While I can't speak for everybody, I've got shit to do. I'm also driven my primal instincts to 1) get what I want, and 2) stay out of danger.


Not really. Most of the stuff in life that we've developed or built, even the ones we take for granted, didn't really exist 5,000 years ago. We're primates with a good knack for pattern-searching and tool-making, but that's about it.

I live because one day a boy met a girl and they fell in love....

I live to survive, reproduce and have fun.

Man's most powerful instinct--the will to live! Life is the only thing we've ever known. We don't know what's beyond it, only that the living are simply "left behind", and that seems to be the greatest evidence for there being something after life. But, it seems to us to be an unearthly place, somewhere beyond the stars where no human being can reach while being alive; the afterlife is the only true unknown (or "the one new thing under the sun", which is ironically not under the sun at all).

To support the afterlife comment--when someone dies, what is said about their material possessions? That they were "left behind". But you can't leave something behind without going somewhere; car keys can't be considered "left behind" until the owner has actually left the house. So when someone dies, how can they "leave behind" their belongings unless they've actually gone somewhere else?

Where do they go? I dunno. Being a living human, I'm the least qualified to answer that question.

As for "humans being more complicated than animals", I think that desire to prove that is the basis of civilization. Animals do what they need to do--eat, sleep, fuck. They sometimes travel in packs, because there is safety in numbers, and they seek out environments most conducive to their comfort and well-being.

They don't build cities and churches and governments. The most they'll do is designate an "Alpha Male" because--let's face it, the strongest creature should be at the top of the pyramid. They abstain from building monuments to their "complexity" because they have nothing to prove. They realize that the moment a building is erected signifies the first step in that building falling down.

Ironically, animals are the most Satanic of us all. Animals don't have churches--and Satanism doesn't either.

The difference? Opposable thumbs. We're the only creature to have them, and we feel the need to "prove" that they are there for a reason. So to prove our superior intellect, we build skyscrapers and airplanes; we write books about Gods and then kill each other about them; we invent guns and bombs and then use them to destabilize an already fragile race of beings.

So why do I live?

-shrug-

I believe that asking that question is the first step toward questioning oneself. Questioning oneself leads to doubt; doubt leads to fear. And fear leads to the need for comfort, the need to know that we are better than something/someone else--or just the need to know we're more "complicated".

Some of you say we are not more 'complicated', but what if we think about our technology? For example a computer. Only human can make (or xenu lol) pcs and that machines are complicated. Nowadays computers are some kind of part of us. Technology - medicines / created organs / radio waves through our body... and much more.

Human life is not as simple as an animal's life. We have more thoughts and more possibilities...etc.

Anyway, most of your mind are similar to mine.

Questioning oneself is a very good way to explore a world inside mind. It's necessary and also the first step to understand the world (if you want).
I think, doubt doesn't lead always to fear. It depends on situation / question / personality...etc.

My point is about that topic in short: world is pointless (life also). It's just exists and that's all. And it's all about chances. However everyone takes place on the right positions.

Seriously?

Yes, seriously. I couldn't be here today if my parents hadn't conceived me.

On a more serious note, I have creative endeavors I want to see finished and I want to make the most out of my life in terms of experience. I want to travel, I want to see historical architecture and works of art. I want to indulge in all the finer things in life.

That, in a nutshell, is my driving force.

I live for new experiences. A food I didn't know about...a better beer...seeing another snow. I'm just having too much fun to stop.


EDIT: Scratch that. My cat just informed me that I live for her. Who knew?

Yeah, but Man is the braggart animal.

Man has the uncanny ability to invent something new that fixes one problem, only to cause three more.

I'm glad I read this before responding, because I was going to write, "Beer and Boobs".

Look at an ant hill. Look at a sky scraper. Variations on a theme.

With man as with every other animal, it is the survival instinct that will keep them alive.

As for personal goal, everyone will have a different story to tell, some alike, some not even remotely, with happiness probably being a common denominator amongst all.

I think instinct < knowledge. And there are also some emotions that can be more powerful for example love or even hate.
People over 30 would be already dead with instincts only.

Anyway.



You seems to be a very constructive person. Right?
I just want to find some answers about the constructive/destructive instincts in human. Normally men should have more destructive and less constructive. And the opposite for woman. Movies, history or arts are good example for this.