Sense of Purpose Without Religion

Do you think it is possible to have a serious sense of purpose in life without religious faith or belief? If so, how?

 

Of course.
Love and children, and work you love.

We all have morality hardwired into our brains, so saying religion keeps you from doing bad things is quite silly. We've got laws to deter people from doing bad things, in case they are unable to understand what's bad themselves.

 

Just as "belief" (which includes religion) is entirely relative to the individual's mindset, so is "purpose." So of course someone can mentally convince themselves of purpose/meaning in life, more specifically in accordance to their own without a doctrine or dogmatic means of telling them what "it" is/should be.

Umm...take me for example, it's a very basic belief in the purpose of "life," but so far as I'm concerned the purpose of life is just that....to live. You may not consider that to be "serious" but it's about as serious as I can get without making what I would consider an egocentric claim that I actually know something that is simply chalked full of too many various possibilities.

It's pretty simple really....you don't need to be told/taught something in order to believe in something.

 

Of course, it is called having goals.

My goals are:
1)Get a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution MR
2)Get a better car than a MLE MR
3)Have fun
4)Fuck bitches get money?
5)Start a family
6)Die with my family intact and no split up.

 

Dr. Wayne Dyer - The Power of Intention.

 

In the absence of God I am free to create my own meaning and purpose in life.

 

My purpose, hmm. I look to Nietzsche:

"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: "This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence - even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!"
Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.'? ...Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

 

What a silly question....

 

True that, I do not understand why people feel they need religion to find their meaning or purpose.

 

I understand why. But then my definition of religion may differ

 

Its really a question thats only asked by those that have to validate their faith or beliefs.

Everyone has a belief, believing there are advantages to just spending your life on welfare sitting around smoking pot all day is still a belief system

 

the perceived advantages can easily become perceived superiorities. This in turn could lead one to question someone else on their faith/belief...my destiny is better than your destiny

 

this is why you should all worship god

 

That's why those with inferiority complexes looking for an avenue to pretense should be religious.

 

A sense is a sense...can you really explain what a feeling feels like, or do you just feel it? Perhaps as a babe you are simply born with that sense of purpose. And maybe babies are religious in some sense, but speechless as there is no capturing the glory of creation.

 

wat

 

^seconded

Also...

No, not in the least. Statements like that make Stabby cry. And possibly cut himself; he certainly has the equipment to do it. :banghead:

 

I'm sorry, do you have any supporting evidence for the assertion that morality is hardwired into our brains? If it is, there seem to be plenty of people with loose wires. You should take an anthropology course. There are enormous differences from one culture to another in what people consider to be moral, and even where they agree, there are so many infractions immorality might be considered to be the norm. As for those police officers enforcing the law, if they aren't on the take, there are still limits to their ability to be around enough to deter all criminal activity. What happens when you know the cops aren't around? I agree people can be moral without religion, but they don't do it instinctively. Fear of God doesn't work for everybody, but it works for some, and others respond to love of God, karma, social pressure, or whatever.

As for a purpose, I agree with psychiatrist Viktor Frankl that we need to find something to give us a sense of meaning, and not just anything will do. Some paths turn out to be blind alleys, while others lead to satisfying lives. He asks questions like: why don't you take your life? and Is there anything you would die for? For some, it may be family or friends. For others, God and/or country, etc. Some theologians argue that whatever gives our lives ultimate meaning is effectively our God--like the Higher Power of the recovery groups.

 

Good post. I'll also add that morality isn't the same for everyone. What is immoral for some is moral for others. This is because morality and our personal reality is subjective, and thus greatly varying amongst humans. We have created cultures in which holding certain moral values will generally be beneficial (or at least not pernicious) to most people, and this creates the illusion of moral truth, but this is all an artifical product of society that is conditioned into us from the time we're young.

Anyway the burden of proof rests on the side that claims that certain moral values are inherent in humans. So have at it one of you.

 

That sense of meaning is something well before frankls concept...although he applied it more flawlessly than most. Hitler got closer than most would. Kabbalah's core is in the idea of finding out what one values and setting out to achieve it.

I often thought of having these values or meanings to place in the centre of ones life is like creating an angel or a demon to worhsip...the angels and demons of today have various characterisitcs, much like the polytheistic religions.

I think we can try, infact we are always trying. I think language may have started off mostly as an effort to express intense experiences...being happy, hurting, fearful, threatened, excited. There is that point in a babies life where they begin to recognise the differences in reality, where their actions are differenet to others, and perhaps where their thoughts are different to reality. While this happens, i think initially the child lives in a state of total connection to reality...or at least some part of it, the creation of identity nessesitates seperation from the glory of creation, from the devine