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  4. Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
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Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life

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Offline Yahya A.Sharif (OP)

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Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« on: 29/03/2025 21:21:56 »
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« Last Edit: 06/07/2025 19:47:07 by Yahya A.Sharif »
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Offline alancalverd

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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #1 on: 30/03/2025 06:51:08 »
There is no reason to assume an overall purpose.

By definition each living thing continues to do whatever is necessary for its own continued function, and eventually breaks down or is destroyed by some other living thing. Any that don't reproduce, don't leave any successors, so by default nearly all the living things on the planet at any moment are, will be, or have been, capable of reproduction as well as personal maintenance.

So as a minimum, nourishment, overcoming threats and obstacles, and reproduction, are firmware goals. It doesn't matter whether you consider them "pleasurable" or "essential", because they are inevitable consequences of our evolution.

Some species, and most obviously humans, thrive by collaboration. This word needs very broad interpretation, to include intraspecies parasitism as practised by priests and politicians - it still requires the willing or enforced cooperation of other humans.

Unsurprisingly, a wide range of "pleasurable" activities involve the direct or indirect collaboration of others, so your phrase "to grow, to connect, and to contribute"  certainly comes into it, but as an inevitable consequence of our evolution as a physically weak but intellectually strong animal, with no evidence of primal cause or external creator.

The concept of "disposable life" is important. Like disposable income, it is time you can spend doing things that are not essential to staying alive. Some species, particularly small mammals, have negligible disposable life: a shrew has to spend about 23 hours a day pursuing and eating food, whilst large predators and scavengers (tigers and dogs) may only need to hunt and eat once a week.  Shielded from intraspecies parasites, organised humans can often achieve around 30% disposable life, and whatever you do with that time falls into the category of "pleasure". So what might be termed the legitimate  pursuit of pleasure is for the most part merely the consequence of successful collaboration.

I take the strongest exception to
Quote
to manifest what is good so the Creator may witness it and say again: "It is good."
and suchlike propaganda, because these are the weasel words of a parasite who will go on to tell you what you must do (cover your hair, pay tithes, kneel and pray...) to please the nonexistent creator he invented to justify his parasitism.
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Offline alancalverd

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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #2 on: 30/03/2025 12:59:04 »
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Nothing Exists Without a Purpose.

Please state the purpose of congenital syphilis.
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Offline alancalverd

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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #3 on: 30/03/2025 19:20:15 »
And what gave it that purpose?

the Creator that
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delights in what is good, beautiful, and meaningful
perhaps?
« Last Edit: 30/03/2025 19:22:49 by alancalverd »
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Offline alancalverd

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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #4 on: 31/03/2025 07:59:21 »
And what created the serpent? Why?

The deity you have constructed doesn't deserve my respect.
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Offline alancalverd

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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #5 on: 31/03/2025 08:43:13 »
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The universe exists precisely as it should be,


So why is it evolving?

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its purposeful nature

what is its purpose?
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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #6 on: 31/03/2025 17:33:43 »
Please show me  the righteousness of Putain, Trumpf, and the Spanish Inquisition, all supposedly brought into being by or for the greater glory of your god.

I cannot revere and honor the disgusting creator of syphilis, cancer, drought and tsunami. "Beauty of his creation" my arse.

Gratitude and worship? Ridiculous!  Recognise that the world was not designed and does not work for your pleasure or even your continued existence. Instead of bowing to an absurd hypothesis promulgated by perverts and parasites, stand up, think for yourself,  and be a man.
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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #7 on: 02/04/2025 20:51:28 »
Quote
Many people are on this side.

Many people believe that the earth is flat. Many people vote Republican. Many people are racist. Consensus does not earn my respect.

Quote
an intelligent Creator would naturally possess attributes similar to those of humans
If you think numbers are important, then surely your hypothetical creator would naturally possess attributes similar to ants, bacteria, or grass.  And why would your creator hate some people if it created them all?   

What is scientific judgement?
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Re: Beyond Pleasure: Rethinking the Purpose of Life
« Reply #8 on: 03/04/2025 14:34:20 »
If the majority  of humans thought as you assert, there would be no war. The flat earth precedes Islam and the geocentric universe certainly survived in Christian teaching long enough to persecute Bruno and Galileo for daring to tell the obvious truth.
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