What is the purpose of human existence ?

Andy Green

Transcript

00:00Title, Why Are We Here? A philosophical story about the purpose of human existence.

00:05Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is. Albert Camus.

00:10Imagine a man walking alone in a desert. No signs, no map, no stars to guide him.

00:15Just an endless landscape of sand and sky.

00:18He walks not because he knows where he's going, but because standing still feels worse.

00:23That man is all of us.

00:25Aye.

00:26The question that haunts the species. Humans are the only animals that ask, why?

00:30A dog lives, a tree grows, a star burns. None of them pause to question their role in the universe.

00:37But we, we dream, doubt, write books, start wars, build temples, stare into the void.

00:42From cave paintings to quantum physics, every act of creation seems rooted in a simple desire, to matter.

00:49So we ask, why are we here? What is our purpose?

00:52Religion, science and philosophy all offer answers.

00:55Often contradictory, sometimes poetic.

00:58But what if the question itself is the clue?

01:01To the myths we made.

01:03In ancient times, purpose came from the gods.

01:06Humans were created to serve, to worship or to be tested.

01:09The Sumerians believed we were fashioned from clay to work the earth.

01:13The Greeks thought we were the playthings of Olympus.

01:16The Abrahamic faiths gave us divine breath and moral duty.

01:19Simple, satisfying, comforting.

01:22But as telescopes peered into the void and microscopes into the cell, the heavens quieted.

01:27And with them, so did certainty.

01:30Nietzsche declared,

01:31God is dead.

01:32Not with joy, but as a lament.

01:34Because with the death of God came the birth of existential dread.

01:38No more assigned meaning.

01:40Only freedom and its terrifying sibling, responsibility.

01:44The void and the mirror.

01:45Let's explore a strange possibility.

01:47What if life has no inherent purpose?

01:51Not because it's meaningless, but because purpose is not given.

01:54It is made.

01:56This idea frightened many thinkers.

01:58Jean-Paul Sartre called it anguish.

02:00Camus called it absurd.

02:02They saw the universe as silent and indifferent.

02:04A vast mechanism spinning without intention.

02:07And yet from that silence, a new kind of beauty emerged.

02:11Imagine a painter locked in a blank room.

02:13No models, no instructions.

02:14Just a canvas.

02:15The work she creates isn't a copy.

02:18It is born from her.

02:20Likewise, in a purposeless universe, humans become the authors of meaning.

02:24We do not discover the purpose of life.

02:26We create it.

02:28Brushstroke by brushstroke.

02:30Ife echoes in the cosmos.

02:31Still, this raises another question.

02:34If we're self-made, what should we make ourselves into?

02:38Some say to love, others to understand, or to create beauty, to spread life, to transcend suffering.

02:45Consider this.

02:46A dying star collapses into a black hole.

02:49A cell divides and becomes a mind that writes poetry.

02:52Atoms once forged in supernovae now build violins, cities, and moral dilemmas.

02:58Is that not extraordinary?

03:00We are the universe becoming aware of itself.

03:02Through our eyes, the cosmos studies its own reflection.

03:05Through our art, it learns to sing.

03:07That is not accidental.

03:09That feels sacred.

03:11Stories from the edge.

03:13Let's meet a few strange travellers on this road of purpose.

03:16The monk in Tibet, who has spoken to no one in 20 years, seeking enlightenment in silence.

03:23The scientist in Geneva, smashing atoms to glimpse truth smaller than thought itself.

03:28The mother in Lagos, raising a child with stories of courage and kindness.

03:33The artist in Berlin, painting grief with colours no eye has yet seen.

03:37The programmer in Tokyo, trying to simulate consciousness inside a machine.

03:43They all live very different lives.

03:45But if you look closely, you'll see a common thread.

03:48All are reaching for something beyond themselves.

03:51Not just survival, but significance.

03:54Not just breath, but meaning.

03:57The ice.

03:58A universe without purpose, with purpose.

04:00Let us entertain one final paradox.

04:03What if the universe does have a purpose,

04:05but it is so vast, so complex, so alien, that we cannot see it directly.

04:09Like ants in a cathedral,

04:10we may be walking upon sacred patterns too big to grasp.

04:14In this view, our longing for purpose is itself part of the design.

04:18A coded instinct.

04:19A compass.

04:20A whisper from the cosmos.

04:21Search.

04:22Ask.

04:23Create.

04:23Connect.

04:24Maybe we are meant to evolve.

04:26Not just physically, but morally, emotionally, spiritually.

04:29Maybe the purpose of human existence is not a destination,

04:32but a transformation.

04:327.

04:35The final answer that isn't final.

04:37So, what is the purpose of human existence?

04:40Is it to love?

04:41To learn?

04:41To leave behind something better?

04:43Or perhaps, it's to ask the question in a million different ways.

04:47To build meaning like architects of the soul,

04:49each one laying stones on the infinite temple of becoming.

04:53Maybe the answer isn't a single truth,

04:55but a chorus.

04:56A child's laughter.

04:58A poem read in the dark.

05:00A sacrifice made for someone you'll never meet.

05:02A hand held.

05:03A truth spoken.

05:04A lie forgiven.

05:05Each a spark.

05:07Each a purpose.

05:08Each a reminder that being human is not a condition.

05:11It is a choice we make every moment.

05:14And the moment we choose to make it meaningful,

05:17that is the moment our existence begins to shine.

05:19It is a choice we make every moment.

05:21It is a choice we make every moment.

05:22It is a choice we make every moment.

05:23It is a choice we make every moment.

05:24It is a choice we make every moment.

05:25It is a choice we make every moment.

05:26It is a choice we make every moment.

05:27It is a choice we make every moment.

05:28It is a choice we make every moment.

05:29It is a choice we make every moment.

05:30It is a choice we make every moment.

05:31It is a choice we make every moment.

05:32It is a choice we make every moment.

05:33It is a choice we make every moment.

05:34It is a choice we make every moment.

05:35It is a choice we make every moment.

05:36It is a choice we make every moment.

05:37It is a choice we make every moment.

05:38It is a choice we make every moment.

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