What validates your existence?

[Chicken]

I am not sure if a poll similar to this has been created here at INTP Central. Here goes, though.

[Chicken]

I hope this helps to get things started...

I would say that I currently do not know why I exist, and I have no problem admitting that. I am not very certain of who I am, or what I'm particularly good at doing, either. However, I do think everything happens for a reason. That is to say: that every action has a reaction. I just strive to find the reasons why behind almost any thing I encounter. For me, why is a question that haunts me endlessly, always occupies my thoughts, and keeps me awake into wee hours of the night sometimes.

[jimkopelli]

Whee! Deep, existential, and thought provoking. You get a gold star.

I'm gonna go with option one... I exsist, and how/why don't matter.

[Xenophon]

I chose option #3, though this is a hard question to answer in a clearcut way. When I am feeling contemplative I always end up thinking that #5 really is the meaning of life, (though in more humanistic terms). However, I live my life according to #3, when I do anything it is with the express purpose to learn and to improve myself. That is why I enjoy weed more than alchohol, because weed helps me to grow through a deeper understanding things, while alchohol just lets you escape reality for a while.

[coffeezombie]

Who cares? So, that's how I ended up voting.

[Vagabond]

I am here, like it or not and it can't be undone. So why and how is not important.

[Sackanaka]

Ask me 10 years ago and I would've chosen #7
Ask me 5 years ago and I would've chosen #1
Ask me within the last three years and I would've chosen #3.

But now, it seems that ultimately I would like to be able to say, or do something to and for the world. Not to the entire population, but to at least a few people to listen and respond, giving my life validation. For now, I choose #6.

[Eileen]

Option three.

I am always somewhat befuddled when people say that it doesn't matter why they're here, that they just exist and that is that. This isn't a judgment; I recognize it as a legitimate personality difference. I just can't imagine being content at just existing... but I guess the flip side of that is that some people can't imagine NEEDING to feel like there's a purpose to everything, so *shrug*

Neat poll.

[Serotonin]

Option 5. Not that there's an omniscient being that has created me to assist our evolution, but I think that we have evolved a creativity that has, and will continue exist to perpetuate humanity.

[Star Cannon]

I exist to assist the continued evolution, productivity, and improvement of humankind.

Every human is a gear in the micro and macro of human evolution. Some are leaders, so were meant to fix things, some meant to maintain things, and some meant to tear down structures in the human thingie. And there are humans meant to co-ordinate and think of new ideas.

I am no exception to this.

[MaroonBells]

This is the poll that has taken me the longest to decide what to choose.
Love it though.
I choose "don't know why" but that doesn't mean that there is nothing that validates my existence. Every social experience I have validates my existence. I am just not in any way interested in the "why", more in the "how" as in: how do you shape your existence once you're here? Why I am here seems a waist of time. How can I make things work seems fruitful (potentially). The driver in the process is nature's evolutionary self-preservation.
MB

[ApeTheDog]

Boring as it seems, I had to pick #2.

I exist to evolve, both mentally and spiritually. I want to achieve understanding of everything. And survival is my ultimate goal. It is not the one I am most proud of, or one which I consciously act on at all, but in a crisis situation I would give up everything else if it would save me from death. (A few situations with loved ones, possibly, not withstanding)

[Heather Harrison]

This is a bit of a tough choice, but I picked "assist the continued evolution, ..." I do feel like I need to contribute in some way. In addition to this, I would add "to seek my own identity".

Heather Harrison

[CosmicDust]

#1 was closest to my stance. I can set goals while I exist, but I wouldn't call any of it why I exist. And I don't think that in the long run, it's important, as how I exist and what I live for will likely have little to no bearing on the distant future.

[jittus rye]

I exsist to be a Harbinger of Doom. (Chose option six).

[Helios]

Wasn't this a Red Drawf episode?

[Miss Anthropic]

I don't really exist to acheive perfection (that is counterproductive--although it is a compulsion that I try to avoid,) but I do exist to better myself...and to truly do that I need to reach out to others. The ultimate challenge for an INTP: to live outside oneself. I want to do more than just exist.

[Avengardh]

I exist to assist the continued evolution, productivity, and improvement of humankind.

Every human is a gear in the micro and macro of human evolution. Some are leaders, so were meant to fix things, some meant to maintain things, and some meant to tear down structures in the human thingie. And there are humans meant to co-ordinate and think of new ideas.

I am no exception to this.
Ditto.

[Lee]

I exist to assist the continued evolution, productivity, and improvement of humankind.Just to note evolution does not strive for "improvement" or "perfection", such concepts are extremely relative anyway.

I went for "I do not know", because... well, I really don't know, nobody knows why we are here, presuming there even is a why.

edit: this is a good poll, not up to Tlalacone standards but still good.

[misutii]

I exist and don't know why... i understand that it's basically impossible to find any truly logical answer to this question but I enjoy dwelling on it anyways because being self-absorbed is so much cooler than being selfless

[BHZA]

I think we must exist to serve some kind of purpose; be it as experiments (lower-life-forms) or entertainment for 'gods' (higher-life-forms) - much like how we feel and act towards animals now.

I believe that there will always be something weaker or lesser than us and always something stronger and more capable no matter on what level we find ourselves.

Everything in the universe seem to serve a coherent and interrelated purpose to each other; some destroy while other create - ultimately to try and obtain some kind of balance.

[Helios]

You know I didn't like this poll when I first saw it ,and dismissed it with a joke, asap! But damn if it didn't linger in my head!

So I think I know why now, for the reason that, I can't! Nothing validates me. I am a total waste, and one showing no signs of improvement. If I back up and view the circumstance more objectively it only gets worse. Since in a subjective moment I can discount and hate everything that is conencted to me as worthless trash too. But if I stop and pause I see that no, it is only me. In fact I am ridiculously blessed, even by Western standards I have alot shit and resoarces at my finger tips. Yet somehow I waste it all by languishing in excess, it is so lame and pathetic I think I am gonna barf.
That said I seem unable to go anyplace, for the whole world seems just about as inane in its own way. I fear we are all beyond hope.

[euterpenc]

"Life has no meaning. You bring the meaning to it."

[Boneca]

It's just a matter of how far you take the reasoning, isn't it?
What motivates me to continue existing might be that I want to better myself, attain knowledge etc., but that can't really be the reason that I was born. From an evolutionary perspective, my "purpose" might be to better humanity, but then what is humanity's reason for existing?
I always end up with the question: why is there anything at all?

My conclusion is I haven't got a clue why I, or anyone or anything else exist.

[nBT]

all of the above
#3 would be second choice

[Pierce]

I exist. Why or how is not important. -- SELF
I exist to evolve, and survival is my ultimate goal. -- SELF
I exist to strive for perfection, attain knowledge, and experience all that I can. -- SELF
I exist to serve. -- OTHERS
I exist to assist the continued evolution, productivity, and improvement of humankind. -- OTHERS
I exist to spread a message to the world. -- OTHERS
I don't know why I exist. -- SELF
I don't care why I exist. -- SELF
I don't wish to participate, but I'd like this thing to stop asking me already. -- SELF

There seems to be a glaring ommission in the rankings... There is a rather large school of thought that says we are created in the image of God, that we have a destiny, and that our purpose is to find it and live it.

[philonightmare]

Options four and five gave me trouble. I ultimately chose four because essentially, I would be serving humanity in choosing option five. Argh, they are connected ideas and can't be differentiated! Although one is more specific than the other... I'll stick with the general one. (I think my indecisiveness is showing here)

[Miss Anthropic]

You know I didn't like this poll when I first saw it ,and dismissed it with a joke, asap! But damn if it didn't linger in my head!

So I think I know why now, for the reason that, I can't! Nothing validates me. I am a total waste, and one showing no signs of improvement. If I back up and view the circumstance more objectively it only gets worse. Since in a subjective moment I can discount and hate everything that is conencted to me as worthless trash too. But if I stop and pause I see that no, it is only me. In fact I am ridiculously blessed, even by Western standards I have alot shit and resoarces at my finger tips. Yet somehow I waste it all by languishing in excess, it is so lame and pathetic I think I am gonna barf.
That said I seem unable to go anyplace, for the whole world seems just about as inane in its own way. I fear we are all beyond hope.
You're not hungry enough.

[Jacque]

How about...I exist but I'll never believe it.

I don't need perspectives to exist. Illusions are as real to me as are material things. What forces me to distinguish are the perceptions of others, what they would have me believe. I'll agree to many modes of existence. But the language only seems to affect behavior. It seems shallow, having little to do with existence at all. Existence is universal beyond all language. If it changes, then I'm only deceiving myself. Belief should have that same permanence. I shouldn't have to construct a validation, it only needs to be uncovered. Something we all know, but can't identify. But what good would it do to put in language what we all believe on an elementary level. I can only guess, but for our intellectual entertainment. Therefore, I don't really CARE, but I DO want to be entertained, even if it's a repackaging of the same product.

"No man can cross the same river twice, because neither the man nor the river are the same." ~ Heraclitus

[PonderBee]

This is a bit of a tough choice, but I picked "assist the continued evolution, ..." I do feel like I need to contribute in some way. In addition to this, I would add "to seek my own identity".

Heather Harrison
Yeah - I'll echo that thought.

[Frab]

I've just jumped into looking at this thread, not having read most of the posts, I am personally amused that this summer will see the release of 'The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' movie; for those ever ready to travel with a towel and a cheap vynil airline bag. Well, most literati know that the universal computer Deepthought gave this answer: 42. I'm two years past the answer, which makes answering the previous poll questions a moot matter.

[euterpenc]

I was just thinking about this today. Evangelion presents interesting ideas on it.

But I'm not sure of what is existant and what isn't. I can easily imagine that all this is just in my head and that everything that happens is just my head. And nothing is an objective reality. Everything that was written or has happened was because my mind or psyche has willed it so.