The Burden of Purpose (A Philosophical Concept)

To start off, I’d like for everyone to distance themselves from their opinions and beliefs before reading this. I say this so most if not everyone can enjoy the opportunity of understanding this short philosophical notion I’ve been thinking about for a while now [and by short I really do mean short, there’s honestly not much to it]. 

With that said... What is "The Burden of Purpose"? I’d let you guys have a guess or two at what the concept is about, comment if you got it vaguely or completely correct👌. 

Before starting off, I think I need to lay the basis for a lot of the premises made within this discussion.

The Assumptions:

• The utmost thinking being(s)’s [Be it humans or gods or a God] existence was not planned.

• If the being is omnipotent [All-powerful], it is not bound to any laws and can override any laws given to its self upon its creation.

• If the being is omniscient [All-knowing], it knows its beginning and, if it has an end, its end.

I personally feel the best way to begin a discussion of these kind, especially when it comes to write-ups or teaching, is to be as transparent as possible and clarify any counter-arguments you know of beforehand just to avoid that sense of deceitfulness [because the reader can’t object to claims immediately (I don’t know if it’s only me, but this is a huge pet peeve, especially when you know the writer knows the counter-arguments but deliberately omits them)].

With all that said, I am not omniscient, my knowledge is limited. Perhaps there are clauses and special cases that apply with infinite knowledge and infinite power that I can't grasp; I don’t say this ironically, the statement “You can’t understand God’s level of thinking” is genuinely a very strong counter-argument that, right now, I have no good rebuttals for; but with that said, you’ll have to forfeit any other profound, insightful counter-argument or addition you could put forward[which would ruin the fun of thinking 😪]. So to make the discussion more interesting I’ll put forward one last assumption:

• Logic is universal and an omniscient being will also be Omnilogical [acting in the most logical way possible].

There we go. Enough assumptions to make a resounding theory 😌.

The Burden of Purpose

WHAT DOES IT MEAN! “What does anything mean my child, it’s all meaningless. Meaningless vanity upon meaningless vanity” *said in the voice of King Solomon*

Still not sure of the meaning? Alright, then.

The Burden of purpose, simply put, is the burden of lack of purpose by which a being must bear if no higher, more divine “authority” has given her/his/its existence purpose, or if no higher being exists. 

Now that we’re all on the same page with the definition of the phrase, it’s really the implications for different case scenarios I’d like to discuss. The first case scenario:

CASE STUDY 1.0: Humans

So starting from the least powerful beings with no Omni- characteristics, and assuming no divine beings above them exist, let’s discuss the implications of The Burden of Purpose.

The first thing I’d like to bring to attention is the fact that humans aren’t logical in most of their actions, join this with the fact that they aren’t omniscient and you swiftly realize that the burden of purpose will be severely diluted as they’d vainly and irrationally cling to purposes they attribute to themselves or that others have placed upon them.

The lack of omniscience is such a considerable factor apart from the above, the fact that they have no defined purpose in the grand scheme of things or rather that there is no "the grand scheme of things" will probably not occur to the vast majority and living unaware would apt be the norm.

CASE STUDY 2.0: Omnipotent Divine Being(s) That Bestow Purpose [Lacking Omniscience]

I’d liken this scenario to humans becoming powerful enough to make miniature universes for themselves to govern. Yes, they could have a means of knowing “all” the events that take place within this miniature universe, but likely not capable to know "all" the events at the same time; while also not knowing all the rules that govern them in their own domain and possibly still unaware of their apparent meaninglessness.

The creations of these beings could be created with purpose, and the beings would most likely have a continuous presence in their beings existence, as well as being affected emotionally by the actions of their creations. I’d say this is the closest in likeness to modern-day religions and mythology, and for a few reasons, is very possible (maybe even the most possible  [I sound stupid af or crazy... I know, delve deeper into philosophy and science and you’d understand where I’m coming from], but this isn’t true omnipotence.

True Omnipotence: In a case of true omnipotence, I imagine eventually the being(s) would establish themselves with full omniscience and therefore moving them out from this category to the next:

CASE STUDY 3.0: Beings With Omnipotence & Omniscience [And Therefore Omnilogical]

Firstly I’d like to remind us that the characteristic of being Omnilogical is just an assumption. A being that knows everything acting logically in all her actions seems reasonable, even though this is not necessarily the case.

So what do I think the most logical course of action would be for a being that is 100% sure that she is the highest form of consciousness, that everything will forever be under him, that any meaning he gives herself, any name or tag it bestows upon its head is utter vanity, knowing that it was created/spawned into existence for no purpose, knowing how it came to be and how it will end, knowing the beginning, the end and all that is in between of everything it chooses to create? Well... I wrote a story of what I think would happen right......... here.

Basically, I believe the being if spawned with omniscience and omnipotence would simply de-spawn it’s self from existence instantaneously. Again, I could be wrong, but this seems like the most logical course of action.

You may think to yourself "But wait Tife, you said with omnipotence a being could overwrite any laws bound upon its self from its creation!", yes I did indeed said that, and if that occurred to you it means you're really enjoying this write up 🤗; the thing is that we have to wonder if overwriting purposelessness is even possible? It is somewhat paradoxical when you think of it. Another thing one must ponder on is whether or not overwriting this purposelessness is the most logical action or not, this I cannot say for sure.

To wrap things up, The Burden of Purpose is a messy concept and, to be honest, relies on too many assumptions, but there's one thing that is sure and is not an assumption, and that is the underlying message “The highest beings with consciousness live purposeless lives that cannot be rectified even with infinite power”.

A grim but true ending.