University Study on Purpose in Life

[Adam1]

Hi folks.

This is my first time on this forum, so just to introduce myself...

My name is Adam. I'm studying a masters degree in psychology at Macquarie University in Australia. As part of my studies, I am undertaking research on what atheists and theists consider to be their purpose in life. Purpose in life is a very interesting topic because it is obviously a major driver of people's behaviour, and I am interested in exploring how the two groups may differ on the topic or how they might in fact be similar.

To get some answers to the question, I was wondering if some people out there might be prepared to write a paragraph or two on what they consider to be their purpose in life.

Because this is an Islamic forum, I am going to assume most responses will be from theists. However, if you do happen to be an atheist, then please state this so that I can group the responses accordingly.

Once I have got a series of responses from both groups, I'll go away and analyze the data, then I'll come back here and report the results in a few weeks time. In addition, I will report some results from the scientific literature - in particular, research from the area of positive psychology which is starting to investigate these kinds of big-picture questions in earnest.

Any help would be much appreciated.