what is the purpose of humanity

[russtafa]

i wonder what purpose we fill in this world or are we just a plague like locusts or mice and should be culled back?

[trish]

It's clear. The purpose of human existence is to produce the heavier elements that don't form in stellar interiors.

[robertlouis]

As long as it's got nothing whatsoever to do with reality television I'll be able to cope with any other rational explanation.

[runningdownthatdream]

i wonder what purpose we fill in this world or are we just a plague like locusts or mice and should be culled back?

Y'know I think the aboriginals may be able to help you with that. See before some people came and fucked their shit up they thought they had the perfect life. I bet they have contemplated the meaning of life and had it figured out: live simply and stay on your own land!

[russtafa]

You dont give up loser

[runningdownthatdream]

You dont give up loser

You don't accomplish shit by giving up. For the record, I'm not a loser. Unlike you I don't need to whine about what other people are getting from the government because I went out and got my own. Find the meaning of life in that.

[russtafa]

why don't go and live with them im sure you will love them if you hate working and washing and love smack and grog and robbery,begging

[hippifried]

Either everything's totally meaningless or everything has meaning, including plagues. Regardless, there's nothing to be accomplished by worrying about it one way or the other.

[russtafa]

yes but how does humanity fit in to the enviroment or are we natures mistake

[Stavros]

Russtafa, the answer lies in the word that you chose to use: humanity. To treat each other with humanity. To give each other respect for our differences and similarities, to encourage the best of what humanity can do, and minimise or eradicate the worst. If it was just 'What is the meaning of life' we would be revolving endlessly around the merits or demerits of religion, science, superstition -or the mantra of the film Rubber -we are here 'for no reason'...

[Prospero]

To misquote "Existence has its reasons of which reason knows nothing."

How old are you Russtafa? I thought that sort of question was the preserve of angsty teenagers.

Stavros's opening line is as good as any I've seen - but in the end you find your own meaning and purpose etc... for there is NO big answer floating or lying around out there.

[Yvonne183]

We are just bugs,, but bigger. We go back and forth from home(nest) to work and back again, just like a bug does. We burrow holes in the ground to live in and some make tall hives(apartments) just as bugs do. We collect junk like a bug does and take it to our nests. We leave little turds everywhere like a bug does. We kill each other just like bugs do. Some of pray as do some bugs, the Mantis. We are just bugs, but bigger.

[dgs925]

We are just bugs,, but bigger. We go back and forth from home(nest) to work and back again, just like a bug does. We burrow holes in the ground to live in and some make tall hives(apartments) just as bugs do. We collect junk like a bug does and take it to our nests. We leave little turds everywhere like a bug does. We kill each other just like bugs do. Some of pray as do some bugs, the Mantis. We are just bugs, but bigger.

Absolutely we are, why would you assume different? Why does life need to have a purpose to some people?

Life has no purpose other than to perpetuate itself. That is enough for me. Others need more, so they delude themselves.

[hippifried]

yes but how does humanity fit in to the enviroment or are we natures mistake
Nature doesn't make mistakes. That's strictly an abstract human concept. Everything's just part of the whole. What makes us different from monkees or cockroaches is our ability to affect our environment expeditiously &/or consciously. We're the only species presently known to us who can bypass the natural selection process.

[Stavros]

We are just bugs,, but bigger. We go back and forth from home(nest) to work and back again, just like a bug does. We burrow holes in the ground to live in and some make tall hives(apartments) just as bugs do. We collect junk like a bug does and take it to our nests. We leave little turds everywhere like a bug does. We kill each other just like bugs do. Some of pray as do some bugs, the Mantis. We are just bugs, but bigger.

On the other hand, I have never seen a bug play the violin; most of the spiders round my way can make a web and appear, uninvited, in my bathroom in summer, but have yet to invent the wheel; our cat, Leo was a welcome and lovable member of the family, but could not cook to save his life; I have tried to interest the ants in the garden in Marx and metaphysics, in the portraits of Titian and the awesome serenity of Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks: they have no interest in any of these, and not just because they don't speak English.

In Kafka's Metamorphosis, a man wakes up one morning to find he has been transformed into a bug: cognitive dissonance works in mysterious ways Yvonne...

[runningdownthatdream]

We are just bugs,, but bigger. We go back and forth from home(nest) to work and back again, just like a bug does. We burrow holes in the ground to live in and some make tall hives(apartments) just as bugs do. We collect junk like a bug does and take it to our nests. We leave little turds everywhere like a bug does. We kill each other just like bugs do. Some of pray as do some bugs, the Mantis. We are just bugs, but bigger.

On the other hand, I have never seen a bug play the violin; most of the spiders round my way can make a web and appear, uninvited, in my bathroom in summer, but have yet to invent the wheel; our cat, Leo was a welcome and lovable member of the family, but could not cook to save his life; I have tried to interest the ants in the garden in Marx and metaphysics, in the portraits of Titian and the awesome serenity of Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks: they have no interest in any of these, and not just because they don't speak English.

In Kafka's Metamorphosis, a man wakes up one morning to find he has been transformed into a bug: cognitive dissonance works in mysterious ways Yvonne...





Who's to say that Spiders aren't achieving marvelous things in their reality? We see ourselves as superior because we can't comprehend the perspective of any other species - hell we can't even comprehend other humans who have different skin colour and live in different cultures.

[Stavros]

Spiders are very much part of my reality too, as I must be for them. The contrast between bugs and people is there for you to make, assuming you think there is one...

[runningdownthatdream]

Spiders are very much part of my reality too, as I must be for them. The contrast between bugs and people is there for you to make, assuming you think there is one...

Of course they are part of our reality but we have no idea what's important to a spider or any other species for that matter. Our opinions are based on observation and conjecture for the most part. I don't hold that we are superior only that we are different. In the same way that I don't believe i'm superior to black people or white people or vice versa. We are just different.

[russtafa]

Spiders are natures way of keeping a limit on the insect population but what do we do?

[robertlouis]

Spiders are natures way of keeping a limit on the insect population but what do we do?

50% of the population scream and jump on chairs.

And then there's the women.....:dancing:

Speaking for myself, I have no fear of spiders and find them genuinely fascinating.

Mind you, Russ, I have had some upsetting experiences in rural dunnies over in Oz that I wouldn't like to repeat...... :hide-1: :hide-1: :hide-1:

[russtafa]

what about a king brown in the dunnie=strewth

[Yvonne183]

I like this. I got to change the topic of humanity into a discussion about bugs. Not really my intent though but it did seem nice. Now, back to talking about bugs.

[robertlouis]

what about a king brown in the dunnie=strewth


Yep, guaranteed to end your constipation in an instant lol.

[Stavros]

Even I admit spiders look wonderful...in photographs...but I am still waiting for one to show me how to Tango...

[russtafa]

you don't want to tango with a Sydney funnel web spider it will be your last tango

[Stavros]

I just wanted to watch, really, Russtafa, I have seen Rolf Harris dance with more grace than I...

[russtafa]

those things jump

[robertlouis]

I just wanted to watch, really, Russtafa, I have seen Rolf Harris dance with more grace than I...

Trust me Stavros, if one of those things bite you, I can promise that you'll dance like Gene Kelly.

But only very briefly......

[Stavros]

I have a lot of respect for spiders, be they Australian or English, I understand they are sly creatures with a lot of creativity; but they have no business sleeping in my bath, where there is nothing for them to eat. Yvonne's point was that we are bugs, in a thread on humanity -a denial of difference that I objected to. After all, I am not about to invade a corner of the garden inhabited by Boris the Spider, and eat his flies.

And I don't intend to watch Nicole Kidman and that bloke from the X-Men in a film called Australia which will probably have a lot of kangaroos and spiders and glorious sunsets....I don't like Nicole Kidman....

[Birgitta]

The more spiritual approach would be that we as humans are part of a collective unconsciouss or intelligence thats becoming more self aware through creation, but it had to devide itself into all these differences and even become hostile to itself in order to devide(even create and excist), only then one can know oneself..(you have te become three, if you want to notice the difference between two).become self consciouss, which might be the point and meaning of creation, and the human mind...

But who knows ?

[Prospero]

Birgitta wrote: "But who knows ?" Precisely.

[abdelfattah_11]

Trust me, you will need to forget about that :)

[Stavros]

The thread was supposed to be about Humanity, not Life on Earth -which is the distinction I was trying to make in an earlier post.

[hippifried]

The thread was supposed to be about Humanity, not Life on Earth -which is the distinction I was trying to make in an earlier post.
Oh? I find it hard to make that distinction since the only way to put a purpose on any part of life on earth, life anywhere really, including humanity, is to claim intelligent design. I for one am not willing to make that assumptive leap.

Anyway: According to Douglas Adams, the answer is 42. Makes as much sense as anything else.

[Stavros]

the only way to put a purpose on any part of life on earth, life anywhere really, including humanity, is to claim intelligent design
Anyway: According to Douglas Adams, the answer is 42. Makes as much sense as anything else.

The only way? I am surprised at the limited choice you give humanity -we evolved, we developed what we have -I see no intelligent design in that.

As for Adams, apparently 42 was a typo, it was supposed to be 72...now, about intelligent design...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14217443