• Question: Why are we on this earth? what are we here to do?

    Asked by to Amelia, Izzy, Sarah on 18 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Sarah Harvey

      Sarah Harvey answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      Wow! This is a deep question for the end of the day!

      I guess you can take into account several opinions to this:

      I guess the very scientific and evolutionary point of view would be that we’re simply here to reproduce and once we’ve passed on our genes there’s no point to us being here any more! That’s a bit of a depressing thought though and I suppose it’s easier to think of that for animals which have very short life spans. I guess some people would take the opposite view and say we’re here to serve God.

      My opinion is that although in terms of evolution we are here to survive and pass on our genes, there’s loads more to life than that! So what I think I am here to do is to use my time to find out as much as possible about the world around us and the tiny corner of that I’ve picked is plant disease! Obviously even that’s not enough really to answer why we’re here and there’s more to life than just work, I think life is what you make of it, try and enjoy every second and not waste time doing something which you are unhappy doing!

      Pretty tough question! I reckon the others will also have fab answers!

    • Photo: Amelia Frizell-Armitage

      Amelia Frizell-Armitage answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      This is a question that I myself have asked myself for a long time now, and to be honest I don’t think any one really knows the answer.

      People that are religious generally believe that they are here to do God’s work, and when they die, if they have lead a good life they will go to heaven, or whatever version of afterlife they believe in.

      I am not sure I believe in God as there is no scientific evidence for his existence (there is no evidence that he doesn’t exist either though which makes things tricky), so going to heaven doesn’t really provide me with a reason for living.

      I do believe that life is short, and whether or not there is a reason for us being here, we need to make the most of it! The earth is beautiful and I want to try to see and experience as much of it as possible before I die. I also want to make sure I do something good with my life to help the planet and other living things on it. At the moment I am doing that by being a scientist doing research into crop plants so that I can help feed people.

    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      As Sarah and Amelia have said, there are many different answers for this. And it’s a brilliant question!

      I will give my own personal answer since the others outlined lots of them.

      I actually think that we have one single reason to be here: species survival. Evolution is all about ‘survival of the fittest’ – whoever survives can pass their genes onto the next generation and so on. This isn’t a personal fight for survival, it’s a species fight. Humans have survived so far because each individual survived. And then their children passed their DNA on and so on.
      The reasons that we survive are different for every person. Most people have a reason that they want to survive – whether it be a reason as part of their religion, or because they feel that they have something to prove. I believe that if I work in research I might be able to make a real difference in helping humans survive. Maybe my research will even help other species survive too. – which would be a bonus!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      yolo

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