to gorify God
to apreciate life
because man is satisfied with asking questions

short questions, short answers

Can I take a pass on the first question? It seems much too big.

The purpose of art--I don't know it all of course, but our God is a creator, and we are like Him. Art is creative and so it is being like God. It is good to do on its own terms--it must be, since God created this world and He didn't need to at all. That's not thorough, I know, but forgive me.

I think we search for the purpose in everything because otherwise we don't know what to do!

the purpose of life? to eat, drink, and be merry. why? because we can't deny the physical aspect of existance, and what else should we yearn to have but happiness.

what is the purpose of art? to give us an insight into what it means to be human. it is a physical manifestation of emotions, thoughts, and questions.

why does mankind search for purpose in everything? because it helps us survive, get through the day. without the will to know the "why," there would be no increase in knowledge. maybe we're just curious because though our brains are so complex, when they're not being used to help us get through the day, they wander off into uncharted territories.

1) The purpose of life (from a biological perspective) is to propogate one's own genes.
2) The purpose of art is to fulfill an arbitrary aesthetic sense. (Arbitrary in that "art" is a very subjective term, especially when applied to modern "art".)
3) Mankind searches for purpose because our religions raise us in a teleological mindset, where everything is oriented towards some ultimate goal or purpose.

To provide a thorough answer to your first question would require much more time and thought that I am willing to commit to a web page. So, I will provide you with a less than thorough answer that is extremel flawed and unintelligent.

The purpose of [human] life is obediance. We as individuals make decisions to follow the moral law. It is a universal law that applies to all humans, even if not all of it is revealed to all. Even those who have never heard the Word, understand at least a part of the law. What part of the law is revealed to them, they are to follow. Eventually though, we must come to conclusion that following the moral law is not enough. We are incapable of perfectly adhering to it, so we must throw ourself at the mercy of God and repent for our disobediance. In the end though, this whole process is to gratify God. It is for and through His pleasure that we exist, so it would be in our best interest to please Him, thus obediance.

To answer the second question I would need to reread the Critique of Pure Reason. In short though, I partially agree with evolutionexplained, the purpose of art is to fulfil an aesthetic sense. I do not think it is arbitrary though. I think it has a collection of reasons for its existence. One reason would probably be to satisfy reason and logic. Most thigs that we consider aestheticall pleasing have some sense of logic or reason to them. For example symmetry is something we appreciate quite a bit. We can see a logic behind symmetry. I would also say the aestehtics exist as a way for human beings to appreciate the elegance of all creation. Our ability to appreciate a beautiful landscape for example, give us reason to praise God.

I would say in short to the third answer that everything has a purpose.

PS: I want to know what you think of my review of the ontological argument on my blog.

What is the purpose of life?

The purpose of life is to ... live! But that is not thorough but what does it mean to live? One could say as EE has that it is to propagate the genes. Others might say, from a more modern ethical perspective, to do one's duty or do what is right in life. A more classical ethical motivator might be the perspective of living in the right attitude such that one lives a happy or virtuous life. But who is to say which is right? Does biology give us purpose? Do our ethics come objective and universal outside of us? Or is "purpose to live" a subjective thing we create each day and moment we wake up and choose to continue to live and find value in the world and not be dead Nihilists? I obviously and more inclined toward the latter considering I am an existentialist and the only thing we know for certain is that there is existence and to discovery value in the world that would drive our ethics or give our ethics perspective stem from the fact there is existence and that in itself is valuable. The objective (yang/profane) world beyond this abstract (yin/sacred) world we idealize is simply that which is modeled within existence itself and is no less subjective in the fundamental sense that you and I are subjective and taken as an axiom to be true. By that, I mean we only know there is existence in and of itself (x=x) but to say you, me, the trees, the rocks, gravity, the animals (y, z, w, v, q, p) all exist in and of themselves is an assumption without any thing to pass them all. We take the individual things we experience and that what we experience to be true based on an axiom of faith. For instance, we could all be in The Matrix and what we call those variables y, z, w, v, q, and p are all just part of this great made-up universe and they don't really exist objectively in any abstract sense (objectivity would only apply to within the matrix). So with that fundamental perspective, we can only see that x=x and nothing more. Everything else we believe to be true no different than we believe that you or I are truly here. Not to say that isn't a smart thing because it is obviously practical and pragmatic and our shared experience is, by and large, consistent and thus we have the sciences and math and reason, etc. Thus trying to find a purpose like it is embedded within the fabric of our universe is like trying to live in the matrix trying to say what is the purpose of the machine/computer/program when we are nothing but an actor within it. It is impossible if there be such a thing. Instead, we formulate it ourselves in relation and relative to our surroundings and what we experience and what we know and what we project of the future to be. So like the ancient ethical perspective the outlook and attitude is really where the value of our virtues derive from -- within. While at the same time we interact and are always in action with our surroundings and these perspectives may change and warp and reiterate themselves and thus a value of duty or of an ideal of that future or what we find virtuous gives us a goal (whether attainable or not) to act in duty or service to and thus can act as a motivator that we feel is the right thing to do. Regardless, it all falls back upon us finding some kind of value in living (not life itself, but the act). Thus my conclusion is that there is value we find within and in relation/context to our environment (our personal environment) that we shape our perspectives to and our perspectives are shaped by that give us the drive to live life toward an ideal of doing what is right as we understand it the best we can and must be disciplined with the right attitude to achieve it. Therefore, the purpose of life is to live our life as we understand is the right way to do so in context to our environment.


What is the purpose of art?

I think art serves the purpose of expressing some of what I stated above. Namely, art is an expression of our individuality and perspectives and our discipline to life. I assume you also do not mean art in the sense of drawing a picture, etc but art in the general sense of music, plays, or any discipline similar or that has some kind of artistic merit (even writing can be considered). All of them share the factor of expressing something whether it be an idea or belief expressed from the author/artist or an expression directly of the artist them self through their art/medium. So the purpose of it is to share our aspect of the first question.


Why does mankind search for purpose in everything?

Sexist these days to say MANkind :P Could just as well say womankind or more appropriately humankind or humanity.

Anyway, I don't think we necessarily search for purpose in everything as we find purpose in everything. Relating obviously to the first question you posed, we find purpose in relation to our environment and therefore it is not so much an active search or investigation into where that purpose comes from or where we find it (though philosophers obviously look for that through their love of wisdom), but we do find it when it is appropriate and it reveals more truths to what we believe (because ultimately that is all we have is our belief). So I don't agree with the connotation from this question as I don't think we are searching as we naturally just do find purpose but it is not an active hunt. Instead, it is more like we find ourselves walking along this road and are kind of oblivious to that fact but do stumble across things and see it and go "ah ha!" and learn more about the path we are walking. The real question then is how the hell did we end up on this path we are walking down and is there anyone else on it or am I alone on it and where is it going, etc.

1)   28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

       29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]There is no commandment greater than these."   Mark 12:28-31 KJV 

2) To see, hear, etc. the wonders of the Artist.

3) To answer your questions.

Aha finally using the classic SOCRATIC method, I see!  Good job, Socratic Club!