What is the number one purpose of human existence? The primary biological purpose of every living thing, including humans, is to replicate so the species will survive. This is as true today as it was in prehistoric times.
Charles Darwin showed that human are animals in a long evolutionary line of animals. The more we learn about our natural world, the less significant humans seem to be in it. But humans do have purposes.
Purpose is about more than mere replication and survival. We have choices about what to do in the brief time we are alive. Most people have more than one purpose based on goals and activities that give their lives direction and meaning, and help them engage in productive ways.
I think part of our purpose in life should include making good moral decisions. But how to decide what is moral? For some conservative religions, morality is more about belief than behavior. Their adherents follow strict rules that they believe prepare and qualify them for an imagined afterlife.
If loving and worshipping an imaginary god inspires a person to treat others with loving kindness, I’m fine with that. Unfortunately, love of a god all too often makes some people less loving of those who don’t believe and worship as they do. And if this life is just a religious test to get into an imaginary heaven and avoid an imaginary hell, what kind of morality is that?
Some rules for religious morality are certainly worth keeping, like love your neighbor, and don’t murder, steal, or lie. That’s necessary for the survival of any culture, with or without religion. Regrettably, some religions have also justified slavery, misogeny, anti-Semitism, executing blasphemers and homosexuals, burning witches and heretics, and even genocides.
So how do atheists and secular humanists like me make moral decisions, and decide on our purposes? Looking for personal happiness is probably the major purpose in almost everybody’s life, and that’s a good purpose. However, I believe we should also be guided by the expected consequences of our actions affecting other people and our planet. We should look at what has withstood the test of time to create a livable society. We need ongoing discussions about morality as we continue to revise and refine our views about how best to maximize personal happiness, minimize suffering, and promote the human good.
Since there is no purpose of life, we all need to find purposes in life. I’m guided by a quote from Robert Ingersoll, known as the Great Agnostic, who said: “Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.” And I like the life purpose expressed by atheist mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell: “The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.”
I’ve had several purposes in life that have changed over the years. As a child, my parents decided that my purpose was to be educated and socialized as a moral member of society. As an adult, my purposes included teaching mathematics, doing mathematics research, and passing on knowledge to future generations. I always wanted to be a preacher, but the god part got in the way. That’s why I chose the next best calling and became a professor, so I could profess—if only mathematics.
Now my purposes are to write about and promote secular humanism, to be a good husband and citizen, and to do what I can to remain healthy for as long as possible. I also want to continue to have fun and laugh a lot.
“We have one life to live, and one chance to do something meaningful with it. We can all contribute something useful.”
We have one life to live, and one chance to do something meaningful with it. We can all contribute something useful. Sometimes our choices and their repercussions live longer than we do, impacting on family, friends, people we don’t know, and even future generations. Immortality for atheists includes the good works and offspring that live long after we have disintegrated.
Something I didn’t do when I was young, but do now, is read the obituaries in my local newspaper. Too often I see that a friend or acquaintance has died, usually someone who was younger than I am. While I’m sad when I read of those deaths, I’m ever more grateful to be alive. It’s certainly better than the alternative, and everyone should take the time to appreciate being alive.
On the other hand, planning for end-of-life care in the form of advance directives is not just for the elderly, since death can come at any time.
For me, regardless of age, what’s important is quality of life, not just length of life. I would like to live as long as I am able to communicate effectively, but if I develop some form of dementia like Alzheimer’s disease, I know I might not be competent to request a peaceful death. I told my wife, Sharon Fratepietro, that one sign to pull the plug on me would be if I said I believed in God.
We are fragile creatures who started dying from the moment we were born into a universe that has no purpose. I feel “blessed” to have been alive for 82 years with so many choices of purposes.
I have no memories of the preceding 13.8 billion years when the universe existed without me. The same will be true when I die, hopefully not for many years. I was not in distress before I was born, and will not be in distress when I’m dead. I’m just sorry I won’t know more about the universe’s continuing story.
No wonder humans started to believe an imaginary afterlife in an endless heaven.
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