What is your purpose in life?

I was once asked what is your purpose in life by my Philosophy teacher. I have written 15 pages but here are the essential ideas.


Atheism believes that both individual human beings and humanity have no purpose in the universe and that death is the end of our existence. According to the Epicureans “When death is, we are not and when we are, death is not.”

Well, I do not really agree with the Epicureans! I believe that human beings should have a purpose in life. It will make them happier and they would not fall in endless depressions. And death is not the end of our existence, but the beginning of another spiritual journey.

My purpose in life should be seen like a spiritual journey in order to worship God. God has given us a mind to think with and a soul to keep pure. So, with the help of our faith and reason, we should be able to achieve a true understanding of God’s will and the spiritual teachings that God has sent us down with the scriptures. Every human being is born with an innate consciousness of God. Then, with the love of God, we should be able to report that love on our neighbor.

Helping and loving our neighbor should be another purpose of our life. We should make the eradication of global poverty our top priority. Our purpose in life should be to promote individual actions in order to build water pumps which will help us combat water poverty. Mother Teresa declared “If you cannot feed a hundred people, then feed just one! Poverty deprives human beings of a dignified life.

Illiteracy is another problem that we have to fight against. When we educate a girl, we are educating a nation. So, in Africa we have to raise awareness on girl’s education.

Furthermore, we have to try to raise moral and ethical values in the education system in order to raise future honest citizens in order to have less corrupt future bureaucrats. Slow and corrupt bureaucrats are slowing down the economic progress of African countries. Our purpose in life should be to live consciously and courageously.

We have to resonate with love and compassion and to leave in peace. To leave in peace means to do no harm. Mohandas Gandhi said “Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.”

In addition, death is only the continuation of the existence of our soul and our spirit. Life is only a test for the individual to show God true nature. Therefore, it is only natural that we have to accept death as the beginning of the final and lasting life in the Hereafter rather than just an end.

Life is a journey and the finality of each human being should be to end up in Heaven.

Finally, it is better to have a purpose in life. To lack knowledge of a clear purpose for life can results in a break down and an existential crisis. Therefore, our purpose in life should be to totally surrender to God. And indeed this absolute surrender to God will bring us wonderful blessings.