What is the purpose of life?

Come across tis nice article and would like to share~~

Philosophically, one can begin with the question: "What is the purpose of life?" One could even give a standard answer: "To help others." But as the philosopher Charles Schultz once pointed out, this answer begs the question. What is the purpose of the lives of others?

And philosophically, there is a problem with the question. Philosophy distinguishes between facts and values. Facts include things like, "It is raining" and "Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius". Values motivate statements like "I like bananas", "I want to marry you" and "Something should be done to stop the depletion of ozone from the atmosphere". Values are concerned with aesthetics, motivation and emotion -- attributes of living organisms. Questions like "What is the purpose of the Universe?" or "What is the purpose of Life?" are only answerable by intelligent beings, groups of intelligent beings or (perhaps) by supernatural beings. Only living beings have purposes. And ultimately, to ask someone else "What is the purpose of life?" in search of an answer, is to surrender self-control and ask "What purpose do you have for my life?"

Therefore, it makes no sense to ask if the survival of any one person or even the whole of humankind matters in some objective sense. A god-like Being may make judgements concerning the value of humankind, but the physical universe makes no such judgements. It is living beings who make judgements and have purposes -- and rarely with unanimity.

Given that judgements and purposes are only attributes of living beings, whose purpose is most important? The government's? Your mother's? Your own? The last answer may seem selfish and self-centered, but whether you acknowledge it or not, you have ultimate responsibility for deciding what purposes are most important to you (as opposed to important to someone else -- the only alternative). It isn't hard to consciously or unconsciously delegate this responsibility -- and others often attempt to make delegation easy (if not obligatory) -- but no one can truly take this responsibility from you.

How important to you is the on-going survival of humankind? How important to you is the on-going survival of your country? How important to you is the on-going survival of your friends and family? And how important is it to you that you remain alive -- and how long would you like to remain alive?

Suicide counseling is primarily for people who are undecided about the value of life. The suicide counselor can attempt to remind or inform the despairing person of the potential pleasures of life -- or attempt to suggest ways to end pain and depression. But a person lacking the will to live usually has no motivation to find a reason to live. The suicide counselor is helpless to change a person who innately experiences life as being something negative -- helpless to find goals & values that would be meaningful. Many (if not most) people will eagerly choose death as a means to stop physical or emotional pain if the pain is intense enough and if the prospect of the pain ending seems bleak.

Well in short we have to live our life to the fullest. Or else we will regret it. Do it while u can. Never give up.