Damned if I can come up with a purpose for my having existed.
What purpose is there?
You are only here because your parents got-it-on and produced you; either with care and love, or the result of a binge-drinking blow-out at the local nightclub while on holiday at a tacky Spanish resort.
If we are talking biological then I guess our purpose is to reproduce and pass our DNA on to the next generation (something I have yet to do) but in all honesty there is little reason to believe that DNA cares much if you, personally, fill this biological imperative or not.
Other than that your life is yours to carve out as you see fit.
As to what happens at death. Why would anyone ever assume there would be something more? Why assume there would be survival of anything other than the memories of you in other people? The human creature is a biological entity and the consciousness/soul is an emergent phenomenon arising from the extremely complicated wiring in the brain. Once that wiring ceases to function that's it you are no more. If you fry the CPU & Hard drive in a computer do you expect it to continue working in someway? No, that would be silly, wouldn't it?
Are you in a job you hate? Why? Why waste your life doing crap you hate doing? Go out and find something you do enjoy doing. There is no point living a repressed virtuous life earning brownie points for an after-life that isn't gonna happen.
So as there is no real purpose, other than what you define for yourself, and you don't get a second bite of the cherry via life after death, you best make the most of this life. Right here right now, this is all you get.
All you can hope for is to have your friends lamenting your passing rather than dancing on the coffin, glad to be rid of you. Immortality comes from acts and deeds, not an immortal soul.
This message has been edited by ohnhai, 04 February 2005 13:50 AM
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