Purpose

What is the measure of human happiness, or human value?  I suppose it is a question we have all asked ourselves at some time, in some form.  It is a valid question but perhaps a deeper one is to discuss if happiness is, or should be, our goal in existence.  The "Purpose" in life. Might not another purpose be to learn and understand the natural world and the wonders that is holds? What about freedom? My own answer to the age old question of freedom versus happiness had always been freedom.

If our question is the meaning or purpose of life and existence then let us consider something else; a house cat can and does arguable live a happier life than many humans.  Can we accept that the highest aspiration of man (or woman) kind is to be content in our own lives?

Let us consider the differences between ourselves and other things.  Among all the creatures of the earth we are one of a handful that seem to be aware of our own existence, and we are the only ones to have begun to unravel the mystery's behind that existence, to answer the question "why are we here?".

Does a rock have a purpose in its existence? What about the atoms themselves? What purpose does a hydrogen atom have? What about a dog? At what point does a configuration of matter become complex enough to warrant a "meaning of life"?

We struggle with our own mortality so some might say that children are the meaning of life, a new life that followed as a result of ours. That certainly fulfills our biologic and evolutionary purpose and it seems to fill a deep seeded need to surpass our own mortality.  But surely there is purpose in our own life beyond reproduction.

For me, I find my purpose in simple understanding of my own existence and universe in which I am a part.

What is a great art work worth, if there is no one to marvel at it's beauty?

The beauty and intercity of the cosmos is beyond our small human comprehension, yet we, we small creatures, living on our tinny pale blue dust mote can look up and understand a small yet incredible part of this marvellous canvas and we can marvel at its beauty and that act brings purpose the cosmos itself, and that is all the purpose I could ever need.

"The greatest travesty that could befall the cosmos is for it to pass, unnoticed,
uncomprehended, and unadmired, from
existence, into oblivion...
Like a beautiful artwork, rotting away, with no one to admire or appreciate it's existence in the fist place."