So, the question presupposes a grander purpose than whatever your parents were trying to achieve. The purpose of you being here is not, then, conferred by your parents, but someone else. And so to wonder why you're here, is to acknowledge at some level that someone - someone a little grander than your parents - has put you here for some end. — Bartricks
Perhaps you want more, though. You ask "but what's the purpose of this - the purpose of our being here?" — Bartricks
The purpose of your being here is threefold. A) it is to protect innocent others from you. B) it is to give you your just deserts. C) it is to rehabilitate you. — Bartricks
↪Nikolas It's the question at the heart of philosophy and you think it's best avoided. Good job! — Bartricks
And if the Earth was a prison or a rehab facility, wouldn't it be clear why we are being isolated, punished or rehabilitated here? What have we done? I don't remember anything from before my birth. — litewave
The question ‘what’s the meaning of us being here?’ does not necessarily presuppose that someone has put us here. — Possibility
I didn't say that it did. The question, as it stands, is vague and ambiguous. Hence the need to ask for clarity. But if it turns out that the questioner is asking - as they almost certainly are - what the 'purpose' of their being here is, then their question most certainly does presuppose that someone has put us here. For it is persons and persons alone who can confer purposes on things.
And because the answer "whatever purpose your parents were pursuing by trying to create you" is so obviously not going to satisfy the questioner, we can see that their question presupposes some kind of a divine purpose giver. — Bartricks
I could make the same point another way. I could just say "If God exists, then most likely the purpose of our being here is to protect others from us, to give us our just deserts, and to give us some chance at rehabilitation". — Bartricks
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.