It varies from person to person, and there's no universal goal or source for a goal.
Possible answers are: "to learn more about the world (through science)", "to help more people (either friends and family or humanity)", "to survive because instinct tells us to", "to leave something behind", "to see what the future holds (in terms of technology)". There are also short-term goals, "nicer car", "nicer house", "better job" etc. Some people probably drift through life content without goals.
I think individual people gravitate towards one goal over the others sort of... instinctually? It's just something in their personality, and it's as inescapable as anything else in their personality is. Like, I have a very strong desire to help people and that is such a big part of my personality I can barely imagine what it would be like not to feel that. It's just there, I don't even think about where it came from. A part of my mind has latched onto it and can't let go even if it wanted to. It's a bit like the Constitution of a country; a set of vague "rules to live by" put in place by yourself because you actually feel a desire to follow them, not because you have to.
That's just how goals feels to me, anyway. Other people could feel completely differently about all this stuff, and I assuming they feel the exact same as me would be foolish :P I'm also getting dangerously close to describing "destiny" (a word I hate) without intending to (which it isn't, because people have the capacity to resent their "destiny" but I don't think people can hate the goals they set themselves), which makes me think my description isn't good.
It could be something genetic, something influenced by my childhood, something caused by hormones in my brain. It's something that's too difficult to quantify and thus difficult to test in a scientific way. It's probably a combination of those factors and more. It could be caused by God, although as an atheist obviously I wouldn't believe that.
EDIT: Maybe I'll come back to this later; I don't feel like I've exhausted myself on this :P
EDIT: By the way, I'm using words like "goal" and "purpose" interchangeably, even though I know "goal" isn't really the right word for what I'm saying because all goals have a way to score them, but purposes don't. Just pretend I've said "purpose", if that's easier :P
IIN to ask ...what is the purpose of living if you are an atheist ?
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It varies from person to person, and there's no universal goal or source for a goal.
Possible answers are: "to learn more about the world (through science)", "to help more people (either friends and family or humanity)", "to survive because instinct tells us to", "to leave something behind", "to see what the future holds (in terms of technology)". There are also short-term goals, "nicer car", "nicer house", "better job" etc. Some people probably drift through life content without goals.
I think individual people gravitate towards one goal over the others sort of... instinctually? It's just something in their personality, and it's as inescapable as anything else in their personality is. Like, I have a very strong desire to help people and that is such a big part of my personality I can barely imagine what it would be like not to feel that. It's just there, I don't even think about where it came from. A part of my mind has latched onto it and can't let go even if it wanted to. It's a bit like the Constitution of a country; a set of vague "rules to live by" put in place by yourself because you actually feel a desire to follow them, not because you have to.
That's just how goals feels to me, anyway. Other people could feel completely differently about all this stuff, and I assuming they feel the exact same as me would be foolish :P I'm also getting dangerously close to describing "destiny" (a word I hate) without intending to (which it isn't, because people have the capacity to resent their "destiny" but I don't think people can hate the goals they set themselves), which makes me think my description isn't good.
It could be something genetic, something influenced by my childhood, something caused by hormones in my brain. It's something that's too difficult to quantify and thus difficult to test in a scientific way. It's probably a combination of those factors and more. It could be caused by God, although as an atheist obviously I wouldn't believe that.
EDIT: Maybe I'll come back to this later; I don't feel like I've exhausted myself on this :P
EDIT: By the way, I'm using words like "goal" and "purpose" interchangeably, even though I know "goal" isn't really the right word for what I'm saying because all goals have a way to score them, but purposes don't. Just pretend I've said "purpose", if that's easier :P