Can't agree with your idea of ''purpose'' because (to me, anyhow) it implies predestination and that's not a concept I embrace. So..had I not been born, the world would go on just fine. The people I've helped would find someone else and my friends wouldn't laugh quite so often...but they'd be fine.

I don't believe we have a purpose, but potential. I don't think very many humans have ever done something that wouldn't have been done without them. The whole idea of having a purpose for being born, and reeks of a divine plan.

Our purpose is ours to determine, and not some preordained destiny determined at the beginning of time.

Hmm, lots of inspiring comments here. Good question to consider. I actually have, since a very young child wished that I had never been born, and was pretty pissed off about it, and felt it was a rather selfish act to bring me into this domain. So full of injustice, cruelty and suffering. The mad and bad are rewarded and the truly good stomped upon. I am here, and a teacher, so I know people’s lives have been positively affected by me, and I made some significant discoveries at university, so added a bit to archeological and ancient glass knowledge! However, my annoyance at being born into a giant shit show made me choose not to have children myself. And when my body starts to fail from some shitty disease, I will go to Switzerland and check out on my own terms.

I'll try to think about this some more, but the first thing that comes to mind is that how if I had not been born Little Debbie's profits would have been much less. those are beautiful things you've described @twshield. great post.

If I had never been born my children would never have been born _ I was the first woman plasterer in the U.K and helped set up 'women in manual trades' so that mght not have happened.

When you stop and think about it, we touch 100s of lives every day and we've been essential in the lives of at least a few. Yeah, job wise I know I'm replaceable, but my personality, my caring has made a difference in many lives. Hell, two grandchildren wouldn't be here if not for me. Think of the old movie "It's a Wonderful Life". You do make a difference.

If I had never been born, nothing would matter. My absence would not be missed.

i would love to never have been born but how would i know lol still it is a wish

Richard Dawkins says it best; Basically; we're extraordinarily lucky to have been born. If anything is an unexplained miracle, its the fact that we're alive for short time, as a human being....considering the 200 million sperm our father had, and the hundreds of eggs our mom had - the odds of us being alive are incredulous. Be thankful...to no-one in particular. If you're #Religulous then being in this body is "a short visit to heaven"....so thank god...whoever she is....

[commonsenseatheism.com]

There would be one less human to wreck it all!

There would have been a lot less sarcasm and silliness.

My mother was a drug addicted alcoholic teen who slept around and couldn't get her life together. If I hadn't been born she'd be dead.

My nonexistence may affect a few lives, but nothing significant.

Today has been mostly awful. The love of my life, who loves me just as much as me her, didn't get in touch all. It transpires that of all the people getting conceived and coming into existence over the years, she wasn't one of them. To make matters worse, I was hoping to find an envelope in the street today containing £0, but the person who shouldve dropped it never turned up due to being existentially unavailable. On the plus side though, I didnt get hit by a bus as the company couldnt find their ideal driver and had to hire somebody else who had done the whole being born thing. He was late due to not skipping a red light like the other guy wouldve and I'd already crossed the road

When you die you will return to the state you were before birth, that is atoms. No consciousness or anything else.

I have spent a fair amount of time pondering the nature of existence: mine and existence itself as well as what those two things have to do with each other.

On the surface of it, I want to say if I never existed, then I would never even have known that existence existed. But wait - it feels like it can't be that simple. How could existence itself exist and not insist on me knowing about it?

I mean...in previous ponderings I have come to an inescapable conclusion: nothing is impossible. No I do NOT mean that ANYTHING is possible! I mean it's not possible for there to be nothing. Let's face it, though, particle physics is a search for something and an effort to prove that something really truly exists and as yet it's yielded no results.

I heard something once that stuck with me.

"It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others"

Seems right.

Being not ever born is similar to there being no universe in which to exist. Keep in mind that we exist within our mind. Apart from that we may not even exist at all.

Just think of the infinite number of creatures that have never been conceived!

For anyone with depression or feeling like they don’t matter, this is an excellent question.

For one thing, if I weren’t born my mom would likely be depressed as she was and still does struggle with the sibling born before me who has severe mental health issues. My gay brother wouldn’t have an unconditional ally. And I have done animal rescue for decades. There’d be an advocate and hands on rescuer missing for many cats and dogs.

Thank you for asking this. Perspective is always helpful.

If any one of us had never been born, then an entirely new dynamic (or series of inter-related dynamics) would have come into existence. The set of circumstances which required you to be the one to take mom to the ER, counsel your niece, and provide care to thousands of cancer patients, would not have unfolded in the way in which they did. For myself, I don't really think that the consequences of my absence or earlier departure from the planet could be neatly laid out as in 'It's a Wonderful Life' - better just to appreciate the good (and try to ameloriate, or at least minimize, the harm) you've accomplished thus far.

Well, that family in Poughkeepsie would probably still be alive.

Honestly, it's a totally moot question. To speculate on what the world would be like if you never existed is like asking what is the density of blue?

If I had never been born, my mother would probably have died from skin cancer several years ago.

Great and profound post TW.. I will need to think about this..

If I had never been born and did not exist then my parents would not have had the fun of making me. I would never have learned the beauty of close friends and I would not have learned anything. I think that at some level we are all connected but that's nothing to do with religion. Whether there is a 'purpose', I think it depends on circumstances and finance (or the lack of it).