• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Higher Purpose

Metamorphosis

New member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
3,474
MBTI Type
INTJ
protecting those close to me and ensuring our mutual success

preserving our personal freedoms at any cost
 

Tayshaun

New member
Joined
May 13, 2007
Messages
172
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
Naively thinking I can carve my own path with my particular skill set and refusing predictability and monotony in my life.

The pursuit of knowledge.

In the "garbage higher purpose" category : immaturely trying to fool the expectations of others (ego boosting with unpredictable persona). Impulsive changes in life direction. The Siddartha syndrome in a sense.
 

The_Liquid_Laser

Glowy Goopy Goodness
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
3,376
MBTI Type
ENTP
Doing things that make people appreciate life gives me a higher purpose. If I can do those things in a novel or impressive way then I give myself double points. :)
 

GZA

Resident Snot-Nose
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
1,771
MBTI Type
infp
When I listen to music I get an intuitive sense that that is what I should be doing. When I play music the same thing happens. I feel like I should be standing on some mountain as the sun rises so the whole world can hear.

Of course, this is ultimately suppose to make people feel good/inspired.
 

sassafrassquatch

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
961
Higher purpose? After spending all my life under the cruel yoke of christianity I'm really enjoying utter meaninglessness of human existence. Having some universal purpose or meaning for life would suck anyway.

You want to do [whatever]? Too bad. You need to be in church/meditating your earthly desires away/studying the word of god/paying penance/fasting/denying yourself/auditing your thetans/praying or whatever.

Everyone should just do what they want to do without appealing to grandiose notions of purpose and meaning.
 
O

Oberon

Guest
Everyone should just do what they want to do without appealing to grandiose notions of purpose and meaning.

No.

Without any sense of meaning, life becomes oppressive due to the sheer meaninglessness of it all. Add in a regular dose of news reports about, say, infants dying because they were left in car seats in a parking lot all day, and you're on the fast track to suicide.

Which of course is a reasonable option in a meaningless world. But it's not a happy trip.
 

raincrow007

New member
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
440
MBTI Type
INTP
No.

Without any sense of meaning, life becomes oppressive due to the sheer meaninglessness of it all. Add in a regular dose of news reports about, say, infants dying because they were left in car seats in a parking lot all day, and you're on the fast track to suicide.

Which of course is a reasonable option in a meaningless world. But it's not a happy trip.

Not entirely true. I find existence to be devoid of meaning, and I'm not particularly inclined towards suicide.

Only an optimist would think death would improve things. ;)
 

sassafrassquatch

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
961
No.

Without any sense of meaning, life becomes oppressive due to the sheer meaninglessness of it all. Add in a regular dose of news reports about, say, infants dying because they were left in car seats in a parking lot all day, and you're on the fast track to suicide.

Which of course is a reasonable option in a meaningless world. But it's not a happy trip.

And Jesus/Allah/The Force/whatever you may believe in let that kid die.

There cannot be objective universal meaning in life. There's meaning in life because god(s)(ess)(es) said so? Why does that jerk get to make the rules? There's meaning in life because you said so? Fail.

I'm saying that we should each decide the meaning of our own lives without appealing to some nonexistent universal authority.
 

Metamorphosis

New member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
3,474
MBTI Type
INTJ
What does grandiose notions of purpose and meaning have to do with a universal authority. We are perfectly capable of creating our own garndiose notions of purpose and meaning based on what is important to us.
 

Splittet

Wannabe genius
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
632
MBTI Type
INTJ
Nothing. There is noe higher purpose, only personal purpose, the purpose you make yourself.

Without any sense of meaning, life becomes oppressive due to the sheer meaninglessness of it all.

For most it will lead to passive nihilism, like it has for me, for some it will lead to active nihilism.

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=622534 said:
Passive nihilsim is indicative of a decline in spiritual power. It is characterized by the inability to create, or in the extreme to react. The passive nihilist is one who, when faced with the world's uncertainty, withdraws and refuses to enagage the world. For him, uncertainty is a sufficient condition not to proceed through life, and so paralysed by fear of the unknown and unknowable he does nothing. Nietzsche described this condition as ".. the weary nihilism that no longer attacks..a passive nihilism, a sign of weakness".

Active Nihilism on the other hand, is indicative of a relative increase in spiritual power. the active nihilist sees freedom where the passive nihilist sees absurdity or meaninglessness. He chooses action and creation instead of passivity and withdrawal. For him, the lack of objective standards of truth motivates self created standards and criteria. The active nihilist is not active despite the unknown but because of it. He possesses a store of creative energy and power which allows him to impose personal meaning on the world while never forgetting that hes is the source and progenitor of that meaning. He is heroic in this sense, facing the world with courage and purpose.
 

Metamorphosis

New member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
3,474
MBTI Type
INTJ
I think we are debating over what exactly constitutes higher purpose. Is it something that comes from a higher authority, or something that is higher than any other purpose (in our own mind)?
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,988
Higher purpose? After spending all my life under the cruel yoke of christianity I'm really enjoying utter meaninglessness of human existence. Having some universal purpose or meaning for life would suck anyway.

You want to do [whatever]? Too bad. You need to be in church/meditating your earthly desires away/studying the word of god/paying penance/fasting/denying yourself/auditing your thetans/praying or whatever.

Everyone should just do what they want to do without appealing to grandiose notions of purpose and meaning.

Isn't there anything that gives a sense of "This is what I was made for."? Nothing at all?
 

sassafrassquatch

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
961
Isn't there anything that gives a sense of "This is what I was made for."? Nothing at all?


Not at all. I just am, everything just is. To think that I am here for a purpose would be horribly narcissistic of me. However I do consider it my self appointed mission in life to kick ass and chew bubble gum.
 

Metamorphosis

New member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
3,474
MBTI Type
INTJ
Not at all. I just am, everything just is. To think that I am here for a purpose would be horribly narcissistic of me. However I do consider it my self appointed mission in life to kick ass and chew bubble gum.

Interesting. It's comments like this that reaffirm my belief in MBTI.
 

GZA

Resident Snot-Nose
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
1,771
MBTI Type
infp
Beleiving in god is not the same as higher purpose. Beleiving in a higher power isn't the same as higher purpose, either. Higher purpose can just be something that you should really be doing, whether that is soemthing you are "destined" to do or something you would simply be good at and would enjoy.
 

sassafrassquatch

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2007
Messages
961
Beleiving in god is not the same as higher purpose. Beleiving in a higher power isn't the same as higher purpose, either. Higher purpose can just be something that you should really be doing, whether that is soemthing you are "destined" to do or something you would simply be good at and would enjoy.

When I read higher purpose, reason for one's existence, anything that would imply that there is a plan then who's plan would that be? No amount of wishful thinking can change the fact that we exist without rhyme or reason.

I may just be misunderstanding the OP, if the question is "what makes you feel useful in life" then I got nothing for that either.
 

Zaerne

New member
Joined
Jul 17, 2007
Messages
21
MBTI Type
INFP
My belief in heaven, a perfect paradise of pure bliss, gives me a higher purpose. It tells me that I am not doing this only for others, but myself, and a higher being who wishes that I be perfectly happy. I don't think I can believe in a world of pure science where I may be viewed as lacking any free will or just the same as animals. If that was so, I would rather die, but I don't want to die. Really I would rather believe a seemingly dreamy world of insanity which has no proof of itself, than a cold world which has equally no proof of itself or any to disprove the other.
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,988
Not at all. I just am, everything just is. To think that I am here for a purpose would be horribly narcissistic of me.

Why is it narcissistic to feel think or believe you have a higher purpose (if you believe everyone does)?

However I do consider it my self appointed mission in life to kick ass and chew bubble gum.

I always wondered what people meant when they say "kick ass". Maybe it is Asperger's, or maybe it is because I don't really have a primary language, but I have a lot of trouble interpriting that phrase as anything other than the very literal (and usually wrong) interpretation.
 

Metamorphosis

New member
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
3,474
MBTI Type
INTJ
Why is it narcissistic to feel think or believe you have a higher purpose (if you believe everyone does)?

I think that by nature virtually everything we do is motivated by looking out for #1.

I always wondered what people meant when they say "kick ass". Maybe it is Asperger's, or maybe it is because I don't really have a primary language, but I have a lot of trouble interpriting that phrase as anything other than the very literal (and usually wrong) interpretation.

It normally just means do/be awesome.
 
Top