I fully expect to live forever and I'm making every effort to do just that. If we could get rid of the religionists then it would likely be easier to achieve. But most religionists fully expect to live forever since that is the primary reason for believing in a religion. As for a purpose for life: There is no more prupose to life than a rock has purpose.
Cris your desire is not uncommon - your outcome will be predictable however if your success rests upon determining the combinations of neurons and electrons etc why? surely your success doesn't rely on being morally or socially irresponsible actually facing up to one's inherant limitations is only an initial step for the successful performance of religious principles so if a person cracks a rock in half or cracks you in half there is no difference?
The purpose of one's life is to fulfill a covenant, made before God sent one's soul to the earth. The covenant is 'to live in harmony with the nature'.
What if one's religion doesn't require "covenants" as part of its superstitions? What if one doesn't have a religion? It would seem that your definition of "purpose of life" is one that isn't realistic nor reality-based. Nor is it one that fits all people. In your version, there are those with a "purpose" in their life (people who think like you) and those without a "purpose" (those that think differently than you). This, my friend, is called bigotry.
Lg, The initial issue is largely dependent on curing the disease of aging, i.e. involuntary death. Not sure what neurons and electrons have to do with that. It would be helpful if not so many people believed in the fantasy of an afterlife and focused on solving the real problem of their inevitable non-existence. Not sure what morality and social responsibility have to do with religion though. Religions appear to promote intolerance and war. Religious principles are simply – follow a set of arbitrary rules defined by your selected religious fantasy and expect to become immortal accordingly. Everything else is simply noise. What is the connection with cracking anything and purpose?
Cris good luck Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! perhaps because it is asserted as a solution to the problem that taxes you be my guest http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=57157 if that is what you learnt as a practicing theist it certainly explains why you gave it up nobody decries the frustrations of a rocks purpose when it is smashed to pieces - why then do people protest the obliterating of people (after all, chemically speaking, there is not a whole lot of difference between a human body and the dish washing water that goes down the drain)
You may always put aside religion, and all those religion terms. No need to use that covenant part. It only matters for religious ones. But still, living one's life has always to be following the rule of nature. You may be not willing to say it a purpose, but practically ones' live their lives in the direction dictated by nature. Science explains natural symptoms and event, invents hidden natural facts into knowledge, and human live with that knowledge. Life should be purposed in that direction. Harmony.
Lg, Asserting a fantasy as truth is not a solution. It is simply very frustrating that there so many people that are so gullible. Take away death and you remove the root cause of religious belief. Everything about religions stem from that single false hope. You’ve confused subjective value with purpose. If life were to suddenly vanish then it would have no net loss on the universe, i.e. life is not necessary and hence has no inherent purpose. Whatever purpose life has is what we desire it to have. Interestingly if rocks were to suddenly vanish then there would be a fundamental effect on planetary structures throughout the universe. In this respect, despite my earlier erroneous assertion, rocks do have purpose whereas life does not. Now if one were to view life with respect to a hypothetical fantasy supernatural realm you would still be challenged to define a necessary purpose to such life.
Cris the notion of rennovating an abode of bile mucus and air into an eternal abode also seems a touch fantastic ...... well until you come up with a cure for death you have a confidence statement at best or ar efirmly situated on the platform of delusion at worst it s unlcear what process you applied to draw a complete picture of the universe to determine what are its essential and inconsequential contributions well is the spiritual world manifests platonic phenomena of what we experience in this ephemeral world, one could say that a higher purpose is attained by acquiring that platonic state
Cris I have no idea what you have in mind here. I think you seriously missed the point. Religious beliefs are fundamentally based on the deep felt desire of nearly everyone to not die. Religions promise a solution and billions of gullible people who so want that to be true choose irrationally to believe the promises. Current research into anti-aging see biological aging as a disease to be cured like any other disease and that death through aging should not be inevitable. The perception is not if there will be a cure but how soon. Best estimates put this within the next few decades. Now, if we put accidents, murder, and suicide to the side for the moment, then it appears we will be faced with people having the ability to have open-ended life-spans in the near future. When this occurs then I speculate that the attraction of religious fantasy promises will significantly diminish. My essential point here is that religious beliefs are not based on any form of reality but entirely on the fear of death and gullible people will grasp at any hope, real or not. Remove the fear and religions will collapse. Are you saying the purpose of life is to achieve platonic love? Is that what you mean by the ambiguous clause “platonic phenomena”?
Cris thats what the body is composed of (amongst other things of course, all of which partake of the same gruesome quality) - I just think its admirable in a delusional sort of way that you insist on looking for eternal existence in such a location I would agree that it can act as an initial impetus to "become religious" but the perfection of religious principles requires much more than concern for one's own existence (which is actually the fundamental basis for material existence) at the very least it indicates a lacking on behalf of you and your contempories to deliver any alternative - perhaps if you had something credible to present it wouldn't be the way it is The material endeavour for extending life could perhaps extend it a bit - but old age and death are the jurisdiction of superior forces - you cannot ultimately stop these things anymore than you can stop going to the toilet Scientific theory (particularly the atheistic variety) is famous for its optimistic hopes for the future - just like it was expected that man would have the means for abiogenisis before the mid 1950's (aren't we also supposed to be living on the moon now too) - empricism, by the very nature of its authority (the limited senses) is incapabale of giving credibile pictures of the future - but anyway you are free to talk about what you hope to accomplish however its not clear how discussing this can be progressive since you could go on and on about what science will do in the future (while you are coming closer to death at every moment) and it would be completely impossible to distinguish from delusional rants (at worst) or forays into the imagination (at best) perhaps it would be more fitting to take it to the sci fi thread seems like you are also operating out of the same delusional framework by insisting that there will be a cure for old age in next few decades no - I was meaning in the philosophical sense http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_philosophy
