The Purpose of Life Part I (Blog #3 of 100)

On New Year's Day I wrote an article on making and keeping goals/resolutions.  However I think making goals and resolutions without understanding who you are and why you are here is well, a bit pointless.  It's only when we understand our purpose in life that we can begin to set goals for our selves that are purposeful or useful.  Too often we look at other people, they appear successful and we think we are missing something and if we could just set a few goals for ourselves then we too could be "successful" But even as I write these words, I realize how big of a topic I am trying to feed you.  I will likely have to break this up into a series of articles.  But as always with all of my writings, take them with a grain of salt.  Be a good Berean ; don't swallow it whole.  Chew on it a bit and compare it to scripture and pray over it.  I don't claim to be the fount of all knowledge, but I do believe I have been given insight into a variety of topics and I want to share what I have learned and what I am learning with you.

What makes us human

Even as I have being chewing on this myself and thinking what I might say and how it might be said, a number of ideas have occurred to me.  Different people have different ideas about what makes us human.  Some evolutionary psychologists see us merely as a highly "evolved" animal, but still that is what they say we are; an animal with an apposing thumb and self-awareness.  In this theory of humans we are merely slaves to needs of our self-serving mitochondria which are programmed by our DNA.  There is no mind; only the brain. Our highly "evolved" brain allows us to be very adaptable and thus set us up to be the dominant species on the planet.  I don't subscribe to such a belief but I will not cast this out completely.  We do have a very developed brain; One might even say that it is well designed.  (Note: my primary thrust it not do argue against evolution, however I do not subscribe to the idea that somehow we are all evolving into something better or more adapted from the primordial slime). I will however suggest that we as humans can live at different levels or in various aspects/forms of human existence.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs seems to identify or suggest that there are different level's of human existence.  I cannot say that I fully understand or agree with Maslow's theory, but I believe he has identified something that tells us that every person is both influenced by the world around them as well as their own basic physical, emotional and intellectual needs.  I might add that we humans who are spiritual creatures have the ability to transcend our basic human needs.  I firmly believe that, in part, understanding our purpose allows us to transcend our limited existence.  Unlike Maslow who based his observations upon the "top 1%" of humanity, I would say that my theories apply to the greater human experience.  One thing I think cripples our understanding is our limited thinking.  Most westerners tend to see things through the eyes of the west.  My experience is a bit more expansive in that I have visited countries in Asia and Africa and studied (not professionally but more as a student of human behavior - a people watcher) how people behave.  I am not a trained psychologist or sociologist  but I think I am observant enough to understand what I am seeing.


I will warn you that my premise for this series of articles will be looking at humans as created objects/organism.  In that creation the Creator had purpose.  My desire is to explore some of the possible purposes and sub-purposes humans might have been created for.  But I also want to examine what we have become.  To that end I want to explore some of the aspects/forms of human existence.

Aspects of Human Existence

I would like to suggest to you that there are at least 5 kinds of or aspects to human existence: The Human Animal; The Human Collector; The Human Intellectual; The Person of Faith and The Human Transcendent.  Each level has a different understanding of what their purpose is.  Each level experiences a certain amount of paradigm blindness, which to say that they have difficulty understanding or accepting views or understanding different from each of their own.  To help define these different aspects I will explore and suggest a number of key elements which will help define each of these aspects.

• How self is viewed
• How others are viewed
• How possessions are viewed
• How the future is viewed
• How knowledge is viewed
• How right and wrong is viewed
• How do they feel "Alive!"
• How do they view threats
• How do they view popular things

In the articles that follow I plan on exploring these aspects/forms of being human:

• The Human Animal (I am what I need or want)
• The Human Collector (I am what I have and do)
• The Human Intellectual (I am what I think or what I know)
• The Person of Faith (I am what I believe)
• The Human Transcendent (I am more that I can think or imagine)

I do not view these aspects or forms as being completely distinct for each other, rather I seem them as modes that we can move in depending upon a great variety of factors.  They are not mutually exclusive and one aspect can overlap with one or more of the others, or I should say that were we are in our life can be at a place where there is blending of these aspects.  I see it as a kind of Venn diagram and where we are in our understanding and life experience locates us with in one or more of these aspects.

I will pick up on this in the next article.

P.S. if you think I missed a number (2 of 100) I have other blogs I post in.  2 of 100 was posted on my Preacher Al's Paradoxes blog