Colleagues have provided interesting responses. To me, simply put, ''The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”

--Robert Byrne

Regards

Hi Dr.

this link will help you

www.zapmeta.ws/The+True+Purpose+Of+Life‎▼

Dear Zahir.

Your question -- What is the real meaning or purpose of/ reason for human life on earth? -- has been highly debated across centuries by theologians, philosophers, psychologists, and so forth. As it is an existential and metaphysical question, it is more than natural that it has given raise to different answers. As you righty say, different cultures have different answers and interpretations, and different people think differently about this question.

Your question reminds me of a relatively similar, and also highly debated question, Why live? I think that it might be interesting to look for an answer that could be applied, from an ideal point of view, to all people, regardless of their personal beliefs regarding the perspectives of the existence, consciousness, knowledge of reality, social ties, happiness, ethics/ morality, values or acts (good or evil), afterlife, recognizing reality, and so forth. So, as I see it, we might say that the real meaning or purpose of/reason for human life on earth is to live in harmony (a) with ourselves; (b) the others, and (c) the universe. When this is the case, we are part and parcel of the infinite or cosmic order that seems to govern the universe. This kind of formula for the meaning of human life on earth would pass, say, the universalizability and the reversibility test. In other words, the formula could be applied to all people all over the world (the universalizability test) and seems to be applicable when we take into account a reversible exchange of perspectives or, say, put in another's shoes.

Thank you for your challenging posting. I am eager to know of other answers to it.

Best regards,

Orlando

I do not know what the true meaning / reason of human life and all other living things, of the animal and vegetable kingdom, that inhabit the earth. But I know for sure that the primary function of life is reproduction. As reproduction is the only known way of living forever through the transmission of their genes.

Dear Leonardo,

You say that you do not know what the true meaning/reason of life is. As Zahir's question is an existential and metaphysical question, any response to it cannot be corroborated or falsified in scientific terms. This means that the way we answer such question depends, among other things, upon our religious and spiritual perspective. From a Darwinist perspective, it makes sense to say, as you do, that the primary function of life, be it human or not human, is reproduction. Is there a meaning in reproduction? This is again an existential and metaphysical question and, as such, there are not correct/incorrect responses to it.

As I see it, human beings differ from other living beings in several respects. I cannot imagine a vegetable, or even a non-human animal, to wonder about the meaning of their existence. So, plants and non-human animals do not quest for meaning, not are they concerned if they live in harmony with themselves, the others, and the universe. Because of this, I stick to my previous idea that the ultimate reason for human life on earth is, from an ideal view point, to preserve the cosmic order that seems to rule over the universe. This is more likely to be attained when we, humans, live in harmony with ourselves, the others, and the universe.

Best regards,

Orlando

I thank you both Dr Leonardo and Dr Orlando, and agree completely with the views of Dr Orlando, since knowing the real purpose/ purposes of human creation is the essence of creation. Trying to know, who we are (humans or animals), what is the real purpose/ purposes of human life, what is good to do and what is not good to do for ourselves and for others etc etc seem a matter of common sense. Even in general materialistic and worldly sense, we should at least admit that we should not willingly create problem/ problems/ discomforts for others on earth, and we should have good moral values for harmony Dr Orlando mentioned  'we, human, live in harmony with ourselves, the others, and the universe'. 

Best regards

My private thought about the real meaning or purpose of human life on earth is to contribute to making all humans live peacefully.

Philosophically I love deep ecology. According to this philosophy, Man, like all other species, can not benefit from any particular right to live and reproduce. If the real meaning or purpose of human life on earth is to live in harmony with: (a) ourselves, (b) the others, and (c) the universe then we have failed from the beginning. The proof is the natural conflictuality of man, the only living species, that kill his own similar, not to hungry or to reproduce, but, often for abject reasons. The only living specie that from millennia has invented the wars of religion. The only living specie that pollute and destroy nature indiscriminately. How can we become guardians of the harmony of the universe with these premises?

see: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_Deep_Ecology_be_considered_a_philosophical_basis_for_environmental_conservationism

Dear Zahir

Thank you very much for your agreement with my views. The Ideal that  the main reason for human life on earth is to live in harmony with ourselves, the others, and the universe such that we can make party of the cosmic harmony that seems to rule over the universe, is an ideal that can be universalized or applied to all people at all places and times, and espoused when a reversible exchange of perspective is adopted. Even though, as Leonardo notes, it is true  that we have failed from the beginning in living in accord with such an ideal, this not mean that you should give it up. To give up an ideal just because it has now been followed in the past and is likely to be unattainable in practical or factual terms in a more or less distal future amounts to following prey to the naturalistic fallacy, that is, to go from the "is domain" (we never lived according to that ideal) to the "ought domain" (we should give it up). As scientists, should we give up pursuing the unknown just because we will never come to know it completely?  I don't think so. Should we give up looking for a just and peaceful world because, with all the likelihood, a just and peaceful world will never be the case. Again, I don't think so.

Best regards,

Orlando

There are many purposes for life but the most important one is to honor the creator and to live in peace and work hardly.

Regards

The meaning of life as we perceive it is derived from philosophical and religious contemplation of, and scientific inquiries about existence, social ties, consciousness, and happiness. Many other issues are also involved, such as symbolic meaning, ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, the existence of one or multiple gods, conceptions of God, the soul, and the afterlife

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life

Nice input by Prof.Orlando M Lourenço 

Thank you Dr Orlando, Dr Leonardo, Dr Tatsuo, Dr Gadallah and Dr Gilani for your views, clarifications, and recommendations.

Thank you Dr Hassaan, for your brief but very comprehensive approach for the real purpose as: ‘the most important one is to honor the creator and to live in peace and work hardly’.

Colleagues have provided interesting responses. To me, simply put, ''The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”

--Robert Byrne

Regards

serving the humanity  

I thank Dr Aan Jaelani and Dr Aristidis Matsoukis for recommending my question.

All our behaviour is observed by God. At the end we will obtain His judge for our intentions and facts. The first purpose of man in the earth is to gain the mercy of God with our faith and facts, and to gain the heaven where God lives for all the eternity.

Thank you Dr Mariano. What a wonderful comment really! I admire very much your statement that 'All our behaviour is observed by God. At the end we will obtain His judge for our intentions and facts.The first purpose of man in the earth is to gain the mercy of God with our faith and facts, and to gain the heaven' 

Input by Mariano is appreciated.

People are born athletes participating in a race, not physical but intellectual. Human life is just like a marathon race. Physical marathon race has a finishing line whereas intellectual marathon race will never end. Instead, human life has a direction or goal, and the goal is called “control...”. In this world, anything other than human is a thing (including animals). The ultimate desire for human is to exercise the greatest possible control over the other human and things around him. Control on human is “power”, and control on things is “wealth”. Power is measured by positions and ranks whereas wealth is measured by money terms. With the control on human comes indirectly some control on things, such as politicians using their power to gain materialistic benefits. Likewise, with the control over things comes indirectly some control over human, such as rich people hiring other people to work for and serve them. Politicians also have direct control over things, such as government-owned enterprises and assets. Nevertheless, this kind of control is not absolute and politicians cannot blatantly take the things under control as their own assets. On the contrary, the assets of a capitalist are entirely privately owned and the capitalist has absolute control over them.

(https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-purpose-of-human-life-on-earth-1)

http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritual-problems/karma/purpose-of-life/

The purpose of man's life on earth is a question which many have pondered about for thousands of years but the answer to which has often become elusive. We do not ask this question anymore because we seem to have given up on the possibility that an answer can ever be found. We have also relied on science to give us the answer but with its one-sided way of looking at things it does not look promising that an answer can ever be found in this way.

Our error lies in our wrong concept about man and our earth and the whole of Creation in general. We have a totally wrong concept about everything and our religious beliefs have only compounded matters by not being able to offer any logical explanation for anything, relying instead on blind faith which is totally at odds which what God wants for His creatures.

Over thousands of years then we have come to look at things only from one side only. We think that man is the physical body because science has told us so and religion has not been able to offer any credible counter-argument, we only assume that our physial existence is the only one there is and that when we die and with the disintegration of our physical bodies that we also cease to exist. In short in our world view there does not seem to be any purpose to it all.

The purpose of life according to our prevailing belief is to just live as best we can and accumulate material wealth, get married and have children and if possible have as many earthly honours as possible and if we are successful in these then our purpose has been achieved. We are then regarded as actualized human beings, successful human beings and so on.

According to our belief we live only once and as such we should materially make the best out of it. The reality of our lives, however, is often different and testifies to the fact that this world view is wrong. What is the purpose of being born, growing up, going to school, getting a job, getting married and accumulating material wealth only to leave all these things behind again when we die?

It is inconceivable to imagine that the great God would create us just for this purpose. The great Creator is far too Perfect and comprehensive in His approach to things to imagine that He has created human beings only for the purpose for which we have generally accepted to be the case today.

What we have accepted as the way of our lives today is simply our own creation. We have devised this way and purpose of lives for ourselves. The purpose for which we were created has been lost to us because for thousands of years we have failed to listen to those sent by God who could tell us what this purpose was. We preferred to create our own purpose because we preferred to be masters instead of servants. We did not want to hear what God wanted for us and what He had devised for our existence. We wanted to listen only to our own voices. This is why today the purpose of our lives is lost to us.

(http://kisol.com/man/purposeoflife.htm)