, what is destiny? Isn't it just a word we use to describe something we're good at? Saying ''becoming a teacher of English is your destiny''... well, how do you know that? If I'm good at English and nothing else, I'll always return to it. That's more like a matter of statistics than destiny.

Humanity itself can be a terrible thing; we fight for money (which, ironically, we created) and can act like total douches. You don't see animals do that. They're simply here, and they always act the way they are. No deception, no idiocy.
Humanity can also be a beautiful thing; we can love each other, while animals seem to have no concept of love - at least, not romantic love. They look for the mate that suits them perfectly, have offspring and that's it. No romance, just natural selection and slow evolution. That makes humans (and apparently primates too) extraordinary.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

Well, when I was having a nervous breakdown from being discharged, I prayed for a sign for everything to be all right. Just then, a butterfly flew up (while people are still firing) from the range to where I was sitting and landed on my hand. For 10 minutes it stayed by me, flying around me and landing on my head and arms, and something spoke to me and said "All will be well."

That's strange. I am not a believer nor a doubter when it comes to a God.
I've often thought what the implications would be if God showed up.
Which is what hundreds or possibly thousands of humans have attempted to do.
Antagonize God to show up.

Alot things would happen as result of that. One thing is, there would be no point in religion. As it's about having faith without knowing a fact. Similar to having faith in the word of someone you love.

I think it is humans who do this the best... But you got a

point. There are animals who can learn, grow, evolve, and change.

I'd say we humans have digressed more than evolved. The indians (native americans) lived with nature.
They didn't build stuff and destroyed wild life.
What did europeans do when they came to North America? Destroyed the wild life.
In RPG games there are druids/dryads. They live with the nature. Taming animals and not destroying nature.
Plus speaking of existentence, trees have lived more than us. There are tons species that have lived more than us.

 

[MigsRZXAStylish]

I'd say we humans have digressed more than evolved. The indians (native americans) lived with nature.
They didn't build stuff and destroyed wild life.
What did europeans do when they came to North America? Destroyed the wild life.
In RPG games there are druids/dryads. They live with the nature. Taming animals and not destroying nature.
Plus speaking of existentence, trees have lived more than us. There are tons species that have lived more than us.

Don't forget war. It was humans who started war, but it was humans who ended war.

 

[Demi-fiend]

I'd say we humans have digressed more than evolved. The indians (native americans) lived with nature.
They didn't build stuff and destroyed wild life.

Look um... the Lenape Indians practiced slash-and-burn farming.
http://answerparty.com/question/answer/which-native-americans-practiced-slash-and-burn-agriculture
Nearly all cultures had to "destroy" land in order to make room for their own civilizations. The Native Americans weren't really all that different, in that regard.

 

[Demi-fiend]

Why does humanity exist? To make awesome things like this:

 

[KRSkull]

Why are we here? What were we made for?

The answer is to either Learn or be a burden. Of curse some people think that learning and being a burden are two wave lines that meet at some points. but that is not true.

Learning and being a burden are like a double threaded string connected to a web made of different kinds and sizes of ropes. Each knot represent an obstacle in our life. and the different kind and size ropes represent the choices we take.

 

[VineBigBoss]

I don't think we can find this answer by our rationality. I think this is the reason behind so many different people in the world had religions or creeds, or tried to think about these questions that seem to have no answer.

About what we "should" do, i think it's up to the individual. The path is not the same for all of us, but i think the goal of every human is to be happy. I think that happiness is not something we experience here and there, and them we don't know when it will come back; "true" happiness comes with wisdom, it's more like a natural state, but there's no real answer to how we achieve that.

I'm kinda a spiritual guy in some ways, so i tend to search for this inside and not outside, the world is unstable, things can change, our homes can be destroyed, our loved ones can go away, we can lose our money, but what's inside will never really leave us as long as we look and try to reach it. The way i do this is through meditation and trying to have some detachment from the world and the things i'm passionated, to not be blinded by desires or ambitions and just do my thing without expecting too much from the world.

There's a good samurai poem about that, i'll find it in english for you guys (i read it once in portuguese):

http://paganandproudofit.com/The-Creed-of-the-Samurai.html

Here is the poem and some explanation, barely the same i've seen the first time in portuguese.

 

[Dante's Stalker]

I think once we understand WHAT we really are and know WHO we can be, if we choose to follow the best suited path to reach our potential, we will find the answer to the WHY. But until mankind can get the HOW right, they will never know.
Considering how many people disregard the basic principles of physics ie. The Father Creator and Mother Creator principles, mankind is far off from accepting the answer.