The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't a search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead.
Yep, the purpose of life is to just live and there's no reason for that besides the fact that it just happened because laws of universe somehow managed to create autonomous complex mass of particles called living beings.
Edit: but because of how human psychology works we have an ability to give a "meaning" of life by ourselves and stick with it.
Many philosophers tried to answer it, some reaching an optimistic vision, while others concluding it was all doom and gloom (nihilists etc.). There are so many answers, because there are so many variables.
To touch the point of the iceberg it depends for example if you believe in the existence of a prime cause (aka God and thus some kind of spiritual dimension) or not; and if yes, how you imagine its attitude (is it sentient? If yes, is it neutral, good or evil? How much does it interfere in the life of the universe? And so on and on...). That shapes how you start to analyze the purpose of human life and existence as a whole.
So let's stick on the dilemma of being atheist or theist (avoiding the gray areas like being agnostic, because I'm trying to keep it super simple):
If you say no, there is no God, I believe in the chaotic order that is evolution: you may think for example that the purpose of life is hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure, because you live only once, in the now. And then you enter the rabbit hole of "what kind of hedonism?".
If you say yes and God is caring, the purpose of life is usually the betterment of your soul, to trascend the material dimension. There is an internal evolution here at play. And here the question then is how? You will have to pick which interpretation of the spiritual world convinces you more, a traditional religion or an esoteric philosophy (theosophy etc.).
If your God is neutral, then you probably have full agency, you choose what is you life purpose. You are free to make you own meaning, to play in this playground. The choices here become infinite like the stars.
If your God is evil, like the Gnostic Demiurge, your goal will be to rebel against the current system of oppression, escaping the prison it built to keep you in, for example reaching the true God or becoming your own God.
And, I stress it once more, this is only one of many variables.
In the end nobody knows. This is a personal quest with answers based on your personal intimate experience on what is life, what you currently value, what do you think is it worth living for and the type of relationship you have (or have not) built with its incorporeal, abstract, intuitive, invisible side.
Fools are the ones that claim their answer is the only right one, because humanity in its current state does not possess the tools to prove or confute anything on this subject with undeniable evidence. If not fools, then they are manipulative bastards, that want to take advantage of your confusion and lack of direction to persuade you into pursuing a goal that does not benefit you, but them.
There is no universal purpose. Even the old "survival of your species" dogma is reaching the end of its usefulness, seeing how we've perverted our planet.
I agree that there is no universal purpose, but we can still define our own that aligns with our values. Living purposefully can lead to a sense of accomplishment and contentment, don't you think?
Like everything else, you are part of something and made of other things. But for some reason, we seem to be aware enough of what is above and below, what is past and what seems to be coming. Why that should lead to suffering is a matter of managing expectations.
The purpose of life is whatever you make it. Some people feel their purpose is to make as much money as they can, others to create art that will last for all time.
There is no one purpose to life. There's no cosmic point to it all, so we all just find out purpose.
For me, my purpose is to find happiness. I suffer from depression so that's my one goal. I find making people laugh makes me happy, so now I do a podcast where I make people laugh most of the time.
Climate change has always been a thing. The planet has been going thru hot/cold cycles for millions of years.
There is no purpose for any life on earth. The planet survived just fine before life started, it will survive just fine when life is gone. (or until Sol goes super-nova, or whatever it's called when it expands and engulfs all the planets).
Sure, unanswerable in general without covering whole swathes of philosophy and religion. I guess I view my own purpose to be to do things I enjoy and to help others.
As I recently found out my family has Huntington's disease and several of us, possibly myself, will die young and horribly...
I find myself ruminating on this a lot and have not come to any solid conclusions. I do frequently think about making sure the people in my life know they are loved and appreciating the beauty of a moment while you can. Maybe it has something to do with that?
Whatever you make it / want it to be. Why try to find purpose beyond living how you want to live? We're only around for about 80 years, why waste it trying to find meaning from someone else.
Fair enough, but it's not about taking someone else's meaning, but defining our own that aligns with our values. Discussing this question with others might give one new perspective on the path to finding purpose.
One could also argue we only have 80 years and finding purpose can serve as the foundation for personal growth. Fulfilling a purpose can lead to happiness and satisfaction in life. So why waist these short 80 years miserable and unhappy?
I didn't say anything about being miserable and unhappy though? Just that you should be free to do what you want and there is no "true purpose to life", just the purpose you give it.
Depends on who you ask. Plato, Nietzsche, Camus would have a brawl just discussing how to define the meaning of purpose.
Personally, I like absurdism. There is no intrinsic meaning. You're not an eventuality, just a coincidence. You're dealt a hand and expected to get something out of it, which is kinda fucked. But hey fuck it, there's cool stuff around too, plenty to find your own meaning.
It's not to be fruitful and multiply cause if you think that's the case then there're some truly horrible people who are succeeding doing some terrible and illegal stuff.