Why are we here?

With the Metaphysical getting a bit of play here as of late I thought I’d throw my own question into the mix since surfer’s are a varied breed…

Why are we, as a human species, here?

We really have no idea of what happens after death and we won’t know until we are actually dead, in that way, death is truly the only thing that is entirely individual.

We make plans for the future, knowing that the future brings us closer to…death.

We know that there are 11 dimensions existing and we, as humans, are privy to about three of those so could it be possible that all we claim to know is just a bunch of crap based on perceptions that are often proven to be false.

So…what the fark are we here for?

Look to nature? Maybe, but in the Bible, one of Job’s friends describes the vast beauty of nature, then says, " “These are but the outer fringes of His work. How faint the whisper we hear of Him.”

For anyone who has had a personal encounter with his Creator, the answer is simple: “Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Every good thing is contained in, and will come out of that.

True story from an interview on TV about a year ago. The interviewee was an African villager who had been attacked by two lions and survived. He said he was riding his bicycle from one village to another at night when he noticed that two lions were shadowing him in the bush. One of them suddenly attacked, knocking him off his bike. The lion started dragging him into the bush with the man’s leg clamped between it’s teeth.

In the interview, he was asked how he escaped. The man replied, “I did the only thing I could do…I started to pray for help from God. Then, all of a sudden, the lion let me go and ran away.” Then he added, “With God, life is simple: Everything is possible.”

Why are we here? To have a relationship with the One who made us. He longs for it. Doug

Aloha Doug,

Well said. You just spread the news which is also why we’re here. Enjoy the ride!

To ride some tasty waves, Dude!

as long as we’re taking the biblical approach…the meaning of life is revealed to jacob in a dream…you’ll have to find the portion yourself for the details.

Experience life in all aspects…in the end of the day it will be the only thing you can bring to the other side (if it really exists. I have my doubts).

Religionists and metaphysicians have argued since time began about what happens after we die. In reality we know exactly what will happen after we die. We see it every day- LIFE GOES ON! When we say we don’t know, it is only in the egotistical, “what gonna happen to ME?” sense. Instead the one thing we can be sure of is that LIFE goes on when we go and to really prepare for the certain life eternal we should make sure that our lives leave the world a little bit better place for those who stay on. Make peace , not war. Clean up our (environmental) acts. And yeah, do unto others what we would like done unto ourselves (just another way of stating the law of Karma).

I agree with Doug

I had this weird thing happen . . . shortly after beginning to surf, I was chilling in Church . . . I’d had been asking and praying to God for the truth.

I’ve been in and out of churches my whole life, been raised a Christian from day one, but never realized who, what or why about God until a year ago . . . My sister used to work in the ER. She was medical assistant to the Dr’s and nurses . . . Anycase she’d come home with stories of people seeing angels or what not.

Didn’t make me believe. One day she comes home, and you can tell on her face she’s seen something to move her. I mean. She said earlier in the week, they had the paramedics brought in this guy. He was thin and seemed alert. She said his heart failed and they brought the paddles out to resuscitate him. He was revived but kept screaming about how hot it was, that his skin was burning and he was grabbing at his clothes and writhing in pain, telling them to put out the fire. They had to get the security to hold him down while they sedated him. Later during her shift the guy passed away. When same paramedics team brought in other patients, was she told him everyone in the ER thought he was nuts. They get those people all the time. The paramedics shook their head, they said the guy was a psychiatrist, completely sane and normal. When she told this to her team, they were in shock for five minutes. One of the docs said he was completely clean (no drugs), was phd . . . his wife knew the guy . . . he was an aethist . … Everyone on the team realized why he acted that way when he was revived.

On the day she was telling me this story, they brought some new team members on the ER, and when they heard the story, one of the new nurses said at the hospital she used to work at, they had a blind guy, life long blind, come in and they had to revive him. He was flatlining for a minute, before they brought him back. The blind guy was very happy and began to tell his dad about these wonderful things he saw. He said he saw beautiful trees and plants, and walking in this enveloping white light, that made him feel very alive. His dad was all, “Dude you’re nuts, you’re blind. Whatcha talkin’ bout Willis?” He then began to describe the waiting room, and even told them the name of the resuscitate machine and the color of the paddles used, and the name brand of the jelly tube . … What the doctors and nurses were wearing. He said, “Dad, if dying is like this, people wouldn’t be afraid of it anymore,”

It changed my sister on that day. She knew there was a God and heaven and hell were real places. Apparently this happens occasionally, since there are other stories that are similar.

I personally was changed in the same way, but through my own experience . … take too long to tell it . …

I believe we’re supposed to be to find out the truth of things, and our place in it, and that God has a plan for each and every one of us, and we’re supposed to come into realization of that.

Speaking as someone with an actual degree in philosophy ( SMU '92 ) and as a practicing existentialist, I’ve come to the conclusion that speaking for humanity as a whole is impossible.

But for the vast majority of individual humans in Western high technology society, I can’t put it any better than

This

( In Glorious Monaural Sound )

Me, I’m here to have a good time, as long as it lasts.

doc…

Hey, nice topic but not for Swaylock’s. Please!!! NO god or politics unless you can show how they relate to the topic of this discussion forum. I’m going to leave this thread unlocked for now to see if someone can steer it back in the right direction. If not, it’s locked.

Thanks,

Swaylock

Why am I here? To keep a few thousand surfcraft fanatics on topic.

Quote:

Speaking as someone with an actual degree in philosophy ( SMU '92 ) and as a practicing existentialist, I’ve come to the conclusion that speaking for humanity as a whole is impossible.

But for the vast majority of individual humans in Western high technology society, I can’t put it any better than

This

( In Glorious Monaural Sound )

Me, I’m here to have a good time, as long as it lasts.

doc…

oh geez…

i would not play that to anyone who is a bit depressed , or , especially suicidal …

the punchline might send them ‘over the edge’ .

funny , but , for us “normal” people [what’s that?]

Quote:

I’m going to leave this thread unlocked for now to see if someone can steer it back in the right direction

I love a challenge…

Since there is little we can absolutely prove or quantify in this direction (minor in philosophy P.U. Malibu '77 - you got me doc), we may just have to choose what to invest ourselves in. How about contributing to general welfare and enlightenment in any of the billion avenues already available to waiting to be noticed?

Not unlike participating in the Swaylockian community…

This from an old surfer:

"Perhaps a better world is drawing near

And just as easily, it could all disappear

Along with whatever meaning you might have found

Don’t let the uncertainty turn you around

(The world keeps turning around and around)

Go on and make a joyful sound

Into a dancer you have grown

From a seed somebody else has thrown

Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own

And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go

May lie a reason you were alive but you’ll never know"

-Jackson Browne

The age old meaning of life question.

For me, there are only two things that I truly know to be true:

What I like…and what I don’t like.

“Hey, no more deep and meaningful, why I oughta…”

From the Book of Dog

Quote:

Why am I here? To keep a few thousand surfcraft fanatics on topic.

At least as good a reason as any.

And…

Quote:

funny , but , for us “normal” people [what’s that?]

Ahmmm - look, the great minds of the planet, and many of the non-great, mediocre and downright dim have thought about this. Hell, we all do, given a clear sky and stars and a sense of our own insignificance.

And you know what? Nobody’s come up with an answer that satisfies everybody, be they ‘normal’ or genuine oddballs like myself. And, as our particular cosmic overlord sez;

Quote:

Hey, nice topic but not for Swaylock’s. Please!!!

and I agree wholeheartedly. There is a perfectly good discussion on just this topic at http://forum.darwinawards.com/index.php?showtopic=6985

If you can find meaning in what you do, making a surfboard, fixing a ding or; for my sins, figuring out a dust collector system that really sucks, this is a Real Good Place to talk about how, but not why.

That you have to find for yourself…

doc…

another question …

is this true , or not ?

if not , is it for America nowadays …

"in GUNS [and war] we trust " ??

…just curious …

cheers !

ben

Quote:

Hey, nice topic but not for Swaylock’s. Please!!! NO god or politics unless you can show how they relate to the topic of this discussion forum. I’m going to leave this thread unlocked for now to see if someone can steer it back in the right direction. If not, it’s locked.

Thanks,

Swaylock

Why am I here? To keep a few thousand surfcraft fanatics on topic.

Well, the reason that I posted the question was that I am 1) an avid surfer, skateboard builder and love the site for the possibility of building wooden surfboards and 2) from the surfing crowd that I have encountered, it seems to be a very mixed bunch of people that are drawn together because of a love for waves. I have a philosophy paper due at the end of the current semester and I was just getting some input from the “surfing” community. I would say that I’m sorry for posting it, but in actuality, I’m not, I think that religion and politics should be discussed freely and of course intelligently whenever possible.

peace

Does God ride a fish?

I’m with you Lobster, we are here to ride waves.

Luckily most of the worlds population doesn’t have a clue, so aren’t we lucky!