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Andy Green
  • 2 days ago
What is the purpose of human existence ?
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.
05:21It 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.