What is the purpose of life?

[billchao]

[spoiler=OT stuff][quote name="newtogolf" url="/t/84340/what-is-the-purpose-of-life/60#post_1197966"]No, I'd be fine with ridding the world of all political correctness but until that happens religious groups should get the same consideration as special interest groups which is what they are in reality these days. I take issue that if one were to mock a gay or transgender person the entire site would put that person on blast but because it was someone who is deeply religious we called it "light joking" [/quote]Fair enough. I just found it interesting that you would choose to support the position of one group and go against that of others, but it doesn't matter. [quote name="14ledo81" url="/t/84340/what-is-the-purpose-of-life/60#post_1197968"] Insensitive, Intolerant, call it whatever.  It still boils down to the fact that it was not nice.  And, only the religious belief was singled out.[/quote]No, it's not whatever. There's a difference between insensitive and intolerant. You can be accepting of other people and still make the wrong comment from time to time. Sure, it wasn't nice, but it does not indicate that the people who posted the comments are intolerant. [quote name="14ledo81" url="/t/84340/what-is-the-purpose-of-life/60#post_1197968"]Typically if I am a dick to someone it is because I don't like them.  Probably because of who they are, and maybe what they believe in (many times plays a part in who they are). [/quote]Dick was the wrong word. Inconsiderate is a better one. If you've never mistreated or offended others unless you dislike them, good for you. I can be inconsiderate at times. I'm not perfect and will never claim to be. I can't quote your comment about Chinese stuff - I'm assuming it's malformed - but I wouldn't care. Why? Because it's a belief and not locked to my ethnicity. They're independent of each other even if they tend to come together. There's no such thing as a Chinese belief, just beliefs that Chinese people tend to have over other groups.[/spoiler]This is the last I'm going to comment about this stuff here because it's all OT. If you want to talk to me more, feel free to send a PM.

[Gator Hazard]

The age old question that has many answers and no answer.

I vote for tolerance and respect of all person's religious/faith beliefs, that doesn't mean there are not some funny things about religion.  I have faith that there is something out there, the argument of the primary mover.  I had a difficult time growing up trying to reconcile if God truly loved us and was watching over us or if he was completely omniscient or if we were just a byproduct of him/her on a drunken night of playing with firecrackers.  I had difficulty with passages that stated God saying " I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God...” and also in Exodus where Moses was chilling with the pharaoh saying that he was going to take his people out into the desert and pray for three days and then return.  This is where the 10 plagues of Egypt came in.  In the passages Moses gets his blessing, but then God sends an angel "and hardens his heart" so that in the morning when Moses has everyone rounded up and is saying "Okay big P, see you in a few days", the pharaoh denies them being able to go all so that he can then punish the Egyptians.  That is not "free will".  Confusing stuff there in my opinion but understand that the bible was written by man.

This all kind of boils down to I don't think of whatever got this whole ball of wax rolling as an accountant up there making recordings in a T account on a general ledger that is labelled Good Things and Bad Things.  I can't imagine an after life where you go see St. Peter at the pearly gates (you know, the guy that denied knowing Christ three times to save his own bacon) and he of all people is going to go over the naughty and nice list with you and then if it adds up to a positive balance on one side let you in, and if not, pull the plunger and you go down the big slide into the fiery pit of hell ala Wiley Coyote or Daffy Duck style.

Maybe God really is Xenu some eccentric alien, or The Flying Spaghetti monster.  Hey, I don't know.  And because I cannot ever know these things as a human I decide what the meaning of life should be for me and that it is a good enough road map to bring some good into the world.

Lets start the church of Hot Bodied Chics in Yoga Pants.  Thats something a lot of people can behind.

[turtleback]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lihu

It's not a backhanded way to start anything, at least not from my point of view.

However, I think he was simply making an observation.

Fair enough. It just seemed unnecessary.

No,what was unnecessary was for anyone to comment on @Abu3baid 's post.  No one commented on any of the other posts to any degree.  Sounds more like you are the one trying to stir something up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 14ledo81

A religious belief is typically held pretty high by the believer. If someone makes light of it, this can be very offensive.

I fail to see how that implies intolerance.

Sometimes intolerant people never realize that they are being intolerant.

Could we avoid the religion vs non-religion in this thread? Let those who believe do so and accept their choices.

Apparently not, since the mere mention of God in a completely non-proselytizing post in a thread where such mention is completely appropriate raises such hackles in some folks that they just cannot keep themselves from commenting in a, let us say,  non-supportive way (I'm not saying they should support his belief, I'm saying they should be supporting his right to express it without the kind of flack that was not directed at any other post on the thread) at the mere mention of God.

It is a sign of the times.

[9wood]

No one can know God...

start over....

I respectfully disagree. Throughout time millions upon millions of people have come to know Him in a relational way.

[9wood]

Could we avoid the religion vs non-religion in this thread? Let those who believe do so and accept their choices.

Tolerance for both those with strong non-religious beliefs as well as for those with strong religious beliefs should be shown. The golf world contains individuals of both sorts.

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

No one can know God...

start over....

I respectfully disagree. Throughout time millions upon millions of people have come to know Him in a relational way.

This is true, except it might be closer to billions.

In response to @Mr. Desmond There was and is never a claim that you "know all about". That's entirely different, and of course not.

[rkim291968]

Purpose of Life?

Trump's:  Wants to be loved by all.   If not, want to make sure he tweeters them to humiliation or sue them to death.

Puitin's:  Resurrect the glory of Russian Empire, be the emperor.

Kim Jong Un's: beat his father's golf score by making hole in ones for all 18 holes in his 1st ever golf try.  Very possible goal given NK's media of reporting the truth.

[cipher]

The way faith is viewed now is saddening.

To attempt love and fail each day, just to wake up the next and try it all over again.

[SeenRed]

My personal belief is that each man or woman must decide for themselves what his or her purpose is. For my purpose, I choose: 1. To live each day to my full potential, whether I be at work or at play. 2. To be the best husband and father I can be. 3. To win as many skins and sides in my weekly foursome as I can. Oh, and I'm pretty fond of yoga pants too. ;-)

[cfree5119]

All man made purposes will fail us. For those who do not believe in God, I am curious on why? There is historical legitimacy to the Bible so I am assuming those who reject God also deny the historical account of the Bible? We Can't reject parts of history we want to believe and only choose to believe parts of history we want. Jesus was an actual man who walked the Earth. The most important question life is who we say Jesus is. See Matthew 16:16. For purpose, see Romans 8:28. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

[Mr. Desmond]

All man made purposes will fail us.

For those who do not believe in God, I am curious on why? There is historical legitimacy to the Bible so I am assuming those who reject God also deny the historical account of the Bible? We

Can't reject parts of history we want to believe and only choose to believe parts of history we want. Jesus was an actual man who walked the Earth. The most important question life is who we say Jesus is. See Matthew 16:16.

For purpose, see Romans 8:28. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

oh, my....

[Mr. Desmond]

This is true, except it might be closer to billions.

In response to @Mr. Desmond: There was and is never a claim that you "know all about". That's entirely different, and of course not.

Wrong, start over.

A mystery is a mystery.. I like to think God is love, but who knows.

[JazzFatCat]

Pft. Everyone knows that the purpose of life is to "know" the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[JazzFatCat]

[Lihu]

Pft. Everyone knows that the purpose of life is to "know" the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Reading more into this, I'm pretty amazed that there are supposedly true followers of this religion created as a strawman by Henderson in 2005 to protest ID being taught in Kansas schools. [quote name="JazzFatCat" url="/t/84340/what-is-the-purpose-of-life/72#post_1198373"][QUOTE name="cfree5119" url="/t/84340/what-is-the-purpose-of-life/72#post_1198349"] All man made purposes will fail us. For those who do not believe in God, I am curious on why? There is historical legitimacy to the Bible so I am assuming those who reject God also deny the historical account of the Bible? We Can't reject parts of history we want to believe and only choose to believe parts of history we want. Jesus was an actual man who walked the Earth. The most important question life is who we say Jesus is. See Matthew 16:16. For purpose, see Romans 8:28. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."[/QUOTE] If this thread is really going to become a Christian soapbox then I'm curious what Christians say when they learn about Horus. The "myth" of Horus predates Jesus by about 2000 years. [/quote] The stories in the Old Testament are generally much older even though they might have been written much later. Also, interesting that Hindu and Chinese histories start at about the same time frame as Egyptian, Biblical and many other histories seem to start at about the same time frame give or take a thousand years? If we have some purpose, it seems like we all asked the same question in roughly the same time period? Different answers, but the same question.

[JazzFatCat]

Pastafarianism isn't a religion. It's just a way to poke fun of Christians.

I looked more into that "Jesus vs Horus" thing after I posted that (lol) and it turns out that is a hoax of some kind. I saw it in that Bill Maher "Religulous" movie but it sounds like it isn't true.

https://richarddawkins.net/2014/04/seeking-hard-evidence-for-the-similarity-of-the-horus-and-jesus-myths/

[Shorty]

I respectfully disagree. Throughout time millions upon millions of people have come to know Him in a relational way.

No, they have deluded themselves into doing so.

If there were a single shred of evidence to prove the existence of a deity, it would be accepted as a fact and would not be treated as something which could be debated.

If millions of children believe at some point that Santa Claus comes down their chimney, it doesn't give the idea credibility.

As for cfree5119, who asks:

For those who do not believe in God, I am curious on why?

The fact that a man called Jesus existed doesn't have anything to with the existence of God, talking snakes or virgin mothers.

The reason that the original response to the OP's question was mocked because it painted such a grim, mindless and depressing picture of a pointless existence: " It is to worship the one that created everything."

Even if there were a creator of polio, a billion insects, HIV and childhood blindness, why would one feel the need to devote their life to "worshipping" him/her?

[Abu3baid]

No, they have deluded themselves into doing so. If there were a single shred of evidence to prove the existence of a deity, it would be accepted as a fact and would not be treated as something which could be debated. If millions of children believe at some point that Santa Claus comes down their chimney, it doesn't give the idea credibility. [COLOR=181818]As for cfree5119, who asks:[/COLOR][COLOR=181818] [/COLOR][COLOR=181818] [/COLOR] [COLOR=181818]For those who do not believe in God, I am curious on why?[/COLOR] The fact that a man called Jesus existed doesn't have anything to with the existence of God, talking snakes or virgin mothers. The reason that the original response to the OP's question was mocked because it painted such a grim, mindless and depressing picture of a pointless existence: "[COLOR=181818]It is to worship the one that created everything."[/COLOR] [COLOR=181818]Even if there were a creator of polio, a billion insects, HIV and childhood blindness, why would one feel the need to devote their life to "worshipping" him/her?[/COLOR]

We are very short sighted as humans, so I'm not surprised that there are some who have contempt for things they believe are inherently bad or evil, while in the big picture is probably a good thing for humans one way or another. I'm not saying you have to like Mosquitos, but realize that they serve a purpose. Also, I said worship the creator and didn't say "devote your life to worship" because you paint a picture of someone who is sitting at home just praying waiting for the day they die.. When I say worship the creator it includes living your life while following his instructions. This includes actual prayers, but it includes many other things.. Providing for my family is worship. Giving 2.5% of my total wealth as a charity every year to the poor and needy is worship, removing an object that will potentially harm someone from the road is worship, and many other things. Just wanted to share something from a non-religious site on insects: [URL]http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/text01/impact1.html[/URL] "Because they dominate all terrestrial environments that support human life, insects are usually our most important competitors for food, fiber, and other natural resources. They have a direct impact on agricultural food production by chewing the leaves of crop plants, sucking out plant juices, boring within the roots, stems or leaves, and spreading plant pathogens. They feed on natural fibers, destroy wooden building materials, ruin stored grain, and accelerate the process of decay. They also have a profound impact on the health of humans and domestic animals by causing annoyance, inflicting bites and stings, and transmitting disease. The economic impact of insects is measured not only by the market value of products they destroy and the cost of damage they inflict but also by the money and resources expended on prevention and control of pest outbreaks. Although dollar values for these losses are nearly impossible to calculate, especially when they affect human health and welfare, economists generally agree that insects consume or destroy around 10% of gross national product in large, industrialized nations and up to 25% of gross national product in some developing countries. These and other aspects of economic entomology will be our main emphasis in the final section of this course when we focus entirely on insect pests and the tactics used to control them. But despite the tremendous economic losses they may cause, it is not entirely fair to cast the members of Class Insecta as villains who rob us of our food and livelihoods. They are also cherished allies on whom we depend to keep the natural environment clean and productive. They have shaped human cultures and civilizations in countless ways, they supply unique natural products, they regulate the population densities of many potential pest species, they dispose of our wastes, bury the dead, and recycle organic nutrients. Indeed, we seldom stop to consider what life would be like without insects and how much we depend on them for our very survival. To paraphrase William Shakespeare, "The evil that insects do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their exoskeletons." "