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One of my more pesky, insistent and bothersome born-again Christian friends assured me the other day that our sole purpose here on earth was/is "To Gorify God, Praise Him!". And thus this is what we all should be doing, pretty much every moment of every day!
I kept my thoughts to myself.
But regardless, I got to thinking. This highly anthropomorphic and conceited idea is surely an arrogant afterthought to our existence is it not?
For literally billions of years, before man ever showed up on this planet, there existed (and still do, btw...) hundreds af millions of other species, some quite advanced, communicative and intelligent (whales, the other primates, even some corvid [crow family] birds. Did they have a conscious purpose one wonders?
Why must we have a God-given purpose, unless it is to justify the huge waste of time & energy that is input to the ceremonial aggrandizement of a particular God myth? What about all the other God myths, Hindu, Shinto, Wiccan, paleolithic, Islamic, Jewish, Jehovah's Witnesses, N. Am Indian animal spirits, and so on... Quite a list, in fact.
Following is an interesting website that provides about 8 pages of listed alternative Gods and their basic mythological stories and associated myths, many of which cross over and borrow or feed into the greater (and often later) Abrahamic mythology. [The cite notes that The Abrahamic/Christian God is in no way highlighted as being in any way The One True God....]
Dr. Tyson is surely one of the most eloquent and logical technical speakers of our times. "Irrefutable" is a word that often comes to mind when I watch him. It's pretty hard to argue his points, but if you think you can, please address them, logically, one by one and post them on this thread.
Inquiring minds want to know, after all...
(The bottom line for me is this: if we are not of a singular Christian or Islamic or other spiritual purpose in this life or on this planet, then does Christianity [or any of the other mythologies...] exist per se? If so, why? But...perhaps we just "are"? I for one don't see why that option is so impossible. It may even be preferable!)
One purpose we have is for each of us to do our best to make this world better than what we were born into.
That is my purpose and it has nothing to do with my beliefs or lack thereof. Such a goal does not in any way require theist belief in order to animate it.
The question in the OP however implies some externally given meaning, as in, "why are we MEANT to be here" or "why were we PLACED here". In reality, whatever purpose we have is self-determined and in general is informed by what makes us feel part of the human race in a positive way. Such "chosen" purpose is no less noble than some "bestowed" purpose would be. To the contrary, doing good works by choice rather than obligation is the more noble path.
I would have to agree with Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, if there was a purpose and God was in charge of that purpose, then God sure has a strange way of going about this. I could think of a number of better ways, but then why wait 16 billion years to bring this forth, maybe God was on a coffee break.
Seeing how Adam and Eve are a religious concept, this becomes a mute point. No religion, no Adam and Eve.
No wait: you mean.... O..................M..................G!
You mean there was no fig-leafed pair that "begat" all of mankind, pre-Noah's Fludd? (But somehow, all of the different races, itself a bit of a problem to explain, with entirely variant DNA?)
You have struck me to my core! What am I to do?
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