Existence: Addressing Urban Skepticism & the Purpose of Life

As old as the world is, we die young even if we live a long life. Some of the most brilliant minds over the years have seen life and its purpose as one and the same. Perhaps the purpose of life is only to live it and live it to its fullest, yet so often we miss out on the chance to fulfill our life's purpose in the end, whatever it may be, as we become stricken by tragedy and pain. The story always ends with the age-old enemy, death, winning - and we lose every time. Is this all there is to life, purpose, and the existence of human beings? • Buddha said, "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." • Confucius said, "When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge." • Aristotle said "Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." • The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov). All these men tried to sum up the meaning of life, the purpose of life, and ultimately the reason for our existence in a sentence or two. This book invites us to examine our beliefs and rationality. If we gain the whole world and lose our own life, what profit do we have? Is a life lived without a purpose even worth living? Would this not leave the world as if we never existed?