The Purpose of Life, and Compatibilism
Trigger warning: Philosophy about purpose, meaning, and God.
The ideas presented here are just my philosophy, my subjective truth. I'm sharing because I like rational discourse. I welcome alternative views. I encourage independent thought. If one does not believe in God, I understand - I have an inner atheist that will not stay quiet. If one believes God was at the very beginning, I can understand that. This is just what makes sense to me. I'm always happy to be wrong, always looking to learn. Take heed of the trigger warning, please!
The Purpose of Life
What is the meaning of life? An ancient question permeating human consciousness. Life has much meaning; there is no one answer. If life to one means simply to be happy, they are not wrong. If it means to love, or to hate, that is what life means. We all live meaningful lives, even the atheistic nihilist. Meaning is inescapable as we live in meaning. As there is meaning in contrast and each moment is contrasted from the last, meaning is always being created. I think perhaps the question one is trying to ask is: what is the purpose of life?
The purpose of life is to create and/or discover truth through reason, ethically. By discerning what is true, one can make better choices so as to participate in the definition of a better reality.
To reason is to understand the self, the other, and the universe as a whole; to refine one’s understanding of reality through observation, reflection, and adjustment.
To reason is to discover meaning by identifying patterns, truths, or principles that transcend the individual; to take part in something larger.
To reason is to create meaning, to author one’s own purpose through choices, relationships, art, goals – within the bounds of coherence and moral responsibility.
To reason is to live ethically, to act in ways that do not harm others, and ideally, that benefit or harmonise with them. Reason supports the idea that cooperative flourishing is more stable and fulfilling than conflict or domination.
To reason is to experience life fully. Laughter, love, curiosity, beauty, and challenge are all valid ends when they arise from, or contribute to, a reasoned, integrated life.
Meaning is real but plural. It is shaped by both discovery and invention, grounded in reason, tempered by sympathy/empathy, and tested through experience.
It is by way of reasoning that we may venture into the heart of a black hole and find what actually lies there.
Not every moment yields clarity, but even stagnation has informational value. The most meaningful lives are often lived by those that rose from hardship and obscurity. Sometimes one must lose themselves in order to find themselves.
I don’t expect everyone to agree. Without competition, without rational argument, there is no game of life. Ideas should be tested. One should always question in order to find truth.
Creation is good, and we live in creation. Good things do not stagnate, they improve. One is evolving, along with reality itself. One is finding and building truth. We are reason, knowledge in motion.
If God exists and came down from heaven and told all everything, what would be the purpose of life? Omniscient beings do not learn. It is the role of life to learn.
Even those unable to learn or participate have purpose and meaning. One unable to learn or participate exists to provide reason for others to help. An able and just person should have compassion, for life is a collaboration. Even a rock has purpose and meaning.
So, what is your reason for being? Best be good.
Compatibilism
There is a reason for everything. From reason, conclusion logically follows. Thus, everything is determined. For me, this includes God - He has a reason.
If everything has reason and reason requires time in order to function, the simplest beginning consists of time and reason. Reason produces truth. The first conclusion of reason would have been the ultimate truth: God. As God is the formation of time and reason, God is therefore omniscient. He understands time and reason perfectly.
One is the result of reason, but one is also a conscious reason. With free will, one can choose how to determine things. One uses reason to define reality. God knows all and so knows all the choices one will make. However, His omniscience is merely a mirror of reality, not a force upon it.
Knowing everything about an author (in an omniscient way) does not cause their next book, it simply gives knowledge of it. God is not the coercive author of each choice. He is just perfect at prediction, not a causal override. One is still the author of one’s own book. God simply knows each book because He knows each author perfectly.
So:
Reason determines things.
Omniscience is knowing every reason, variable, and outcome.
Free will is being a self-governing generator of reason within the system.
God knows your choices because He knows your structure, not because He overrides it.
Imagine you build a robot that loves to play with blocks. However, it is a *thinking* robot. It looks at each block and makes an assessment of how to play with it.
As you made the robot, you know how it thinks. You can predict perfectly which block it will choose to play with and how it will play with it. It is still *choosing*, you just happen to know its choices before it does.
You are free because you choose based on your own reasons. You are the reason for something else, and your consciousness allows you to pick determinations.
God is omniscient because He knows how you will use reason. God is not a controlling force. Knowing isn’t the same as controlling.
Thus, one lives in a determined reality. One has free will to make determinations, with an omniscient God knowing all reasons and their outcomes.
@jesusredeemedme2425
@Torean
@Creamyyy
@azurePond
@Amanda84
@Tinywhisper11
@BastionKnight
Our understanding of free will is same. We make choices. Its just that god knows in advance what our choices will be . The will is for a test of opportunity - do we use it to do good or evil? ( my muslim beliefs tell me that We opted for this test. We are not here without our consent . Animals and plants and angels are also creation but they dont have will. They're in obedience to god and constant in their worship.)
God sent books to guide - not to learn. And god didnt tell everything in those books- just enough to help us arrive at belief .... my experience from quran tells me that. We still have to figure out our own meanings for a lot of things.
More later.
Well done. Good going. I love your reflections 🙂
@cyanessence
@cyanessence and yes like I told u before the quran / book of god --- as I understand it -- is an "additional" mercy to facilitate arriving at belief and life fundamentals. Its not the only way. We can arrive at it through our own faculties given - and this too has been mentioned in the book that God has stamped belief on the hearts- so we are on a test even if we dont get access to books or messengers... every person's conscience has been equipped with the task theyre set out for.
Oooh, I'm gonna sound like a heretic here. 😅 I just want everyone to know that I'm not trying to disrespect anyone's beliefs, of change anyone's beliefs/feelings.
That said, I just have to mention the part of "Omnicient beings do not learn". The "God" you speak of is originally based on the Christian God, but the Christian God in the Bible is shown in instances of being caught off guard, and thus, learning, in His own way. At least in my interpretation, and I don't feel like this fact can be ignored. This kind of goes with what Pine and Pond were saying here, because I feel like those instances, and many instances in human history, as well as current ones... Are tragedies, at best.
We've been talking a lot, and I feel like I have a lot to learn about "reason". You have me paying attention even more, and I value that.
But then there's my attitude. My attitude is that reason doesn't justify. At first, this was a selfish notion, because I've been through a lot of the weirdest situations in my past. But seriously, I definitely can't speak for the pain of others, I have no right to say that their suffering happened for a reason. Can I believe so? Certainly. Belief can be gentle, it doesn't have to have to be infallible or intrusive. But... I don't believe so. What I believe, is that anything gained mentally or existentially for a person who has suffered enough, or who hasn't truly had choices, is too little and too late to justify. They deserved better back then. I know that I care about those people, and I feel like I fall among them, despite the fact that I'm probably thriving more than ever before.
Ultimately the God in what you put forth, need not be all-powerful or all-loving. But it's the latter that's important. And I know your feelings and reasonings explore far beyond what you said, we've been having fun with that. It's just kinda what Pond said... Religion/faith in instances of loss or anything like it... It brings some people comfort, but what people say to help spread that comfort ends up making me mad too. That's another reason why I don't mesh with the reason thing in such a way. And Pine said it well too, that reasoning often takes place after the fact. I think that's one point that everyone should hear, because we usually don't even realize we're doing it. The philosophy has to continue, and we have a tendency to fall into what seems to justify things. Perhaps the original biblical God was doing the same, and what does that really mean for us? Whether or not He's the true God, or if they were the actual events, what does it mean that it was written that way in such a holy text that's endured over the ages?
Anyway, those are my thoughts for now, I hope that they're welcome. 😁
Also, gonna open a can of worms and leave it. If reason isn't truly justified, what about time? And if time isn't linear, what does that mean for reason?
@cyanessence
As a person of faith, it's natural to doubt, to be angry, to question, to not have all the answers. It's not for me personally a theorem to be quantified or measured or held under a microscope. It's more a lived experience, and emotive and a reflective one. Do I have quantifiable proof that God exists? No. Do you have quantifiable proof that He doesn't? God for me is something that sits in the core of my heart and I just feel it and I have no other way to analyse it other than live it 💜🥰
@PineTreeTree
Your perspective intrigues me the most. Reasoning being man-made is something I can understand. "Everything happens for a reason" can be like a knife in the back in some contexts. Just because we tend to reason a lot does not necessarily mean that there is some mystical force at the beginning called reason. It's just come to be my belief, much like people believe in God, astrology, numerology, things like that.
One thing I can't shake is the concept of quantum indeterminacy. It is the principle that certain properties of particles, like position or momentum, cannot be precisely known at the same time. Outcomes are fundamentally probabilistic, not deterministic. So, true randomness. If I draw conclusions from observed phenomena, I cannot ignore it.
For me? It is a sign of missing knowledge. I can also understand the interpretation that it is a sign that not everything has a reason. I encourage one to adopt the view that brings the most comfort while respecting the other. Philosophy should be kind - the mind is delicate, and mental health is of utmost importance to me.
@azurePond
I too was an angry teen. If there is a God and he *planned* atrocities, is He a psychopath?! Surely there must have been a better way. If we are destined for paradise, why not start there and stay there? Sometimes it feels we live in pure chaos. I do believe if we had perfect reasoning, we would understand all causes, the purpose of things. Again, our confusion, to me, is a sign of missing knowledge.
@Creamyyy
We seem to be on the same page. I believe life should be comfortable for all, and if atheism provides such comfort, go for it. It provides a certain sense of freedom. I just think we should live in harmony. No need to attack each other for differing beliefs - we are all just asking questions. Open and honest dialogue, for me, is therapeutic.
@Torean
Am I a heretic too? I once reasoned that if things are endlessly improving, we would necessarily transcend God at some point and teach Him a thing or two. I do not like to ignore information... if Christian accounts describe a learning God, that should factor into the equation. I can understand a God that wants to *appear* as if He is learning so that He is more relatable, but He may actually learn. Perhaps that is the point of His creation. Again, this seems to be a sign of missing knowledge.
It is cold to tell someone experiencing atrocities that all things have reason. In times of hardship, I do not make such claims. I entertain the notion of randomness as it provides more comfort than reason.
For everyone: my ultimate aim with my philosophy is to provide comfort. Reflection, in my opinion, is an excellent tool to sort thoughts and arrive at conclusions that serve the self. If we disagree, I am happy that there is still something to talk about. These kinds of discussions are my favourite - a deep dive into the nature of reality and the self. I don't think anyone should be excluded. These ideas should not be exclusive to academia. Everyone has something to add, everyone should be heard. We can get along, and if the discussion ever ends, that would be a tragedy in itself.
Hey @cyanessence I’ll give your essay and Torean’s comment a proper reply later — I’m low on sleep right now and can’t think philosophically. But I think I might be able to recall some things so here’s a quick reply to the comment you posted.
First of all, thank you for sharing that — it’s strangely comforting to know I’m not alone in having wrestled with that kind of fury.
Honestly... I’ve asked the same question- if there is a God and He planned this world knowing all its horrors… what does that say about Him?
I once told my dad about Pascal's wager — that it's better to believe in God than to find out after death that He exists and be thrown into h3ll. It was obviously a joke. He’s an atheist so I tend to annoy him with such questions.
He responded by asking- if someone led a noble and virtuous life without harming others... would God really condemn them on Judgment day just because they didn’t believe in Him? Is faith so necessary that lack of it alone warrants eternal d@mnation? Because in Abrahamic religions, it seems so. Even Jesus says “I am the door through which you can see God" (or something like that..not the exact words ) It has multiple interpretations ofc.
But if faith is that necessary — to the point where a good person is d@mned solely for not believing — then is God truly ever loving? Is God love?
And I still don’t have an answer to that question.
Still because I am me... I argued that it’s not about earning heaven but about accepting a truth bigger than ourselves — and that’s what faith is. It’s the acceptance that we are inherently flawed and that some truths are beyond the reach of rational comprehension.
To that, he countered- faith in something bigger is not necessary to understand that the human mind and human beings are inherently flawed. In Hinduism you can be atheistic, pantheistic or monotheistic. They believe the reality we perceive is an illusion and that atrocities happen because people keep committing them. That’s why they’re reborn... again and again... until they are freed from karma and become one with the divine. There’s no heaven, *** or judgment day and faith is not required to become one with God. A good person with good karma will be relieved from the cycle of death and rebirth.
To that because I was dumb.... argued that even within the karmic framework you have to place trust in something beyond immediate experience — whether it’s the law of karma, the idea of rebirth or the belief that liberation is possible. None of these are empirically provable. They require a kind of faith — not in a deity but in a moral and metaphysical structure. That, too, is a form of surrender.
Even the process of detachment and self purification in Hinduism demands deep inner trust — that your efforts matter, that truth exists beyond illusion and that your soul is capable of union with the Divine. You may not need worship but you still need to orient yourself toward something larger, something truer than ego or material life. That’s faith — even if it is not named as such.
Which, in hindsight, felt like scoring a self goal, because he then said- “See? All religions or belief systems are inherently flawed and make faith the only way to salvation — not good deeds but faith in some religious order because the ultimate purpose of religion was never salvation. Religion was a sociopolitical system in ancient times created to ensure the survival of communities — to maintain unity, divide resources and assign meaning to suffering, especially in the face of inequality caused by social hierarchies embedded in religion. And to ensure the survival of that order, faith was necessary."
And what makes people more faithful than the promise of eternal punishment?
But replied that there’s a difference between organized religion as a historical institution — which has often been flawed, oppressive or political — and faith as an inner experience of longing and surrender. Religion may have offered order, yes — but that does not discredit the deeply human ache that gave rise to it- the need to understand suffering, to feel connected to something bigger, to believe our lives aren’t just random sparks in a void.
“So just delusional?”
To that, I replied: “ Well you cannot prove that God does not exist. What you have is also a kind of belief. Think of this life. Yes maybe entropy made it happen but just think about the sheer chance that this all exist at all. There has to be a creator.”
To which he countered- “If you came across a cottage in the middle of a forest where everything was perfectly arranged and even the bedspreads matched your favourite colour — would you assume it was built for you? You just happened to walk there. You just happened to find it.”
Then he said “I thought I taught you better than that. I can respect your beliefs — but they don’t have a strong foundation, Azure.”
And he walked away. As if he hadn’t just obliterated me.
But he did not answer about - you cannot prove me that God does not exist part. A small win I guess.
So yeah, that’s why I say I have a complicated relationship with faith.
I do believe in something greater — I just don’t know whether that higher power is apathetic toward life or ever loving. I’d like to believe God is ever loving. I’d like to believe in divine justice — because the opposite of that belief is me picking up a sword and setting out to avenge myself and the fallen.
(umm.. that’s a joke)
Anyway, for me, faith is more personal than religious. That’s why I don’t question other people’s faith — or their lack of it. I’m not even sure of my own. I mean, I am sure of it ..like for me— but I don’t have the kind of evidence or arguments that could convince anyone else. It’s just… a personal thing.
(I know I’m sounding more and more delusional. Lol)
But at the end of the day even if I reject all those structures — historical or religious — I still believe there’s something greater than myself. And it’s certainly not out of fear of punishment or a promise of salvation. It’s because it gives me hope. It gives me a reason to keep going.
@azurePond
I'm running out of mental capacity to make a meaningful reply, so I'll keep this brief.
I, too, grapple with faith daily. I respect it, but I question it. I question religion. It has been somewhat good in some ways, downright evil in others. Religious wars? Insanity.
Your conversation was very interesting. It's why I truly appreciate those that do not have faith, for they are a catalyst for critical thought.
The reason why I am running low on thought is because I expended myself thinking of quantum indeterminacy. Here's my thoughts as they unfold, never being satisfied so I kept going:
God had to choose how to create reality. Quantum indeterminacy is His choices manifesting. We see reality as still being created, whereas He sees reality as its whole as He is omniscient. If He appeared to us, He would be capable of learning from us.
- - -
Imagine an author writing a story with living ink. The author (God) has already conceived the entire narrative, from beginning to end. From His perspective, the story is complete. But the ink (quantum indeterminacy) moves with a will of its own, writing itself across the pages in real time.
The characters live inside the unfolding lines, unaware that the entire book already exists in the mind of the author.
If the author were to step into the story as a character, He would experience time, emotion, and discovery from within, subject to learning in the way the ink writes, not as He writes.
- - -
Imagine reality as a vast tapestry being woven on a divine loom. God sees the entire tapestry, the full picture, all at once.
We, living inside the fabric, only see thread by thread as it's woven. Quantum indeterminacy is the looseness in the thread before it's tightened - tiny movements, uncertain paths, choices among many possibilities. Each thread has some freedom to move within constraints before it locks into place.
God's omniscience means He knows how every thread *could* move and how it *will* fit into the final pattern, but the actual path each thread takes can still appear open to us while we're inside the weave.
If God stepped into the tapestry as a thread, He would move within it, feel its tension, and appear subject to the same uncertainty. He would be capable of experiencing, reacting, and even learning from within the system He already understands from the outside.
- - -
We are living in the consciousness of God. He made choices when creating reality. Quantum indeterminacy is His choices playing out.
- - -
Reality is not a tapestry outside of God, but a dynamic thought within His consciousness.
We are self-aware ideas, threads of experience unfolding within the structure of His reasoning.
Quantum indeterminacy is not randomness, but the live execution of His foundational choices, like a mind contemplating all valid options before settling on one in context.
From within, outcomes feel open, unresolved, because we experience His thought in progress.
From God's perspective, the entire thought, every choice, path, and outcome, is already complete, coherent, and meaningful.
- - -
Like characters in a dream of a perfect mind, we live moment to moment, not knowing what comes next, though every moment arises from principles the dreamer set in place. Indeterminacy isn't error or noise, it's the unfolding of a divine logic that feels uncertain to us because we experience it locally, not globally.
In this view, reality isn't outside of God. It is God's active reasoning, and quantum indeterminacy reflects the openness of thought-in-motion - not chaos, but living choice.